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.

It feels like I need Mersenne

Hello app lovers! Let’s keep this simple — I own Kronecker and it’s one of my favorites. Does Mersenne offer something different? I love the certain coldness and brightness of the demo. Advice appreciated and encouraged.

Comments

  • When you say "something different", do you mean in terms of programming or...?

    I'm not much of a synth-understander, but I own both Kronecker and Mersenne and love Mersenne and its uncanny bing-bongs. Like you said, a certain coldness and brightness. It makes noises that feel real yet alien; natural yet unnatural. There's nothing quite like it.

    In terms of rolling your own sounds, I haven't had time to dig into Kronecker yet, but I believe that if you can wrap your head around Kronecker, Mersenne should be a doddle.

    If you're asking, "Is Kronecker basically Mersenne with extra bits so I don't really need Mersenne?" someone else can surely answer you better than me. It's true that they both combine FM and noise, but they are also designed with different outcomes in mind.

  • Coming to these forums and asking if you need an app is like asking alcoholics if you need another drink.

    As for Mersenne: yes, you need it.

  • @lukesleepwalker said:
    Coming to these forums and asking if you need an app is like asking alcoholics if you need another drink.

    As for Mersenne: yes, you need it.

    so, do I need Kronecker then? :wink:

  • @david_2017 said:

    @lukesleepwalker said:
    Coming to these forums and asking if you need an app is like asking alcoholics if you need another drink.

    As for Mersenne: yes, you need it.

    so, do I need Kronecker then? :wink:

    Yes, you do ;)

  • edited August 2018

    I have all synths from this dev and dont like their sound. That certain type of coldeness and brightness is the wrong type of coldness/brightness to my ears. So i would say no, you dont need it, but you will buy it anyways, whether or not you like it! :D

  • @ToMess said:
    I have all synths from this dev and dont like their sound. That certain type of coldeness and brightness is the wrong type of coldness/brightness to my ears. So i would say no, you dont need it, but you will buy it anyways, whether or not you like it! :D

    Yeah none of their synths are for me I guess. Don't hate them, they just make me shrug

  • edited August 2018

    When you say "something different", do you mean in terms of programming or...?

    Something different in terms of outcome. Sorry should have been more specific. I love Kronecker. I always seem to come back to it and find it immensely interesting and fun. I'm looking to have that same vibe but hopefully with a different sound. So I hope that is more clear.

    Thanks for all the comments. Keep 'em coming.

  • @ToMess said:
    I have all synths from this dev and dont like their sound. That certain type of coldeness and brightness is the wrong type of coldness/brightness to my ears. So i would say no, you dont need it, but you will buy it anyways, whether or not you like it! :D

    Haha ain't that the truth, you'll buy it regardless, and then it'll slowly be pushed from your home screen to screen two... To three and so on until it's in a random folder you forget about...

  • Kronecker can get what you would want from Mersenne imo. I have both and like both. Mersenne takes less processing power and is a bit less complicated.

    I will say that the presets in Kronecker are incredibly tame - this thing goes far beyond the twee ringing bells and the like. Kronecker can get great snarly feedback sounds that are aggressive and multidimensional. It’s the most interesting sounding synth of 2018. There - I said it.

  • Thanks @ALB Any differences between the arps? I just noticed that the download is a very light 11mb.

  • @ALB said:
    Kronecker can get what you would want from Mersenne imo. I have both and like both. Mersenne takes less processing power and is a bit less complicated.

    I will say that the presets in Kronecker are incredibly tame - this thing goes far beyond the twee ringing bells and the like. Kronecker can get great snarly feedback sounds that are aggressive and multidimensional. It’s the most interesting sounding synth of 2018. There - I said it.

    I agree. I use it just for the snarly feedback in some cases--with the LFO and resonator, it can approximate the "wooliness" of amplified guitar feedback.

    I hope we can do a patch sharing of the month activity with Kronecker at some point.

  • ALBALB
    edited August 2018

    @kinkujin said:
    Thanks @ALB Any differences between the arps? I just noticed that the download is a very light 11mb.

    The arps are the same. Quite good once you get your head around it.

  • edited August 2018

    @ALB I agree about the comment re: Kronecker being the best synth of 2018. For me, at least, based on how much I just go to it to find inspiration and musical "solace". It's paid for itself already.
    Thanks again!

    update Bought Mersenne as I discovered it will still run on my iPad2. That's a huge win for me!

  • Just spent a bit of my lunch hour with this and i'm sufficiently pleased and hooked. I love the responsiveness of this on my iPad. Very much Kronecker yes, but a true delight. I find the presets are a bit "samey" here and there but do demonstrate the intended focus. I do believe there is more lurking beneath though. Don't know why I waited so long on this one. As a percussionist, it scratches some itch in me...

  • I was gifted Mersenne and didn't take to it immediately. It took me some time to really see where it was different and figure out how to use it effectively. In fact, it wasn't until Kroenecker was released that I really dug into Mersenne.

    I was in the opposite boat as you - had Mersenne but wanted Kroenecker. Yes, they are similar, but the application is different. I REALLY enjoy messing with Kroenecker, and it got me back into Mersenne.

