Audiobus: Use your music apps together.
What is Audiobus? — Audiobus is an award-winning music app for iPhone and iPad which lets you use your other music apps together. Chain effects on your favourite synth, run the output of apps or Audio Units into an app like GarageBand or Loopy, or select a different audio interface output for each app. Route MIDI between apps — drive a synth from a MIDI sequencer, or add an arpeggiator to your MIDI keyboard — or sync with your external MIDI gear. And control your entire setup from a MIDI controller.
Download on the App StoreAudiobus is the app that makes the rest of your setup better.
Audiobus - disappearing audio problem
![[Deleted User]](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/bd8a02704c5e987fd833002940e2c607/?default=https%3A%2F%2Fvanillicon.com%2F553e09de8dff4f06118cfebcd2005d73_200.png&rating=g&size=200)
Having fairly major issues with AB on my Air 2 iOS 8.3.
When I create multiple channels in AB, every so often adding an app will cause a feedback sound or more usually, stop all audio.
For example: chan1 - DM1, chan2 - Gadget. All fine, until I add chan 3 Cyclop - a screetch and then no audio.
Same again above, I add iVCS3 to chan 3 and all audio ceases. Re selecting the speaker in the output makes no difference either.
This is without adding anything to the FX slots or audio outs - what's going on here - is it an Audiobus issue or are the apps I mentioned not fully compatible? I can sometimes get everything working by rebooting AB and reloading everything but this is becoming a complete nightmare for me.
All my apps are up to date but I'm on 8.3 - is this an issue? I've never been able to use the AB addon as adding multiple FX or channels always ends up in disappearing audio or feedback.
I've seen others mention this on the forum but have yet to read a conclusive response as to why this is happening.
Comments
I don't know why it's happening, but it hapenns to me, too. Cyclop mostly is the candidate. But if I eject it from AB and insert it again, it's gone and all is fine from then on. works everytime! Good luck, t
Hi Monzo
Just trying DM1, iVSC and Gadget on separate AB channels to audio output on Air, 8.4, works fine. All apps latest updates
Love the Stanshall pic btw
Thanks. I got iVCS3 to work by ejecting it and reloading. I then tried again from scratch and got the dreaded screech when I got to iVCS3, which only went when I exited it completely. Loaded it up and it played fine in standalone, but as soon as I added it to AB again there was no audio from it. Tried Cyclop and this time that was fine.
Why is this all so flaky and random? he apps work fine when I'm not using AB.
Viv would have stamped on the iPad by now.
Or used it as a drinks coaster/ ashtray
Try the 8.4?
This used to happen to me a lot, so I stopped using AB. That was on iOS 8.3 and I can't remember which version of AB. I have to say I've not tried things out with the current version of AB and iOS 8.4.
Sometimes things worked, sometimes they didn't, I became rather frustrated with it, I must say !
I have had this happen to me many times too on 8 . Things improved with 8.3 because after that update you could often get the sound back after ejecting the offending app and didn't always have to restart audiobus
I have changed the way I work and now am more productive again. When creating I'm focusing on fewer apps and using multi timbal apps the most rather than complicated AB setups all the time.
I think it's an IAA issue. When these AU units start to take over this will improve workflow I think, as then DAWs won't need IAA so much.
Be interesting to know how it performs with 8.4, I haven't updated yet from 8.3 but I guess thing's couldn't be much worse than they are at the moment.
Gah, that sucks. Have you tried contacting the developer of Cyclop?
@Sebastian
Do you have any feedback on what I've reported?
If you mean about 8.4 - as far as I know there's no difference to iOS 8.3.
About iVCS3: there have been some issues with that a few months ago. It's a monster of a synth which seems to be very taxing on some devices.
Gah, that sucks. Have you tried contacting the developer of Cyclop?
I don't have Cyclop, it was with other apps and the random nature of it was that there wasn't any in particular which were better than others in AB (from memory).
Did you try to do this on an older device like an iPad 3?
