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.

Anyone gone completely all iPad?

So I’ve been strictly hardware, using only a DAW to record and mix, for many years, but over the course of the pandemic I’ve slowly moved almost entirely ITB with the iPad. I have a few hardware pieces (OP-1, 707, Microfreak, Reface CS, Mono Station and various odds and ends like pocket operators and Bastl stuff), and while they make appearances now and then, I find 70%+ of what I do now entirely in the iPad. And I’m much more inspired and have much more fun working this way. The iPad has always been a staple of my setup since 2015 or so, but it was mostly for occasional synths and samples, but now I find the modular aspect, and the sheer amount of options, way more inspiring.

This got me curious how many are mostly (or all) ITB with the iPad? And how many came from mostly hardware setups? Also what kind of music are you making with it?

I’m mostly making experimental noise and drone stuff with industrial, IDM, jazz/fusion, and a little synthwave blended in.

Setup
  1. My setup is117 votes
    1. All iPad
      43.59%
    2. All iPad/desktop
      17.95%
    3. iPad/desktop/hardware blend
      38.46%
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Comments

  • I’ve been 100% iPad for about 10 years now. I find it way more inspiring than a desktop setup ever was. I couldn’t imagine going back. I’ve never really had much hardware other than a keyboard though.

  • I wish I could go 100% ipad, but it’s still lacking some essential stuff I need on desktop to get work done. I much prefer the interaction and user experience of the ipad.

  • 100% iPad for six years so far.

  • Just now coming back to IOS setup because of Loopy Pro. All I will say, is that if IOS is your main rig, you need to have a duplicate setup if something goes haywire, like an audio interface won't work because of an update, etc.

  • edited January 2022

    I feel like all the platforms work well together and keep things interesting for me. Sometimes a project starts on desktop, sometimes hardware and sometimes iPad. I love the portability and app selection on the iPad, tactility of hardware and processing power of desktop. To each it’s own. 🤟

  • All iPad and hardware.

  • All iPad + hardware. Desktop is there only for mixdown which is some other suckers job.
    Mixdown is by far the worst/least favorite part of the entire process.

  • I like bouncing around too much when it comes to gear to ever stick to one platform.

  • I was all iPad and iPhone. Now I’m just all iPhone. I make hip-hop beats, some EDM, and sync music for video games.

  • The problem with ipad and hardware is that at times it is required to connect hardware to a computer for possible updates or to access certain functions etc. Also if you create your own samples, its much easier to do this with a computer via loopback, which most interfaces only allow with a computer.
    IPad only can get very finicky. Desktop only can get quite boring.
    I think this is an equation many of us still seek to solve.
    My best advice, remember to have fun

  • All iPhone.

    iPad doesn’t fit in my pocket.

  • @ChancedMusic said:
    I was all iPad and iPhone. Now I’m just all iPhone. I make hip-hop beats, some EDM, and sync music for video games.

    What made you ditch the iPad?

  • @hibjshop said:
    The problem with ipad and hardware is that at times it is required to connect hardware to a computer for possible updates or to access certain functions etc. Also if you create your own samples, its much easier to do this with a computer via loopback, which most interfaces only allow with a computer.
    IPad only can get very finicky. Desktop only can get quite boring.
    I think this is an equation many of us still seek to solve.
    My best advice, remember to have fun

    I agree with this. Being able to update firmwares on hardware synths with an iPad is one of my dream features. Same with samples.

  • edited January 2022

    Maschine / Desktop but I have a ton of old iPad tunes from the past eight years or so that keep distracting me. Need to just take a week off work and do a mass stemfest to then be able to finish them over time on desktop.

  • @Apex said:
    I wish I could go 100% ipad, but it’s still lacking some essential stuff I need on desktop to get work done. I much prefer the interaction and user experience of the ipad.

    I’m curious, what do you feel is lacking? I’m guessing certain desktop DAW features?

  • @Halftone said:
    I’ve been 100% iPad for about 10 years now. I find it way more inspiring than a desktop setup ever was. I couldn’t imagine going back. I’ve never really had much hardware other than a keyboard though.

    Totally in agreement. It’s more inspiring than any other workflow I’ve tried, including all hardware.

  • @Spidericemidas said:
    100% iPad for six years so far.

