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.

Anyone managed to sync Xequence with Audiobus, Auria or AUM on new ipad pro?

Just bought this sequencer and it's great to use but I can't manage to sync it to anything on ipad pro 10.5. Has anyone managed to do it? If so, please share some insight with me. Thanks.

Comments

  • edited October 2017

    Ok, sorry to bother. I finally found a solution for Xequencer to pilot auria pro. But at the moment it seems it can be only this way around as Xequencer fails to recognize any midi signal from Audiobus, Auria or AUM. It can only send sync it seems, not receive any.

  • The developer purposefully built it without midi slave sync so it can only work as the master.

  • Thanks for the insight. I didn't know. It's a great app. I was worried it would be useless if no sync available.

  • @Norbert said:
    Thanks for the insight. I didn't know. It's a great app. I was worried it would be useless if no sync available.

    No problem. It's a great app!

  • edited October 2017

    Yes, I wanted to buy it and use it, but couldn't, because I need the midi clock slave. The developer was forthright about that it isn't a simple thing to add, unfortunately. It's too bad, because usually the thing that does audio should be the master, like DAW or looper, because it is bad to have the thing that plays audio be trying to follow a jittery midi clock, because then you get into trying to time compress the audio, to follow perceived tempo changes, and it gets all weird. Better for the midi playback to slave, because it's just little midi messages getting either delayed minutely, or pushed forward in time, no big deal.

    Of the ios midi sequencers, only Genome slaves to midi clock correctly. Modstep has bugginess with song position pointer, it starts playing the instant it gets SPP. Also some other weirdness slaving to the clock, like it will think it's going 20 bpm, or 999 bpm. Infinite Looper doesn't slave to Midi clock, just Link.

  • Unfortunately you're right, MIDI clock slave isn't straightforward to add, and while it may be even harder for audio, it is not easy for MIDI either ;) Especially since Xequence pre-schedules outgoing MIDI events in advance using the OS, and thus it is currently not possible to change the timing of sent MIDI events on the fly. A rather big rewrite would be in order to support this.

    However, Ableton Link is very high on our list. This will at least allow for sync relative to bars. And of course, also as "slave"!

  • Very interesting.
    Somewhere I read that Link would be preferable to Sync?!?

  • edited October 2017

    @tja: Link has no idea of absolute song position, so some things are impossible with Link, for example: "If App A is at bar 6 beat 3, App B should also be at bar 6 beat 3". So while Link may be easier to set up and implement, MIDI sync offers more features. The primary reason why we implemented MIDI sync (master) first in Xequence (before Link) is that it enables you to use audio tracks in Xequence, by slaving an app that has audio tracks to Xequence's MIDI clock AND absolute song position (something that is not possible with Link).

  • edited October 2017

    I don't think link is preferable to sync. It depends on what you are aiming at. Link is great for live sync but is not very good for music production. I personally turn it off when I record.

    Thanks to SevenSystem to come by and leave a comment. I am fine with Xequencer to be a master sync. Cause when I record, I want to be able to change the controllers value on the fly so it goes well that way.

    Just a little request: could you guys add a X/Y type controller as well? It would be much appreciated.

  • @Norbert can you paste a screen cap of your setup? I've been wanting to sync Auria Pro and Xequencer. Haven't quite gotten around to figuring it out but this would help point me in the right direction

  • edited October 2017

    So basically what you do is you create a new track in Xequencer. It will be your sync track. You don't put any instrument in it, instead you put auria in there with sync on and set to absolute. Then you connect your instrument to auria through Audiobus for instance (I connected gadget cause I was sequencing some instruments from it) and when you press play in Xequencer it will automatically start auria.

    In Auria settings, you need to set it to receive MTC and MMC and you are all fine.

  • @Norbert said:
    Just a little request: could you guys add a X/Y type controller as well? It would be much appreciated.

    Putting it on the list B) Shouldn't be rocket science.

  • edited October 2017

    @SevenSystems said:

    @Norbert said:
    Just a little request: could you guys add a X/Y type controller as well? It would be much appreciated.

    Putting it on the list B) Shouldn't be rocket science.

