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 Store

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

Dear Eventide and Kemper: Go the distance on ubiquitous products

I work in the User Experience (UX) field, and cross-platform products are the holy grail we talk about. But few companies get very close.

Eventide, you are close, and could be the breakthrough ubiquitous product in the vendor musician world.

As it is now, as an H9 owner, if I carry around my H9 hardware, I can use H9 Control apps from phone, iPad, or desktop to access my presets. I still need the H9 hardware hooked up for the actual tones.

Without the H9 hardware, when I am out of the house with my phone, I can still look at the H9 app, see the algorithms, and read the help info for each algorithm.

Lately, of course, I can buy separate Eventide apps on iOS that are from the H9. But having been an H9 Max owner for a while, I'd rather not deal with Eventide that way.

Please give us an H9 auv3 iOS app:

  • Allow me to load and sync my presets from the H9 hardware

  • If you can't give me the H9 app as an H9 device owner for free, at least make it work seamlessly, using the Eventide userID to tie it all together.

  • The H9 auv3 should allow for multiple instances and multiple algorithms in one AUM session. That would be ridiculously cool and give Eventide a significant advantage in the iOS effects space.

  • Provide a way for a minimal audio signal -- just a few seconds -- to be stored with the H9, and ideally, per algorithm. If I could save even the last few seconds of guitar playing, it would be nice to mess around with that audio and my Eventide when I'm in line at the grocery store, or wherever.

  • This last proposal might be too much --- Give us a playable H9 auv3 untethered from the H9 device. Maybe this standalone version has to be stripped-down. Or perhaps it can only hold presets created from the H9 device.

Kemper player Auv3
While I'm at it, I see Kemper Profile has an iPad control app. I am a guitarist and bassist who doesn't own the Kemper Profiler, but I've heard many great things. Including the ability to download profiles from a cottage industry of musicians who'll spend thousands of dollars on amps and mics to carefully create profiles of that rig. And then sell the profiles so people like me can have an endless supply of great guitar setups.

Kemper, if you could give us a Kemper player-only version on iOS and other mobile platforms, you'd convert many people like myself into new customers.

Could you imagine loading up a few instances of Kemper profiles on AUM? I suspect that the iPad hardware and OS could support a player-only version of Kemper.

Anyway, thanks for reading some musings and product proposals. These are just a couple of musician-oriented products that can and should tie everything together to play and create wherever we want. And not sacrifice the capabilities of dedicated gear at homes and studios.

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Comments

  • The most true statement I’ve ever read on this forum is that the Eventide effects sound like the Dolce & Gabbana of the music world. High quality, yes, but as a mere common man I turn my nose up at them.

  • Had to look that up…

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolce_&_Gabbana

    Well, to each his own. Love my H9, especially the Reverbs.

  • edited November 2021

    To contribute something maybe useful, and I understand your main point of your post is integration, TH-U Overloud is an amazing guitar solution with its rig packs that are basically just like Kemper profiles from what I understand. The rigs capture almost any amp/cab you can think of with a ton of different mic placements, some with effects added, clean, overdriven, distortion etc. (there are usually over 100 different profiles in each pack). Separate purchases required, obviously, and with the sheer amount of amp models they have available, it can get expensive if you’re way into amps. Just sayin there’s a great iOS solution available in case you aren’t aware of it. Plus, it’s fully integrated with desktop. For instance, if purchased on desktop, you can get each rig pack on iOS for $1.

  • And yeah, Blackhole is the one effect of theirs that is undeniable. Pretty much all of the rest sound too ritzy for my tastes.

  • edited November 2021

    @joegrant413 said:

    • Allow me to load and sync my presets from the H9 hardware

    I believe all the eventide iOS apps import h9 presets/patches as well export back to h9.
    I don't have an h9 myself. Never saw the need really.

    While I do love their UI as I prefer clean minimal stuff and the ribbon thing is pretty nice, I can completely agree with the dulce and gabbana comment above.
    Never really knew how to describe their over-stylized sound, but that description is spot on.

    Also, if I never hear another thing shimmer-verbed again, I can die a happy man.

  • @oat_phipps said:
    The most true statement I’ve ever read on this forum is that the Eventide effects sound like the Dolce & Gabbana of the music world. High quality, yes, but as a mere common man I turn my nose up at them.

    That's in interesting way to put it. Could you describe that a bit more for those without much context? The only thing I know about Dolce & Gabbana is that Riff Raff doesn't fuck with ho's who don't wear it.

