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.

Fugue Machine

db909db909
in General App Discussion

Just tried this for the first time and I was in musical heaven just pointing it at different synths and pressing play. Pure fun. And it also strikes me as a very cool way to dig into the mathematics of melody. 2 questions:

Anybody got any tips/recipes?
And also, the pitch knob, does it transpose in semitones or within the scale?

Comments

  • CracklePotCracklePot
    edited July 2018

    @db909 said:
    Just tried this for the first time and I was in musical heaven just pointing it at different synths and pressing play. Pure fun. And it also strikes me as a very cool way to dig into the mathematics of melody. 2 questions:

    Anybody got any tips/recipes?
    And also, the pitch knob, does it transpose in semitones or within the scale?

    Transposes in scale.
    My best tip is don’t try to control it or plan too much in advance. I get the best stuff from trying things that wouldn’t normally make sense in a piano roll.

  • db909db909

    @CracklePot said:

    @db909 said:
    Just tried this for the first time and I was in musical heaven just pointing it at different synths and pressing play. Pure fun. And it also strikes me as a very cool way to dig into the mathematics of melody. 2 questions:

    Anybody got any tips/recipes?
    And also, the pitch knob, does it transpose in semitones or within the scale?

    Transposes in scale.
    My best tip is don’t try to control it or plan too much in advance. I get the best stuff from trying things that wouldn’t normally make sense in a piano roll.

    That makes sense. Thanks!

  • [Deleted User][Deleted User]
    edited July 2018

    Not tips really, it is a sort of system with rules called counterpoint, JS Bach was the master and to be honest he went far beyond the system.

  • HalftoneHalftone

    Less is more sometimes with this app - meaning just a few notes (2,3, or4) can yield amazing results.

    And check out perplexon (I think that's how it's spelt) on YouTube - he does some cool fugue machine performances. And this one is one of my favourite iOS performances ever - featuring FMachine.

  • db909db909

    @Halftone said:
    Less is more sometimes with this app - meaning just a few notes (2,3, or4) can yield amazing results.

    And check out perplexon (I think that's how it's spelt) on YouTube - he does some cool fugue machine performances. And this one is one of my favourite iOS performances ever - featuring FMachine.

    Very cool. And yeah I’ve gotten keen to the minimal notes thing. Hell, if you just put one note down, changing the timing, transpose a couple playheads, and then play the transpose bar, it basically becomes Riff Machine. I’d have to rank it amongst the most fun apps I’ve ever tried. While a lot of apps are very USEFUL, the ones that are truly fun to use are rare.

  • Wrlds2ndBstGeoshredrWrlds2ndBstGeoshredr

    Here's an under-explored option: Send each head to a drum sound, and use Fugue Machine as a drum groovebox.

  • aplourdeaplourde

    @Halftone said:
    And this one is one of my favourite iOS performances ever - featuring FMachine.

    Well, shucks, you're going to make me blush!

    @db909 said:
    I’d have to rank it amongst the most fun apps I’ve ever tried. While a lot of apps are very USEFUL, the ones that are truly fun to use are rare.

    What's great about Fugue Machine is that it is eminently playable. A lot of people see the piano roll and think that you just write a melody and then set different playheads going. That’s great for the first 30 seconds, but then you start to get overwhelmed by the constant stream of rising and falling notes.

    @Alexandernaut designed this to be a performance instrument. By virtue of the fact that most controls activate on finger release, the app is designed for you to set up changes and adjustments and then activate them precisely when you want them to, during a performance. Contrast this with a control that takes immediate effect. There you typically have to stop playback, adjust, and re-start.

    The one exception is the transpose bar which activates immediately; this allows you to do glissando-type effects with the melody.

    And yeah I’ve gotten keen to the minimal notes thing. Hell, if you just put one note down, changing the timing, transpose a couple playheads, and then play the transpose bar, it basically becomes Riff Machine.

    Yup, simple is best. But as you venture into more complex things, here are a few tips / points to consider:

    Start by just having a simple ascending or descending riff.
    This allows you to control the melodic contour by playhead direction.

    If you have a melody that rises and then falls and then reverse the direction, it still rises and falls. Sure the notes and timing are different, but the melodic contour is the same.