    Oh nice thanks! With the lovely keyboard you have, I am sure you can make a fancy shiny X/Y controller :D

    Actually, now that you opened your list, I would have another request: could you put a tempo line in the tracks panel so that we can edit the tempo and put different ones in the same song? Like for example the 32 first measures at 120 bpm, the next 64 at 100 and the last 24 at 80? I think it would add some great modularity to your app. It's already nice to have any kind of signature we want mind you, but tempo setting would be a must. Thank you.

  • @Norbert: Glad you like the keyboard :smile: However, concerning your "tempo track" request, I'd have to be honest: this is something that is quite difficult to add given Xequence's architecture, which is tailored to "one tempo for the entire song". It is conceivable, but not something that can be easily added in the near future. Sorry to disappoint :/

  • Thanks for the visual tips!
    This is so awesome cause Xequence is so much better for midi composition than Auria and yet it can sync beautifully with Auria prob style.

    Any chance of multi Midi record? I’d really love that on the iPhone the most.

    @Norbert said:
    So basically what you do is you create a new track in Xequencer. It will be your sync track. You don't put any instrument in it, instead you put auria in there with sync on and set to absolute. Then you connect your instrument to auria through Audiobus for instance (I connected gadget cause I was sequencing some instruments from it) and when you press play in Xequencer it will automatically start auria.

    In Auria settings, you need to set it to receive MTC and MMC and you are all fine.

    @Norbert said:
    So basically what you do is you create a new track in Xequencer. It will be your sync track. You don't put any instrument in it, instead you put auria in there with sync on and set to absolute. Then you connect your instrument to auria through Audiobus for instance (I connected gadget cause I was sequencing some instruments from it) and when you press play in Xequencer it will automatically start auria.

    In Auria settings, you need to set it to receive MTC and MMC and you are all fine.

  • @Norbert Dude thanks! I've got a tune ready to go in Xequencer so this is super helpful.

  • edited October 2017

    @SevenSystems said:
    @Norbert: Glad you like the keyboard :smile: However, concerning your "tempo track" request, I'd have to be honest: this is something that is quite difficult to add given Xequence's architecture, which is tailored to "one tempo for the entire song". It is conceivable, but not something that can be easily added in the near future. Sorry to disappoint :/

    Well it's fine. We can still emulate the tempo change by modifying the notes anyway :) It's a great app you have there. Clean and sharp.

    @MusicMan4Christ I agree. It's so much better. A game changer really. Why would you need multimidi record? You should record only waves in Auria, that's where it shines. The tip here is to record without any effects and manage them all in Auria. So your record is not destructive.

    @dvlmusic You are welcome Pal :)

  • I have been using this app lots with AUM and gadget with other AUs
    Love love the on screen keyboard
    Really liking this app and looking forward to some updates

    Not to derail the thread but one quick question I had @SevenSystems

    When I record some passes of drums, it records new midi clips. Is there a way I can join these clips together into one midi clip. Or a way to turn this off so it records midi notes in the same clip?

  • @ruggedsmooth said:
    I have been using this app lots with AUM and gadget with other AUs
    Love love the on screen keyboard
    Really liking this app and looking forward to some updates

    Not to derail the thread but one quick question I had @SevenSystems

    When I record some passes of drums, it records new midi clips. Is there a way I can join these clips together into one midi clip. Or a way to turn this off so it records midi notes in the same clip?

    I'll chime in here because I had the same issue. Long press to activate selection mode, select the clips you want to join, then click the magic wand in the lower left corner and hit join. I don't think there's a way to just add to the clip but I could be wrong.

  • @ruggedsmooth said:
    When I record some passes of drums, it records new midi clips. Is there a way I can join these clips together into one midi clip. Or a way to turn this off so it records midi notes in the same clip?

    Yes and yes:

    • To join overlapping clips into one, just select all of them using rectangle select
      (tap and hold), and then tap "Join" in the Magic Wand menu.

    • To record into an existing clip without creating a new one, just open (double-tap) the clip before you start recording.

    Hope I got your questions right B)

  • @SevenSystems I set up a sync track, and Xequence is not showing up as a clock input in apps like Rock Drum Machine and xynthesizr.

    All I want to do is run a drum machine in clock sync with Xequence. What am I doing wrong?

  • edited April 2018

    @johnfromberkeley Xequence doesn't expose a MIDI source for its clock -- you would have to create an instrument in Xequence, point it at the app that you want to send MIDI clock to, and then enable "Sync" for that instrument.

    (this is by design: this way, you can configure sync differently for each app / hardware that needs it).

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