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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Staffpad Sketches

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Comments

  • @LinearLineman said:
    Did you ever, in your wildest imaginings, envision you could do this stuff?

    Not alone n the couch. Too cool.

    Coconuts excellent. Maybe your most original. Let’s have more of that!

    Yes. You like the scatological over the sound track styles. I throw you a bone every once in a while. This has some Elfman ideas in it’s DNA with a touch of Zappa’s tendency to write really hard parts to play for musicians that went to school from an early age learning musical notation and regurgitation.

  • New workflow:
    1. Used "Music Scanner" (currently free and Universal) to turn a Beethoven Piano Sonata page into a Music XML File.
    2. Imported the Music XML in Staffpad.
    3. Copied the notes to:

      1. a piano, ukelele, harp
      1. a chamber orchestra with mallet percussion
      1. INSERTED Riffler Guitar and Funk Drummer Audio files using the chord progression from the Beethoven and 80 BPM
      1. Then the whole kitch sink of orchestra parts, guitar and drums NOTE: I tried to chop the guitar audio and it came out glitch-y in the final rendering.

  • Definitely a "Work in Progress"... I wonder where this will end up.

  • I think the strings need to be separated out… not so homogenous. More of a string quartet sound.

  • @LinearLineman said:
    I think the strings need to be separated out… not so homogenous. More of a string quartet sound.

    I'm not a big fan of the string quartet sound. Too thin for my tastes. It's early yet. This one will probably be far to "pretty" or "mellow" for your tastes. We just have different tastes.
    I know you prefer something new as a general guideline.

    In this piece I want each string instrument entry to hit and hold it's note... It's an effect. Typically called bell tones: Like church bells they let the notes ring until they die... in this case they eventually get to the front of the queue depending on how many instruments I end up with.

    Staffpad allows me to pull up dozens of the same instrument without any limitations for I set up 4 violins and 2 cellos so far on 6 staffs. The main benefit is not having to wrestle with the "multi-part" writing since it's really finicky.

    Anyway thanks for the listen. I'm interested to see if I can continue in this vein and generate something akin to a melody using these "bell tone" notes that don't die but just create a sound smear or if I add something contrasting. It could go either way.

    I have learned how to get StaffPad to provide a chordal analysis of the music I entered and it's also informing me so it's impacting the editing process. Once I settle on a chord progression I might use it for the contrasting section and see if that feels like it binds the music together.

  • Well, I hope you get there. I can dig pretty and mellow. It may be that you’re showing this too soon as it seems you have a particular bell like place in mind.

  • @LinearLineman said:
    Well, I hope you get there. I can dig pretty and mellow. It may be that you’re showing this too soon as it seems you have a particular bell like place in mind.

    I'm posting sketches and appreciate your feedback. I've used this approach a couple times and gotten feedback sometimes that version 2 or 3 wasn't as interesting as 1 or 2. In film music you might end up re-working a theme in a dozen ways. I'd love to see @Paulieworld or others that labor over a track release snapshots towards that end state in a single thread.

  • "String Theory" has become "Silk Trade"... lots of exotic percussion added to the strings.

  • Now a lead voice on an Asian flute or something.

  • McDMcD
    edited February 2022

    @LinearLineman said:
    Now a lead voice on an Asian flute or something.

    For anyone interested in Staffpad... there are no world instrument libraries in staffpad (yet?).
    But with the new audio tracks I could load the audio into AUM or Cubasis and record using an AUv3 instrument and import that performance back into Staffpad as a workaround.

    The "Chords" analysis feature would help and I could export a lead sheet of chords and even make a melodic part to be recorded. You could give that part to a pro and get a really good performance. Many great players are selling their time for people with home studios to integrate into their "products".

    This exercise is a sketch and I'm interested in what kinds of instrument combinations work. I can hear a lot of weird mixing issues in this as it currently stands. Exporting stems into a DAW and do a classic mastering effort would probably be needed to do anything serious with something like this. The volume automation in staffpad is a bit fiddly with the pencil involving little dot targets. I need to watch some more videos and see how the pros do it.

    FYI: A Staffpad update dropped this week with a ton of bug fixes:

    https://forum.audiob.us/uploads/editor/91/sh1u8z9em7ub.png

  • @Linearlineman: I recorded a short (Bass) Flute solo in AUM and it crashed after about 60 seconds but I imported the short segment back into Staffpad and created a shorter sketch of "Silk Trade".

  • Yeah, that fills it out nicely. Should come back at :52.

  • @LinearLineman said:
    Yeah, that fills it out nicely. Should come back at :52.

    Yes... I could see that. I might open up the front and the end for a flute overlay and slowly add parts to build up the middle section slowly.

  • I bought the Spitfire Symphonic Strings for a purer string sound. The Berlin Strings are just too dramatic for some material. I hope I’m happy because this is it for string ensemble products:

    https://soundcloud.app.goo.gl/tCP2JsffFnNyDruW6

  • McDMcD
    edited February 2022

    I wanted to test drive the Spitfire Symphonic Strings and was watching “1883” on TV. It has a great strings based theme so I started re-composing it and then changed some notes and created a contrasting brass B section.

  • I figured out how to move a chord progression from Suggester into Staffpad using a @_Ki Mozaic script to assign the chord notes to MIDI channels. Then I generated melodic material over the chords using the pencil but having a clearly defined, logical chord progression worked out via Suggester really sped things up and produced more harmonic variety... maybe a bit too much but that's why I sketch. To learn what works and get there more efficiently:

  • @McD, is it possible to send me the midi data for me to mess with in Cubasis? Might like to mess with it.