    Can’t you Invert? Yes, Invert will change that melodic contour, but it also changes the notes and, depending on the phrase, shifts the note-center of the melody. All of this can be great, but it’s often harder to predict how plays out. Personally, I tend to set Invert as a sort of immutable property of the playhead (“this is the counterpoint playhead”) and shape the melody through other means.

    Start by making phrases that are jumps of the 4th or 5th scale degree.
    Typically, melodies are movements of 2nds and 3rds, but you will probably have more luck with transposed playheads if the melody isn’t too dense; the transposed playheads will fill in the melodic movement.

    Use the Loop Braces to focus in on sections of your melody.
    Hearing the full phrase repeating over and over, even with variations to overall transpositions and playhead direction, can get tedious.

    As you’ve noticed, just playing one note can have satisfying results, so break down from your longer phrase to a smaller section to add variety.

    In the video above, for the “choruses” I restrict the play range to the first half of the measure. This only has two notes and they’re just octaves of the root. This allowed me to do the overall transpositions and have the result be more focused, consonant and “powerful”

    I do wish you could adjust the loop braces of each playhead independently though…

    Adjust the transposition of playheads.
    Everyone starts by moving playheads in different directions, with different timings and doing octave shifts. But really satisfying results happen when you change the harmony by adjusting playhead transposition relative to the other playheads.

    Set different Start points.
    Rather than running at different tempos, having playheads staggered through a phrase can often result in complex phrases that sound more unified than the usual slow-and-fast playing phrases.

    Don’t send to four different instruments.
    While it initially sounds great driving four instruments with Fugue Machine, it starts to become noticeable to the listener that there four instruments playing these repeating figures, even when you modify parameters.

    Try to use two or three playheads on a single instrument. This turns the output into a more complex melody or chordal progression rather than four separate musical threads.

    Have a playhead strategy.
    As you play more and more with Fugue Machine, it’s useful to have a sense of the “roles” that each playhead plays. This allows you to make more purposeful adjustments rather than just wildly adjusting parameters, hoping to find something interesting.

    For me, for no real reason other than habit, I have the following:
    Blue, Orange and Yellow control one instrument. Red controls another.

    Blue is the primary melody. It sets the overall pitch and tempo.

    Red is typically slower and controls another instrument (direct or arpeggiated) or pitch responsive sequencer (like Xynthesizer) to get responsive harmonic movement.

    Orange is typically the “counterpoint” playhead. It’s usually running at a similar speed to the Blue playhead, but transposed, inverted, reverse time, shifted start. etc.

    Yellow is typically the melodic playhead, running faster and higher. I’ll usually “play” this one the most: starting, stopping, transposing, etc.

    Is this limiting? Sure, but useful limits allow you to focus on the bigger picture rather than mucking around with every possibility.

    Have fun and listen
    It's easy to get absorbed by the hypnotic path of colored lines bouncing around the screen, but try to really listen to what is coming out to give you ideas on where to take it next....

  • Wrlds2ndBstGeoshredrWrlds2ndBstGeoshredr

    @aplourde said:

    @Halftone said:
    And this one is one of my favourite iOS performances ever - featuring FMachine.

    Well, shucks, you're going to make me blush!

    @db909 said:
    I’d have to rank it amongst the most fun apps I’ve ever tried. While a lot of apps are very USEFUL, the ones that are truly fun to use are rare.

    What's great about Fugue Machine is that it is eminently playable. A lot of people see the piano roll and think that you just write a melody and then set different playheads going. That’s great for the first 30 seconds, but then you start to get overwhelmed by the constant stream of rising and falling notes.

    @Alexandernaut designed this to be a performance instrument. By virtue of the fact that most controls activate on finger release, the app is designed for you to set up changes and adjustments and then activate them precisely when you want them to, during a performance. Contrast this with a control that takes immediate effect. There you typically have to stop playback, adjust, and re-start.

    The one exception is the transpose bar which activates immediately; this allows you to do glissando-type effects with the melody.

    And yeah I’ve gotten keen to the minimal notes thing. Hell, if you just put one note down, changing the timing, transpose a couple playheads, and then play the transpose bar, it basically becomes Riff Machine.

    Yup, simple is best. But as you venture into more complex things, here are a few tips / points to consider:

    Start by just having a simple ascending or descending riff.
    This allows you to control the melodic contour by playhead direction.

