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ToneBridge app tips

edited January 2019 in App Tips and Tricks

So, I’m trying very hard to like this app because I like the sound. I mean, it is limited as far as effects are concerned but I find the overall sound pretty decent.

I can’t say the same about the interface. Whether I create a new pedalboard or favourite something I’ve just created I cannot easily find it afterwards. Especially when I open the app as an AU. I couldn’t find presets in AU mode but I found the create your own preset button only that it is at the bottom of the search list and it is impossible to press it as it springs back down! What a mess. Is it me or the Machine is more crazy?!

Any TB experts out there? Tutorial videos?

Comments

  • Mmm, it's pretty empty in here.

    Does it really mean that the only AUV3 guitar effect app on ios has no core of avid and knowledgeable users?

  • @supadom said:
    Mmm, it's pretty empty in here.

    Does it really mean that the only AUV3 guitar effect app on ios has no core of avid and knowledgeable users?

    It's a bit like GarageBand. A great free option that most of us here just don't use. It's often better to just start with one question rather than ask for videos which are easy to find if they exist and hard if they don't.

    Do you seek a particular use case? Many here like to answer questions and will just test your use case and reply but to ask for
    "search" advice doesn't get many excited.

  • Hi, Tonebridge is essentially and app called AmpKit +. It was the first amp sim I ever bought and remains one of the best sounding there is with only Bias Fx and Bias Amp a close second with Tone stack a tie for second. I lobe and still use Ampkit but it is uttrely unsupported. For some reason I don’t mind the fact that something I paid quite a lot for is now free. The single biggest obstcle as an AUv3 is the interface. It is intended to be used with the online service that secured the rights to it. If using it in Stagelight getting to your patches is almost impossible and you can’t change up pedla on the fly. The best you can do is get your basic amp sound and use effects in Stagelight.

    Tonebridge and ampkit are stereo effects and you can string a ton of pedals together in Ampkit.

    Here’s a video I did to point out a possible bug in Stgelight with Tonebridge.

  • edited January 2019

    @McDtracy said:

    @supadom said:
    Mmm, it's pretty empty in here.

    Does it really mean that the only AUV3 guitar effect app on ios has no core of avid and knowledgeable users?

    It's a bit like GarageBand. A great free option that most of us here just don't use. It's often better to just start with one question rather than ask for videos which are easy to find if they exist and hard if they don't.

    Do you seek a particular use case? Many here like to answer questions and will just test your use case and reply but to ask for
    "search" advice doesn't get many excited.

    Thanks captain, a long time forum veteran here. Appreciate your response though.

    The app sounds good to my ears it’s just it is a bit rough around the edges, especially within an AU host like AUM or AB.

    My precise, and only question is in the OP: I cannot find the way to save the presets I’ve saved in standalone in the AUV3 version. So I’m trying to ascertain whether there actually IS a way of saving them.

    I have a feeling you might be wrong thinking that not many of ‘you here’ use this app.

    May I ask what is the worthy guitar app you are using?

  • Thanks @AmpApps

    Ampkit use to be my first ‘proper’ iOS guitar app. I’ve used it a lot until ToneStack came out.

    I’m making some effort researching it because I’m trying to replace most of my IAA apps with AUV3 equivalents but looks like I might have to watch this space until either TB folks improve preset handling or some other developer jumps on the wagon.

    Thanks for the answer. I’ll check out the video.

  • Ok, I admit this app forces me to get all wonky, but I have a way to sort of easily find tones and create presets in AUM. It seems to work OK in apeMatrix, but in AB3 there are no presets for some strange reason. You have to make presets in each host, too. They don’t see the presets from the other hosts.

    So, what I do is open the standalone version, then I browse and load any preset, favorite, or element of a pedal board that I want to use in the AU version.
    Close once you are done rounding up all the tones you want to use (just by browsing and loading them, one after the other).
    Now, open the AU version, and hit the search button. All of the tones you just browsed should be near the top of the history. You have to load one at a time, then save the preset in the hosts interface.

    Redundantly lame, but eh, it works.

  • I found that ToneBridge patches that are stereo in the standalone version are mono when used as an AUv3. Cubasis and Auria.

  • @CracklePot said:
    Ok, I admit this app forces me to get all wonky, but I have a way to sort of easily find tones and create presets in AUM. It seems to work OK in apeMatrix, but in AB3 there are no presets for some strange reason. You have to make presets in each host, too. They don’t see the presets from the other hosts.

