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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The AU approach
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AU seems to be steadily getting some momentum. Just thought it might be a good idea to get views on how we would like AU apps to develop.
One of my favourite apps ApeFilter is undergoing the AU process. The dev has the main app still as an IAA with an AU extension. Initially the dev had issues including a particular feature, which he then found a work around for. So while the AU version will not include everything, I think he's found the best balance between what features should and could be included. Well done Apesoft.
While I think we will see many more stand alone AU apps like the great Ruis drum apps and the super duper RP1 fx app, I'm glad to see Some of the more complex interface IAA apps given the AU treatment.
Phonem particularly strikes me as a sensible solution to the specific problems involved making complex apps fit the AU format.
What do you think? Talking to devs while testing apps, it is not as simple as just making your IAA into an AU. Would the devs here like to give their impressions and maybe even some of the challenges that they have found?
Comments
I do like the 'compromise' Wolfgang Palm has done with PPG Phonem.
The 'full' app is used for editing the presets/patches and the AU-X is more or less used as a player for those presets with some selected performance related parameters exposed in the UI.
The reason I like the approach is that when I'm in 'patch tweaking mood' I can use the full app to create my patches.
While when I'm in jamming mood I can use multiple instances of the synth/sounds to my hearts content...
When it comes general to UI sometimes Less is More as the plethora of options doesn't steal away the focus.
The Ruismakers are perfect examples of this, clean simple and fun to use.
Also regarding AU there needs to be some 'thought' put into the AU-Interface.
Let's say we have a multi-timbral app such as the iOS SoundCanvas. If Roland is ever to make an AU of this it would make sense to have to AU-X take the role of 'one-part' and exposing related part-parameters in the UI as automate able AU-Parameters instead of exposing the iOS Soundcanvas UI with parameters for all tracks when in effect only one is used...
Korg made the same 'compromise' when it came to iM1 and it's Gadget integration and it's a well working solution.
(I'm hoping we'll see at least the iM1 as AU-X with similar UI to Gadgets Darwin).
The most basic AU-X interface could be as simple as a 'preset player' with a few AU-Parameters and the patch programming could be done in the app...
As usual @samu says it perfectly. I agree 100%
@Samu Pretty much how I feel. I think you sum it up nicely with 'sometimes less is more' and that the 'thought' put into the AU interface design and choices. These choices will make or break how we feel about an AU extension and essentially where it fits into the bigger music making picture. Sound canvas is not my bag as it stands, but as Samu envisions it, perfect.
I don't fully agree, this is definitely a compromise. I would rather be able to do all my patch editing in place without the need to open another version of the app to do it, plus I want to make small tweaks and move between tracks without having to save presets all the time.
Yes definitely a compromise, just thinking if the alternative is "no AU" because of some unimplementable features, then I'd take the appropriate compromise.
I think scrollable interfaces should be something devs could look at if they want to fit more into therestricted AU UI
I think an adaptable and intelligent UI could work. If I midi learn controllers to control an envelope, I don't need that envelope on screen anymore, put something else there instead.
There is already one app that does the scrollable UI, KQ Minisynth.
(The less than often mentioned modular synth app).
The downside is that with the full editing the patches are only available in the host they were created in.
In the case of KQ MiniSynth if I create a patch with it inside Cubasis it will not be available in ModStep or AUM.
If I create a patch in the stand-alone app it will be available in all three as the KQ Minisynth AU has an option to copy the patch bank from the main app on start-up...
AU-X on iOS still has it's limitations when it comes to sharing user-created patches between hosts.
So until a system-wide standard for user-created patches and patch-sharing between hosts is implemented I really do prefer the 'Preset Player' approach with limited tweaking as the host will store the settings with the session...
Still even a preset-player AU-X is better than no AU-X at all since there is no way to use multiple instances of IAA-Instruments/Generators...
I like the idea of more minimalised AU design. I'd love to see something like Samu suggested. I'm sure it could even be possible for apps to allow you to designate 4-6 or so chosen parameters to be exposed, per preset. Make for a deep experience inside a minimal UI, and if you want more control then just run it via IAA.
Even the AU's with well designed compact interfaces like Blamsoft's repertoire and RP-1 are still a little big imo, even on a 9.7 screen. Should be easy to hit the icon, make a quick tweak and close again on the fly, for live accessibility it should be able to have 2 windows open without having to resize things or move windows around too much (I'm talking AUM here).
The official dimensions for AU GUIs are defined by Apple and developers are recommended to stick to those (the 'letterbox' style GUI). The flexible scaling and windowing that AUM allows are actually not part of the AU specifications and Apple can choose to break such behavior any moment they like - nice as it is.
@brambos if I was as talented as you are in coding I'd offer my help to the developer of the Poison-202 synth so we can have an AU-X that sets a new standard for synths just like you've done with the Ruismaker for drums
Let's keep our fingers crossed then.
I forgot to mention Ruismaker (more recent purchase!) but it's definitely the most functionally designed AU, space wise. I love how when you scale down the window, it switches to a smaller UI format.
Let's wait and see if the Poison dev(s) step in. I'm more than happy to share my learnings. When I was running into lots of WTF moments starting out with iOS AU it was Nokolozi (the guy from NS-1 synth) who helped me out a number of times. The music developer community on iOS is absolutely amazing - just like how I remember the pioneering days on Windows in the mid 90s.
I would be delighted to see Sunrizer, the Virsyn synths and Korg's iM1, iPolySix and iMS-20 get AU-X support.
