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.

VIDEO DEMO: CUBASIS Recording LOOPY, SAMPLR, PATTERNING Via IAA From AUM; All Syncing Via MIDI LINK

This is a follow along video demonstration without dialog.
iPad Pro 10.5, iOS 11.1.1
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Zs2eJ5WwCg8

THE SETUP
CUBASIS - Sending MIDI Clock to MIDI Link Sync, and recording three IAA channels from AUM.
AUM - Hosting Loopy, Samplr, Patterning, and sending audio into Cubasis via IAA.
MIDI LINK SYNC - Recieving MIDI Clock from Cubasis and sending it back out as Ableton Link; syncing AUM, Loopy, Samplr and Patterning with Cubasis.

STAND ALONE SYNC START SEQUENCE
1. Open MIDI Link Sync: choose “MIDI >>Link”, and check “MIDI Link Sync In” for MIDI source. Press “Enable sync”. It is now waiting for a clock source.
2. Open Cubasis, turn on “Send MIDI Clock”, press play. MIDI Link Sync receives this MIDI clock and begins transmitting Link clock.
3. Open Loopy, turn Ableton Link on, turn on “MIDI Sync” and in “Clock Destinations” choose “Virtual MIDI” only.
4. Open Samplr, in “MIDI Clock Input choose “Loopy HD” only
5. Press play in Loopy. All will sync.

APP LINKS
Cubasis 2 by Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/cubasis-2/id583976519?mt=8

MIDI Link Sync by Coding Cod Ltd
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/midi-link-sync/id1071048493?mt=8

AUM - Audio Mixer by Kymatica (Jonatan Liljedahl)
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/aum-audio-mixer/id1055636344?mt=8

Loopy HD by A Tasty Pixel
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/loopy-hd/id467923185?mt=8

Samplr - Touch the Music by Marcos Alonso
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/samplr-touch-the-music/id560756420?mt=8

Patterning : Drum Machine by Olympia Noise Co.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/patterning-drum-machine/id976690555?mt=8

Comments

  • Great clip, audiorangutan! Thanks for creating and sharing it here!

    Best,
    Lars

  • @LFS said:
    Great clip, audiorangutan! Thanks for creating and sharing it here!

    Best,
    Lars

    Thanks for looking! Loving this workflow.

  • That is very cool! Can you @audiorangutan tell me what you used to record this with? What video recording app?

  • edited November 2017

    @Chaztrip said:
    That is very cool! Can you @audiorangutan tell me what you used to record this with? What video recording app?

    Thanks! I used the iOS screen recorder and sent the audio out the headphone jack to my laptop mic input. After recording, I sent the audio file back to my iPad and combined it with the screen capture in LumaFusion.

  • Great job. Immediately inspiring. This reminds me of the difference in learning how to cook by watching your grandmother as opposed to reading a recipe. Both valuable – but you learn something different with each method.

  • @ExAsperis99 said:
    Great job. Immediately inspiring. This reminds me of the difference in learning how to cook by watching your grandmother as opposed to reading a recipe. Both valuable – but you learn something different with each method.

    Funny analogy! That was my aim exactly (recipe), glad you picked up on it.

  • this method, does it sync well for retaking parts ??

  • @Hansson said:
    this method, does it sync well for retaking parts ??

    Ah, good thinking. That would be very useful! I’ll test that and get back to you...

  • iamthinking record, then add audio track move recording and record again.

  • @audiorangutan said:
    This is a follow along video demonstration without dialog.
    iPad Pro 10.5, iOS 11.1.1
    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Zs2eJ5WwCg8

    THE SETUP
    CUBASIS - Sending MIDI Clock to MIDI Link Sync, and recording three IAA channels from AUM.
    AUM - Hosting Loopy, Samplr, Patterning, and sending audio into Cubasis via IAA.
    MIDI LINK SYNC - Recieving MIDI Clock from Cubasis and sending it back out as Ableton Link; syncing AUM, Loopy, Samplr and Patterning with Cubasis.

