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.

Is AB now an option or still an essential

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Comments

  • I use Audiobus midi a ton. I just tend to use AUM as a mixer and modstep,quantum,Odessa as the sequencers.

  • @iOSounddesign said:
    In the world of technology, everything is temporary, nothing disrespectful about it whatsoever.
    How can people be offended by an honest discussion of technology? Do you honestly think, that the brilliant minds who brought us Audiobus, because back then there was a need for it, expected it to last forever?

    Due to the tremendous success came IAA, and now we have AUv3. I think the people most happy about the evolution of the platform are the founder of Audiobus themselves, because they know their place in history, and can move on to other things.

    I'll never forget the revolution Audiobus started for me. But AUv3 is the future.

    Yep I agree AU is the future. That’s why we need plenty of different hosts such as AB3. If AB keeps its own system in the future is irrelevant to its use as a small footprint AU host. Yes I would like to shout out to the devs of AB that we need some of the features of AUM taken on board - onscreen keyboard being one!

  • Back in answer to the main question, IMO it’s great that AB is no longer ‘essential’. I hate to see no alternatives to any app. AB was the first and helped move iOS music making forward, now I would like to see them keep improving what we have in a music app host, even if this means eventually putting more resources into the direction of AU than The AB compatible direction.

  • @Fruitbat1919 said:

    @iOSounddesign said:
    In the world of technology, everything is temporary, nothing disrespectful about it whatsoever.
    How can people be offended by an honest discussion of technology? Do you honestly think, that the brilliant minds who brought us Audiobus, because back then there was a need for it, expected it to last forever?

    Due to the tremendous success came IAA, and now we have AUv3. I think the people most happy about the evolution of the platform are the founder of Audiobus themselves, because they know their place in history, and can move on to other things.

    I'll never forget the revolution Audiobus started for me. But AUv3 is the future.

    Yep I agree AU is the future. That’s why we need plenty of different hosts such as AB3. If AB keeps its own system in the future is irrelevant to its use as a small footprint AU host. Yes I would like to shout out to the devs of AB that we need some of the features of AUM taken on board - onscreen keyboard being one!

    Since i loved the concept of Loopy, they should have baked it all together. Loopy as an AUv3/Audiobus host? Hell yeah.

  • @iOSounddesign said:

    @Fruitbat1919 said:

    @iOSounddesign said:
    In the world of technology, everything is temporary, nothing disrespectful about it whatsoever.
    How can people be offended by an honest discussion of technology? Do you honestly think, that the brilliant minds who brought us Audiobus, because back then there was a need for it, expected it to last forever?

    Due to the tremendous success came IAA, and now we have AUv3. I think the people most happy about the evolution of the platform are the founder of Audiobus themselves, because they know their place in history, and can move on to other things.

    I'll never forget the revolution Audiobus started for me. But AUv3 is the future.

    Yep I agree AU is the future. That’s why we need plenty of different hosts such as AB3. If AB keeps its own system in the future is irrelevant to its use as a small footprint AU host. Yes I would like to shout out to the devs of AB that we need some of the features of AUM taken on board - onscreen keyboard being one!

    Since i loved the concept of Loopy, they should have baked it all together. Loopy as an AUv3/Audiobus host? Hell yeah.

    Yep there is still a million and one new host ideas out there. The future for iOS music making looks pretty exciting if you ask me :)

  • Odessa opened my eyes to how well AU is progressing on iOS. With full screen and midi now being implemented, I only see its improvements making it more or less essential in my iOS music making future. I even deleted 90% of my non AU apps!

  • @Fruitbat1919 said:
    Odessa opened my eyes to how well AU is progressing on iOS. With full screen and midi now being implemented, I only see its improvements making it more or less essential in my iOS music making future. I even deleted 90% of my non AU apps!

    +1billion

  • @Zen210507 said:
    FWIW, my workflow changed with AUM and Blocks Wave

    Can you expand on your workflow? Just started really getting into Blocs Wave (and I use AUM), so I’m curious about your workflow.

  • To me it’s both an option and essential. Just like all these DAWs and synths Available now, they’re all optional and essential if they fit your creative flow IMHO.

  • @RUST( i )K said:
    I personally think this thread is disrespectful to the Audiobus team. It has a built in back handed insult implying that the app does not have worth or value to one degree or another and let's talk about why.

    This website and forum are a value in themselves, all because of Audiobus.

    I am a big believer of not shitting where I eat.

    That is just me though. I don't agree with many people on most things any way.

    Fail to see how I was disrespecting the AB team mate, please reread the OP and state EXACTLY HOW I did so?

    I asked questions and made ZERO absolute statements

    As far as shitting where I eat, you have yourself been warned by the AB moderators for saying some things, so I think that’s double standards on your part.