    If you have a melody that rises and then falls and then reverse the direction, it still rises and falls. Sure the notes and timing are different, but the melodic contour is the same.

    Can’t you Invert? Yes, Invert will change that melodic contour, but it also changes the notes and, depending on the phrase, shifts the note-center of the melody. All of this can be great, but it’s often harder to predict how plays out. Personally, I tend to set Invert as a sort of immutable property of the playhead (“this is the counterpoint playhead”) and shape the melody through other means.

    Start by making phrases that are jumps of the 4th or 5th scale degree.
    Typically, melodies are movements of 2nds and 3rds, but you will probably have more luck with transposed playheads if the melody isn’t too dense; the transposed playheads will fill in the melodic movement.

    Use the Loop Braces to focus in on sections of your melody.
    Hearing the full phrase repeating over and over, even with variations to overall transpositions and playhead direction, can get tedious.

    As you’ve noticed, just playing one note can have satisfying results, so break down from your longer phrase to a smaller section to add variety.

    In the video above, for the “choruses” I restrict the play range to the first half of the measure. This only has two notes and they’re just octaves of the root. This allowed me to do the overall transpositions and have the result be more focused, consonant and “powerful”

    I do wish you could adjust the loop braces of each playhead independently though…

    Adjust the transposition of playheads.
    Everyone starts by moving playheads in different directions, with different timings and doing octave shifts. But really satisfying results happen when you change the harmony by adjusting playhead transposition relative to the other playheads.

    Set different Start points.
    Rather than running at different tempos, having playheads staggered through a phrase can often result in complex phrases that sound more unified than the usual slow-and-fast playing phrases.

    Don’t send to four different instruments.
    While it initially sounds great driving four instruments with Fugue Machine, it starts to become noticeable to the listener that there four instruments playing these repeating figures, even when you modify parameters.

    Try to use two or three playheads on a single instrument. This turns the output into a more complex melody or chordal progression rather than four separate musical threads.

    Have a playhead strategy.
    As you play more and more with Fugue Machine, it’s useful to have a sense of the “roles” that each playhead plays. This allows you to make more purposeful adjustments rather than just wildly adjusting parameters, hoping to find something interesting.

    For me, for no real reason other than habit, I have the following:
    Blue, Orange and Yellow control one instrument. Red controls another.

    Blue is the primary melody. It sets the overall pitch and tempo.

    Red is typically slower and controls another instrument (direct or arpeggiated) or pitch responsive sequencer (like Xynthesizer) to get responsive harmonic movement.

    Orange is typically the “counterpoint” playhead. It’s usually running at a similar speed to the Blue playhead, but transposed, inverted, reverse time, shifted start. etc.

    Yellow is typically the melodic playhead, running faster and higher. I’ll usually “play” this one the most: starting, stopping, transposing, etc.

    Is this limiting? Sure, but useful limits allow you to focus on the bigger picture rather than mucking around with every possibility.

    Have fun and listen
    It's easy to get absorbed by the hypnotic path of colored lines bouncing around the screen, but try to really listen to what is coming out to give you ideas on where to take it next....

    Amazing post. Thanks very much!

  • HalftoneHalftone

    @aplourde said:

    @Halftone said:
    And this one is one of my favourite iOS performances ever - featuring FMachine.

    Well, shucks, you're going to make me blush!

    @db909 said:
    I’d have to rank it amongst the most fun apps I’ve ever tried. While a lot of apps are very USEFUL, the ones that are truly fun to use are rare.

    What's great about Fugue Machine is that it is eminently playable. A lot of people see the piano roll and think that you just write a melody and then set different playheads going. That’s great for the first 30 seconds, but then you start to get overwhelmed by the constant stream of rising and falling notes.

    @Alexandernaut designed this to be a performance instrument. By virtue of the fact that most controls activate on finger release, the app is designed for you to set up changes and adjustments and then activate them precisely when you want them to, during a performance. Contrast this with a control that takes immediate effect. There you typically have to stop playback, adjust, and re-start.

    The one exception is the transpose bar which activates immediately; this allows you to do glissando-type effects with the melody.

    And yeah I’ve gotten keen to the minimal notes thing. Hell, if you just put one note down, changing the timing, transpose a couple playheads, and then play the transpose bar, it basically becomes Riff Machine.

