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.

radial menus please

HmtxHmtx
in Feature Wishlists

OK, I often have ideas rattling around in my head that don't get fleshed out for whatever reason, lack of focus, lack of time etc... Well, here's one of those ideas that someone smarter than me has implemented:

I'm looking Radial Menus on Bitwig! http://www.bitwig.com/en/bitwig_1_3 Look at the way they do touchscreen radial menus. This isn't on iOS, but should be on a lot of music apps. It would be very easy for iOS users to learn the difference between a normal tap and a "long-tap" to bring up a radial menu. Contextual menus pop up depending on where you press. Its genius and could go a long way in making complex apps more immediately accessible.

I'm probably just missing all the current iOS apps that already do this, educate me if so.

Comments

  • MartygrasMartygras

    I have some graphics apps that implemented these types of menus and I agree that they are a very useful approach and could be developed further.

  • SamuSamu

    It's like 'context touch-menu' on steroids nicely implemented.

    Remains to be seen what Image-Line does with Fruityloops 3 Mobile and what Intua comes up with regarding BeatMaker 3. And well, Steinberg will most likely improve Cubasis at some point too :)

  • HmtxHmtx

    It seems like such an opportunity to improve workflow, kind of surprising we haven't seen a lot of innovation in this direction yet.

  • LittlewoodgLittlewoodg
    edited October 2015

    @Samu said:
    It's like 'context touch-menu' on steroids nicely implemented.

    Remains to be seen what Image-Line does with Fruityloops 3 Mobile and what Intua comes up with regarding BeatMaker 3. And well, Steinberg will most likely improve Cubasis at some point too :)

    It's pretty exciting. I just nailed down a really fun way of actually cranking in iOS, and now bitwigs fusillade

    Borderlands has a pretty amazing radial menu, MTDaw too

  • ecamburnecamburn

    Not a radial menu but impc pro's midi editor has a lot in common with the workflow in that bitwig radial menu vid

  • WillWill

    @Littlewoodg said:
    Borderlands has a pretty amazing radial menu, MTDaw too

    Was going to mention MTD. Same idea, just without as much polish. Been there since 2009. Loopy sorta does the same.

    I've experimented with implementing them in mobile web apps. They are very cool but one problem with them is that if they're only available while your finger is pressed down then it's easy to obscure bottom menu items with your finger.

    I definitely prefer this design pattern to iMPC or GarageBand style long pop up menus because feel more muscle memory friendly. Would love to see more of them implemented but hope they can be done right.

  • SebastianSebastian

    Radial menus are never going to work for elements apps that are made for live input, which means they only work for stuff like piano rolls. Otherwise they add to the latency of touch detection because of how they work. Now... for apps that do piano rolls, yep, they could totally work.

  • [Deleted User][Deleted User]

    Would be great if i could pop up a radial menu, resize it via pinch to zoom and could move this whole thing around where i want. There is still so much more i could imagine which touch could do.
    I like the way Sunvox can use such things.
    I´m sure one day we can create music the minority report style.... if i will still live then?..... not sure.

  • HmtxHmtx

    @Sebastian said:
    Radial menus are never going to work for elements apps that are made for live input, which means they only work for stuff like piano rolls. Otherwise they add to the latency of touch detection because of how they work. Now... for apps that do piano rolls, yep, they could totally work.

    I really appreciate this input, but kinda disagree... well... at least from over here in my entirely experiential knowledge of iOS (I have no clue on the developer/coding side of things).

    By user experience, it seems that iOS is capable of doing a nearly instant calculation of whether a touch is moving or stationary. If there is movement, then iOS responds immediately.

    For example, if you are viewing this thread on an iOS device, scroll up and down on the text of a comment above. The response is immediate. the webpage scrolls visually because iOS knows you are swiping and responds immediately.

    Now, hold your finger still on the text of one of the comments above... a "copy" contextual menu pops up after a brief moment.

    I don't see how this would hinder real-time input. If Chrome for iOS can do it, why not music apps?

    (honest question here, please inform my ignorance)

    All I'm really suggesting is that developers get more creative with what happens when a touch is stationary for an initial brief moment.

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