  • @oat_phipps said:
    The most true statement I’ve ever read on this forum is that the Eventide effects sound like the Dolce & Gabbana of the music world. High quality, yes, but as a mere common man I turn my nose up at them.

    I SAID THAT 😍😍💪💪💪
    Although I might have said Versace…

  • I like THU Overloud but more often than not in blows up on me, running either within AUM or stand-alone. I really like what I hear from it though. It seems to happens more if I’ve been running for awhile and try to switch to another rig. I’m running an iPad mini 5 and OS 14.

    It would be interesting to hear from anyone who has a Kemper to compare it to THU or any other iOS guitar rig. I have not heard the Kemper directly.

  • It doesn’t sound like I’m going to hear a lot a love about Eventide on this thread, but typically I just need to mix up the dry signal to start getting something tasteful.

    Whether Kim Kardashian likes it or not, I can’t say.

  • I'll come to Eventide's defence (all glitter and no substance - how very dare they!). Outside of Blackhole; Crystals, MicroPitch and Tricera Chorus are great, and work really well as a combo.

  • @joegrant413 said:
    I like THU Overloud but more often than not in blows up on me, running either within AUM or stand-alone. I really like what I hear from it though. It seems to happens more if I’ve been running for awhile and try to switch to another rig. I’m running an iPad mini 5 and OS 14.

    It would be interesting to hear from anyone who has a Kemper to compare it to THU or any other iOS guitar rig. I have not heard the Kemper directly.

    I have never ever had th-u blow up on me, it’s incredibly stable. Could you describe what is happening or make a short video of the crash in action? Is it a crash or a defective sound that creeps in? There have been some issues with sample rate communication between iOS and interfaces. So just wondering what you’re experiencing in th-u…

  • @joegrant413 said:
    It doesn’t sound like I’m going to hear a lot a love about Eventide on this thread, but typically I just need to mix up the dry signal to start getting something tasteful.

    Whether Kim Kardashian likes it or not, I can’t say.

    Eventide is really great, however, many of the Eventides have a certain trademark sound, which I wound definitely call compelling, but not necessarily rife with “analog” flavor. Eventide is unanimously praised, but it’s not for everyone.

  • @joegrant413 regarding Kemper vs th-u… I’ve never played a Kemper so I can’t say for sure, but I’d assume based on the market popularity and pricing that it’s superior. You’d have to play both in person to compare, but in videos and demos all of these options sound pretty much the same. The Kemper controls are probably more feature rich, such as the knob that controls pick attack and dynamics. However, I can’t afford a Kemper, and I have like 40 th-u rigs (plus iOS device and interface).

    The big difference is that Kemper is a hardware unit, not unlike other floor modelers, or Eventide hardware units etc… there’s a tactile nature to a Kemper that makes people feel it’s not far off from having an amp head. So I don’t see a reason why Kemper would go all software, it wouldn’t be the same product.

  • @tahiche said:

    @oat_phipps said:
    The most true statement I’ve ever read on this forum is that the Eventide effects sound like the Dolce & Gabbana of the music world. High quality, yes, but as a mere common man I turn my nose up at them.

    I SAID THAT 😍😍💪💪💪
    Although I might have said Versace…

    My man 🙏

    And you’re right, it was Versace!

  • I own all the Eventide apps and really like the sound but usually only one or two presets per product. The rest might be there to demonstrate the range of sounds that can be created but they're pretty dramatic and not too usable in most cases. That's the biggest downfall in my opinion but otherwise I dig 'em and if I could install Blackhole directly into my ears, I would. :lol:

  • @JoyceRoadStudios said:

    @joegrant413 said:
    It doesn’t sound like I’m going to hear a lot a love about Eventide on this thread, but typically I just need to mix up the dry signal to start getting something tasteful.

    Whether Kim Kardashian likes it or not, I can’t say.

    Eventide is really great, however, many of the Eventides have a certain trademark sound, which I wound definitely call compelling, but not necessarily rife with “analog” flavor. Eventide is unanimously praised, but it’s not for everyone.

    I think it all comes down to how much you adored the H3000 Ultra-Harmonizer and it’s 70’s predecessors. Which is something that I think appeals more to synthesists than guitarists (although it was all over pretty much every U2 release in the 80s and early 90s, and the H910 was featured heavily on Bowie's classic Low). But it’s definitely one of those 80s/90s classics that has recognisable sonic fingerprint. I just wish that Eventide would covert the H3000 desktop plugin to AUv3. They’ve mainly focused on the guitar pedal side of their product line so far, and they have so much more to give!