    Yup, simple is best. But as you venture into more complex things, here are a few tips / points to consider:

    Start by just having a simple ascending or descending riff.
    This allows you to control the melodic contour by playhead direction.

    If you have a melody that rises and then falls and then reverse the direction, it still rises and falls. Sure the notes and timing are different, but the melodic contour is the same.

    Can’t you Invert? Yes, Invert will change that melodic contour, but it also changes the notes and, depending on the phrase, shifts the note-center of the melody. All of this can be great, but it’s often harder to predict how plays out. Personally, I tend to set Invert as a sort of immutable property of the playhead (“this is the counterpoint playhead”) and shape the melody through other means.

    Start by making phrases that are jumps of the 4th or 5th scale degree.
    Typically, melodies are movements of 2nds and 3rds, but you will probably have more luck with transposed playheads if the melody isn’t too dense; the transposed playheads will fill in the melodic movement.

    Use the Loop Braces to focus in on sections of your melody.
    Hearing the full phrase repeating over and over, even with variations to overall transpositions and playhead direction, can get tedious.

    As you’ve noticed, just playing one note can have satisfying results, so break down from your longer phrase to a smaller section to add variety.

    In the video above, for the “choruses” I restrict the play range to the first half of the measure. This only has two notes and they’re just octaves of the root. This allowed me to do the overall transpositions and have the result be more focused, consonant and “powerful”

    I do wish you could adjust the loop braces of each playhead independently though…

    Adjust the transposition of playheads.
    Everyone starts by moving playheads in different directions, with different timings and doing octave shifts. But really satisfying results happen when you change the harmony by adjusting playhead transposition relative to the other playheads.

    Set different Start points.
    Rather than running at different tempos, having playheads staggered through a phrase can often result in complex phrases that sound more unified than the usual slow-and-fast playing phrases.

    Don’t send to four different instruments.
    While it initially sounds great driving four instruments with Fugue Machine, it starts to become noticeable to the listener that there four instruments playing these repeating figures, even when you modify parameters.

    Try to use two or three playheads on a single instrument. This turns the output into a more complex melody or chordal progression rather than four separate musical threads.

    Have a playhead strategy.
    As you play more and more with Fugue Machine, it’s useful to have a sense of the “roles” that each playhead plays. This allows you to make more purposeful adjustments rather than just wildly adjusting parameters, hoping to find something interesting.

    For me, for no real reason other than habit, I have the following:
    Blue, Orange and Yellow control one instrument. Red controls another.

    Blue is the primary melody. It sets the overall pitch and tempo.

    Red is typically slower and controls another instrument (direct or arpeggiated) or pitch responsive sequencer (like Xynthesizer) to get responsive harmonic movement.

    Orange is typically the “counterpoint” playhead. It’s usually running at a similar speed to the Blue playhead, but transposed, inverted, reverse time, shifted start. etc.

    Yellow is typically the melodic playhead, running faster and higher. I’ll usually “play” this one the most: starting, stopping, transposing, etc.

    Is this limiting? Sure, but useful limits allow you to focus on the bigger picture rather than mucking around with every possibility.

    Have fun and listen
    It's easy to get absorbed by the hypnotic path of colored lines bouncing around the screen, but try to really listen to what is coming out to give you ideas on where to take it next....

    Thank you sooomuch. super helpful as I watched your video several times and have tried to copy a similar workflow - much to my avail and frustration. Back to Fugue Machine now to give it a try I think. Again - thanks

  • lukesleepwalkerlukesleepwalker

    I was thinking that I've underutilized FM--and many other iOS gems. Choose an instrument like this (and I do think it's an instrument) or gestrument or Samplr or Geoshred or TC data or and go deep and master it? I imagine you could create sound worlds unknown heretofore to the Earth with time and practice. The next new thing makes us a mile wide but an inch deep!

  • fprintffprintf

    @lukesleepwalker said:
    I was thinking that I've underutilized FM--and many other iOS gems. Choose an instrument like this (and I do think it's an instrument) or gestrument or Samplr or Geoshred or TC data or and go deep and master it? I imagine you could create sound worlds unknown heretofore to the Earth with time and practice. The next new thing makes us a mile wide but an inch deep!

    This is it for sure. Too much choice is actually limiting! When synthesizers were thousands of dollars you got to know your instruments capabilities pretty deeply because you didn't have an option to just go buy another. I have to start playing with what I have rather than looking on with GAS at all the new toys coming on the market! Oooo shiny!

