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.

Audioshare usage

Could you guys please let me know if Audioshare functionality is still sought after in sample-based iOS apps? Also, are there any alternatives to Audioshare being used these days?

Comments

  • edited December 2022

    @deltaVaudio said:
    Could you guys please let me know if Audioshare functionality is still sought after in sample-based iOS apps? Also, are there any alternatives to Audioshare being used these days?

    In my opinion, AudioShare-specific sharing hasn’t been needed in apps since Files app became part of the OS. I think good Files app integration suffices.

    AudioShare-specific support was essential before Files app existed.

  • Agreed - the files app seems to cover everything that users need.

  • Interesting, thanks for the feedback guys.

  • edited December 2022

    @deltaVaudio said:
    Could you guys please let me know if Audioshare functionality is still sought after in sample-based iOS apps? Also, are there any alternatives to Audioshare being used these days?

    If you’re looking for the editing capabilities of AudioShare (and more) then take a look at Wavebox. File management is quite easy in the Files app.

    https://apps.apple.com/us/app/wavebox-audio-editor/id1577078380

  • I like having it, because several of my devices are frozen pre- files app. So IMO it’d be relevant how far back down iOS I’d want my app to support.

  • Omg, Spacecraft is probably my most used synth of the past 2 years. That's out of all my apps, hardware, and desktop stuff. I have it on every device that can run it (android phone, cheapo fire tablets, ipads, and my Mac). Thank you so much for making it.

    Fluss is a good example of strong Files integration. You can browse any audio file accessible through files. It just opens the sample without any import procedure and you can then scrub through it. You can save everything as a preset if you want.

    Not having a tedious file import procedure really improves the user experience of sample based granular synthesis. The way Fluss uses Files is simple and efficient, IMO. That said, for granular samplers like Spacecraft and Fluss, I could see the case for a slick media bay that has sample preview functionality (or more)... That would make import more valuable as long as the process was painless (which sounds hard). It's been confirmed multiple times that when duplicating files, ios references the originals by unique file ID (not name) instead of flat out duplicating them. It's still a pain to manage... even without the hit to hd space.

  • @NoncompliantBryant said:
    Omg, Spacecraft is probably my most used synth of the past 2 years. That's out of all my apps, hardware, and desktop stuff. I have it on every device that can run it (android phone, cheapo fire tablets, ipads, and my Mac). Thank you so much for making it.

    Fluss is a good example of strong Files integration. You can browse any audio file accessible through files. It just opens the sample without any import procedure and you can then scrub through it. You can save everything as a preset if you want.

    Not having a tedious file import procedure really improves the user experience of sample based granular synthesis. The way Fluss uses Files is simple and efficient, IMO. That said, for granular samplers like Spacecraft and Fluss, I could see the case for a slick media bay that has sample preview functionality (or more)... That would make import more valuable as long as the process was painless (which sounds hard). It's been confirmed multiple times that when duplicating files, ios references the originals by unique file ID (not name) instead of flat out duplicating them. It's still a pain to manage... even without the hit to hd space.

    Thank you for your kind words. I just picked up Fluss to check out the file management and to see what Bram has been up to. It seems to involve loading the files app like in SC but it appears in a window instead of full screen.

    It's not clear what happens to the sample when you save a preset, does it duplicate the sample in the internally in the app like spacecraft does (if you don't know I'll ask Bram)?

    Could you please explain in a bit more detail the aspects of the file management in Fluss you were referring to? I'd like to understand any way I can improve file management in SC and I'm sure Bram wouldn't be offended if I used Fluss for inspiration! ;).

    In the VST you can drag and drop files straight into the SC GUI but I can't see a way to do that in iOS or Android.

  • For me the Standard iOS Document Picker for Import and iOS Share Sheet for Export is most of the time enough.
    Drag'n'Drop support for both import & export would be nice bonus but practically only usable on the iPad.
    (Drag'n'Drop is essentially 'paste a copy a file into the target app'. So 'Copy' in Files.app and 'Paste' in the Target.app)

    On more recent iOS versions the AUv3 and Stand-Alone app can share the same folder so there's really no need for a separate container for the AUv3. This is done by using Security Scoped URL from the AUv3 pointing at the apps 'Documents' folder.

    https://developer.apple.com/documentation/professional_video_applications/fcpxml_reference/asset/media-rep/bookmark/enabling_security-scoped_bookmark_and_url_access

    'File-Linking' using security scoped urls is also possible and used by a couple of more recent apps.
    This will drastically reduce the need to duplicate files but at the expenses of require a more recent iOS version.

