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.

I’m an idiot… Overdubbing in AUM

I’ve been using AUM more or less every day for the last 3 years but have only just realised that one of the ways I’ve been using it is bonkers…
A lot of my pieces are done in one take but if I need more than one recording overdubbed on another e.g. a solo overdubbed on top of a backing track then I…

1) Record an audio track (I don’t do midi) in an AUM session
2) Create another AUM session and arm a file player with the recording (backing track) I’ve just done
3) Play the backing track and record the next audio track (the solo) as either a separate recording or overdubbed on the original
4) Repeat 2 and 3 as many times as I need
5) Do a final mix if required from all of the accumulated recordings

All of this works fine but… if I have say a 10 minute backing track and want to add a solo starting at about 9 minutes, I have been sitting there like a dummy for 9 minutes only to then start playing, cock up the first note of the solo, abandon the recording, start again, wait 9 minutes etc etc. and believe me I cock up a lot! I can’t imagine how much time I’ve just sat there waiting to start playing 🥲

So I realised a couple of weeks ago what I should have been doing is (assuming we’re at 120 bpm)…

  • Use the beat offset facility in the AUM File Player to start the backing track at -1080 (9 minutes in) i.e. it will start at the point I want to add the solo and then I can record my solo of 120 beats (1 minute) without having to twiddle my thumbs for 9 minutes!
  • In the final mix , start the backing track at Beat Offset = 0 and the solo at +1080

That’s it

I’ll set up the poll later so that you can tell me if I’m an idiot or not 😊

Comments

  • Also you can forward and rewind on the aum transport by swiping! I didn't know this myself until Victor the Atom dev mentioned it to me quite some time ago, I was flabbergasted I'd missed something so useful!

  • Oops I thought the thread title was the name of your new song.

  • Or you could’ve saved a ton of time by recording all backing tracks to GarageBand first and then exporting them for use in your preferred AUM. ;) Just sayin’!

  • @Gavinski said:
    Also you can forward and rewind on the aum transport by swiping! I didn't know this myself until Victor the Atom dev mentioned it to me quite some time ago, I was flabbergasted I'd missed something so useful!

    I haven’t been able to figure this feature out yet. Dragging advances the timeline by very small increments. It’s very frustrating.

    While dragging I see new timeline controls appear, but as soon as I stop dragging they disappear. How do you access and use them? The manual’s timeline section does not enlighten.

  • @Wrlds2ndBstGeoshredr said:

    @Gavinski said:
    Also you can forward and rewind on the aum transport by swiping! I didn't know this myself until Victor the Atom dev mentioned it to me quite some time ago, I was flabbergasted I'd missed something so useful!

    I haven’t been able to figure this feature out yet. Dragging advances the timeline by very small increments. It’s very frustrating.

    While dragging I see new timeline controls appear, but as soon as I stop dragging they disappear. How do you access and use them? The manual’s timeline section does not enlighten.

    Long press before dragging!

  • @Gavinski said:

    @Wrlds2ndBstGeoshredr said:

    @Gavinski said:
    Also you can forward and rewind on the aum transport by swiping! I didn't know this myself until Victor the Atom dev mentioned it to me quite some time ago, I was flabbergasted I'd missed something so useful!

    I haven’t been able to figure this feature out yet. Dragging advances the timeline by very small increments. It’s very frustrating.

    While dragging I see new timeline controls appear, but as soon as I stop dragging they disappear. How do you access and use them? The manual’s timeline section does not enlighten.

    Long press before dragging!

    That doesn’t work for me. Long press on the play button does nothing. Am I long pressing the wrong spot?

  • Imagine of @j_liljedahl added alternative screen based around a timeline for launching MIDI and Audio clips. It just might become the puppet that becomes a real boy, Jiminy Cricket. I suspect he makes AUM for his own workflow and doesn’t approach music as a structured series of events and he removes all the friction to his workflow and many of us just appreciate the ability to hook up apps and route MIDI and create buses to add FX and sub-mixes.

    @GeoTony: Not knowing everything is not the sign of an idiot when you keep producing wonderful work without the new knowledge doing it the harder way. They keep telling me constraints are a benefit to creativity. I keep working to improve process while getting little done… the stuff I spit out is just an artifact of some experiment in process.

  • @Wrlds2ndBstGeoshredr , long press and then drag all the way to the right of left… does that do it?
    Good idea @NoiseHorse !
    Don’t know enough about GB to say @NeuM , I guess any equivalent daw allows you to start recording at a particular time? I just like AUM I guess 😊
    I agree @McD in that I think constraints are a good thing. They definitely make you think outside the box but having said that your stuff isn’t that shabby 👍

  • @GeoTony said:
    @Wrlds2ndBstGeoshredr , long press and then drag all the way to the right of left… does that do it?

    No joy. Long press on the play button does nothing for me but toggle the transport on or off.

  • @Wrlds2ndBstGeoshredr , keep your finger pressed down and slide left or right. As soon as you take your finger off it stops… is this it 🤔

  • edited January 2023

    @GeoTony said:
    @Wrlds2ndBstGeoshredr , long press and then drag all the way to the right of left… does that do it?
    Good idea @NoiseHorse !
    Don’t know enough about GB to say @NeuM , I guess any equivalent daw allows you to start recording at a particular time? I just like AUM I guess 😊
    I agree @McD in that I think constraints are a good thing. They definitely make you think outside the box but having said that your stuff isn’t that shabby 👍

    I’m guessing GarageBand gets little attention because it’s free and included in iOS. It should be considered as an option, despite some limitations. It’s fast and easy to use, plus it has enough complexity to deliver decent results for most of what I hear on these threads. I’m not seeing a lot of Frank Zappa or Rush style music here. For straightforward 4/4 works or even recordings with no adherence to a metronome, it is more than adequate. Just my 2 pence.

