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.

Good synths/sound apps for using with MIDI guitar?

Hey I just got an iRig and thinking about using MIDI Guitar 2 => some synths / sound banks. Are there any particularly good ones with good expression via midi?

Comments

  • I haven’t used this app but Zeeon is amazing tone wise. But for guitar tone I’ve been getting great results using Sampletank 2 Strat samples. Running them through Audio damage AU, ToneStack and Kosmonaut effects got me some very satisfying sounds.
    The new Moog Model D is amazing also.

  • @MusicMan4Christ said:
    I haven’t used this app but Zeeon is amazing tone wise. But for guitar tone I’ve been getting great results using Sampletank 2 Strat samples. Running them through Audio damage AU, ToneStack and Kosmonaut effects got me some very satisfying sounds.
    The new Moog Model D is amazing also.

    Looks nice, better start counting my pennies!

  • edited April 2018

    Ideally you want something with at least 6 voice polyphony.....1 voice for each string on the axe ! Otherwise you may have to adapt your playing style to suit...
    Play a mono synth for example and you have no power chords or double stops let alone full chords.

  • I got a kick out of just hearing the plain stock piano in Midi Guitar 2 come out when playing my guitar the first time. I like using it with Animoog, or any Moog stuff. You reminded me that I still have to try it with Syntronik. I think it can be fun to try just about anything you have, especially if this is your first experience with Midi guitar setups like it was for me.

  • edited April 2018

    This also reminds me that I still need to try plugging

    this...

    into this

    Have already tried it with this (which was pretty cool), but needed MIDIFire to converge the 6 midi out channels into one

    Which makes me think I should use the same MIDIFire setup to try it with this too

    so many toys....so little time :D

  • @AndyPlankton said:
    Ideally you want something with at least 6 voice polyphony.....1 voice for each string on the axe ! Otherwise you may have to adapt your playing style to suit...
    Play a mono synth for example and you have no power chords or double stops let alone full chords.

    maybe that's kind of fun.. in some way ! I'll be exploring later.... !

  • @AndyPlankton said:
    This also reminds me that I still need to try plugging

    this...

    into this

    Have already tried it with this (which was pretty cool), but needed MIDIFire to converge the 6 midi out channels into one

    Which makes me think I should use the same MIDIFire setup to try it with this too

    so many toys....so little time :D

    does that rock band guitar work as a midi one?! No expression tho I guess..?

  • I would recommend things that are easy on the cpu, so model 15, model d and Zeeon wouldn’t be my recommendation. Depends how much cpu power is available and how many other things you want to have going at the same time of course. But personally I really like to use sunrizer with midi guitar 2.

  • @Alex fox said:

    does that rock band guitar work as a midi one?! No expression tho I guess..?

    Yes it works as MIDI controller, it has some expression options, but in that aspect it is not like playing an actual guitar. There is an acceleromter that you can use for Pitchbend or whatever.....or you can connect an expression pedal too.

    I tend to use it now and again for getting natural finger style basslines or playing chords to get the strum...it is also good just as a basic controller when I have the guitar feeling in my hands as opposed to a keyboard one ;)

    The RB Squire is much better...but cannot find one of them for love nor money.

  • @AndyPlankton said:

    @Alex fox said:

    does that rock band guitar work as a midi one?! No expression tho I guess..?

    Yes it works as MIDI controller, it has some expression options, but in that aspect it is not like playing an actual guitar. There is an acceleromter that you can use for Pitchbend or whatever.....or you can connect an expression pedal too.

    I tend to use it now and again for getting natural finger style basslines or playing chords to get the strum...it is also good just as a basic controller when I have the guitar feeling in my hands as opposed to a keyboard one ;)

    The RB Squire is much better...but cannot find one of them for love nor money.

    Does it compare well with a Jamstick? Those are kind of expensive, so I would expect a few more features, but the GB controller seems pretty robust already from your description. I would imagine it is a lot cheaper than a Jamstick, but need to look into it.

  • edited April 2018

    @AndyPlankton said:
    Ideally you want something with at least 6 voice polyphony.....1 voice for each string on the axe ! Otherwise you may have to adapt your playing style to suit...
    Play a mono synth for example and you have no power chords or double stops let alone full chords.

    The problem is that converting audio to midi is extremely difficult and unreliable. This means that playing multiple many strings at once is next to impossible for it to get correct. Better get a midi miced guitar instead, but even those have a little latency and sometimes gives wrong notes, but still A LOT better than some app trying to do it and they can play multiple strings at the same time, as each string is miced separately.

    So its better to stay at mono synths with these apps and not to expect very good tracking with them.

  • @CracklePot said:

    @AndyPlankton said:

    @Alex fox said:

    does that rock band guitar work as a midi one?! No expression tho I guess..?

    Yes it works as MIDI controller, it has some expression options, but in that aspect it is not like playing an actual guitar. There is an acceleromter that you can use for Pitchbend or whatever.....or you can connect an expression pedal too.

    I tend to use it now and again for getting natural finger style basslines or playing chords to get the strum...it is also good just as a basic controller when I have the guitar feeling in my hands as opposed to a keyboard one ;)

    The RB Squire is much better...but cannot find one of them for love nor money.

    Does it compare well with a Jamstick? Those are kind of expensive, so I would expect a few more features, but the GB controller seems pretty robust already from your description. I would imagine it is a lot cheaper than a Jamstick, but need to look into it.