I think the low price of apps makes the developer community much better. People can buy tons of apps(which isnt really the case with desktop as a single synth can easily cost 100+ dollars), so if you help someone, its not really away from you. On the contrary, it helps to make the whole AU and ios music in general bigger and all developers benefit from that.
Well, one side-effect of that is that most developers are in it for the fun/love of sound, and not to become filthy rich
I think that Blamsoft's Viking Synth is going to be hard to beat, at least for a mono synth. Right out of the door, Blamsoft set the standard across all their apps to a ridiculously high level (although I'd like a low and high pass filter on their reverb
).
Yea that also. Been wondering how much people actually make money out of their apps if the app becomes popular. I know its not like millions with music apps, but im pretty sure there has been at least close to 10000 downloads of your apps. But two guys(just an example, dunno if you do it alone and many apps need much more people) doing development full time for few months costs(or makes you unable to do other work if you build the app full time) quite a lot. But then again im pretty sure denmark also has so good social security that not having work doesent mean that you need to live on the street begging with your laptop while doing the coding
I do like sounds Viking makes but to me the UI feels a bit weird at times and there's quite a bit of jumping between the 'tabs' to reach all the functions.
I agree that a low-cut/high-pass filter would be nice but at least there's a time setting for low and high reverb-time and a cross-over knob so the reverb to the low-end can be kept short. Then again it's easy to use the busses or create a duplicate track with different EQ before applying the effect
I do these projects alone (from the Netherlands, by the way
) and I do it as a side project alongside a more 'serious' job.
I can shed some insights here, and you'd be surprised how small the numbers are (at least for me): Ruismaker FM did around 350 copies since launch and sales are almost at minimal level now. So it pays for a development iPad (not a Pro, mind you) and the annual Appstore fees but not much more.
Lots of factors play a role here, like this being a rather small niche-market and the horrendous heap of crap that is the "music" section in the Appstore. But at around 3ct/hour this is not something I'd do for a living
As I said, you have to enjoy doing this to be in the business.
p.s. it still pays infinitely more than HammerHead did in the 90s, because I gave that away as freeware
@brambos nice to get some developer perspective. Thank you for your input
Well thats amount sold is definitely a surprise. Ill get some money 1st day next month, so thats one more copy sold then
That's why it slightly annoys me to see people bitching online about how my AUs don't have a standalone mode. I really don't see how that would add anything but highly redundant features.
And it would at least quadruple the development effort for me, as it would have to provide a fullblown sequencer (obviously song mode would be demanded), Audiobus, IAA, Ableton Link, Audioshare, Audiocopy, Dropbox, midi control and midi learning, multiple outputs, and support every other device and protocol ever invented by humankind. While the beauty of Audio Units is that this is no longer needed (only your host of choice needs to support the standards you need).
Yea there are enough of good drum synths that are standalone. Also i think that drum machine that works as an au sounds silly to me..
@brambos Great to see you give us some insight in numbers. It's btw quite in line with numbers of sold audio apps that pass by and had also some attion in the iOS music sphere. Let's also not forget that AU is a plugin which is much harder to sell than an instrument. Although the market of iOS audio apps matured it still a very small market comapred to the Mac/ Windows audio market. I think more money is to be made with stand alone apps that are not as specialized but do a simple trick like Ocarina or Pocket Guitar. But with endless possiblities already done over and over again, it's probably hard to find something that could be a hit.
Nice toknow that you did hammerhead, I enjoyed that app really when it came out. Just curious have you any numbers of how much it was downloaded.
I estimate around 5-8 million times. It was in CNET's music software download top-20 for a decade. Which is like two centuries in human years. Although this was when the internet was still relatively "small".
On the other hand, higher prices would attract more developers who can develop more high quality music apps for us users.
Currently, it's more a hobby than a business. Apple take 30%, than you pay your income tax about 30% - not much left for a dev. Unless you sell tens of thousands of copies but probably less than 5% do. So, we don't see new apps very often and a lot of the older ones get abandoned.
Wow those are low numbers. Guess we need to spread the word more to non iOS music makers, that iOS is truly viable, and producing results.
On the plus side, I now know that only 350 other people have the same sounds
Best pro-developer case for AUx's I've heard yet.
I know that Sebastian himself has a strong viewpoint on AUx and that his opinion is pretty much the mainstream here (it is his message board after all
) so we're seeing both positive and 'miscellaneous' reactions to AUx on this forum. I do agree that this school of thought makes sense based on the market of exactly today. I can't help however, but to feel that this opinion wouldn't be so logical if you consider the marketplace from a more abstract viewpoint which doesn't just factor in the exact market conditions present on introduction of AUx, but simply considers what advantage or benefit it can provide as a whole, both to developers and users.
Your post here is the most logical explanation of an aspect of this from a developer's perspective that I've read yet, and I personally like the concept of more focused and refined nodes of functionality. It feels like a further crystallisation of the values that iOS represents as a whole, whilst still moving towards a more professional audio environment.
Yes, I see the stripped down approach as a way that can be a perfect fit for some more esoteric fx or instruments as well. Ideas that may get a negative response from some if in IAA form without every bell and whistle, yet fit beautifully within the host environment, uncluttered and unfettered by feature bloat
Spreading the word is one thing that is particularly difficult in this market. Beside this forum and the iPad Musicians group on Facebook I am not aware of many 'gathering places' for iOS musicians. There is a handful of bloggers who are on top of the game but they seem to resonate mostly in these same communities.
But hey - I'm doing this because I enjoy making music tools more than I enjoy making music and as long as I can recoup my investments and take my family for a pizza I'm happy.