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.
NS2 or Cubasis 3
Hi,
Long time user of NS2 and love it... one gripe I can't seem to solve however is instrument modulation... Some AU's allow many parameters to be modulated and saved and others none..
Are AU's written more with Cubasis 3 in mind? is there additional functionality within this Daw?
I also have a recurring problem with NS2 where I can have an AU set at lets say Cutoff 10 for the entire opening of the track and then when I decide to modulate and open it up it will save this modulation however the entire opening section has now also moved from cutoff 10..
Is this just an idiot user?
Should I be using Cubasis.. how does the CPU usage compare like for like
cheers
Comments
Afaik, there's no AU effect automation in NS2. There is in Cubasis 3. Also, Cubasis 3 has audio tracks in case this is of interest to you.
I have major problems exporting songs from NS2 when using audio units to the point I’ve pretty much stopped using it, if not for that I’d use it all the time for midi production when I don’t need audio tracks, so I’m using CB3, plus I like that I can see the mixer and the timeline at the same time as well as effects.
Thinking about NS2 makes me sad. I would have to recommend CB3 for your use case.
Same here. If it had AU automation and audio tracks, it'd be the best iOS DAW for me.
I faced the same question as the OP recently and ended up in CB3. Another sad NS2 fan here. NS2 workflow is one of the fastest I’ve used. But I need audio tracks.
Well yes, somehow NS2 works best when used as-is.
One nice addon is Drambo, especially in your case when you want to have modulations that run in sync with NS2. It's not the same thing but since most AUv3s can be re-built inside Drambo, they complement each other quite well.
I wouldn't want to give up the MIDI composition environment and sampling features for CB3, NS2 is miles ahead in this regard.
I don’t avoid NS2 because of audio tracks, I avoid audio tracks because of NS2
Is it possible to use them together?
I admit that I have NS2 but never used it. (shame on me) NS1 I did use a lot though.
I believe the lack of audio was the reason for not using it. It still lacks this feature? surprising
I was a KORG Gadget, into AURIA Pro, now mostly Cubasis
Perhaps NS2 can be used as an AUV3 inside of Cubasis or export the Audio NS2 to Cubasis
I bought NS2 only because of Obsidian, but I got really surprised (and disappointed) that there's no support for audio tracks.
I'd call it Midi DAW, instead of DAW.
+1
I loved NS2 when it came out. Literally, it spoke to me. Love Obsidian, it would be my go-to synth if released as AUv3 standalone.
But in the end lacking audio tracks, my concern for the limited resources put behind the development and the lack of information about the progress made me after a while look elsewhere.
Roland Zenbeats nowadays cover my needs, and I feel confident about the future of it backed by a major player in the music industry. It could very well have been CB, but being a Roland fanboy…..😁👍. Also, should the interest in mobile music making suddenly for some reason go away from Roland, Zenbeats will most likely still be supported on the PC and Mac platform.
Try it if you haven’t, a lot has happened since it was ported from Stagelight to Roland and the team is active. Right, @MatthewAtZenbeats?
Just my opinion.
/DMfan🇸🇪
I loved working in NS2, despite the lack of audiotracks, my workaround for this was using Multitrack Recorder.
When I switched to Cubasis3, I observed that C3 was a lot more stable in terms of CPU and massive amounts of auv loaded compared to NS2.
Editing however in NS2 was a delight as in Xequence2 using the right and bottom tabs for easy and fast control.
I still use NS2 quite a bit. Mostly on iPhone.
If I’m trying to flesh out an idea from some jamming about in BlocsWave I’ll use Slate to trigger loops.
Any heavy duty real DAW stuff goes to the Mac.
NS2 is great for building up phrases and stem export is excellent so it’s still a really useful tool in iOS for me. I have made entire songs in it but mostly use it for sections and treat iOS in general as a way to make audio loops.
It’s future is a bit of a concern but as I’m not worried about being able to return to projects as I’ve got everything bounced as audio anyway, I’ll just keep using it while it works.
I bought NS2, and became more and more impressed with the workflow and features, particularly Slate sampler, which seemed to suit my needs perfectly.
I wasn't too fussed about audio tracks as I prefer to trigger audio samples via MIDI using Koala sampler etc. BUT, the moment I discovered NS2 didn't support Auv3 parameter automation, I immediately stopped using it and reverted back to Cubasis 3, as that aspect is a HUGE part of my workflow. Haven't been back since unfortunately, but loved everything else about it.
I know Cubasis is also fully capable of utilising multicore processing, which I don't think NS2 is... I'm currently finishing up a project in CB3 containing 21 tracks, and 82 Auv3 plugin effects for example, and my 2021 iPad Pro is showing no signs of struggling with that!
I also experienced problems in NS2 when exporting AUv3 instruments and FX. However, when I need a timeline,I love to use it as a midi DAW to send notes to instruments in AUM. It works great and helps me separate arrangement and FX
I use NS2 exclusively.
Have never had a problem with exporting songs with it, although there are a couple of external auv3 fx that I have that don’t adhere correctly to the chosen sample rate so can screw things up - that of course isn’t NS2’s fault but I’ve seen NS2 blamed for it. I know the culprits though so always ensure I bounce the particular parts or tracks to wav with those effects baked in (basically “bounce in place”).
To be honest I find my workflow is faster if I “bounce in place” every part and/or every track-lane to wav anyway. That way it stops me wanting to go back and fiddle & tweak forever on a part and thus I finish songs more quickly. And for me actually finishing songs is paramount, not endlessly tweaking and retweaking. Call me old-school but I come from a starting point where every part of every track of every song got committed to tape - it forced you into making creative decisions and sticking to them and resulted in songs getting finished, mixed, mastered and released.
I like NS2’s limitations to be honest as they force me to stay focused on what I can do and NOT on what I can’t do. I use lots of automation in my songs/tracks/parts and I can see how the whole assignment of exposed params to those macro knobs might seem restrictive but in reality I’ve found it perfectly adequate - apart from 1 case once where a lack of auv3 fx automation meant I had to get a bit creative with NS2’s limitless busses and routings. Where there’s a will there’s a way.
The ONLY thing missing for me is sample timestretching in-house but between Koala going auV3 and 4pockets’ Neon that itch is well and truly scratched. 4pockets’ MTR covers me for audio tracks in the very rare situations where Slate and Obsidian don’t.
Does MTR playback in sync with the playhead across the whole project?
Yes.
The drawback of using MTS is that NS2 doesn't allow you to record external audio, so if you want to record vocals or external instruments you would have to do it in AUM or another DAW and then bring it into MTS in the NS2 project.
For me that's the main problem with NS2: if you need audio it's just too much of a pain to use. You can't use Slate for vocals because vocals often start just before the 1 (ie they start at the end of the previous bar), so using Slate just isn't practical.
The new Audio Rx/Tx modules in VisualSwift help a lot with this workflow, especially since they state save and reconnect automatically. You can bring up your AUM and NS2 projects and in theory the audio input from guitar or whatever to NS2 automatically restores itself.
Yes.
For me the most annoying thing about using Slate for audio is not being able to monitor audio input in NS2 unless you have the Slate record window open. Sigh… using BM3 into NS2 recording via Audiobus would be awesome otherwise. There is always a gotcha!
Very active. Stay tuned :-)