    STAND ALONE SYNC START SEQUENCE
    1. Open MIDI Link Sync: choose “MIDI >>Link”, and check “MIDI Link Sync In” for MIDI source. Press “Enable sync”. It is now waiting for a clock source.
    2. Open Cubasis, turn on “Send MIDI Clock”, press play. MIDI Link Sync receives this MIDI clock and begins transmitting Link clock.
    3. Open Loopy, turn Ableton Link on, turn on “MIDI Sync” and in “Clock Destinations” choose “Virtual MIDI” only.
    4. Open Samplr, in “MIDI Clock Input choose “Loopy HD” only
    5. Press play in Loopy. All will sync.

    APP LINKS
    Cubasis 2 by Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH
    https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/cubasis-2/id583976519?mt=8

    MIDI Link Sync by Coding Cod Ltd
    https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/midi-link-sync/id1071048493?mt=8

    AUM - Audio Mixer by Kymatica (Jonatan Liljedahl)
    https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/aum-audio-mixer/id1055636344?mt=8

    Loopy HD by A Tasty Pixel
    https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/loopy-hd/id467923185?mt=8

    Samplr - Touch the Music by Marcos Alonso
    https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/samplr-touch-the-music/id560756420?mt=8

    Patterning : Drum Machine by Olympia Noise Co.
    https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/patterning-drum-machine/id976690555?mt=8

    Thank you for this!!

  • @Hansson said:
    iamthinking record, then add audio track move recording and record again.

    Yes you can do this. I just successfully recorded some more tracks to the demo project from the video using the same method.

  • edited December 2017

    Looks like I will need to find out how to file a bug report. I just figured out that pressing the undo button in Cubasis crashes the IAA connection with AUM. Bummer.

  • So this is awesome, how is cubasis reacting to a session restore in aum?

  • @Hansson said:
    So this is awesome, how is cubasis reacting to a session restore in aum?

    To resume a session, I have to launch AUM first and then Cubasis or the IAA connections won’t resume. Seems normal otherwise.

  • edited May 2018

    @audiorangutan said:
    Looks like I will need to find out how to file a bug report. I just figured out that pressing the undo button in Cubasis crashes the IAA connection with AUM. Bummer.

    This is still a bug in Cubasis. Happened to me consistently a few weeks ago.

    Reported it to Lars. @LFS

  • edited November 2020

    Hi!.
    I was confused about how you’d sync AUM and Cubasis if Cubasis already had stuff in it.. So I wanted to try and sync the start of recording and AUM playing. Since the Cubasis controls, when used as IAA as in your method, are independent of the timeline, they’re in sync but the song positions don’t necessarily match.
    So I tried doing it through AudioBus. AB and AUM are linked via Ableton Link. The advange is that when starting Cubasis it will start AUM (through AB), and you can do it from the little AB transport without leaving AUM. Seems to work, would have to test on a real scenario...

    I don’t know what you use to show where you’re pressing the screen... is it a screen recording special app?. It’s useful.

  • edited January 2021

    @tahiche, this works like charm. I’m so happy that I found this older thread. I want to develop a workflow where I can jam out ideas for a song in AUM with LK and other MIDI generators/sequencers and then bounce one or more instruments to cubasis when I settled on something or start to hit resource limits. Then continue jamming in AUM to the existing recordings in cubasis.

    I think this can be achieved with your way to set things up in AB. The problems I noticed so far are that right after starting the song there can be tempo hickups in AUM and also sometimes AUM starts a bit delayed. That might be due to the short comings of MIDI clock sync. Surprisingly my recordings in cubasis from AUM synths were always synced perfectly. Anyway, maybe I should better turn to recording with punch in and out. So far that looks quite promising. I’ll definitely explore this approach.

