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.

iPhone/universal mixing and mastering??

So I've totally fallen in love with working on the phone, and am considering selling my iPad mini 4 and my iPhone SE to purchase an iPhone 7 Plus to use for music. My only drawback is the lack of something like Final Touch on the iPhone platform.

How are y'all iPhone only types doing the final mixing and mastering stages on ur devices? I have Multitrack DAW and plan to use that with ab3 and AUM as my main compiling spot.

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Comments

  • I doubt you'll find too may people who are mixing/mastering on the iPhone exclusively. The conventional wisdom is that mixing and mastering is more about skill than the tools. You should be fine with what you already have.

    If you feel you need something like Final Touch, then I'm afraid your options are very limited, and none of them have a good reputation.

  • Good question! Even I haven't looked at the mastering options for the phone side of things, only iPad. Hmmm, off to look.

  • I'll probably keep it supplemental at this point. I just did up a track in cubasis on my mini 4 and same track in Multitrack DAW on my phone, and Cubasis was easier by a country mile. But still interested to know how y'all are mastering on iPhone , I jam on mine all the time now and just airdrop to iPad for finishing but I'd love to do it all on phone some day.

  • Dunno if you checked out that piece about Steve Lacy, but he prefers the sound he gets from GarageBand over Ableton Live on a laptop. He also had a problem find a dongle with a headphone jack that worked for him on the iPhone 7.

  • You could always use one of the modular apps to wire up your own mastering tools. That way you get to decide the order that things are processed in. It does, however, involve a bit of learning. The price to pay for the most flexibility.

    Either that or stump up for Lurssen. Though it seems to be surrounded in controversy lately.

  • I have a decent setup on my iPad (MTS, Auria Pro, iSEM, etc) but again and again I just end up completing projects on my phone. I usually just stick to the tools available in the DAW i'm tracking in (Caustic, Nanostudio. Looptical or Garageband, basically). I know the reverbs and dynamics tools in those are not on Auria Pro's level and I should export my projects dry for mastering on the iPad. But I don't cause I just get so wedded to the box I happen to be building the tracks in.

    How are the reverbs in Multitrack DAW?

  • I use Audioshare with a finished track and AUFX apps for processing, first Push, then PeakQ, then Space. You can obtain surprisingly good results with that setup. Push isn't even that necessary. Gonna pump up that fucking bass!

  • @telecharge said:
    Dunno if you checked out that piece about Steve Lacy, but he prefers the sound he gets from GarageBand over Ableton Live on a laptop. He also had a problem find a dongle with a headphone jack that worked for him on the iPhone 7.

    That was a GREAT article, but you can bet what he did wasn't the end of the story, it was just the beat. The finished tracks were still professionally mastered at the end of the day.

  • @Tarekith said:
    That was a GREAT article, but you can bet what he did wasn't the end of the story, it was just the beat. The finished tracks were still professionally mastered at the end of the day.

    I'm sure you're right, at least for anything published. Since you're a professional mastering engineer, do you have any opinions on how close you can get to a good sounding master with GarageBand? Are there any other iOS apps you like for mastering?

  • @JonLewis said:
    How are the reverbs in Multitrack DAW?

    Not bad, but there are better choices. You might like this thread...

    https://forum.audiob.us/discussion/15745/which-is-the-lushest-reverb-on-the-ios-platform-whether-stand-alone-or-inside-an-app

  • @telecharge said:
    I'm sure you're right, at least for anything published. Since you're a professional mastering engineer, do you have any opinions on how close you can get to a good sounding master with GarageBand? Are there any other iOS apps you like for mastering?

    I don't use Garageband myself, at least not in a long time, so I'm honestly not sure. For iPad based mastering, this is what I thought a couple years ago:

    http://innerportalstudio.com/ios-mastering-apps-comparison/

    I haven't seen anything released since then that would make me change my mind though. I do need to look into what sort of options there are for iPhone EQ and Limiting though. With the right host and proper options there, I don't think there's anything reason you couldn't do a good job on the iPhone too.

