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.

What's your favourite Audiobus-supporting app so far?

Right, let's do this. As noted in another thread, this place has been far too cordial, with everyone being nice and polite to each other. What we desperately need are some fanboy wars! (Not that they would ever happen here, right? RIGHT?)

So, what is your fave Audiobus-supporting app so far and why? It could be because of how well it's been implemented, how useful it is in conjunction with other apps, or the Audiobus support alone could have completely transformed it from how it acted in the Apple walled garden, allowing it to fulfill its potential at last!

I'll start, and I'll go with something that I worry might be forgotten as it was there from day one: Loopy HD. Recording loops directly into Loopy from synth and drum apps is a total revelation compared to Audiocopy and paste, and pretty decent stuff can be knocked up in mere minutes! I'm sure that Michael is working on some of the suggestions from us about seeing the count-in in the Audiobus control panel and stuff like that, so the Audiobus implementation will be further improved I'm sure, but even in its current version it's a total winner for making it so easy to record music.

I was going to make a list of honourable mentions of other apps, but in truth there are so many good ones already that it would be unfair to leave any out!

Comments

  • Would you believe I haven't bought Loopy? Lol

  • I'm realizing it's really hard to name any one app. I use the whole lot of them really. If I was forced to name one, I guess it would be JampUp and Multitrack/Loopy - see, I still can't pick...Having Drumjam in audiobus has made that app actually useful. Grain Science has also jumped way up in usage since getting on the bus. Samplr is still blowing my mind (and has actually clogged up my creative process because I just want to keep exploring different ideas instead of making progress with any one structure - I'm sure I'll come out on the other end with something, right?). If I keep typing I'm sure I'd just end up naming every app.

  • Animoog input >> Loopy HD output. Wow this has provided hours of entertainment. Truly, its like being a kid and picking up a guitar for the first time, being amazed at all the sounds that can flow.

    Oh and for the fanboy wars: EVERYTHING ELSE SOUNDS LIKE CRAP!!!!!!! (this coming from a guy who only buys apps when they are on huge sale, so I have Magellan and Cassini. I can't seem to get sounds that I really like all that much out of either.) This is not really a fanboy war as much as an invitation for youtube links of Magellan and Cassini at their best. cheers.

  • I'll wait the Auria and Meteor landing on the AppStore then I'll comme back to answer your question. ;-)

  • @Htmx Synth sounds are very much a matter of taste anyway and don't necessarily depend on the price or reputation of the synth. For instance, I've tried Waldorf's PPG Free (uneditable presets from the full version of PPG WaveGenerator) and viewed the demo of the new WaveMapper and come to the conclusion that I don't like 95% of the sounds being produced.
    Cruising YouTube for iOS synth demos isn't a bad idea and may turn up some synths you like.

  • Loopy HD, hands down. It was already my favorite along with NanoStudio in the prebus epoch though. I started using it ala audiobus as soon as I bought an iPad last year by recording synths on my iPad to loopy on my iPhone. I had used it for a long while before that on my phone to record guitar and hardware synth stuff.

    On the bus, it is amazing. I hope it means that synth app makers can from now on ignore implementing their own in-app audio recorders and can instead use those extra cycles to focus on what sets their app apart.

  • Loopy HD has seen much more usage on my iPad now than ever before. Was always a brilliant app though.

    Glitchbreaks is an ever improving app, Alex is very responsive to requests/support. He works hard on this app and it's become one of my favorites. I like throwing samples of chords and riffs in there, then creating a cut pattern and seeing where it takes me.

    Samplr however, with the addition of being able to record in from Audiobus, will become my absolute favorite.

  • @PaulB yeah, you are right. I don't actually hate any of the iOS synths, just going along with the OP's game. There are some sounds I really like in Magellan, and would love to try NLog and Sunrizer. Its just that I've gotten to know Animoog pretty well and even started building a MidiDesigner page to tweak it on a second iPad. I think it will be a long time before I get bored with Animoog, especially now that I can layer it so easily with Loopy HD. Big thanks to Sebastian and Michael

  • @hmtx A dream for me would be if animoog had a 'modules' view that put all of the right side modules across the screen instead of seeing only two at a time. Is that your plan with the second ipad?