  • edited November 2021

    @JoyceRoadStudios said:
    The big difference is that Kemper is a hardware unit, not unlike other floor modelers, or Eventide hardware units etc… there’s a tactile nature to a Kemper that makes people feel it’s not far off from having an amp head. So I don’t see a reason why Kemper would go all software, it wouldn’t be the same product.

    The Kemper Profiling Amp is software from front to back and nothing but software (between preamp and output stage)... just like any other „modern“ pedal ;)
    It could even be called a Virus in disguise, as it‘s based on the same DSP hardware.
    Kemper is the founder and owner of Access Music and that heritage (read experience) is what makes the processing so great.

    In the end it‘s just a regular modeling amp without any magic ingredients ;)
    (except sophisticated programming)
    But the real magic is in users‘ phantasy about the profiling process, which just measures the response of gear to defined signals to derive some (up to 80?) parameters to be fed to the virtual amp model.
    That approach is undeniably clever... and patented, but it remains a regular amp model and is not plain convolution (as stated by Kemper).
    You could write the exact same model, but never dial in the (to be profiled) amp’s tone manually... for the shere amount of parameters.

    The Kemper’s quality is in the DSP code and that‘s why it‘s unlikely there‘ll ever be an Intel or ARM variant. It‘s almost impossible to transfer optimized DSP assembly code without unwanted side effects.

    Eventide is the living proof of this: they did just that and their VSTs sound a bit different (more tinny ?) from their classic hardware units.
    (at least my impression from videos and the algorithms under Pro Tools TDM).

    ps: Ch. Kemper is a passionate guitar player himself...

  • @Telefunky said:

    @JoyceRoadStudios said:
    The big difference is that Kemper is a hardware unit, not unlike other floor modelers, or Eventide hardware units etc… there’s a tactile nature to a Kemper that makes people feel it’s not far off from having an amp head. So I don’t see a reason why Kemper would go all software, it wouldn’t be the same product.

    The Kemper Profiling Amp is software from front to back and nothing but software (between preamp and output stage)... just like any other „modern“ pedal ;)
    It could even be called a Virus in disguise, as it‘s based on the same DSP hardware.
    Kemper is the founder and owner of Access Music and that heritage (read experience) is what makes the processing so great.

    In the end it‘s just a regular modeling amp without any magic ingredients ;)
    (except sophisticated programming)
    But the real magic is in users‘ phantasy about the profiling process, which just measures the response of gear to defined signals to derive some (up to 80?) parameters to be fed to the virtual amp model.
    That approach is undeniably clever... and patented, but it remains a regular amp model and is not plain convolution (as stated by Kemper).
    You could write the exact same model, but never dial in the (to be profiled) amp’s tone manually... for the shere amount of parameters.

    The Kemper’s quality is in the DSP code and that‘s why it‘s unlikely there‘ll ever be an Intel or ARM variant. It‘s almost impossible to transfer optimized DSP assembly code without unwanted side effects.

    Eventide is the living proof of this: they did just that and their VSTs sound a bit different (more tinny ?) from their classic hardware units.
    (at least my impression from videos and the algorithms under Pro Tools TDM).

    Yes absolutely, but my point was that a Kemper is still a piece of hardware, with actual knobs, and it’s more similar to an amp head this way than a digital modeler with touchscreen knobs.

    On top of that, I would assume that an iOS device may not be able to handle the processing power that a Kemper hardware unit has inside of it, but if it can, then why wouldn’t Kemper just make a software version of the hardware unit. I’m assuming it can’t be done within the framework of iOS, but maybe in the future.

  • edited November 2021

    @JoyceRoadStudios said:

    @Telefunky said:

    @JoyceRoadStudios said:
    The big difference is that Kemper is a hardware unit, not unlike other floor modelers, or Eventide hardware units etc… there’s a tactile nature to a Kemper that makes people feel it’s not far off from having an amp head. So I don’t see a reason why Kemper would go all software, it wouldn’t be the same product.

    The Kemper Profiling Amp is software from front to back and nothing but software (between preamp and output stage)... just like any other „modern“ pedal ;)
    It could even be called a Virus in disguise, as it‘s based on the same DSP hardware.
    Kemper is the founder and owner of Access Music and that heritage (read experience) is what makes the processing so great.