    I think the real question is less about what sort of "mastering" tools there are, and what are the best EQ, Compression, and Limiting for the iPhone.

  • @Tarekith said:
    I think the real question is less about what sort of "mastering" tools there are, and what are the best EQ, Compression, and Limiting for the iPhone.

    Not to split hairs or get into semantics, but aren't those mastering tools? I know I've seen plenty of references to "mastering EQs" and "mastering compressors" with outboard gear and plug-ins.

  • @Tarekith said:

    @telecharge said:
    I'm sure you're right, at least for anything published. Since you're a professional mastering engineer, do you have any opinions on how close you can get to a good sounding master with GarageBand? Are there any other iOS apps you like for mastering?

    I don't use Garageband myself, at least not in a long time, so I'm honestly not sure. For iPad based mastering, this is what I thought a couple years ago:

    http://innerportalstudio.com/ios-mastering-apps-comparison/

    I haven't seen anything released since then that would make me change my mind though. I do need to look into what sort of options there are for iPhone EQ and Limiting though. With the right host and proper options there, I don't think there's anything reason you couldn't do a good job on the iPhone too.

    I think the real question is less about what sort of "mastering" tools there are, and what are the best EQ, Compression, and Limiting for the iPhone.

    The following are all AUs except for the AUFX series which hopefully will be in the near future. There may be other non-AU apps that fit the categories but I haven't been keeping track of those. As far as I understand AUs like Blamsoft, Flora, Klevgränd, RF-1 and RP-1 are for other types of FX, not any of these categories per se.

    EQ:
    apeFIlter
    AudioEffX
    AUFX:PeakQ
    DDMF 6144
    FuxEQ
    Remaster
    zMors EQ

    Compression:
    apeFIlter
    AUFX:Push
    Remaster

    Limiting:
    AUFX:Push
    DDMF NoLimits
    Limiter (Amazing Noises)

    On iPhone, for AU hosts we have AB3, AUM, and GB, until BM3 is released. From the product page looks like BM3 will have compressor, limiter, and a six-band (parametric) SV filter (not sure if that's the same thing as EQ) in the box.

    Caustic, FL Studio, MultiTrack DAW, Music Studio, and NanoStudio also all come with some mastering features in the box.

    Very keen to know what you think of those options?

  • I've used the DDMF stuff on desktop before and been impressed for the price, so personally I would start there. I'm in the middle of a huge move right now and the studio is all packed up, so I won't have time to try and compare any time soon I'm afraid (takes two months for my gear to be shipped overseas).

  • you CANNOT do any 'mastering' without proper monitoring. Period.
    (that means at least 100% reliable cans or better a treated room with good speakers)
    All software involved is more or less a matter of taste and/or style.
    What's called 'mastering' (in forums) is often loudness maximizing, and in most cases ends in acoustic garbage, according to my taste.

  • Some of us have proper monitoring. :)

  • @Tarekith If you're up for it, I'd like to see how a custom iOS mastering chain compares to the specialized mastering apps and the PSP/Fabfilter effects in Auria.

  • You want me to master a song with my usual tools so you can compare it to your iOS version you're saying? I'd be up for that, provided you don't mind sharing the results so others can hear too. Could be a fun experiment.

  • @Tarekith No, I'm just interested in how a custom iOS mastering chain (of your choosing) compares against the apps you tested 3 years ago.

  • This is a tool originally made for iPhone, is AB also. Remaster - Audiobus and Audiocopy by Audioforge Labs Inc.
    https://appsto.re/us/8Ti_E.i

  • @Tarekith said:
    You want me to master a song with my usual tools so you can compare it to your iOS version you're saying? I'd be up for that, provided you don't mind sharing the results so others can hear too. Could be a fun experiment.

    I would be interested to hear this.