    @jakoB_haQ as you love AUM and cubasis is you goto DAW for arrangements... do you know this approach for syncing AUM and cubasis? If not, I think you should try it.

  • @krassmann said:
    @tahiche, this works like charm. I’m so happy that I found this older thread. I want to develop a workflow where I can jam out ideas for a song in AUM with LK and other MIDI generators/sequencers and then bounce one or more instruments to cubasis when I settled on something or start to hit resource limits. Then continue jamming in AUM to the existing recordings in cubasis.

    I think this can be achieved with your way to set things up in AB. The problems I noticed so far are that right after starting the song there can be tempo hickups in AUM and also sometimes AUM starts a bit delayed. That might be due to the short comings of MIDI clock sync. Surprisingly my recordings in cubasis from AUM synths were always synced perfectly. Anyway, maybe I should better turn to recording with punch in and out. So far that looks quite promising. I’ll definitely explore this approach.

    @jakoB_haQ as you love AUM and cubasis is you goto DAW for arrangements... do you know this approach for syncing AUM and cubasis? If not, I think you should try it.

    That’s great, I’m glad it helps. I completely forgot about this!. I’m in constant fight and frustration with iOS daws and I believe I got really mad at CB3 for some inexcusable shortcoming and switched to Auria or something (which I got mad at for some stupid omission and switched to...).
    This method you’re talking about, working in AUM and committing to a DAW is certainly my ticket. I just wish Zenbeats had a way to integrate (record from) AUM. Zenbeats has Ableton Link (direct transport integration with AUM) and Clip sequence modes (looping scenes) which make it perfect for this!. What’s the use of Ableton Link in Zenbeats if you can’t record or integrate it with other apps (AUM), I don’t know... (see why I get mad? 🙃). I’m the iOS grinch lately.
    Man, if @jakoB_haQ tries this and likes I hope he mentions me in a video!!. That’d be like total stardom, the zenith!.
    Cheers!

  • @tahiche said:

    @krassmann said:
    @tahiche, this works like charm. I’m so happy that I found this older thread. I want to develop a workflow where I can jam out ideas for a song in AUM with LK and other MIDI generators/sequencers and then bounce one or more instruments to cubasis when I settled on something or start to hit resource limits. Then continue jamming in AUM to the existing recordings in cubasis.

    I think this can be achieved with your way to set things up in AB. The problems I noticed so far are that right after starting the song there can be tempo hickups in AUM and also sometimes AUM starts a bit delayed. That might be due to the short comings of MIDI clock sync. Surprisingly my recordings in cubasis from AUM synths were always synced perfectly. Anyway, maybe I should better turn to recording with punch in and out. So far that looks quite promising. I’ll definitely explore this approach.

    @jakoB_haQ as you love AUM and cubasis is you goto DAW for arrangements... do you know this approach for syncing AUM and cubasis? If not, I think you should try it.

    That’s great, I’m glad it helps. I completely forgot about this!. I’m in constant fight and frustration with iOS daws and I believe I got really mad at CB3 for some inexcusable shortcoming and switched to Auria or something (which I got mad at for some stupid omission and switched to...).
    This method you’re talking about, working in AUM and committing to a DAW is certainly my ticket. I just wish Zenbeats had a way to integrate (record from) AUM. Zenbeats has Ableton Link (direct transport integration with AUM) and Clip sequence modes (looping scenes) which make it perfect for this!. What’s the use of Ableton Link in Zenbeats if you can’t record or integrate it with other apps (AUM), I don’t know... (see why I get mad? 🙃). I’m the iOS grinch lately.
    Man, if @jakoB_haQ tries this and likes I hope he mentions me in a video!!. That’d be like total stardom, the zenith!.
    Cheers!

    Bummer... :s I think I was too fast with my excitement about this solution. It works well for some bars but the longer it runs the more the apps run out of sync although the sync in AB is on and working. I can see in AUM that the tempo is sometimes not the same as in Cubasis. The deviations are small, e.g. shows 120.2 instead of 120 but as I say in the long run it goes out of sync. Maybe I''m doing sth wrong?

