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.
Comments
Thanks for this (and @NeuM too). Yes I have the latest and I actually trialled them before biting the bullet. They show up as purchased in Custom Shop, as does my other Amplitube gear, however I now have everything showing up as locked in Amplitube!?!? I've sent a support ticket in.
If you're still on the fence with the IK deal, as somebody that was previously very grumpy about it (I didn't see how I could get MixBox without spending more money than i can justify/afford) I can say there are ways in that make the deal a complete steal.
It's almost like an adventure game working out all the permutations to get the most bang-for-buck pound... :-)
So thanks again to @MisplacedDevelopment for the UNO Synth recommendation, that was the key that unlocked it all for me.
So here's my advice if you've not yet entered the game:
Firstly, Register with IK, make sure you jump through some hoops to get some extra JAM points as these might come in handy soon... You will probably get some "Gift points" for registering too. I got €35 in Gift points but have no idea what I did to get them! Uno Synth got me €10 and you'll get extra points for subscribing to newsletters, etc.
Don't fight IK's way of doing things. Embrace it, you will benefit in the long run. They're not a bad company, but they are very opinionated, as we all are. But they're in charge of this deal, so give in and stop worrying about the things you don't like and just enjoy getting loads of really good software for a steal.
Option 1
Buy some hardware that gets you into the €199 tier. There's lots to choose from and a lot of it will be very useful for both iOS and Desktop.
Then you should claim something like Amplitube 5. This will open up a lot of cross grade prices and make things like Mixbox available to claim in the €199 tier. Basically you will have access to everything except for the full version of Philarmonik. Which ain't worth crying over to be honest.
Once you have that, work out what to spend your remaining slots on. Prioritise the >€99 items. I'd suggest Mixbox, Modo Drums, Modo Bass, Sampletron, Hammond, Tracks 5 and Ampltube if that wasn't purchase 1.
Once you have all of that, you might want to buy back in at the €99 tier to round out the collection of Amps and T-Racks modules. Or sample libraries if that's your preference (although T-Rack and AMplitube >>> Sampletank libraries IMO).
To buy in at €99 you have two good choices. Use those Jam Points I mentioned above and buy Gear Credits with up to 30% off with Jam Points.
Then round out the collection by buying any Amplitube collections, T-Racks processors etc. in the €99 tier.
You can get pretty close to everything you could want from IK for that.
I managed to get 2 €99 tiers with products I'd not bothered licensing before and still have iLoud monitors I've not registered so I'm holding on to that in case they do something after hitting the target; I'm not expecting anything but it doesn't hurt to be prepared.
Option 2
Buy in at the €99 tier with hardware, try and get as many jam points as possible and then buy in to the €199 tier by getting gear credits -- 200 gear credits is €160. You should be able to get a few extra € off that price with the Jam points you've accrued already.
So for about €250 you'll be able to get almost everything. You can always buy in again at €49 to mop up all the stuff that isn't worth burning a €99 or €199 tier slot for. And you can use any extra jam points you might get to buy gear credits again.
Option 3
If Amplitube is your priority, you might be better off buying the full version of Amplitube with Gear Credits/Jam Points as that's a lot of slots you'll be saving. IMHO it's not worth it as I could get everything I wanted with Amplitube 5 + all the collections. I'm not worried about mopping up all the extra mics and pedals. I already have more stuff in Amplitube than I could ever use. Make lists of what you want in order of priority and you can work out if you're better off with this option. Option 1 was by far the best option for me, YMMV.
Make lists and prioritise
Make lists for what you want from each tier; Doing this, I worked out that having a €199 AND a €99 tier means I can get everything in the >€99 and <=€199 tier now that we're up to 23 free items and that's with hardware as my buy in (There are 25 items between 99 and 199 I think -- and that's including T-Racks 5 and T-Racks SE -- getting both frees up some 99 slots for more processors -- I just got T-Racks 5 as it includes a processor from the 199 tier (Dyna-Mu).
The ONLY product available to claim that is >€199 is Miroslav Philharmonik 2 full version (you can get CE). So unless you want that (and I'm not really sure why you would -- it's a lot of extra money for a library that is surpassed by lots of other orchestral libraries such as Spitfire) I think €199 + €99 buy ins gives the best overall value and gets you pretty much all the good stuff.
Buying Amplitube 5 plus all the extras still leaves loads of slots for all the best T-Racks stuff too. Once you have MixBox you get access to a lot of the things like EQs already, so a lot of them won't be missed.
Downloading
Once you have bought in, if you have an external hard drive to use, I'd recommend you save all the downloads to that drive.
Before you even start downloading, go into the Product Manager and set the download path to that external. Then make sure you download everything to the same place. Once you've installed everything, copy all the installers to another drive for backup. You'll need a big drive.
Also, installer and content on the same drive will mean you'll need twice the space available. Downloading the installers to an external will prevent that problem, even if you're going to put all the content on the internal drive.