    In the end it‘s just a regular modeling amp without any magic ingredients ;)
    (except sophisticated programming)
    But the real magic is in users‘ phantasy about the profiling process, which just measures the response of gear to defined signals to derive some (up to 80?) parameters to be fed to the virtual amp model.
    That approach is undeniably clever... and patented, but it remains a regular amp model and is not plain convolution (as stated by Kemper).
    You could write the exact same model, but never dial in the (to be profiled) amp’s tone manually... for the shere amount of parameters.

    The Kemper’s quality is in the DSP code and that‘s why it‘s unlikely there‘ll ever be an Intel or ARM variant. It‘s almost impossible to transfer optimized DSP assembly code without unwanted side effects.

    Eventide is the living proof of this: they did just that and their VSTs sound a bit different (more tinny ?) from their classic hardware units.
    (at least my impression from videos and the algorithms under Pro Tools TDM).

    Yes absolutely, but my point was that a Kemper is still a piece of hardware, with actual knobs, and it’s more similar to an amp head this way than a digital modeler with touchscreen knobs.

    On top of that, I would assume that an iOS device may not be able to handle the processing power that a Kemper hardware unit has inside of it, but if it can, then why wouldn’t Kemper just make a software version of the hardware unit. I’m assuming it can’t be done within the framework of iOS, but maybe in the future.

    Kemper’s DSP is ancient by technology standards of today, using a 400mhz Freescale DSP chip. Apple M1 and A15 could handle multiple instances without breaking a sweat.
    The magic is in the algorithms, not brute force processing power, imo. I somewhat doubt they’d want to port it to other platforms and cannibalize their high margin hardware sales.

  • @Eschatone said:

    @JoyceRoadStudios said:

    @Telefunky said:

    @JoyceRoadStudios said:
    The big difference is that Kemper is a hardware unit, not unlike other floor modelers, or Eventide hardware units etc… there’s a tactile nature to a Kemper that makes people feel it’s not far off from having an amp head. So I don’t see a reason why Kemper would go all software, it wouldn’t be the same product.

    The Kemper Profiling Amp is software from front to back and nothing but software (between preamp and output stage)... just like any other „modern“ pedal ;)
    It could even be called a Virus in disguise, as it‘s based on the same DSP hardware.
    Kemper is the founder and owner of Access Music and that heritage (read experience) is what makes the processing so great.

    In the end it‘s just a regular modeling amp without any magic ingredients ;)
    (except sophisticated programming)
    But the real magic is in users‘ phantasy about the profiling process, which just measures the response of gear to defined signals to derive some (up to 80?) parameters to be fed to the virtual amp model.
    That approach is undeniably clever... and patented, but it remains a regular amp model and is not plain convolution (as stated by Kemper).
    You could write the exact same model, but never dial in the (to be profiled) amp’s tone manually... for the shere amount of parameters.

    The Kemper’s quality is in the DSP code and that‘s why it‘s unlikely there‘ll ever be an Intel or ARM variant. It‘s almost impossible to transfer optimized DSP assembly code without unwanted side effects.

    Eventide is the living proof of this: they did just that and their VSTs sound a bit different (more tinny ?) from their classic hardware units.
    (at least my impression from videos and the algorithms under Pro Tools TDM).

    Yes absolutely, but my point was that a Kemper is still a piece of hardware, with actual knobs, and it’s more similar to an amp head this way than a digital modeler with touchscreen knobs.

    On top of that, I would assume that an iOS device may not be able to handle the processing power that a Kemper hardware unit has inside of it, but if it can, then why wouldn’t Kemper just make a software version of the hardware unit. I’m assuming it can’t be done within the framework of iOS, but maybe in the future.

    Kemper’s DSP is ancient by technology standards of today, using a 400mhz Freescale DSP chip. Apple M1 and A15 could handle multiple instances without breaking a sweat.
    The magic is in the algorithms, not brute force processing power, imo.

    Your point is well taken, but it’s not just about the dsp. A Kemper is feature rich with i/o making it a formidable hardware unit pushing software. When people say just port over the Kemper to AUv3… what about all the ins and outs and connections? One would need to outfit their iOS device with a lot of bells and whistles both on the input and output to reach the same versatility. So what’s the incentive for Kemper to yield the hardware part to third parties and just sell their software?

  • I’m not the most technical one on this forum, but it seems to me like the right modern software wrapper could emulate the DSP of an older chip.

    If not, my gut still says that the Kemper algorithms would still run on a ported iOS version for a comparable experience.

  • Google is a great example of having a ubiquitous branded experience. I don’t expect my Google assistant to work exactly the same in my car, but there’s enough commonality between using it in the car and using it on my phone and using it on my home speakers that I got the incentive to continue to use Google as much as possible.