    So, what I do is open the standalone version, then I browse and load any preset, favorite, or element of a pedal board that I want to use in the AU version.
    Close once you are done rounding up all the tones you want to use (just by browsing and loading them, one after the other).
    Now, open the AU version, and hit the search button. All of the tones you just browsed should be near the top of the history. You have to load one at a time, then save the preset in the hosts interface.

    Redundantly lame, but eh, it works.

    Yes, audiobus is still to get user presets. When it does it will complete my personal wish list.

    Neat, exactly what I was looking for. I'll try it later. Thanks @CraclePot

  • @bigcatrik said:
    I found that ToneBridge patches that are stereo in the standalone version are mono when used as an AUv3. Cubasis and Auria.

    I don't use either but could it be that the track you're on is mono?

  • @CracklePot I’ve just tried it but the AUV doesn’t retain the other effects, just the amp and speaker emulation as far as I can tell. When I open the ‘recent’ with spring reverb the reverb is not there. Does it work for you?

  • See... Tonebridge was bought by the Ultimate Guitar Tabs folks so getting it changed might take a while. So it’s a free app that drives you crazy. Go figure. I’m buying so many great AU FX apps that I might forgo the use of an Amp Sim but my fav is Tone Stack.

    I go guitar crazy every few years and I max’ed out Tone Stack and was using those FX until I stocked up on all the great sale FX to cover most areas of FX and now FX are becoming dynamic auto-knob twisters beyond what a pedal might offer for sound design.

    REAMP into a great IR Reverb will probably cover my needs but I have a lot to play with.
    JamUp Pro is also great tone for my tastes. I tired of AmpliTube’s sound.

    I’m glad you got some feedback to your question.

  • edited January 2019

    @McDtracy said:
    See...So it’s a free app that drives you crazy. Go figure.

    I don’t see how it is unreasonable to expect any app to work or have a fairly straight forward, useable interface. In fact I think it is suicidal for a company to put out a product (free or otherwise) that drives people nuts. It is wasted development time and wasted company image building opportunity if people get frustrated by their product and start seeing the brand as flaky as a result.

    I grant you that there is a possibility that I’m the only one having issues with it.

    I’ve been using TS for a while now and really appreciate having so much under one hood. The route of using different separate AU apps to build a guitar patch wouldn’t work for me as I need to switch presets at a press of a button and still don’t trust App’s stability to continuously switch the preset for the whole aum session. Call me paranoid. ;)

  • @supadom said:
    @CracklePot I’ve just tried it but the AUV doesn’t retain the other effects, just the amp and speaker emulation as far as I can tell. When I open the ‘recent’ with spring reverb the reverb is not there. Does it work for you?

    You have to build the preset from scratch in the workshop, in the standalone. I couldn’t figure out how to start from an existing preset, but it is pretty easy to remember which components make it up and load those in, swapping out any components you wanted to change. Then just match the settings as best you can. Save this new, custom preset with a unique name.
    If you browse your custom presets in the workshop, they will appear in the history list when you use the search function in the AU, like the regular presets in their catalog, or your favorites and pedalboards.

  • edited January 2019

    @supadom said:

    @bigcatrik said:
    I found that ToneBridge patches that are stereo in the standalone version are mono when used as an AUv3. Cubasis and Auria.

    I don't use either but could it be that the track you're on is mono?

    The signal from Tonebridge is mono in Auria on a stereo or mono audio track. Cubasis just has one type of audio track. I like the "make stereo" options in Auria, though, so it may have become a moot issue (for me, at least; it really should work).

  • edited November 2019

    @bigcatrik said:
    I found that ToneBridge patches that are stereo in the standalone version are mono when used as an AUv3. Cubasis and Auria.

    In Garageband the same - mono. (November 2019)

    But I found workaround for that. There is free AU plugin: "Stereo Lag Time" in appstore. It have range from 0 to 250ms. You have to play with it and find correct value for you. For my ears it make stereo from mono :) Cheers.

  • Hey @supadom, just found this thread as I am experiencing the same frustrating problem here, for what seems the same reason - trying to replace all IAA apps with AUV3 equivalents. Been using Tonestack for a while and enjoying but ultimately when my CPU gets high it starts to cause problems and is the weakest link in my workflow chain.

    I also appreciate having everything under one hood as sculpting sounds I’m happy with via the use of multiple FX apps I find to be too cumbersome and difficult to work with, much less tweak live. Unfortunately it still seems there’s not much in the way of a suitable replacement in the audio unit world... I’d ignored Tonebridge for the last year or so because people on the forums didn’t seem to take it seriously but playing around with it the other night I was pleasantly surprised until I stumbled upon the issue with presets.