If you claim something like Sampletron, after installing you will need to download the sound content. To do that click the sounds tab in IK product manager. You can then choose where to install it, so if you want the big sample libraries on an external, you can do that up front. If you try and move things manually you can quickly get into a mess. As I said, just accept that you need to do things IK Multimedia's way and don't fight that.
So before starting, work out where you want the content downloaded, and then you can decide where to install the separate sound libraries, which can be on another drive.
Once you've downloaded all the installers, make a backup of them as IK will charge you if you need to download again after 180 days. You should be able to forgive them that as you'll be getting so much for free!
Having all the sound content backed up isn't an issue especially when you know you only have 180 days to download it all. Mind you, it might take that long to actually download if you're into all the sampletank stuff
I wonder when this kind of hype of bargains about IK-trash finish.
Did you restore purchases in custom shop? That was required for me to get X-Gears into Amplitube...
Amazon are doing the iRig Pro for £106, which is a good way into the €149 tier if you've run out of slots and want some of the amplitude collections and T-Racks processors which are >99
October 31st.
I did and all my owned gear comes up correctly there, including the x pedals. Thanks for the suggestion though.
Tell me about it, I spent a long weekend off mostly working out what to buy and how rather than using any of it! Finally got to test the iRig 2 with Amplitube for 10 mins before bed last night.
Nice write up. For reference, I went UNO Synth to unlock the 199 level and iRig 2 HD to unlock 99 which came with TrackS SE as a free gift option so don’t waste a 199 token on it if you go that route. I mopped up most of the rest of Amplitube (just a few noddy fx missing) by buying a 39 SampleTank IAP for just under £25 after using jam points. Could have easily lived without those final bits but considering how little I had already spent I figured I might as well go back in.
Edit: the other thing I meant to add is that I used the entirety of a 240GB external hard drive installing all of the sounds from everything I downloaded. Something to keep in mind.
Bugger. I'm sure you have already, but did you restore purchases within Amplitube 5 too?
I have found another two licenses for Syntronik instruments I'd never registered. One of those would let me mop up all the rest... It's like playing a video game. Gotta get them all... ;-)
I think I could end up with everything except for the full version of Miroslav Phil's Harmonica. For £109! And a UNO Synth! :-/
If I can be bothered to actually claim them all... I'm not sure I will claim all the SampleTank libraries, they'll just take up space and I'm 99.999% sure I won't ever install most of them.
The new fractured piano/submerged whatever it's called look quite interesting. But I hate the sound of electric pianos with a passion so won't bother with any of those!
I did restore in Amplitube as well and that basically did nothing apart from making IK Product Manager think for a second then stop. Let’s see what IK support say.
Thanks for this handy guide @klownshed! I went the uno synth route too and received mine today from Andertons. I'm suffering from option paralysis with choices at the moment so this is really going to help. The uno synth actually sounds waaay better than it looks!
@Cambler on KVR Buy/Sell.
Lol you are the Rude Kid on the forum. However, I will also be glad when this is over (even though I am complicit in it).
I actually HAVE AmpliTube 5.2.
I think I understand your point of view, but if a person owns an iPad, iPhone or a macOS-based computer, they've already bought into the ecosystem. I don't understand the thinking that Apple would be giving anyone a bad deal if they were the distribution and sales arm for IK's software. I can only imagine the entire process would be simpler and more reliable.
Instead of my software being updated regularly by Apple now I've got the added hassle of screwing around with IK's nonintuitive mess of a system which seems to have been designed by different factions working within their company instead of being designed as a unified system with customers in mind.
Here's a prime example: I keep downloading their software and they know exactly who I am since I signed up with them. Why in the world must I sit and enter each individual software download's serial number into their "Authorization Manager" software? They know who I am and they "sold" me the software! The serial numbers should be automatically connected to my account and if I want to change the ownership of the serial number, I should be able to manage that through their website on my Account. It's ridiculous.
Also, nothing prevents IK Multi from using both systems (theirs and Apple's) and then evaluating what works best based on customer reviews.
I’m pretty sure You shouldn’t be using Authorisation manager at all for new stuff. The IK product manager app replaced it. Authorisation manager is awful software. It should only be required for legacy stuff.
When you buy stuff it should be added to product manager automatically — If not, register it in product manager and you shouldn’t need to enter the serial number again. It should also keep you logged in. You manage authorisations in the product manager app too, both authorising and de-authorising.
So yea. Don’t use authorisation manager.
That's the way it SHOULD be, but it's not.
Just FYI, all my sampletank libraries downloaded ok via product manager but some of them like Terry Bozio Drums wouldn’t show as authorised in sampletank.
I had to download authorisation manager and put the serials in there. I wouldn’t want to use authorisation manager for all of them though.
That’s what I meant by new stuff. Authorisation manager is for legacy stuff that IK never got around to updating.