    I was nothing but respectful and inquisitive during my OP and stand by that unless you can prove otherwise mate

    Food for thought: the audiobus forum is no longer just about audiobus, it is actually a live blog/ commentary about the rapid progress of iOS music apps. Granted that AB started that but it set off development in other areas that sometimes do not always depend on AB itself. And I think I acknowledged in my OP that it is totally thanks to the AB that this is indeed the case

  • @TheVimFuego said:

    @RUST( i )K said:
    I personally think this thread is disrespectful to the Audiobus team. It has a built in back handed insult implying that the app does not have worth or value to one degree or another and let's talk about why.

    This website and forum are a value in themselves, all because of Audiobus.

    I am a big believer of not shitting where I eat.

    That is just me though. I don't agree with many people on most things any way.

    Nailed it.

    Yet another "Look At Me I'm Mr Controversial" post.

    I’m not sorry if my sincere and polite questions disturbed your comfort zone

  • @Love3quency said:

    @TheVimFuego said:

    @RUST( i )K said:
    I personally think this thread is disrespectful to the Audiobus team. It has a built in back handed insult implying that the app does not have worth or value to one degree or another and let's talk about why.

    This website and forum are a value in themselves, all because of Audiobus.

    I am a big believer of not shitting where I eat.

    That is just me though. I don't agree with many people on most things any way.

    Nailed it.

    Yet another "Look At Me I'm Mr Controversial" post.

    I’m not sorry if my sincere and polite questions disturbed your comfort zone

    To be fair the title of the thread is quite click-baitey. But I don’t think you meant it to be that way.

  • edited November 2017

    @ipadthai said:
    Can you expand on your workflow? Just started really getting into Blocs Wave (and I use AUM), so I’m curious about your workflow.

    >

    Sure. What I do is this;

    1. Begin in Blocks Wave. Using samples from IAP packs and/or those recorded in / provided to me by other members of Repulse the Monkey. When I have, usually a dozen scenes (two times the standard six, made by duplicating then editing the first six) I export to Dropbox.

    2. Take whatever I need from the above into AUM, using that to add and record other instruments via IAA, and where appropriate add AU effects.

    3. Put the results together in either Cubasis or Auria Pro, depending on what is intended. For example, the superior mastering and effects of Fab Filters only works in AP. But if I’m looking to duplicate and adjust versions of the same track, Cubasis is the place to go. It is possible to work with both, via a little forward thinking.

    4. Add vocal track. Usually in Auria Pro, as it’s easier to edit there.

    5. Mixdown the end result and when happy, upload to wherever it is destined to go.

    FWIW, the wonderful AudioBus comes into play when we need to run IAA with settings that can be saved by AB. That alone is a real time saver.

    Hope this helps a little, but really everyone here does their own thing, and if the results of what you do pleases your ears, that is all that matters.

    RTM’s latest works can be found here, if you fancy a quick listen. https://repulsethemonkey.bandcamp.com/

    Main man Doug has also used a yet to be released RTM track in his excellent T-RackS demo.

    https://youtu.be/B8Cf7HdpDb4

  • @gonekrazy3000 said:

    @Love3quency said:

    @TheVimFuego said:

    @RUST( i )K said:
    I personally think this thread is disrespectful to the Audiobus team. It has a built in back handed insult implying that the app does not have worth or value to one degree or another and let's talk about why.

    This website and forum are a value in themselves, all because of Audiobus.

    I am a big believer of not shitting where I eat.

    That is just me though. I don't agree with many people on most things any way.

    Nailed it.

    Yet another "Look At Me I'm Mr Controversial" post.

    I’m not sorry if my sincere and polite questions disturbed your comfort zone

    To be fair the title of the thread is quite click-baitey. But I don’t think you meant it to be that way.

    Correct! Not intentional at all mate but... if people feel drawn to look at a post because of its title then it obviously attracted their interest, wether in a negative or positive way am I right?

  • @Love3quency said:

    @gonekrazy3000 said:

    @Love3quency said:

    @TheVimFuego said:

    @RUST( i )K said:
    I personally think this thread is disrespectful to the Audiobus team. It has a built in back handed insult implying that the app does not have worth or value to one degree or another and let's talk about why.

    This website and forum are a value in themselves, all because of Audiobus.

    I am a big believer of not shitting where I eat.

    That is just me though. I don't agree with many people on most things any way.

    Nailed it.

    Yet another "Look At Me I'm Mr Controversial" post.

    I’m not sorry if my sincere and polite questions disturbed your comfort zone

    To be fair the title of the thread is quite click-baitey. But I don’t think you meant it to be that way.

    Correct! Not intentional at all mate but... if people feel drawn to look at a post because of its title then it obviously attracted their interest, wether in a negative or positive way am I right?