  • @GeoTony said:
    @Wrlds2ndBstGeoshredr , keep your finger pressed down and slide left or right. As soon as you take your finger off it stops… is this it 🤔

    Yes, that’s the only way it works for me—dragging in short increments. The transport controls only come up while dragging and disappear when I lift my finger so I can’t use them. Long press does nothing.

  • @Wrlds2ndBstGeoshredr said:

    @GeoTony said:
    @Wrlds2ndBstGeoshredr , keep your finger pressed down and slide left or right. As soon as you take your finger off it stops… is this it 🤔

    Yes, that’s the only way it works for me—dragging in short increments. The transport controls only come up while dragging and disappear when I lift my finger so I can’t use them. Long press does nothing.

    I press on the numbers slightly above the play button and drag a little to the right, not too much. It’s not super fast but about 10 seconds press will bring you forward one minute. Maybe @j_liljedahl could comment on whether there’s a way to make it faster

  • @Gavinski said:

    @Wrlds2ndBstGeoshredr said:

    @GeoTony said:
    @Wrlds2ndBstGeoshredr , keep your finger pressed down and slide left or right. As soon as you take your finger off it stops… is this it 🤔

    Yes, that’s the only way it works for me—dragging in short increments. The transport controls only come up while dragging and disappear when I lift my finger so I can’t use them. Long press does nothing.

    I press on the numbers slightly above the play button and drag a little to the right, not too much. It’s not super fast but about 10 seconds press will bring you forward one minute. Maybe @j_liljedahl could comment on whether there’s a way to make it faster

    When you start the drag, movements within a small range will adjust the current time in small steps. If you then drag a longer bit to the left or right and hold still, it will go into "auto scroll" mode where it will go fast.

  • edited January 2023

    @NeuM said:
    For straightforward 4/4 works or even recordings with no adherence to a metronome, it is more than adequate.

    +1.

    It is free and there's a ton of "how to use" videos on YouTube. Well worth checking out.

  • @j_liljedahl said:

    @Gavinski said:

    @Wrlds2ndBstGeoshredr said:

    @GeoTony said:
    @Wrlds2ndBstGeoshredr , keep your finger pressed down and slide left or right. As soon as you take your finger off it stops… is this it 🤔

    Yes, that’s the only way it works for me—dragging in short increments. The transport controls only come up while dragging and disappear when I lift my finger so I can’t use them. Long press does nothing.

    I press on the numbers slightly above the play button and drag a little to the right, not too much. It’s not super fast but about 10 seconds press will bring you forward one minute. Maybe @j_liljedahl could comment on whether there’s a way to make it faster

    When you start the drag, movements within a small range will adjust the current time in small steps. If you then drag a longer bit to the left or right and hold still, it will go into "auto scroll" mode where it will go fast.

    Thanks for the clarification! It would be easier to understand if the fast forward and reverse controls could be used like buttons. To see them blink on and off with no way to touch them is confusing and frustrating.

  • @Wrlds2ndBstGeoshredr said:

    @j_liljedahl said:

    @Gavinski said:

    @Wrlds2ndBstGeoshredr said:

    @GeoTony said:
    @Wrlds2ndBstGeoshredr , keep your finger pressed down and slide left or right. As soon as you take your finger off it stops… is this it 🤔

    Yes, that’s the only way it works for me—dragging in short increments. The transport controls only come up while dragging and disappear when I lift my finger so I can’t use them. Long press does nothing.

    I press on the numbers slightly above the play button and drag a little to the right, not too much. It’s not super fast but about 10 seconds press will bring you forward one minute. Maybe @j_liljedahl could comment on whether there’s a way to make it faster

    When you start the drag, movements within a small range will adjust the current time in small steps. If you then drag a longer bit to the left or right and hold still, it will go into "auto scroll" mode where it will go fast.

    Thanks for the clarification! It would be easier to understand if the fast forward and reverse controls could be used like buttons. To see them blink on and off with no way to touch them is confusing and frustrating.

    I see. Those "buttons" are meant is visual indicators telling you what's happening.

    But all this will be much more user friendly when I replace the above with a simple timeline-widget at the top where you see the play cursor move and can drag it as you wish. (Yet another TODO item..)

  • @j_liljedahl said:

    @Wrlds2ndBstGeoshredr said:

    @j_liljedahl said:

    @Gavinski said:

    @Wrlds2ndBstGeoshredr said:

    @GeoTony said:
    @Wrlds2ndBstGeoshredr , keep your finger pressed down and slide left or right. As soon as you take your finger off it stops… is this it 🤔

    Yes, that’s the only way it works for me—dragging in short increments. The transport controls only come up while dragging and disappear when I lift my finger so I can’t use them. Long press does nothing.

    I press on the numbers slightly above the play button and drag a little to the right, not too much. It’s not super fast but about 10 seconds press will bring you forward one minute. Maybe @j_liljedahl could comment on whether there’s a way to make it faster

    When you start the drag, movements within a small range will adjust the current time in small steps. If you then drag a longer bit to the left or right and hold still, it will go into "auto scroll" mode where it will go fast.

    Thanks for the clarification! It would be easier to understand if the fast forward and reverse controls could be used like buttons. To see them blink on and off with no way to touch them is confusing and frustrating.

    I see. Those "buttons" are meant is visual indicators telling you what's happening.

    But all this will be much more user friendly when I replace the above with a simple timeline-widget at the top where you see the play cursor move and can drag it as you wish. (Yet another TODO item..)

    Hellz yeah. This will be very useful.

  • +1 for sure!

Sign In or Register to comment.