    I don’t expect a Kemper or Eventide to deliver the same goods on mobile as they do with their hardware. But they can cook something up for customers that’s works everywhere conveniently.

  • edited November 2021

    Btw, in the case of Kemper, if they don’t reach out to the mobile market, other people will. And apparently companies like THU and GElabs have already started. They could also brand this kind of mobile experience differently if they don’t want to knock down or cannibalize their hardware market too much.

  • edited November 2021

    I don't think Kemper is bothered about iOS as an emulation platform. Much like with the Access Virus and Nord Lead line of synths they're definitively HARDWARE products. Forgetting the fact that they don't use mainstream computing hardware, there's nothing that potentially could have stopped Access and Nord from recreating the algorithms from scratch for Arm/Intel (given time, and they've had plenty), they simply weren't motivated to do so.

    I get the feeling that Kemper won't mind one bit if others dominate on iOS and desktop with equally compelling software. They have a boutique mindset, and full power to them.

  • edited November 2021

    @joegrant413 said:
    I’m not the most technical one on this forum, but it seems to me like the right modern software wrapper could emulate the DSP of an older chip.

    Yes, in fact one can wrap a whole architecture within a single FPGA, just go and ask how much they charge for the (so called) IP. Hint: it‘s tremendous ... but there is no FPGA socket in any mobile device anyway.
    Kemper has 25 years of experience in DSP assembly coding and probably even thinks this way. It‘s a very different approach from general purpose languages.
    Of course it‘s not impossible to switch perspective... Sean Costello worked for Analog Devices (Sharc DSPs) before he founded Valhalla DSP to release reverbs in Intel native code.
    Imho his former experience had a heavy influence on his coding style - hence the great results.

    If not, my gut still says that the Kemper algorithms would still run on a ported iOS version for a comparable experience.

    Definitely not. You overlook a subtle, yet important difference:
    hardware DSP units are strictly realtime with no CPU scheduler switching hundreds of tasks and even logging them.
    I have 2 different DAWs which both handle (almost) all their digital audio on PCI DSP cards, that are completely de-coupled from the OS.
    They may be anachronisms from the „instructions per second“ pov, but are spot on in reliability and timing. I won‘t part with any of the vintage couple. o:)

  • @jonmoore said:
    I get the feeling that Kemper won't mind one bit if others dominate on iOS and desktop with equally compelling software. They have a boutique mindset, and full power to them.

    Not only a boutique mindset, but also a lot of common sense.
    He's probably as much interested in Apple's 1 mobile OS per year mess-up schedule, as he is in Windoze non delivery of claims made the year before the previous release >:)
    (let alone updates, security bs, etc)
    With custom hardware it's just you and your prototyping board for the developer. Not to be underestimated...

  • @Telefunky said:

    ….

    hardware DSP units are strictly realtime with no CPU scheduler switching hundreds of tasks and even logging them.
    I have 2 different DAWs which both handle (almost) all their digital audio on PCI DSP cards, that are completely de-coupled from the OS.
    They may be anachronisms from the „instructions per second“ pov, but are spot on in reliability and timing. I won‘t part with any of the vintage couple. o:)

    Interesting. Just curious, what are the hardware DAWs that you have?

  • edited November 2021

    First one is a Creamware Scope (6+4 Sharc DSPs), 32 Adat channels, Korg 880 AD/DA (8 analog io to Adat)
    DAW is SAW-Studio light, but for tracking there's also a Scope plugin that perfectly fakes Adat tapes
    the fake is so real that it can be controlled by an Alesis BRC (big remote control)
    It's is a bit ridiculous (just to prove it can be done...), but allows to operate 32 tracks without screen interaction

    Second is a Pro Tools TDM (Mix24), Adat Bridge (16 digital io), Digidesign 882/20 (8 analog io)
    Acquired originally as an fx rack because it was simply too cheap to pass... but the DAW part was less hard than expected.

    Both DAWs can exchange digital live audio.
    Roundtrip latency is 0.5ms for the Adat part plus a couple of samples for the DSP sections, no interface buffer required.
    (of course there will be fx latency if lookahead buffers or similar are applied)

    I've had an iPad connected to any of the two by an iCA4+ (analog path) for a while.
    Atm it's in rework to add a MacMini with MPC Studio.

  • I love all the Eventide apps and am very grateful to have them on iOS.

    Blackhole is the most played out IMO.

    I particularly like Rotary, the auto slow>fast has made it onto many of my tracks.

  • Thanks for sharing the DAW info, Telefunky.

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