    I'm not sure I'd recommend these to everyone, but they both definitely fill a niche that no other synth I have does. Mersenne is my immediate go-to for that bell-like, FM tone. Chimes and gongs and the like. Once you figure out the signal flow it really opens up some cool possibilities.

  • edited August 2018

    @daveypoo Thanks you made me feel more justified in purchasing it! Actually, I love Kronecker so much it was an almost no-brainer. I haven't gotten any of the other recent synths from IceWorks though. Might need to think about that.

  • edited August 2018

    @kinkujin said:
    @daveypoo Thanks you made me feel more justified in purchasing it! Actually, I love Kronecker so much it was an almost no-brainer. I haven't gotten any of the other recent synths from IceWorks though. Might need to think about that.

    I don't know that I could recommend Laplace or Lorentz as enthusiastically as I do for Kronecker and Mersenne. To me, the latter are standouts for THAT sound, as evidenced by comments here (both positive and negative--there is very little middle ground). Laplace and Lorentz are good, but I rarely use them. I'm sure many others will disagree but I think if you are into that tuned percussion type thing, you won't gravitate to them like you will to Kronecker and Mersenne.

  • It just occurred to me that both Mersenne & Kroenecker would work really well with AAS Objeq...

  • @ALB said:

    @kinkujin said:
    Thanks @ALB Any differences between the arps? I just noticed that the download is a very light 11mb.

    The arps are the same. Quite good once you get your head around it.

    One cool thing to note: All of the recent IceGear apps (Laplace, Lorentz, Mersenne, Redshrike and Kronecker) store the user arp files in a common space, so if you save an arp in one, it will be available in all.
    Conversely, if you delete an arp in one app, it will be gone in all....

    I do miss how in V1 of the apps (prior to unified Arps and AUv3 extension that arrived in V2) you could map MIDI controls to the arp controls; that was fun.

    @lukesleepwalker said:
    I don't know that I could recommend Laplace or Lorentz as enthusiastically as I do for Kronecker and Mersenne. To me, the latter are standouts for THAT sound, as evidenced by comments here (both positive and negative--there is very little middle ground). Laplace and Lorentz are good, but I rarely use them. I'm sure many others will disagree but I think if you are into that tuned percussion type thing, you won't gravitate to them like you will to Kronecker and Mersenne.

    Lorentz is a pretty standard subtractive synth (with a resonator section). It's nice, but not exceptional.

    Laplace, on the other hand, I love. It's basically Karplus-Strong synthesis and capable of really great plucked sounds. It has a nice digital / organic quality on its own, but really shines when you modulate the parameters. Here's an extreme example:

  • That is some wild stuff!! Thanks for that. Well, in a way because now I’ll likely have to have it.

  • You don’t NEED it. But you probably WANT it. And you’ll almost certainly GET it. Join the club!

  • Yeah, these help-me-make-a-decision threads seem to be a foregone conclusion for me.

  • If I already have La Grange, do I need Mersenne ? As I understand it, La Grange is the all in one synth by iceWorks ( all his previous synths in one La Grange).

  • @aplourde said:

    @ALB said:

    @kinkujin said:
    Thanks @ALB Any differences between the arps? I just noticed that the download is a very light 11mb.

    The arps are the same. Quite good once you get your head around it.

    One cool thing to note: All of the recent IceGear apps (Laplace, Lorentz, Mersenne, Redshrike and Kronecker) store the user arp files in a common space, so if you save an arp in one, it will be available in all.
    Conversely, if you delete an arp in one app, it will be gone in all....

    I do miss how in V1 of the apps (prior to unified Arps and AUv3 extension that arrived in V2) you could map MIDI controls to the arp controls; that was fun.

    @lukesleepwalker said:
    I don't know that I could recommend Laplace or Lorentz as enthusiastically as I do for Kronecker and Mersenne. To me, the latter are standouts for THAT sound, as evidenced by comments here (both positive and negative--there is very little middle ground). Laplace and Lorentz are good, but I rarely use them. I'm sure many others will disagree but I think if you are into that tuned percussion type thing, you won't gravitate to them like you will to Kronecker and Mersenne.

    Lorentz is a pretty standard subtractive synth (with a resonator section). It's nice, but not exceptional.

    Laplace, on the other hand, I love. It's basically Karplus-Strong synthesis and capable of really great plucked sounds. It has a nice digital / organic quality on its own, but really shines when you modulate the parameters. Here's an extreme example:

    Oh, what’s that sequencer app? Looks like what I wished Lk would look like

  • @lukesleepwalker said:
    Coming to these forums and asking if you need an app is like asking alcoholics if you need another drink.

    As for Mersenne: yes, you need it.

    Best description for the AudioBus forum ever 😅😅😅

  • @dobbs The sequencer is modstep..

  • edited January 2022

    @tja said:

    @lukesleepwalker said:
    Coming to these forums and asking if you need an app is like asking alcoholics if you need another drink.

    As for Mersenne: yes, you need it.

    Best description for the AudioBus forum ever 😅😅😅

    Lol. I don’t have it but I do think it falls into a certain sound type of category. Not a bread and butter synth, I guess depends on what your looking for. Watching a few YouTube videos is the best option beside there being a free version of an app…

  • I have most if not all of the devs apps but I keep coming back to Mersenne.

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