  • @telecharge said:
    @Tarekith No, I'm just interested in how a custom iOS mastering chain (of your choosing) compares against the apps you tested 3 years ago.

    Ah, well to be honest I really don't want to spend a ton of money on a bunch of apps I'd never use again :) I love making music on my iPhone, but the only real option I guess for mastering on that device would be Garageband and some of the AU plug ins. I just don't really work that way myself, so buying a bunch of apps just to test would be sort of a waste of money. Sorry. If I ever decide to blow an iTunes giftcard on the idea or something I'll definitely post the results here though.

    For the iPad I would still likely choose Auria and the Fabfilters based on what I've seen and read online since then though, you really can't go wrong with Pro-L and Pro-Q2, especially at those prices.

  • @Igneous1 said:

    @Tarekith said:
    You want me to master a song with my usual tools so you can compare it to your iOS version you're saying? I'd be up for that, provided you don't mind sharing the results so others can hear too. Could be a fun experiment.

    I would be interested to hear this.

    I'd be happy to do a mastering comparison like this if anyone else wants to give it a go with just iOS options versus what I can do with my tools here.

  • @Tarekith That's cool, and I get where you're coming from. I thought you might have already have a few apps that you could use.

    Do you have AUM? If so, do you think use AUM with its built-in effects are comparable to the apps you've already tested?

  • I don't have AUM, sorry. Most of my iOS music making these days is done on my iPhone with self-contained apps like Auxy, TriqTraq, Gadget, and occasionally some synth noodling via Mitosynth or TF8 style apps.

  • I finally got my SIM card yesterday and have had some time to experiment with the apps I have. Here's what I've discovered.

    The best mastering process will be on your iPad no doubt, but you can fake it on the iPhone with FL Studio Mobile 3 (no matter if you mixed down your track in FL Studio Mobile 3 or elsewhere). You can have your reference track on one channel and your track to be mastered on another channel. FL Studio Mobile 3 already has most of the tools built in to do the job needed (well, except for an RMS meter, the lack of which really sucks), including a limiter which sounds pretty transparent. It also features unlimited effects slots which are limited only by your ram and processor (and a simple iPhone SE with 128gb space does the job).

    Another mastering process would be using AUM and high-quality AUv3s, but I haven't tested this out just yet given I prefer to see my tracks laid out on a time line to instantly find the highest peaks and then to automate the input, output and other controls to get the best sound.

    Now will this top using the Fabfilter plugins in Auria Pro to master my tracks? HELL no, but this method does come handy in a pinch when I only tote along my iPhone.

    Just be sure to have your Audiocopy and Audioshare apps installed, and you're well on your way. Cheers.

  • Awesome, thanks for sharing your thoughts on this.

  • @Tarekith said:

    @Igneous1 said:

    @Tarekith said:
    You want me to master a song with my usual tools so you can compare it to your iOS version you're saying? I'd be up for that, provided you don't mind sharing the results so others can hear too. Could be a fun experiment.

    I would be interested to hear this.

    I'd be happy to do a mastering comparison like this if anyone else wants to give it a go with just iOS options versus what I can do with my tools here.

    I would, but I only have my iPad geared up for audio work. So, while I have Auria Pro and fabfilter C2, Q2 and the PSP microwarmer on the ipad, I have nothing on the iphone - still might be interesting though ?

  • @jwmmakerofmusic
    Do you happen to have any of the other iPhone DAWS (Caustic, MultiTrack DAW, Music Studio, and NanoStudio)?
    Curious how those stack up to FL Studio for mastering.
    Perhaps BM3 will be the way to use those high-quality AUv3s and still have a time line :)

  • @Igneous1 said:
    I would, but I only have my iPad geared up for audio work. So, while I have Auria Pro and fabfilter C2, Q2 and the PSP microwarmer on the ipad, I have nothing on the iphone - still might be interesting though ?

    Sure, give it your best go and then send me the same mixdown. :)

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