    I was able to load them into the preset slot in an AU instance but find selecting presets in that way is ONLY functional when online...have you experienced this too or am I missing something? Also even when online it seems patches I created in the standalone version workshop can’t be selected as presets in the AU with midi commands but has to be brought up with the search function.

    Since this thread is now nearly a year old I’m wondering if you or anyone else ever did find it workable and useful or have you moved on to find something else?

  • @ManWhoWouldBeStrings said:
    Hey @supadom, just found this thread as I am experiencing the same frustrating problem here, for what seems the same reason - trying to replace all IAA apps with AUV3 equivalents. Been using Tonestack for a while and enjoying but ultimately when my CPU gets high it starts to cause problems and is the weakest link in my workflow chain.

    I also appreciate having everything under one hood as sculpting sounds I’m happy with via the use of multiple FX apps I find to be too cumbersome and difficult to work with, much less tweak live. Unfortunately it still seems there’s not much in the way of a suitable replacement in the audio unit world... I’d ignored Tonebridge for the last year or so because people on the forums didn’t seem to take it seriously but playing around with it the other night I was pleasantly surprised until I stumbled upon the issue with presets.

    I was able to load them into the preset slot in an AU instance but find selecting presets in that way is ONLY functional when online...have you experienced this too or am I missing something? Also even when online it seems patches I created in the standalone version workshop can’t be selected as presets in the AU with midi commands but has to be brought up with the search function.

    Since this thread is now nearly a year old I’m wondering if you or anyone else ever did find it workable and useful or have you moved on to find something else?

    I ended up buying a zoom floor multieffect pedal. Not ideal but at least when things go tits up at a gig at least my novation circuit and guitar are still making sound while I'm rebooting my audiobus sess.. Show must go on. ;)

  • I use Tonebridge quite a bit as, like so many others now, I’m trying to migrate to an all-AUv3 workflow.

    Yes, creating and managing Workshop presets is pretty awkward. The thing about Tonebridge that bugs me the most, however, is its lack of state saving.

  • @supadom said:

    @ManWhoWouldBeStrings said:
    Hey @supadom, just found this thread as I am experiencing the same frustrating problem here, for what seems the same reason - trying to replace all IAA apps with AUV3 equivalents. Been using Tonestack for a while and enjoying but ultimately when my CPU gets high it starts to cause problems and is the weakest link in my workflow chain.

    I also appreciate having everything under one hood as sculpting sounds I’m happy with via the use of multiple FX apps I find to be too cumbersome and difficult to work with, much less tweak live. Unfortunately it still seems there’s not much in the way of a suitable replacement in the audio unit world... I’d ignored Tonebridge for the last year or so because people on the forums didn’t seem to take it seriously but playing around with it the other night I was pleasantly surprised until I stumbled upon the issue with presets.

    I was able to load them into the preset slot in an AU instance but find selecting presets in that way is ONLY functional when online...have you experienced this too or am I missing something? Also even when online it seems patches I created in the standalone version workshop can’t be selected as presets in the AU with midi commands but has to be brought up with the search function.

    Since this thread is now nearly a year old I’m wondering if you or anyone else ever did find it workable and useful or have you moved on to find something else?

    I ended up buying a zoom floor multieffect pedal. Not ideal but at least when things go tits up at a gig at least my novation circuit and guitar are still making sound while I'm rebooting my audiobus sess.. Show must go on. ;)

    A good idea having the external hardware to save the silence! One of the most appealing things to me with all this though is the portability as I travel internationally a lot, so still trying to make it all work on the Pad...

    Did you (or anyone else here who sees this) ever try out Stark Amp Sim by Klevgrand?

  • @kgmessier said:
    I use Tonebridge quite a bit as, like so many others now, I’m trying to migrate to an all-AUv3 workflow.

    Yes, creating and managing Workshop presets is pretty awkward. The thing about Tonebridge that bugs me the most, however, is its lack of state saving.

    I don’t mind awkward as long as it can work but I can’t seem to get any Workshop ‘preset’ to be recalled when loaded as a preset into AUM...and again, nothing if offline. Have you had any luck with this?

  • @ManWhoWouldBeStrings said:

    @kgmessier said:
    I use Tonebridge quite a bit as, like so many others now, I’m trying to migrate to an all-AUv3 workflow.

    Yes, creating and managing Workshop presets is pretty awkward. The thing about Tonebridge that bugs me the most, however, is its lack of state saving.

    I don’t mind awkward as long as it can work but I can’t seem to get any Workshop ‘preset’ to be recalled when loaded as a preset into AUM...and again, nothing if offline. Have you had any luck with this?