  • @krassmann said:

    @tahiche said:

    @krassmann said:
    @tahiche, this works like charm. I’m so happy that I found this older thread. I want to develop a workflow where I can jam out ideas for a song in AUM with LK and other MIDI generators/sequencers and then bounce one or more instruments to cubasis when I settled on something or start to hit resource limits. Then continue jamming in AUM to the existing recordings in cubasis.

    I think this can be achieved with your way to set things up in AB. The problems I noticed so far are that right after starting the song there can be tempo hickups in AUM and also sometimes AUM starts a bit delayed. That might be due to the short comings of MIDI clock sync. Surprisingly my recordings in cubasis from AUM synths were always synced perfectly. Anyway, maybe I should better turn to recording with punch in and out. So far that looks quite promising. I’ll definitely explore this approach.

    @jakoB_haQ as you love AUM and cubasis is you goto DAW for arrangements... do you know this approach for syncing AUM and cubasis? If not, I think you should try it.

    That’s great, I’m glad it helps. I completely forgot about this!. I’m in constant fight and frustration with iOS daws and I believe I got really mad at CB3 for some inexcusable shortcoming and switched to Auria or something (which I got mad at for some stupid omission and switched to...).
    This method you’re talking about, working in AUM and committing to a DAW is certainly my ticket. I just wish Zenbeats had a way to integrate (record from) AUM. Zenbeats has Ableton Link (direct transport integration with AUM) and Clip sequence modes (looping scenes) which make it perfect for this!. What’s the use of Ableton Link in Zenbeats if you can’t record or integrate it with other apps (AUM), I don’t know... (see why I get mad? 🙃). I’m the iOS grinch lately.
    Man, if @jakoB_haQ tries this and likes I hope he mentions me in a video!!. That’d be like total stardom, the zenith!.
    Cheers!

    Bummer... :s I think I was too fast with my excitement about this solution. It works well for some bars but the longer it runs the more the apps run out of sync although the sync in AB is on and working. I can see in AUM that the tempo is sometimes not the same as in Cubasis. The deviations are small, e.g. shows 120.2 instead of 120 but as I say in the long run it goes out of sync. Maybe I''m doing sth wrong?

    That’s shitty. I guess workarounds are just workarounds...
    If I recall correctly Cubasis has no Ableton Link so it’s using midi clock to sync to audiobus which in turn syncs to aum via Ableton link. Right?.
    There’s probably little discrepancies between the 2. If 2 apps are synced via a single source, be it Ableton Link or midi clock, they would both “suffer” tiny variations but in the same way, so they’d still be in sync. That’s probably not the case with 2 sources of sync, where little, minuscule variations would add up,over time. I’m no expert, I’m just guessing, but I do believe midi clock is not rock solid.

  • Can Cubasis receive midi clock from an external synth?
    Does anyone know of a DAW that CAN receive midi clock reliably besides Korg Gadget?

  • @tahiche said:

    @krassmann said:

    @tahiche said:

    @krassmann said:
    @tahiche, this works like charm. I’m so happy that I found this older thread. I want to develop a workflow where I can jam out ideas for a song in AUM with LK and other MIDI generators/sequencers and then bounce one or more instruments to cubasis when I settled on something or start to hit resource limits. Then continue jamming in AUM to the existing recordings in cubasis.

    I think this can be achieved with your way to set things up in AB. The problems I noticed so far are that right after starting the song there can be tempo hickups in AUM and also sometimes AUM starts a bit delayed. That might be due to the short comings of MIDI clock sync. Surprisingly my recordings in cubasis from AUM synths were always synced perfectly. Anyway, maybe I should better turn to recording with punch in and out. So far that looks quite promising. I’ll definitely explore this approach.