I’m glad they’re replacing it, I hated AM. No feedback whatsoever and it made you type your password in too many times — and wouldn’t let you paste a password either. Maddening.
Its not an ideal situation. They should have just retired authorisation manager completely. Its not as it they make it clear when you should use AM instead of PM.
luckily all my stuff at least ao far authorises in PM and that works across devices fairly well.
To be fair I haven’t bothered authorising any sample tank libraries. I don’t foresee ever using sampletank but some of the newer sampled stuff like Sampletron 2 is quite good.
Well, you're not going to get a defense of IK from me, that's for sure.
I have just gone through the same lame excuse for an account management system, and I fully agree with you. It's unnecessarily awful.
... But at least their download speeds are antediluvian, too. As someone said earlier on this thread, their stupid 180-day download time limit might just be enough for a full Sampletank package download session 🤷
@jonmoore do you have or have you used Arturia Pigments? If so, how does it compare to UVI Falcon?
I would say that Falcon is far more capable than Pigments, but Pigments is way easier to use. If I was buying synths right now, I’d consider the current deal on Falcon, but the learning curve would probably see it sitting unused for me. Pigments is great though, and so is Krotos Concept 2. Both have granular oscillators as of the last updates.
I’m sitting on the fence still with the group buy. I could get T-Racks Deluxe, then fill the free slots with Mixbox and T-Racks modules, don’t think I need the non-effects apps. It’s a great deal just to pick up those though.
Except I already bought the Tonal Balance bundle… Choices, choices.
I’m not wild on any of these license management apps, but Arturia seems fairly usable at least.
There's no easy answer to this one. If you want access to lots of presets then probably Pigments is better but if you want to make sounds yourself - and you love seriously gorgeous sounds - then Falcon would probably be the best choice.
They are both amazing and lovely but Falcon oozes quality - the sounds are breathtakingly lovely. Not that Pigments isn't also fantastically good, it's just not quite in the same league.
But then it comes down to the sounds - and the music - you want to make. All too often I gulp and buy something expensive (like Falcon) with no regrets but then end up getting more musical joy from a $50 Kontakt library that is seriously lofi and dark (Pendle Poucher at sound-dust.com, anyone?).
Horses for courses but if you want to buy one or the other I would buy Falcon - and learn how to design sound with it.
@qryss @ahallam thanks for the input. I already own pigments and love it, but Falcon looks great and i Love sound design, i think im going to grab it.
Pigments is pretty amazing. I don't have Falcon, but it is like an upgraded Serum. Very easy to create your own sounds with many different engines, including 3 osc analog, wavetable, sample and harmonic. You get 2 engines at a time, 2 filters (with several analog emulations), you can modulate EVERY parameter. In the sample engine you can load 6 samples and round robin, key/vel map them, play them granular and several other things. You can stack up to 9 fx, fully customizable. It also has a really in depth sequencer.
Pigments is much more than a preset synth. You can go really deep if you put the time in to learn it and play with it. It's probably the most advanced synth out atm.
Swear. Not even tempting. So much better software out there lol.
Ref Pigments vs Falcon I love them both. In a world of VA's aping classic hardware, they both take inspiration from the past in bold new directions.
I definitely agree that Pigments has the easier UX to learn but Falcon is only difficult whilst one comes to terms with the vast range of possibilities it makes available to the artist. In many ways, Falcon is closer to the raw under the hood capabilities of Kontakt (the stuff that's only available to developers via scripting).
In terms of how it sounds, the quality of the patch programming is equal to that in Omnisphere, but it offers far greater synthesis capabilities than Omnisphere.
It's important to understand Falcon's history to understand its capabilities. Falcon began life as MOTU's premium sampler in Digital Performer 'MachFive' (which was engineered by UVI). By the time MachFive reached v3 it was generally regarded as the best in DAW sampler and was made available to non-Digital Performer customers as a plugin (macOS only). For one reason or another, the IP was taken over by UVI and Falcon was born as a 'hybrid synthesiser' that marries multiple synthesis capabilities in a single instrument.
The thing that makes Falcon special is the manner in which it integrates its sample engine (featuring timestretch, pitch shift, slicing and granular engines powered by IRCAM designs) with its smorgasbord of pure synthesis capabilities (virtual analogue subtractive, FM, PM, wavetable, additive and physical modelling synthesis methods), into a semi-modular environment with what it calls Events, 'Event processors can do anything from arpeggiating incoming notes or strumming them like a guitar to applying micro tunings, playing back MIDI files or creating generative sequences'.
I'll link to the Events section of the Falcon website as this is the best place to understand the power of this aspect of Falcon: https://www.uvi.net/falcon.html#events
For me Omnisphere, Kontakt, Pigments and Falcon all have different strengths. But only Falcon could act as a facsimile of the other three. I wouldn't be without Omnisphere, Kontakt, or Pigments, but in a synthesis version of 'Desert Island Discs' if I were forced to choose one it would be Falcon.