  • I gotta say thumbjam. i use it for everything!

  • Yeah, you're right ThumbJam is one of the best music app EVER. With or without Audiobus ;-)

  • @syrupcore My animoog control page looks something like this at the moment
    http://i.imgur.com/41oUO.png
    I'm working up the nerve to post a YouTube jam...

  • oh my. I hope you're working up the nerve to share it. :)

  • (and the mobius one too!)

  • Haha, funny you noticed mobius. Loopy HD is so intuitive that Mobius (a great app for sure) has been collecting dust. Ooh, and the killer LoopyHD feature is how easy it is to set it to be the master MIDI clock.

  • I'll share it when i make a demo. but the page will only work in MidiDesigner Pro, not the free version.

  • samplr for me. now only if I could mute tracks from the Audiobus control panel.

  • Jamup here.
    I complained the significant latency when using with Audiobus+Multitrack DAW, but I found that the latency could be reduce to be almost unnoticeable after reboot. I play guitar, so Jamup is my No.1 app all the time, with or without Audiobus. Actually, I already sold my most pedals.

  • Samplr. No doubt about it.

  • edited January 2013

    Originally I was going to pick MT DAW or Magellan, but with the upcoming update Jamup Pro is going to be my favorite hands-down.

    I really hope the improved Midi support includes some impressive learn capabilities, but even without that just the ability to use any number of effect modules from any category now makes this a stunningly powerful effects processor. The effects node is what really draws me to Audiobus, more than the output node, even though MT DAW does a fantastic job.

  • edited January 2013

    The Jamup update is live. You can use any 6 effect models of your choice now, even if you want them all to be Digital Reverb :P The added Midi features leave a lot to be desired, still no way to get at knob controls via CC but you can toggle effects and get at Wah Depth. What we really need is Midi Learn, preferably if you could attach a Midi mapping to each preset.

    I really wish there was a bigger bundle that had some more savings, as is I'm going to wait for Ampkit to show me what I'm missing first.

    PS: I've figured out how to map CCs to knobs, but it's a bit of a hack. Still, good to know that this should be available in an update eventually.

  • Funkbox.

    Had it since its first release.

  • edited January 2013

    Meteor! Been waiting for one of the DAWs to finally have everything I want and need to do in order to create and record in the way that works for me. I've tried a bunch of them, and had decided that Meteor was best suited to my needs, except for the fact that it wasn't Audiobus enabled. As a result, I purchased two recording apps because they were the first to support Audiobus, but I wasn't really happy until last night, when Meteor finally came to the party. Audio, MIDI - sequence, clock sync, and song position. Now I'm really getting to experience what I've wanted since downloading my first iOS instrument, which must be four or five years ago now.

    JamUp is a close second (it goes up to eleven). At the very bottom is Flunkbox, Molten, and Modrum (especially Flunkbox). I'm sure they're great if you like the sound of drum machines and don't like rolls, drags, chokes, ghost notes, flams, or variety. I hope some better options for drums migrate to Audiobus-land soon. Was that nasty enough, Mr. Grant? ;)

  • +1 for Samplr

  • for Iphone 5:

    ThumbJam, JamUp, Loopy

    for Ipad:

    Audulus, JamUp, Loopy,

    these are pretty standard setups for me.

  • Being a newbie to the iOS music scene I would have to say that Garageband is currently my go-to for composing, only because I've worked with it the longest... and I think it has a LOT going for it being Audiobus-compatible. I use Music Studio quite a bit because it has instruments I can use for scoring soundtracks & such. Still getting the hang of it all...!

  • Turnado here, whatever setup I use, this is always part of it since it appeared. Apart from that also Loopy, also Samplr and Noatikl for fine generative droning.

  • Auria gets my vote here.

  • Sampler- Turnado - loopy. Amazing.

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