    "Is Audiobus obsolete?" Now that would be clickb8. Your wording is polite and neutral.

  • I think it’s a decent topic to have here to be honest. Great that we can all discuss AB use, possible wants and needs for further development, maybe even help give ideas for future direction.

    I’m sure the majority of us can input decent thoughts and that the AB team will cherry pick if they see anything useful said here :)

  • That might be the „bad“ part of things merging into the same we get on desktops. All the great workarounds in iOS might be gone soon.
    But that might bring us less interesting interfaces for touch screens. Mhhh....

  • @Zen210507 said:

    @ipadthai said:
    Can you expand on your workflow? Just started really getting into Blocs Wave (and I use AUM), so I’m curious about your workflow.

    >

    Sure. What I do is this;

    1. Begin in Blocks Wave. Using samples from IAP packs and/or those recorded in / provided to me by other members of Repulse the Monkey. When I have, usually a dozen scenes (two times the standard six, made by duplicating then editing the first six) I export to Dropbox.

    2. Take whatever I need from the above into AUM, using that to add and record other instruments via IAA, and where appropriate add AU effects.

    3. Put the results together in either Cubasis or Auria Pro, depending on what is intended. For example, the superior mastering and effects of Fab Filters only works in AP. But if I’m looking to duplicate and adjust versions of the same track, Cubasis is the place to go. It is possible to work with both, via a little forward thinking.

    4. Add vocal track. Usually in Auria Pro, as it’s easier to edit there.

    5. Mixdown the end result and when happy, upload to wherever it is destined to go.

    FWIW, the wonderful AudioBus comes into play when we need to run IAA with settings that can be saved by AB. That alone is a real time saver.

    Hope this helps a little, but really everyone here does their own thing, and if the results of what you do pleases your ears, that is all that matters.

    RTM’s latest works can be found here, if you fancy a quick listen. https://repulsethemonkey.bandcamp.com/

    Main man Doug has also used a yet to be released RTM track in his excellent T-RackS demo.

    https://youtu.be/B8Cf7HdpDb4

    Awesome. Thanks!

  • It'd be interesting to see an android audiobus.

  • I just bought Audiobus lastnight
    I might never use it but firgured this forum is a pretty cool place with lots of info so a way to support.
    I was not offended by this post.

    AudioShare Aum and Xequence are my essentials right now

  • @Cib said:
    That might be the „bad“ part of things merging into the same we get on desktops. All the great workarounds in iOS might be gone soon.
    But that might bring us less interesting interfaces for touch screens. Mhhh....

    +1 The whole point of making music with an ios device for me, is that it is different from a Desktop/laptop. I use my iPad more like i would use hardware gear connected to a larger whole. via AB, AUM, and Studiomux. All three are extremely useful to me. I have no need/desire to work entirely inside an ios DAW, and if it goes this way, then my interest will soon fade away.....i want the ios platform to be innovatory,revolutionary, and FUN! Please don't suck all the life out of it with this desire to emulate the desktop eco-sytem..........Long Live Audiobus!

  • In one sense, the original version of audiobus was a beta for interapp audio. AB came first despite Apple advertising IAA for an iOS update that didn’t feature it at first.

    So, mike and seb did Apple a massive favour and actually pioneered all this routing. No AUM or AUV3 can take this fact away.

    AB existed first because ios was a closed system that only allowed audio transfer between apps via acp and pasteboard. Then “open in” arrived and made that thing easier.

    In another sense- AUM is an audiobus too, just looks and feels different. We all have our preferences.

    Before AUM, I used AB2 a lot! And I’m grateful it existed.

    All this basically showed Apple that AUV3 was doable and so they implemented it.

    What AUV3 does is have the apps visible within the daw, without chopping and changing ( as in AUM and AB)

    AUV3 will be more valid for sequencing/ constructing tracks and AB/AUM will be more valid for live stuff I reckon.

    It’s all good

  • @dendy said:
    Let's face truth, when more DAW's will fully adopt AUv3 (including generating and altering MIDI data), Audiobus and IAA will be more and more obsolete ..

    It may sound cruel (specially on this forum) but i hope developers of new future DAW's and synths / fx's will speed up this transition process by supporting exclusively only AUv3 standard ..

    With ALL (big) respect to Audiobus team - this app was huge thing for whole iOS audio movement, true revolution .. but .. it's time to look forward to future. I see there just AUv3

    Why? AB3 is likely to adopt the iOS 11 Midi aspects. It has unique features, it supports pretty much everything. It would be no more obsolete than AUM--which isn't obsolete at all.