    Cheers!

  • Fluss saves the sample data in the preset. It just seems to use the standard file interface.
    In my opinion Koala has the best file system integration. You can add favourite folders and preview the files before loading them.

  • @cytone said:
    Fluss saves the sample data in the preset. It just seems to use the standard file interface.
    In my opinion Koala has the best file system integration. You can add favourite folders and preview the files before loading them.

    Agree and Koala is one of the apps that currently uses Security Scoped URLs for file access.
    The other one is Sitala and a 'Non Music' App that also uses them is Luma Fusion.

    Hopefully we'll see more apps using them in 2023.

  • edited December 2022

    @Samu said:

    @cytone said:
    Fluss saves the sample data in the preset. It just seems to use the standard file interface.
    In my opinion Koala has the best file system integration. You can add favourite folders and preview the files before loading them.

    Agree and Koala is one of the apps that currently uses Security Scoped URLs for file access.
    The other one is Sitala and a 'Non Music' App that also uses them is Luma Fusion.

    Hopefully we'll see more apps using them in 2023.

    As far back as I can remember, the AUv3 needed to store files in an annoying special location which couldn't be seen from the files app. If this is no longer necessary that would be a major advantage! It would be a pain (and potentially a bit dangerous) to move the old files from the old special folder to the new 'normal' folder. I will definitely look into this though! I'll take a look at Koala.

    Thanks everybody for the advice! I'm not so up to date on the state of the art in iOS so this is all really helpful!

  • @deltaVaudio said:

    As far back as I can remember, the AUv3 needed to store files in an annoying special location which couldn't be seen from the files app. If this is no longer necessary that would be a major advantage!

    It can be done using those Security Scoped URLs :sunglasses:

    It would be a pain (and potentially a bit dangerous) to move the old files from the old special folder to the new 'normal' folder. I will definitely look into this though! I'll take a look at Koala.

    That too can be done but requires iPadOS16+ to work somewhat reliably.
    (Drambo has a 'Toggle to Switch' as a fallback in case the AUv3 doesn't work as expected so no files are lost).

    Drambo is one of the latest app to use the same files for both Stand Alone and AUv3.
    The AUv3 points to the Documents folder using a Security Scoped URL.

    This does not work on iOS12 and on iOS13 the user has to manually pick the folder using the Document Picker the first time the AUv3 is launched to create the URL.

    I'm quite sure @giku_beepstreet will be happy to share his experiences from implementing this in Drambo.

    Cheers!

  • I guess for the transition, I'd need to:
    1. detect if the iOS version is new enough
    2. if so, establish the new folder
    3. copy all the existing presets and audio files to the new folder
    4. delete the original files if I'm sure the copy was successful.

    Does make me a little nervous tbh. I'll need to do some research on this. Sounds like it would be difficult to make this seamless for the user.

    One major advantage I can see from this approach is if someone removes the app and reinstalls it, they won't lose all their data! Also the user data would be easier to move between devices (just zip the folder and move it!)

  • @deltaVaudio said:
    I guess for the transition, I'd need to:
    1. detect if the iOS version is new enough
    2. if so, establish the new folder
    3. copy all the existing presets and audio files to the new folder
    4. delete the original files if I'm sure the copy was successful.

    Does make me a little nervous tbh. I'll need to do some research on this. Sounds like it would be difficult to make this seamless for the user.

    One major advantage I can see from this approach is if someone removes the app and reinstalls it, they won't lose all their data! Also the user data would be easier to move between devices (just zip the folder and move it!)

    Check with Drambo dev. In his case there's no copying being done. It's more like a 'path change' so switch the between private / public storage is instant. (In private/old mode there's no folder visible in Files.app but no files are moved).

    I think it's at least worth a shot and avoid potential pitfalls.

    Cheers!

  • wimwim
    edited December 2022

    @deltaVaudio said:
    Could you please explain in a bit more detail the aspects of the file management in Fluss you were referring to? I'd like to understand any way I can improve file management in SC and I'm sure Bram wouldn't be offended if I used Fluss for inspiration! ;).

    IMO the best enhanced file pickers are in Sample Crate and Koala Sampler. The most crucial feature they add is preview. Previewing samples in Apple's files app is terrible - completely useless.

    I could be completely wrong, but I think these were made by extending the standard file picker class rather than having been written from scratch.

    As for copying files into the app ... again I could be wrong ... but I believe they store a reference to the file in the app rather than importing the file. Apparently this capability has been there for some time, but only slowly being adopted since importing was required before that.

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