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.

Question about audio interfaces

This is massively off topic but I’m running my monitor output on my interface to a tape recorder and I’m wanting to know if the signal is going through the AD conversion or does that only occur on the output on my iPad? Basically I’m wanting a completely analog signal to end up on the tape so I’m wondering if this setup is doing that or if it’s being converted to digital then back to analog in the process

Comments

  • wimwim
    edited October 2021

    Impossible to say without knowing the internals of the interface, but it's likely that it goes through AD conversion. If the monitor output has the ability to mix in audio from the iPad then that is certain.

    The only way you might get a pure analog signal path is if the monitor can only do just plain, dry, echoing of the input signal. But even then its not possible to know without a schematic of the unit.

    Interfaces usually have a preamp as well, so it would depend on whether or not the monitor goes through the preamp (very likely) and whether that preamp is purely analog.

  • I can’t come up with any real life example where it would make sense for an audio interface not to convert, so my guess is A/D/A. Most likely even direct monitoring isn’t that direct.

  • @Fingolfinzz said:
    This is massively off topic but I’m running my monitor output on my interface to a tape recorder and I’m wanting to know if the signal is going through the AD conversion or does that only occur on the output on my iPad? Basically I’m wanting a completely analog signal to end up on the tape so I’m wondering if this setup is doing that or if it’s being converted to digital then back to analog in the process

    I am not sure what you mean. Most audio interfaces connected via USB or Lightning are receiving a a digital signal from the iPad. So, they are responsible for the conversion to analog. The D/A conversion is done by the interface. If your interface is receiving an analog signal from the iPad, you might want a better interface.

  • How is this massively off-topic?

  • wimwim
    edited October 2021

    @espiegel123 said:

    @Fingolfinzz said:
    This is massively off topic but I’m running my monitor output on my interface to a tape recorder and I’m wanting to know if the signal is going through the AD conversion or does that only occur on the output on my iPad? Basically I’m wanting a completely analog signal to end up on the tape so I’m wondering if this setup is doing that or if it’s being converted to digital then back to analog in the process

    I am not sure what you mean. Most audio interfaces connected via USB or Lightning are receiving a a digital signal from the iPad. So, they are responsible for the conversion to analog. The D/A conversion is done by the interface. If your interface is receiving an analog signal from the iPad, you might want a better interface.

    I assume @Fingolfinzzz means he's after a pure analog path between a line or microphone input (not USB input) to the interface, and the monitoring output. Acting like a DI box, I suppose.

    Pretty unlikely, but reasonable for someone to think might be a possibility.

  • ^ that’s my interpretation as well… DI box, or a mixer for more flexibility… an audio interface is made to digitalise, that’s its main purpose.

  • @Fingolfinzz said:
    This is massively off topic but I’m running my monitor output on my interface to a tape recorder and I’m wanting to know if the signal is going through the AD conversion or does that only occur on the output on my iPad? Basically I’m wanting a completely analog signal to end up on the tape so I’m wondering if this setup is doing that or if it’s being converted to digital then back to analog in the process

    What interface do you have? Some interfaces have direct monitor mixers that can be sent to monitor outs or headphones before they go through any A-to-D. How complex this routing can be depends on the number of monitor outs and the particular implementation of the interface.

    Do you want to be able to record the output of your iPad DAW at the same time to the tape or only the raw input signal? If you wanted to record software instruments or effected signal to a multi-track tape at the same time, it'd take a pretty complex interface and you'd end up having to deal with latency compensation issues when you went to use the tracks together.

    Here's a link to Sweetwater on a page that talks about some of the terminology, https://www.sweetwater.com/sweetcare/articles/direct-monitoring-vs-input-monitoring/

  • @NeonSilicon i have a presonus itwo. Yeah I’m just trying to record the output of an analog synth simultaneously to tape and the iPad, nothing too complex. I’m just wondering if the monitor output on the presonus would be analog or if it’s running through the conversion before going to the monitor output

  • @Fingolfinzz said:
    @NeonSilicon i have a presonus itwo. Yeah I’m just trying to record the output of an analog synth simultaneously to tape and the iPad, nothing too complex. I’m just wondering if the monitor output on the presonus would be analog or if it’s running through the conversion before going to the monitor output

    The manual for the iTwo says it has "Zero-latency monitoring via internal analog mixer (variable mix via Mix knob)" and the features says "Zero-latency direct analog monitoring." I'd take this to mean that when you put the Mix knob at the instruments setting you are getting a direct analog signal of the preamps to the output amps/buffers of the headphones and main outs. It looks like it won't be possible to monitor the iPad signal via the headphones independently of the mix setting. Some interfaces let you send different mixes to different output sets and then switch the headphones to the different monitor outs. If you can deal without being able to monitor what's happening in the iPad and the input preamps and output buffers don't color your signal too much for you, then it looks like you should be able to get what you want out of the interface. (Assuming PreSonus isn't being to dishonest with their marketing, which it seems like they are not.)

  • @NeonSilicon said:

    @Fingolfinzz said:
    @NeonSilicon i have a presonus itwo. Yeah I’m just trying to record the output of an analog synth simultaneously to tape and the iPad, nothing too complex. I’m just wondering if the monitor output on the presonus would be analog or if it’s running through the conversion before going to the monitor output

    The manual for the iTwo says it has "Zero-latency monitoring via internal analog mixer (variable mix via Mix knob)" and the features says "Zero-latency direct analog monitoring." I'd take this to mean that when you put the Mix knob at the instruments setting you are getting a direct analog signal of the preamps to the output amps/buffers of the headphones and main outs. It looks like it won't be possible to monitor the iPad signal via the headphones independently of the mix setting. Some interfaces let you send different mixes to different output sets and then switch the headphones to the different monitor outs. If you can deal without being able to monitor what's happening in the iPad and the input preamps and output buffers don't color your signal too much for you, then it looks like you should be able to get what you want out of the interface. (Assuming PreSonus isn't being to dishonest with their marketing, which it seems like they are not.)

    Okay awesome, yeah that’s pretty much what I needed it to do, thank you!

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