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.

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Audiobus is the app that makes the rest of your setup better.

midibus?

iansainsburyiansainsbury
edited May 2013 in General App Discussion

Forgive me if this is a stupid question...because although I've been playing and recording for a looooong time, the ipad has been the first bit of hardware to really inspire me creatively, and now I'm addicted (sound familiar?). I've been using audiobus alot into GB and Meteor..still haven't quite found the workflow I'm lookin for. Here's what I want to do: is it possible already or will it be possible soon? I run an ipad2 32gb but am not adverse to upgrading :)

I'm happy to audiocopy/paste drums and percussion from DM1, drumjam, Impaktor, yellowfier etc. Then I'd like to record apps like ifretless, animoog and (when it gets onboard...) geosynth, samplewizz, samplr (when I learn how to use them) but I want to record midi info that I can manipulate later in a note editor on an iOS DAW or sequencer. I guess I'm looking for midi sequencing that sits seamlessly alongside audio.

Told you it was a stupid question. I am trying to avoid going to a laptop/desktop because I now think of the ipad as an instrument and know I will keep using it as I'm obsessed. (My wife thinks of the ipad as some kind of black magic portal that has sucked out her husband's brain, but that's a seperate issue).

Thanks, guys.

Comments

  • [Deleted User][Deleted User]
    edited May 2013

    Cubasis will record your midi notes.
    Drum jam animoog and ifretless(from your list above)generate midi.
    Beatmaker 2 will also do it.
    There are other sequencers but those are the 2 I use.

  • iansainsburyiansainsbury

    Thanks! I was wondering if cubasis might do it. Know if it will run well on an ipad2?

  • [Deleted User][Deleted User]
    edited May 2013

    Yes it does,but do be aware..( there's a few threads on here from cubasis users)
    Some of us are having issues with it....
    The 'undo' bug that crashes the app.
    Check on here and the cubasis forum.
    BM2 is also good and I'm sure if you wait awhile you'll have more AB forum members tells you of other options.

  • iansainsburyiansainsbury

    Thanks again, commonstookie. I'll look at the threads. Steinberg seems committed to regular updates, so hopefully they'll resolve the bugs. I'm not in a rush as I'm running out of space and want to make the right decision.
    Am I right in thinking playing back multiple midi-triggered apps would be too CPU heavy? In which case, is the answer to record them as audio as well as keeping the midi tracks? Again, sorry if all this is obvious....I have big gaps in my knowledge!

  • TedBPhxTedBPhx

    Steinberg says Midi Thru and Clock are coming to Cubasis this month. As a work around for Midi Thru I've been using The MidiBridge app. Pointed Gestrument to MidiBridge then routed from there to SampleTank and Cubasis. Used Audiobus to capture the sound from ST into Cubasis. And MidiBridge to simultaneously get the midi signals recorded.

  • boone51boone51
    edited May 2013

    Hi @iansainsbury. Welcome. I'm sure you'll run into a lot of varying opinions on which daw to go with and they're all probably right. Basically it boils down to what your needs are. Your specific comments about midi make Cubasis and BM2 obvious choices. One way that BM2 is better than Cubasis IMO is that BM2 supports midi start stop and clock sync which Cubasis doesn't have yet. This can be a big deal for syncing the start/stop of an audio recording. Others have commented on the well designed interface in Cubasis as being a positive over BM2's sometimes cluttered interface. I was also an early adopter of BM2 long before audiobus came along, so I don't really notice the interface quirks. Plus I think BM2 has a much better midi note editor. I think that seems to be the consensus among other users you'll run into as well. Then taking into account that BM2 is 20 bucks while Cubasis is 50...for me the choice would be clear. Again, though, this iis really going to be a subjective thing. Your needs might drive you to like Cubasis more. BM2 certainly has its fair share of quirks, but its stable and I've enjoyed working with it for long periods of time. I should also mention that Cubasis can occupy both the input and output slots of audiobus simultaneously while BM2 cannot. This is kind of a big deal if you'd like to, for instance, feed a midi track out of Cubasis and into another app like Drumjam and then record that audio BACK into Cubasis (I know, it's wild..it still blows my mind a little). Finally, I think that Auria is going to be getting the midi treatment soon enough. That will probably make that my sole daw if that ever actually happens. There's nothing else out there quite like Auria. It will tax an ipad 2 though, so just read up on that before making any purchase so you can have the right expectations.

    About your midi question, I think you can have multiple tracks playing back via midi that could potentially be less taxing than an audio recorded track, or it could go the other way. It depends on the sample being used and the polyphony.

    Hope this info helps.

  • iansainsburyiansainsbury

    Thanks, Ted, nice workaround!

  • TedBPhxTedBPhx

    de nada

  • iansainsburyiansainsbury

    Hi @boone51, thanks for the input. It looks like Meteor, which I already own, will do most of what I'm looking for. Two problems: it can't be used as an input and output in audiobus (which is pretty clever stuff) and I find it frustrating as hell to work with. The second problem is the more serious, as the intuitive way ipad music apps work has drawn me back into writing and recording in the first place. After two days with Nanostudio I'd finished a piece completely, having never used the app before. As much as I enjoyed it, I need audio tracks for vocals and I want to be able to use sampletank, magellan etc. so, I guess I'm saying a friendly ui is hugely important to me. That's what's put me off beatmaker a little so far. I'm also an old-school musician, happiest scribbling notes onto score paper, so I don't compose in a loop-based way so much. Not that one way I'd better than the other...I'm having an absolute ball experimenting with loopy, yellofier, and hoping to work out protein der klang soon. I'm even tempted by werkbench.

    So, it looks like Auria with midi would be the answer, but I won't attempt to run it with an ipad2. I suppose I'll try manning up and working through Meteor more methodically, or going back to just using audio in garageband and playing it right the first time!

  • PaulinkoPaulinko

    In looking at how you prefer to write music, you might want to consider Symphonix Evolution. It has a traditional score and midi editor with multiple track recording.

  • iansainsburyiansainsbury

    Thanks @Paulinko, I'll check it out.

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