  • @LinearLineman said:
    @McD, is it possible to send me the midi data for me to mess with in Cubasis? Might like to mess with it.

    Sure. MIDI projects are very small. Suggester can transfer chords on 1 channel just like you would player them with two hands. It's one of those free apps that costs $15 to unlock all the features.

    I'll try to PM the project to see if it works.

  • The forum won’t upload just any file type. Emailed it. The progression I chose today might be better.

  • @McD said:

    @LinearLineman said:
    I think the strings need to be separated out… not so homogenous. More of a string quartet sound.

    I'm not a big fan of the string quartet sound. Too thin for my tastes. It's early yet. This one will probably be far to "pretty" or "mellow" for your tastes. We just have different tastes.
    I know you prefer something new as a general guideline.

    In this piece I want each string instrument entry to hit and hold it's note... It's an effect. Typically called bell tones: Like church bells they let the notes ring until they die... in this case they eventually get to the front of the queue depending on how many instruments I end up with.

    Staffpad allows me to pull up dozens of the same instrument without any limitations for I set up 4 violins and 2 cellos so far on 6 staffs. The main benefit is not having to wrestle with the "multi-part" writing since it's really finicky.

    Anyway thanks for the listen. I'm interested to see if I can continue in this vein and generate something akin to a melody using these "bell tone" notes that don't die but just create a sound smear or if I add something contrasting. It could go either way.

    I have learned how to get StaffPad to provide a chordal analysis of the music I entered and it's also informing me so it's impacting the editing process. Once I settle on a chord progression I might use it for the contrasting section and see if that feels like it binds the music together.

    With regards to @LinearLineman's comment ref separating the strings out. I don't translate that to a chamber strings sound. I think more about smart divisi string arrangements (splitting your chords across the players). This is so central to a larger, more epic orchestral sound (used and abused in film music as well as 'classical').

    BTW I also agree that there's been a night and day improvement with regards to the sketches you post since you started working in Staffpad. It really sounds like you're enjoying yourself.

  • @jonmoore said:

    @McD said:

    @LinearLineman said:
    I think the strings need to be separated out… not so homogenous. More of a string

    With regards to @LinearLineman's comment ref separating the strings out. I don't translate that to a chamber strings sound. I think more about smart divisi string arrangements (splitting your chords across the players). This is so central to a larger, more epic orchestral sound (used and abused in film music as well as 'classical').

    OK... I missed the essential message there.

    BTW I also agree that there's been a night and day improvement with regards to the sketches you post since you started working in Staffpad. It really sounds like you're enjoying yourself.

    Yes. Having a good time trying to create something interesting.

  • The starting piano lead is a mix of a piano, a rhodes and a whirly.

    Then there are 3 chunks of string orchestrations with a lot of experimental ideas.

  • This is very good. I like the experimentation with the piano sound. The strings need some releases. An error I often make myself. The title is particularly pertinent as we got a positive diagnosis today.

  • @LinearLineman said:
    This is very good. I like the experimentation with the piano sound. The strings need some releases. An error I often make myself. The title is particularly pertinent as we got a positive diagnosis today.

    You know strings don't need to breath, right? But I'll consider throwing in a few rests.

    I'm sorry to hear your news.

  • I'm late to the conversation; and haven't time to read all the pages but I'm enjoying all your stuff here. So … this is all done on desktop though? And you're using notation, not midi events to compose? Or did you use the ipad for anything here?

  • @Stochastically said:
    I'm late to the conversation; and haven't time to read all the pages but I'm enjoying all your stuff here. So … this is all done on desktop though? And you're using notation, not midi events to compose? Or did you use the ipad for anything here?

    This is using StaffPad, a notation app that can accept MusicXML, which in turn can be created with midi. They also recently added audio tracks. All iPad.

  • @Stochastically said:
    I'm late to the conversation; and haven't time to read all the pages but I'm enjoying all your stuff here. So … this is all done on desktop though? And you're using notation, not midi events to compose? Or did you use the ipad for anything here?

    @mjcouche said:
    This is using StaffPad, a notation app that can accept MusicXML, which in turn can be created with midi. They also recently added audio tracks. All iPad.

    What he said... all IOS. Only a jerk would post desktop stuff here to encourage us to upgrade to the most expensive toys. Of course Staffpad with a lot of libraries is NOT cheap and the damn pencil required to enter notes costs $100.

    I recommend you listen to maybe 10 seconds then jump to 1 minute, 2 minutes and you'll get an idea what I'm up to in 30 seconds. If it's something that works for you then don't jump. This is what I often do with a lot of music here and I find myself staying but sometimes it's just not my thing.

  • Staffpad has been off my radar. I thought desktop because the virtual orch sounded pretty amazing. I noticed you'd mentioned the Spitfire libraries and I didn't know that was available on ios.
    Actually, I do most of my "serious" music stuff on desktop but for the past few years I've been using ios as a very fertile sketchpad/planner. You mentioned using Suggester to build a chord progression and that's exactly the kind of thing I do as well. Capture the midi and export it to desktop. I use the EastWest Symphonic Orch which I've had for years and I know it's getting a bit long in the tooth but still sounds pretty good. I don't think I'll be able to upgrade that anytime soon.

    Only a jerk would post desktop stuff here

    Ha! that's why I don't post much stuff on the forum.
    I hope you find ways to unite your snippets into something more formal.

  • Finally… a new sketch:

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