  • FlightManualFlightManual

    Between you, me, and your machine: I run it into an Octatrack to trigger a selected sample if something sounds boring, and if it sounds good I hit record/play and snag a nice line in the sequencer. I find it is a lot of fun making snares, kicks and hihats come alive, either using it to pitch a sample or play a set of beats in a sliced sample chain. Just a trick.

  • MayoMayo

    Fugue machine is one of my top apps of all time for me.
    Thank you @aplourde for sharing your tips on this, your playing and dedication to FM is inspiring! SO great to watch your vid :)

    Alexandernaut is a hero for making this incredible app.
    Still gassing for his next genius creation in the works for 2 years now - must be dropping soon...

  • SuboiduaSuboidua

    i hope fugue machine have a randomizer for notes and also for the settings.

  • Telstar5Telstar5

    @aplourde ; Thanks SO much!!!!!

  • Telstar5Telstar5

    @Alexandernaut : Is this gonna be an ios app? Sounds crazy great!

  • SpookyZooSpookyZoo
    edited July 2018

    I’m still wondering what the secret new feature for Fugue Machine that got teased 3 years ago might be!! :)

  • db909db909

    @aplourde wow great info! Exactly what I was looking for thank you ! Very cool stuff

  • olioli

    Is it somehow possible in the recent version of FM that the playheads don't jump to the beginning, when you adjust the in-/out-points?
    If it's not possible now, maybe that could be one new feature in the new version?

  • ChaztripChaztrip

    This is great!!

  • [Deleted User][Deleted User]
    The user and all related content has been deleted.
  • bleepbleep

    Re-watching the video made much more sense after having read that detailed writeup. Thanks, @aplourde!

  • rudrud

    Sorry if I’ve missed something but I have a question. Is there a way to instruct a playhead to only play, for example, the first eight notes of a sequence before returning to the start? I could’ve sworn I’d seen one of the playheads do this in a project but I cannot reproduce it. Cheers.

  • eggfriedriceeggfriedrice

    Dunno, but thanks for bumping this thread. The advice in the comments above is amazing

  • rudrud

    @eggfriedrice ha, cool. It’s a great thread indeed. Hopefully we can get more tips. @Alexandernaut im having a fugueing great time using this wonderful app 😎

  • rudrud

    Fugue question for any Fuguers. Can anyone please tell me how to record Fugue machine in Cubasis without getting ‘double notes’ in the piano roll? I tried to edit some notes and found duplicates underneath and I’m not sure why. Cheers...

  • AlexandernautAlexandernaut
    edited May 2021

    @rud said:
    Fugue question for any Fuguers. Can anyone please tell me how to record Fugue machine in Cubasis without getting ‘double notes’ in the piano roll? I tried to edit some notes and found duplicates underneath and I’m not sure why. Cheers...

    It's hard to know which app is the culprit, but if it's Fugue Machine, my guess would be that you have All Playheads Output and the individual Playhead Outputs set to the same MIDI Destination with different MIDI Channels. To check, go to More Menu > Settings > MIDI Output Settings.

    If you want all the playheads sent to the same destination, simply turn off all the individual Playhead outputs to Not Connected. If you want to send them separately, turning off the All Playheads Output will help.

    If you want to do something more complicated, one thing to keep in mind is... if you have any of the outputs set to the same MIDI Destination and different MIDI Channels, the notes are intentionally duplicated on those different channels. However, if for any reason they're set to the same MIDI Destination and the same MIDI Channel, Fugue Machine knows it's the same place and does not duplicate.

    Hope this helps, but if it not, I'd check with Cubasis. Good luck 🙌

  • AlexandernautAlexandernaut

    @Telstar5 said:
    @Alexandernaut : Is this gonna be an ios app? Sounds crazy great!

    ye 🔮

  • rudrud

    @Alexandernaut thank you very much, I turned off ‘all playheads’ and now there’s only one instance of a note recorded instead of two. Brilliant.

  • AlexandernautAlexandernaut

    @rud said:
    @Alexandernaut thank you very much, I turned off ‘all playheads’ and now there’s only one instance of a note recorded instead of two. Brilliant.

    Great to hear :]

Sign In or Register to comment.