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.

Holy hell, Universal Control is amazing!

I thought it would be a gimmick, but the new Universal Control is fantastic.

I just dragged a sample from a folder on my Mac across to Loopy Pro on my iPad, and dropped it into a donut. It Just Worked™.

With iDAM to pipe the sound back, if I want, this is pretty incredible.

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Comments

  • What’s the difference between Universal Control and Sidecar?

  • I'm a bit disappointed, because you can't use Universal Control in conjunction with Airplay. On paper, this was an amazing way of connecting the iPad to your Mac monitor without cables, using the keyboard and the mouse.

    You need to choose between mirroring the screen, or using the keyboard and the mouse.

    But for workflows involving AUM connected to your Mac DAW, it's amazing. You can even select the position of the iPad. It feels super natural.

  • edited March 2022

    Sidecar is more like 'extra display' while Universal Control is two independent devices sharing keyboard and mouse.

  • @mistercharlie said:
    I thought it would be a gimmick, but the new Universal Control is fantastic.

    I just dragged a sample from a folder on my Mac across to Loopy Pro on my iPad, and dropped it into a donut. It Just Worked™.

    With iDAM to pipe the sound back, if I want, this is pretty incredible.

    what is this universal control? is it new? it sounds really cool. is it only on new mac?

  • @eross said:

    what is this universal control? is it new? it sounds really cool. is it only on new mac?

    You'll need an iPad newer than iPad Air 3 and everything from the 2018 MacMini and forwards...
    ...also they need to be running macOS12.3 and iPadOS15.4 or newer...
    https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT212757
    (Universal Control: Use a single keyboard and mouse between Mac and iPad)

  • @mistercharlie said:
    I thought it would be a gimmick, but the new Universal Control is fantastic.

    I just dragged a sample from a folder on my Mac across to Loopy Pro on my iPad, and dropped it into a donut. It Just Worked™.

    With iDAM to pipe the sound back, if I want, this is pretty incredible.

    Universal control is cool. Much respect for the creation of a unified system. It is very convenient. Thanks a lot to the developers.

  • Does it also work when using a MacBook with an external monitor and an iPad? Sidecar doesn’t work for me with an external monitor.

  • @krassmann said:
    Does it also work when using a MacBook with an external monitor and an iPad? Sidecar doesn’t work for me with an external monitor.

    It does for me, but Sidecar also works with an external monitor.

    This is how the settings looks like with external monitor and Universal Control:

    And this is how it looks like with external monitor and Sidecar:

  • I've only played with it for a couple of hours but I'm already thinking that when my current iMac becomes unreliable I can move to a MacBook Air and my iPad Pro as a development setup. It's definitely pretty slick for me.

  • @krassmann said:
    Does it also work when using a MacBook with an external monitor and an iPad? Sidecar doesn’t work for me with an external monitor.

    I'm using a MacBook Pro with an external monitor, and it works just fine with my old iPad Pro.

  • edited March 2022

    @NeonSilicon said:
    I've only played with it for a couple of hours but I'm already thinking that when my current iMac becomes unreliable I can move to a MacBook Air and my iPad Pro as a development setup. It's definitely pretty slick for me.

    I'm surprised at how much better it is than Sidecar. Dragging a Mac window onto the iPad to use with the Apple Pencil never really seemed useful. But this is great right away. I like that I can drag stuff between devices, and so on. I have yet to try Koala on iPad and Ableton synced via Link, but I bet it's pretty neat.

    EDIT: OK, mind officially blown. I just dragged an audio clip directly out of Ableton's session view, across to my iPad, and dropped it into a Koala pad.

  • edited March 2022

    Ummm... yeah... not so "amazing" for me. It's kinda working, but I can't move a photo from the gallery on the ipad to the mac. And I tried the simple drag a photo from the desktop to an iPad message... and it launched the clock in splitscreen with the messages app... no photo copied/moved/dragged over.

    Feels VERY beta at this stage. I know it says it's in beta, but so far... I'd call it alpha. ;)

  • wimwim
    edited March 2022

    Damn. First time I’ve felt that my 2015 MacBook Pro is lacking in any way.

  • The drag and drop of files isn't working for me. I've tried turned it off and on, restarting all devices, making sure handoff is on, feature turned on, etc. All updated to latest OS.

    The only thing that works is sharing the cursor and keyboard. No file dragging between devices.

    I'll wait for the next update before trying to troubleshoot this any further, but so far... I really don't see the point. Airdrop between devices works perfectly fine. How is dragging/dropping instead all that much more "amazing" than Airdrop?

  • @skiphunt said:

    I'll wait for the next update before trying to troubleshoot this any further, but so far... I really don't see the point. Airdrop between devices works perfectly fine. How is dragging/dropping instead all that much more "amazing" than Airdrop?

    It’s quicker and more direct. When you get it working you’ll see!

  • @Jumpercollins - yeah I can see myself using that when I get my new MacBook. Very nice.

    Now if only there was a way to do bidirectional audio between AUM and Reaper :)

  • Almost makes me want to upgrade to Monterey, but everything is so stable in Big Sur.

  • Well, I give up. It's not working. I've tried all the suggested troubleshooting suggestions. Off/on, disable Perform touch gestures, turn off wifi and turn back on, turn off the new feature and turn back on, force restart all devices, make sure you're dragging and dropping from compatible apps, etc. I've done all of this on two different iPads and a mini M1 16Gb as desktop. I've tried from the photos gallery from the iPad and from photos on my desktop. I've tried moving a small wav file into Koala on iPad, and nothing works.