    @jakoB_haQ as you love AUM and cubasis is you goto DAW for arrangements... do you know this approach for syncing AUM and cubasis? If not, I think you should try it.

    That’s great, I’m glad it helps. I completely forgot about this!. I’m in constant fight and frustration with iOS daws and I believe I got really mad at CB3 for some inexcusable shortcoming and switched to Auria or something (which I got mad at for some stupid omission and switched to...).
    This method you’re talking about, working in AUM and committing to a DAW is certainly my ticket. I just wish Zenbeats had a way to integrate (record from) AUM. Zenbeats has Ableton Link (direct transport integration with AUM) and Clip sequence modes (looping scenes) which make it perfect for this!. What’s the use of Ableton Link in Zenbeats if you can’t record or integrate it with other apps (AUM), I don’t know... (see why I get mad? 🙃). I’m the iOS grinch lately.
    Man, if @jakoB_haQ tries this and likes I hope he mentions me in a video!!. That’d be like total stardom, the zenith!.
    Cheers!

    Bummer... :s I think I was too fast with my excitement about this solution. It works well for some bars but the longer it runs the more the apps run out of sync although the sync in AB is on and working. I can see in AUM that the tempo is sometimes not the same as in Cubasis. The deviations are small, e.g. shows 120.2 instead of 120 but as I say in the long run it goes out of sync. Maybe I''m doing sth wrong?

    That’s shitty. I guess workarounds are just workarounds...
    If I recall correctly Cubasis has no Ableton Link so it’s using midi clock to sync to audiobus which in turn syncs to aum via Ableton link. Right?.
    There’s probably little discrepancies between the 2. If 2 apps are synced via a single source, be it Ableton Link or midi clock, they would both “suffer” tiny variations but in the same way, so they’d still be in sync. That’s probably not the case with 2 sources of sync, where little, minuscule variations would add up,over time. I’m no expert, I’m just guessing, but I do believe midi clock is not rock solid.

    A good and a bad news. The good news is, that the running out of sync was just a hiccup. Switching to AB showed caused AB to be reloaded, I believe due to my iPad being low on resources it. The bad news is, the hiccups start to happen quite early on my iPad 6th gen. It’s probably too much for my device to run AUM (LK, 2 x ruismaker noir, mood, some ToneBoosters FX), AudioBus and Cubasis (5 audio tracks, some FX). I think I have to develop a workflow where I bounce synths to audio early, freeze tracks in CB early.

  • wimwim
    edited January 2021

    @Optahealth said:
    Can Cubasis receive midi clock from an external synth?
    Does anyone know of a DAW that CAN receive midi clock reliably besides Korg Gadget?

    Cubasis cannot receive midi clock. It can send it. So if Cubasis is the master, sending to something like Audiobus, which can bridge that to Link, sometimes sync can work well. But Cubasis always has to be the master.

    Beatmaker 3 can follow midi clock. Reliably? I can't really say, not having worked with it enough since the latest updates.

  • wimwim
    edited January 2021

    @krassmann said:
    A good and a bad news. The good news is, that the running out of sync was just a hiccup. Switching to AB showed caused AB to be reloaded, I believe due to my iPad being low on resources it. The bad news is, the hiccups start to happen quite early on my iPad 6th gen. It’s probably too much for my device to run AUM (LK, 2 x ruismaker noir, mood, some ToneBoosters FX), AudioBus and Cubasis (5 audio tracks, some FX). I think I have to develop a workflow where I bounce synths to audio early, freeze tracks in CB early.

    I'm not sure what your setup looks like, but I learned recently that Audiobus needs to have something loaded in it or it goes to background when you switch away from it. Could this be what you're seeing? If there's nothing loaded in Audiobus, load a system audio output and see if AB stays up and running then. No need for anything feeding the output, just loading the output is enough to keep it alive.

  • @wim said:

    Beatmaker 3 can follow midi clock. Reliably? I can't really say, not having worked with it enough since the latest updates.