No, I was using an Air (now sold) and an Air 2 (both 64GB)
It's not just that app, there are a whole bunch that play up. I just did a quick test and loaded up DM1 and Gadget in different channels. I went into DM1 to change the FX and all audio disappeared. I ejected DM1 and it came back, but it took a full reboot of DM1 to stop it cutting all audio when added.
I then loaded iFretless into a channel, and then Tonestack as the FX which resulted in the dreaded screech and no audio again, only fixed by reloading Tonestack. Tonestack also threw out the timing of DM1 and Gadget so these had to be restarted.
All of these apps are listed in Audiobus as being fully compatible, including iVCS3 and Cyclop.
Sadly you're right with that stuff still happening with some apps some of the time. We're working on improving stability but some things just need to be done by third party developers to make sure their apps don't misbehave.
And then there are issues with iOS's audio system on top of that. It is getting better but definitely still not where I'd like it to be.
From a customers perspective this makes making an informed purchase difficult - if an app isn't AB compatible, and listed in your own app then I won't buy it. But as a lot of the ones that are listed aren't fully compatible I'm now stuck with a bunch of apps I can't use this way. I wouldn't have bought Tonestack, for example, if I'd known it'd screech and need reloading every time I used it.
Maybe you should remove problem apps from your listings, or give special recommendations for apps that are fully compatible. That way I'd know what's safe to buy.
Thank you for the feedback. I understand your concern. We're trying to make sure that the Audiobus SDK is simple to implement and with the vast majority of the almost 700 Audiobus compatible apps such problems should not appear. Sadly if there's one app you like and that has problems in inter-app-audio scenarios that doesn't help.
I'm going to get in touch with the makers of Tonestack and see if there's something that can be done.
Thanks for the clarity. I don't wish to sound overly critical, but I'd like to know whats causing these issues (IAA aside) and whether things will improve over time or carry on in a less than optimal state ?
The problem really is that we were forced to move to IAA from our own technology. We don't really have control over the development of the underlying technology now, so we can only tell Apple what we find and fix our own code, which is built upon IAA. We are doing both and I think things are going to get better.
Thanks but I think you should remove the apps mentioned from your list as they are definitely not fully compatible, and it's misleading customers into thinking they are.
I just tried putting my iPad though an external amp - I've got a studio rehearsal on Friday so wanted to check everything worked through a PA. I loaded up DM1 into AB, but it was very quiet so I turned up the mixer - big mistake. I then loaded in Gadget which when played nearly blew the speakers out - turns out DM1 had a new audio issue which was muting the sound. Leaving that one, I loaded in Elastic Drums instead. Screech time again, and this time I had to quit AB and all apps to stop it. And now I can't get a sound from Elastic Drums via AB, so the iPad probably needs a complete reboot.
I then tried running DM1, Elastic Drums, Gadget and Thumbjam at the same time without going through Audiobus, just using background audio. They all worked perfectly, no issues at all.
So, from today's testing Tonestack, DM1, Elastic Drums, iVCS3, Cyclop are all having problems with AB. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't. Gadget is remarkable in it's stability though - not a single issue with that one.
What worries me is that you have a new app that developers are falling over themselves to support - I noticed Elastic Drums are currently working on integrating it - yet many of these apps still don't support the core version of Audiobus.
I can't use your app in a professional setting with random issues like this. Maybe booting the offending apps off your list will force developers to sort out their problems, but I can't go into a studio or use Audiobus in a live setting with things the way they are.
The issue you're having (the "screeching") is IAA bug and not the fault of any developer. We've reported this to Apple multiple times and to my knowledge they're now investigating it. That's the problem with these things: bugs can either be the fault of Apple, third party developers or us (the Audiobus team).
It really takes a knowledgeable iOS audio developer or beta tester to figure out what the cause is. Kicking someone from the compatible apps list is something that we do very rarely (maybe once or twice in the last 3 years) and only after we're absolutely sure that the app in question is completely unusable.