    Love your patches! What are some of your favorite iOS synths at the moment? Any in particular you love to work with/create patches on?

  • @AudioGus said:
    Maschine / Desktop but I have a ton of old iPad tunes from the past eight years or so that keep distracting me. Need to just take a week off work and do a mass stemfest to finish them on desktop.

    So did you abandon the iOS environment completely?

  • edited January 2022

    @HotStrange said:

    @AudioGus said:
    Maschine / Desktop but I have a ton of old iPad tunes from the past eight years or so that keep distracting me. Need to just take a week off work and do a mass stemfest to finish them on desktop.

    So did you abandon the iOS environment completely?

    No, like I said I have a ton of tunes on iOS to finish. It will take quite a while to clean up / export them to desktop and finish them off there. I don't see myself really starting anything on iOS anymore, maybe just make occasional sample fodder. It was awesome for commuting though but I hope I don't commute ever again.

  • @AudioGus said:

    @HotStrange said:

    @AudioGus said:
    Maschine / Desktop but I have a ton of old iPad tunes from the past eight years or so that keep distracting me. Need to just take a week off work and do a mass stemfest to finish them on desktop.

    So did you abandon the iOS environment completely?

    No, like I said I have a ton of tunes on iOS to finish. It will take quite a while to clean up / export them to desktop and finish them off there. I don't see myself really starting anything on iOS anymore, maybe just make occasional sample fodder. It was awesome for commuting though but I hope I don't commute ever again.

    Understandable. Maschine is something I’ve been tempted by for a long time. I do love using the iPad as a sound module/sample provider with the op-1 and 707.

  • edited January 2022

    @jolico said:
    All iPhone.

    iPad doesn’t fit in my pocket.

    iPad Minis fit fine in your back pocket. The mini has been my cellphone for years now.

  • @HotStrange said:

    @AudioGus said:

    @HotStrange said:

    @AudioGus said:
    Maschine / Desktop but I have a ton of old iPad tunes from the past eight years or so that keep distracting me. Need to just take a week off work and do a mass stemfest to finish them on desktop.

    So did you abandon the iOS environment completely?

    No, like I said I have a ton of tunes on iOS to finish. It will take quite a while to clean up / export them to desktop and finish them off there. I don't see myself really starting anything on iOS anymore, maybe just make occasional sample fodder. It was awesome for commuting though but I hope I don't commute ever again.

    Understandable. Maschine is something I’ve been tempted by for a long time. I do love using the iPad as a sound module/sample provider with the op-1 and 707.

    Maschine is pure amazing flow and the NI library sounds amazing. I really should just get over my nostalgia for these old iOS tracks and move forward, sigh.

  • edited January 2022

    Keep in mind that the apple foldable phone will be out in the next two years or so .
    I had $1,500 in my budget , it was either laptop or iPad . I went w a 12.9 M1 256 gig. All iOS

  • iOS and hardware. Sometimes I’ll get on my computer but get annoyed real quick and nothing ever comes of it

  • The truth is that easily north of 95% of what I do is purely IPad, and it is with iPad that I feel most immediately creative. But if I want to organise my jams into something more structured, I have to export stems to Ableton, and the whole mixdown process there feels more chore than fun. I am never as creative there even though many of the Ableton & VST toys are compelling.

    I have lately got into modular, and that is a whole other practice, which I am still learning. I think my future is iPad direct to modular only, no DAW involved.

  • Pretty much 100% ios. I have a midi controller my wife bought me for Christmas.

  • Put me in the group that does more on the phone than the iPad for music making. Just so small and convenient when I don't want to be in the studio.

  • I was 100% iPad for some years, not just for music but for work (I write), and everything else. But I’ve slowly moved back to the Mac.

    I still use the iPad a ton, but and love apps like Drambo or Loopy Pro, but iPad glitches—like the disappearing AU bug—mean I don’t really trust it any more.

    That, and the M1 MacBooks bring a lot of the iPad magic to the Mac. Silent, instant on, insane battery life. If only Ableton could run all the amazing iOS AUv3s.

  • iPad mostly, but since using Bitwig on desktop, using desktop much more. Also, iPad still has a way to go when it comes to sample libraries. However, Drambo and Loopy pro along with the instant modular capabilities of AUM mean I still use iPad daily, not forgetting the portable aspect of a single iPad.

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