    I've not tried a jamstick so cannot compare unfortunately.....although I think jamstick allows regular guitar style pitchbend and vibrato which this doesn't...
    I've just seen one of these £35 on ebay somewhere in the states...rises to £100 + when you include tax and shipping.
    I bought mine new and I'm sure it was something like £85....you can pick them up second hand in games shops from time to time...any of the PS3/xbox or Wii ones all have MIDI ..

  • @ToMess said:

    @AndyPlankton said:
    Ideally you want something with at least 6 voice polyphony.....1 voice for each string on the axe ! Otherwise you may have to adapt your playing style to suit...
    Play a mono synth for example and you have no power chords or double stops let alone full chords.

    The problem is that converting audio to midi is extremely difficult and unreliable. This means that playing multiple many strings at once is next to impossible for it to get correct. Better get a midi miced guitar instead, but even those have a little latency and sometimes gives wrong notes, but still A LOT better than some app trying to do it and they can play multiple strings at the same time, as each string is miced separately.

    So its better to stay at mono synths with these apps and not to expect very good tracking with them.

    This is very true.....that's why I use the RB3 controller, no lag ;)

  • The tracking in MIDI Guitar is pretty good IMO.

  • @richardyot said:
    The tracking in MIDI Guitar is pretty good IMO.

    I've heard similar things...not tried it myself though.

  • @Alex fox said:
    Hey I just got an iRig and thinking about using MIDI Guitar 2 => some synths / sound banks. Are there any particularly good ones with good expression via midi?

    I’ve used Klevgrand’s Syndtsphere for dialing in some pretty cool sounds in midiguitar2. I don’t have it for IOS but I’ve used it on my Mac. I would think that it’s pretty much the same.

  • I've got a roland ready strat (https://reverb.com/price-guide/guide/10219-fender-roland-ready-stratocaster-gc-1-1999-sunburst) and Roland GI-20 (https://www.roland.com/us/products/gi-20/) and have message around with many soft synths with these. IMO there's not really any such thing as a good synth for a midi guitar, you can just use whatever one you like. I find that you adopt your playing style to suit whatever type of sound you happen to be playing. Certain techniques work with certain types of sounds and don't with others and vice versa. Any synth can make pad/lead/string/whatever sounds, its the type of sound itself that the main thing, not the synth (bearing in mind the earlier point about mono/poly) . Some sounds suit midi guitars, some don't. And even if they don't suit a midi guitar, there's absolutely no reason why you can't still go ahead and just play them anyway.
    Just get whatever synth you like and experiment.

  • MIDI Guitar 2 tracks pretty nice once you figure it out.

    I've been liking FM Player the most. I just bought a Rock Band Mustang so I can compare later in the week.

  • @BroCoast said:
    MIDI Guitar 2 tracks pretty nice once you figure it out.

    I've been liking FM Player the most. I just bought a Rock Band Mustang so I can compare later in the week.

    Awesome, am eagerly awaiting your findings :)

  • edited April 2018

    If you’re cool with a mono synth, mood by Apesoft has the best tracking, glide and bend response to Midi Guitar 2 that I’ve used. It is also polyphonic, and works well as such with MG2, but wouldn’t be my go-to for poly sounds. That’d be Zeeon.

  • I agree with the advice above to just tinker because I've found odd combinations of synths and ROMplers that work better than I expected with MG2. That said, I have found that Poison-202 is a blast with MG2 (make sure to set the glide and pitchbend manually because the presets don't consistently handle these well for MG2).

  • @AndyPlankton said:

    @BroCoast said:
    MIDI Guitar 2 tracks pretty nice once you figure it out.

    I've been liking FM Player the most. I just bought a Rock Band Mustang so I can compare later in the week.

    Awesome, am eagerly awaiting your findings :)

    So this Mustang controller is pretty good. I can play precise 16th note bass lines on it which you cannot do with MIDI guitar 2.

    The Mustang with a mono synth for each string is awesome. It seems to track/work better this way than with a poly synth. If I try to track all incoming notes on a single MIDI track it's a mess on playback. With a track for each string it's great.

    MIDI Guitar 2 tracks pretty good but I'm having more fun with this controller & much less clams. Hopefully lefty flip works outside of the game, I don't have a PS3 to change it over and there doesn't seem to be a way to do it except for in game.

  • @BroCoast said:

    The Mustang with a mono synth for each string is awesome. It seems to track/work better this way than with a poly synth. If I try to track all incoming notes on a single MIDI track it's a mess on playback. With a track for each string it's great.

    This makes sense actually.....there will be cross over on the notes coming from each string.....if you get say C3 from one string and C3 from another........if these are on the same track they will cut each other off as midi only allows one note of the same value at a time.
    Being on individual tracks and synths eliminates this....

    MIDI Guitar 2 tracks pretty good but I'm having more fun with this controller & much less clams. Hopefully lefty flip works outside of the game, I don't have a PS3 to change it over and there doesn't seem to be a way to do it except for in game.

    Hmmm...not sure if there is a setting for it....
    If you are using individual tracks, you should be able to use transpose on each to flip to lefty, using midiflow or Midifire ?

  • @BroCoast how is the playability of that mustang relative to a real guitar? Just wondering what those rows of buttons feel like compared to strings on frets. Easy to get used to?

  • edited April 2018

    @lukesleepwalker said:
    @BroCoast how is the playability of that mustang relative to a real guitar? Just wondering what those rows of buttons feel like compared to strings on frets. Easy to get used to?

    From a fingering point of view it takes a little getting used to....the buttons are closer together than real strings, and you feel like you want to play vibrato on them (which you cant)...I find it easier playing riffs than chords, but both are perfectly possible
    At the other end, the strings are more lax than on a real guitar but strumming and picking feels natural enough.

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