Some apps, such as Tonestack, consistently throw up issues when used. Yes it works if you eject and then reload it, but you can't have issues like this cropping up when you're playing live - particularly when it throws the rhythm of other apps completely out as well. DM1 - sometimes it works, sometimes it don't. Elastic Drums - no sidebar controls and again this sometimes doesn't work. Cyclop - problems. iFretless - sometimes we get a screech, other times we don't and it plays nicely.
Regardless of who's fault it is, I need to know what apps I can rely on, and your current list doesn't reflect what works for me.
Maybe a two tiered list would work better - a 'fully compatible' section for apps such as Gadget, and another for those that only provide basic support. I think it's time to weed the problem apps out from your list, otherwise customers might start thinking it's an Audiobus issue.
Is that how you setup your hardware gear too? Turn up the mixer and then plug everything in?
I, too, recommend not turning up the mixer and then plugging in your gear, be it hard- or software.
We're not going to make a two tiered list of compatible apps. That would require us to check every one of the 700 live and roughly 1000 overall apps. We rely on users reporting bugs to us and third party developers and trust that everyone (including Apple) is doing the best they can.
If you rely on apps to work 100% of the time for live gigs then make sure you're using the most stable setup, don't change anything with them and also the simplest configurations. Apps on iPad can be used in professional scenarios, but they require extra caution. Especially when it comes to mixers.
Relative to other apps, DM1 has a very high default volume output so making sure the volume is turned down before you start playing can minimize some issues too. The apeSoft apps are another example where the output volume should be turned down low initially to avoid high volumes.
At this point losing audio and the screeching issue are better than the earlier versions of Audiobus and iOS 8 which was a crash fest, but if I were to attempt to use an Audiobus setup in a live situation I'd be testing and documenting its stability quite a lot in preparation. Hopefully things will continue to improve and not degrade with iOS 9.
MiMiX can be very useful for trouble shooting and creating Audiobus setups as you can mute Audiobus lanes and still see wave forms being produced for individual lanes. Just mute all of the lanes in a new setup and see visually if there are problems before exposing your ears to them.
If I can get a stable setup going, it tends to stay that way. Adding or taking away even one app can destabilize things. For more complex setups it can be quite a chore to get a stable setup. Airplane mode, clean starts, and not having other apps running can help but not eliminate issues. Even saved setups that were working can require fiddling around with removing and reloading individual apps into Audiobus until the connections are stable.
I can understand how for many people these issues would create situations where this isn't a viable option whereas for others they can work around them which isn't to say they wouldn't want more stability too.
Evaluating whether or not to incorporate apps into your setup can be problematic as iOS, app, Audiobus, iOS device, and the allocation of resources between running apps are constantly changing. Forums like this can be helpful but your particular experience may differ significantly. MIDI implementations can further complicate these experiences.
Thank you @Paul. Couldn't have said it better.
Yeah that's right, I'm an idiot, thanks for your input - round of applause for pointing out the obvious mistake I've already admitted I made.
How about when an app is reported as having issues on here, are you still going to list them as being fully supported? Tonestack shouldn't be on your list. I've just tested it as an IAA effect via Audioshare without any issues, so the 'screeching' seems directly related to using it with Audiobus.
I don't, I've never used an iPad in a gig and never plugged this one into a mixer until today, that was more of a test of my mixer than the iPad anyway. But I do use the iPad for playing and recording via headphones on a daily basis and don't appreciate the screeching from apps like Tonestack when I use them with Audiobus blasting into my ears.
But fair enough if you're allowing apps to state they're fully compatible when they're not I'll just have to be more careful what I buy, and ask lots of questions here first.
This specific issue with feedback and silence is prevalent on my setup and the main reason I wouldn't use AB in a live setup at present. It's just too random and seems to come with a lot of different app combinations.
A lot of times it comes in during the middle of working on something, typically for me when I add an effect into the chain.