    Ya, I deleted BM3 a while back.

    Audiobus, Grooverider and Gadget seem to follow midi clock reliably.
    So anything that will sync with Audiobus via host sync also seems to work (Beathawk for one)

    I quit using Ableton link a while back

    My Yamaha PSR E453 sends midi clock. I want that to be the master.

  • wimwim
    edited January 2021

    @Optahealth said:

    @wim said:

    Beatmaker 3 can follow midi clock. Reliably? I can't really say, not having worked with it enough since the latest updates.

    Ya, I deleted BM3 a while back.

    Audiobus, Grooverider and Gadget seem to follow midi clock reliably.
    So anything that will sync with Audiobus via host sync also seems to work (Beathawk for one)

    I quit using Ableton link a while back

    My Yamaha PSR E453 sends midi clock. I want that to be the master.

    Generally it's easier to have iOS as the master, but if you want to go go that direction, AB3 is indeed your friend. iOS DAWs aren't.

  • @wim said:

    @krassmann said:
    A good and a bad news. The good news is, that the running out of sync was just a hiccup. Switching to AB showed caused AB to be reloaded, I believe due to my iPad being low on resources it. The bad news is, the hiccups start to happen quite early on my iPad 6th gen. It’s probably too much for my device to run AUM (LK, 2 x ruismaker noir, mood, some ToneBoosters FX), AudioBus and Cubasis (5 audio tracks, some FX). I think I have to develop a workflow where I bounce synths to audio early, freeze tracks in CB early.

    I'm not sure what your setup looks like, but I learned recently that Audiobus needs to have something loaded in it or it goes to background when you switch away from it. Could this be what you're seeing? If there's nothing loaded in Audiobus, load a system audio output and see if AB stays up and running then. No need for anything feeding the output, just loading the output is enough to keep it alive.

    Hi @wim . The setup is similar to what’s outlined in this comment:

    @tahiche said:
    Hi!.
    I was confused about how you’d sync AUM and Cubasis if Cubasis already had stuff in it.. So I wanted to try and sync the start of recording and AUM playing. Since the Cubasis controls, when used as IAA as in your method, are independent of the timeline, they’re in sync but the song positions don’t necessarily match.
    So I tried doing it through AudioBus. AB and AUM are linked via Ableton Link. The advange is that when starting Cubasis it will start AUM (through AB), and you can do it from the little AB transport without leaving AUM. Seems to work, would have to test on a real scenario...

    I don’t know what you use to show where you’re pressing the screen... is it a screen recording special app?. It’s useful.

    Since AUM and Cubasis can only send Midi Clock there’s no obvious way to sync the playheads between them. So the workaround was going through AudioBus and Ableton Link. It works but as @krassmann explains it drifts out of time. My guess is that having 2 sync sources (midi clock and Ableton link) involved is not too reliable. If you use, say, Midi clock and have a cpu spike or whatever, the clock might stutter, but it’ll send the next beat to whatever apps are synced, so they’ll be somehow inconsistent but still “together”, whereas I’m guessing that’s not the case with the apps connected to Ableton Link.
    Basically in the test me and @krassmann discuss Cubasis and AudioBus are linked via Midi Clock whereas AUM and AudioBus are synced via Ableton Link. That way the start/stops are in sync and everything works (for a while).
    Zenbeats has Ableton Link and I found it syncs really well with AUM, which is pointless as you can not record to or from AUM. I’ve done this before to record guitars into Zenbeats clips while playing around in AUM, which then I have to export and blabla (not cool).

  • @wim said:

    My Yamaha PSR E453 sends midi clock. I want that to be the master.

    Generally it's easier to have iOS as the master, but if you want to go go that direction, AB3 is indeed your friend. iOS DAWs aren't.

    Trying to adopt a "touch the ipad less" "Play the instrument more" playflow.

    Start/stop and tempo control are a good place to start.

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