    I can see the icon briefly as you drag from the desktop to the ipad, then it's gone.

    Still.. how is it that this is so "exaggeratingly great"? Before, you airdrop a file to your desktop, then drag that wherever you want. This saves one step by dragging directly? Ok, that's obviously a little better, but mind blowing?

    I guess I'll have to wait until mine actually works before I can get my mind blown by saving one step. ;)

  • I won’t be back until later but looking forward to trying this. Sounds like a game changer.

  • @skiphunt Dragging doesn’t work properly with my trackpad, but with my trackball it works great.

  • @mistercharlie said:
    @skiphunt Dragging doesn’t work properly with my trackpad, but with my trackball it works great.

    I tried a wired mouse and dragging worked fine. I also tried another cheap portable folding bluetooth keyboard that I have for travel... which also has a small trackpad built into it. Dragging/dropping worked with that one too.

    My main trackpad is the original Apple trackpad that takes 2 AA batteries. It still works perfectly fine, but I'm guessing it's not compatible with this new feature. It doesn't say that anywhere, but I vaguely remember when iPads first got trackpad support, the original Apple trackpad wasn't supported. You had to have a newer "Magic" trackpad.

    I played with dragging files back and forth for about an hour of use today... using the wired mouse, and it's just not the "mind blowing" "game changer" for me that it appears to be for some.

    I mean, it's cool that you can do that, but it also requires that my desktop be set to wifi. I prefer a wired internet connection instead of wifi. So, I'd have to keep switching to wifi if I wanted to use the drag/drop feature.

    Looked up prices on a new trackpad, and used ones... but honestly, this new feature... while kinda nifty... it isn't something I think I would really really use all that much. Partly because it seems a bit limited right now, ie. you have to be using apps that support it. And, all the ways I might use it, where I'm currently just using AirDrop... I don't see the benefit being enough to persuade me to buy a new trackpad just for this feature.

  • @mistercharlie said:
    @skiphunt Dragging doesn’t work properly with my trackpad, but with my trackball it works great.

    Weird. I haven't had any issues with dragging with my trackpad. I did have to adjust the direction I was trying to drag because I want to drag to the corner, but then the quick Notes feature gets in the way. I have to remember to drag above the corner of the screen into the iPad and then down.

    The biggest issue I've had so far was apps that don't support drag-and-drop on the iPad side. And then there is the ongoing limitations with the Files app. I tried to drag a Mozaic file directly to the Files app and that didn't work for some unknown reason. I then added a .txt to the file name and this let me do the drop in the files app, but then it seems that the stupid thing won't let me edit the filename to remove the .txt. That's really frustrating and dumb. I did finally get it to work by zipping the file and then unzipping on the iPad. The really silly thing is that after that the Files app recognized it correctly, had the right icon, and allowed me to use the share features correctly. It is still beta, but I really hope they take the restrictions off the Files app to make all of this more smooth and work sensibly.

  • Too late, just got a new keyboard today .. lol

  • So what’s the minimum hardware spec to use this model wise?

  • @Jumpercollins said:
    So what’s the minimum hardware spec to use this model wise?

    https://www.macworld.co.uk/how-to/universal-control-3812900/

  • Is there a meaning of Universal that includes the Apple Watch?

    There's a Universal that implies support for Intel and M1 on Macs.
    There's a Universal for IOS apps that support iPhone and iPad.
    And now there's this Universal for Mac and iPad interoperability for display and files.

    But I have to give Apple props from spinning up 4 distinct universes without every leaving the building.

    Too bad there's this additional Universe of Android, Windows and Alexa users.

    Me: "Alexa, talk some smack about Siri."
    Siri: "Bing! (She's now listening)"
    Alexa: "Hmm. I don't know that one." (NOTE: She gets the pronoun right.)

  • edited March 2022

    @McD said:
    Is there a meaning of Universal that includes the Apple Watch?

    There's a Universal that implies support for Intel and M1 on Macs.
    There's a Universal for IOS apps that support iPhone and iPad.
    And now there's this Universal for Mac and iPad interoperability for display and files.

    But I have to give Apple props from spinning up 4 distinct universes without every leaving the building.

    Too bad there's this additional Universe of Android, Windows and Alexa users.

    Me: "Alexa, talk some smack about Siri."
    Siri: "Bing! (She's now listening)"
    Alexa: "Hmm. I don't know that one." (NOTE: She gets the pronoun right.)

    :D I don't think this particular universe even includes iPhones. Wait until they deliver Max and Ultra universes. (They do seem to have a problem with over using certain marketing terms.)

  • @skiphunt said:
    Well, I give up. It's not working. I've tried all the suggested troubleshooting suggestions. Off/on, disable Perform touch gestures, turn off wifi and turn back on, turn off the new feature and turn back on, force restart all devices, make sure you're dragging and dropping from compatible apps, etc. I've done all of this on two different iPads and a mini M1 16Gb as desktop. I've tried from the photos gallery from the iPad and from photos on my desktop. I've tried moving a small wav file into Koala on iPad, and nothing works.

    I can see the icon briefly as you drag from the desktop to the ipad, then it's gone.

    Still.. how is it that this is so "exaggeratingly great"? Before, you airdrop a file to your desktop, then drag that wherever you want. This saves one step by dragging directly? Ok, that's obviously a little better, but mind blowing?

    I guess I'll have to wait until mine actually works before I can get my mind blown by saving one step. ;)

    You did update both your desktop computer and your iPad, right? Just checking. Because it shouldn't be this much of a problem.

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