  • edited November 2017

    simply because it is lot more easy and straightforward to have plugin's UI "inside" DAW and possibility to use multiple instances of same plugin, without need to route it's audio/midi throught third app... (every app inserted to chain is always risk for stability and cpu load, no matter how good it is coded, so less is more)

    I'm pretty sure year from now nobody will buy synth/fx which is not supporting AUv3

  • @dendy said:
    simply because it is lot more easy and straightforward to have plugin's UI "inside" DAW and possibility to use multiple instances of same plugin, without need to route it's audio/midi throught third app... (every app inserted to chain is always risk to stability and cpu liad, no matter how good it is coded, so less is more)

    I'm pretty sure year from now nobody will buy synth/fx which is not supporting AUv3

    What if i don't want to use a DAW?

  • @Iso said:

    @dendy said:
    simply because it is lot more easy and straightforward to have plugin's UI "inside" DAW and possibility to use multiple instances of same plugin, without need to route it's audio/midi throught third app... (every app inserted to chain is always risk to stability and cpu liad, no matter how good it is coded, so less is more)

    I'm pretty sure year from now nobody will buy synth/fx which is not supporting AUv3

    What if i don't want to use a DAW?

    Even without a DAW I still think AU is the way forward. AudioBus and AUM could be the best hosts for non-DAW use.

  • @audiorangutan said:

    @RUST( i )K said:
    I personally think this thread is disrespectful to the Audiobus team. It has a built in back handed insult implying that the app does not have worth or value to one degree or another and let's talk about why.

    This website and forum are a value in themselves, all because of Audiobus.

    I am a big believer of not shitting where I eat.

    That is just me though. I don't agree with many people on most things any way.

    I feel that. I’ve noticed before that there is so much talk of AUM and other apps other than Audiobus here on this forum. I felt a little weird sharing my lack of AB3 use here in this thread, but felt that a candid response would actually benefit the AB dev team and community at large. I almost ended my previous post with “but I love this forum and the community it supports”. I think this is just a healthy, natural ebb and flow of ideas. How else are the AB dev team going to gather info on how to make AB4 the cataclysmic game changer they want it to be?

    Assuming that most people are as intelligent > @TozBourne said:

    @JohnnyGoodyear said:

    @lukesleepwalker said:
    I use it every day.

    Ditto.

    Triple ditto (is that a thing?)

    Depends on if you can fit 2 peoples' dittos in one hole.

  • @RUST( i )K said:

    @audiorangutan said:

    @RUST( i )K said:
    I personally think this thread is disrespectful to the Audiobus team. It has a built in back handed insult implying that the app does not have worth or value to one degree or another and let's talk about why.

    This website and forum are a value in themselves, all because of Audiobus.

    I am a big believer of not shitting where I eat.

    That is just me though. I don't agree with many people on most things any way.

    I feel that. I’ve noticed before that there is so much talk of AUM and other apps other than Audiobus here on this forum. I felt a little weird sharing my lack of AB3 use here in this thread, but felt that a candid response would actually benefit the AB dev team and community at large. I almost ended my previous post with “but I love this forum and the community it supports”. I think this is just a healthy, natural ebb and flow of ideas. How else are the AB dev team going to gather info on how to make AB4 the cataclysmic game changer they want it to be?

    Assuming that most people are as intelligent > @TozBourne said:

    @JohnnyGoodyear said:

    @lukesleepwalker said:
    I use it every day.

    Ditto.

    Triple ditto (is that a thing?)

    Depends on if you can fit 2 peoples' dittos in one hole.

  • @realdavidai said:

    @Iso said:

    @dendy said:
    simply because it is lot more easy and straightforward to have plugin's UI "inside" DAW and possibility to use multiple instances of same plugin, without need to route it's audio/midi throught third app... (every app inserted to chain is always risk to stability and cpu liad, no matter how good it is coded, so less is more)

    I'm pretty sure year from now nobody will buy synth/fx which is not supporting AUv3

    What if i don't want to use a DAW?

    Even without a DAW I still think AU is the way forward. AudioBus and AUM could be the best hosts for non-DAW use.

    I agree, but there seems to be a general slide towards using the ios platform like a mini desktop. I could see a future where if this is heavily promoted, apps like Audiobus & Aum could become obsolete due to a dwindling user base, and giants like Cubase will rule the platform. This will result in Desktop prices for apps/plugins, and the loss of independent developers. As apple releases further iterations of the ios operating system, it will not be viable for small developers to maintain their software , and as older devices fail due to worn out batteries/screens etc, these apps will cease to exist......

  • I've said it in other threads, and I'll say it here as well:

    AudioBus is a bus - it takes sound from point A and funnels it to point B

    AUM is a mixer - it takes sound from multiple sources and sums them to a master output

    This is my oversimplified answer but it was the thing that made the most sense to me. I didn't figure this out until I bought both, but YES - both are essential and for entirely different reasons.

    Hope that helps.

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