    I only ever use the Search function to find presets—I don't use MIDI. As for online vs. offline, I can only pull up whatever presets I've used recently if I'm offline (by scrolling through the list), and doing a search of any sort won't work.

    I realize this is a free app, but I hope they'll give it some attention. I haven't contacted them about any of these things; perhaps I should!

  • @kgmessier said:

    @ManWhoWouldBeStrings said:

    @kgmessier said:
    I use Tonebridge quite a bit as, like so many others now, I’m trying to migrate to an all-AUv3 workflow.

    Yes, creating and managing Workshop presets is pretty awkward. The thing about Tonebridge that bugs me the most, however, is its lack of state saving.

    I don’t mind awkward as long as it can work but I can’t seem to get any Workshop ‘preset’ to be recalled when loaded as a preset into AUM...and again, nothing if offline. Have you had any luck with this?

    I only ever use the Search function to find presets—I don't use MIDI. As for online vs. offline, I can only pull up whatever presets I've used recently if I'm offline (by scrolling through the list), and doing a search of any sort won't work.

    I realize this is a free app, but I hope they'll give it some attention. I haven't contacted them about any of these things; perhaps I should!

    I tried contacting them and am still waiting for a response... My experience with contacting devs has been overwhelmingly positive and helpful in the past however so we’ll see, but I don’t have high expectations for a response. But do try and of course let us know if you get anything back!

    I really would love to use this, but without being able to select presets with a midi command like it appears as an option in AUM, it’s kinda worthless for me

  • @ManWhoWouldBeStrings As I think you know, you can select presets using midi in the IAA. If you're intent on using AU, could you not just load several instances with different presets on different channels in AUM and then use AUM's midi controls to jump between them? I get that's not particularly elegant though, especially with the preset selection issues.

  • I think live one could get away with dialing a good guitar tone and use other apps like turnado to add effects like delay, modulation etc. Turnado is AU and it's midi implementation is spot on.

  • @steve99 said:
    @ManWhoWouldBeStrings As I think you know, you can select presets using midi in the IAA. If you're intent on using AU, could you not just load several instances with different presets on different channels in AUM and then use AUM's midi controls to jump between them? I get that's not particularly elegant though, especially with the preset selection issues.

    Actually I haven’t found how to select presets with midi in the IAA? And anyways I can’t seem to get it to load as IAA anymore so that’s out... I had tried the option you suggested with multiple AU instances but discovered that when one preset is changed it changes the other, which seemed pretty ridiculous, but after checking again realized that it just changes the name displayed for all instances, but the settings remain as set in that instance, so it is a possibility I guess, just probably more load on the system...

    @supadom I have experimented with Turnado which as you said has spot on midi implementation (love that dictator), but have gotten overwhelmed when trying to get sounds that aren’t just total sound mangling experimental fun...might have to give it another go though with your suggestion. Thanks

  • @ManWhoWouldBeStrings Thanks for reporting back, could well save me some serious head scratching if I end up trying my own suggestion.

    If you do ever find yourself back in the Tonebridge IAA, you can get to the midi controls by selecting the ‘featured’ tab and then scrolling all the way down to the bottom where you’ll find an ‘external pedal interface’ menu.

    If using Bluetooth you’ll need to connect in another app first (like midimttr or AUM). I fired Tonebridge up on a new device yesterday and a ‘permission to connect to Bluetooth’ dialogue popped up, but I’m not sure it did anything, maybe that was for audio rather than midi.

    I use IFX rack (AU) sometimes for guitar effects, but I’m no tone purist. More considered opinions can be found on that App elsewhere on the forum.

  • @steve99 said:
    @ManWhoWouldBeStrings Thanks for reporting back, could well save me some serious head scratching if I end up trying my own suggestion.

    If you do ever find yourself back in the Tonebridge IAA, you can get to the midi controls by selecting the ‘featured’ tab and then scrolling all the way down to the bottom where you’ll find an ‘external pedal interface’ menu.

    If using Bluetooth you’ll need to connect in another app first (like midimttr or AUM). I fired Tonebridge up on a new device yesterday and a ‘permission to connect to Bluetooth’ dialogue popped up, but I’m not sure it did anything, maybe that was for audio rather than midi.

    I use IFX rack (AU) sometimes for guitar effects, but I’m no tone purist. More considered opinions can be found on that App elsewhere on the forum.

    Cool thanks, maybe I can get the IAA to work again, but the fact that I can’t right now is exactly the reason for looking for AU instead...

    Will check out IFX rack and the other forum thread as suggested, as I’m no tone purist either, whenever I try too much to control and dial in a tone I lose my mind endlessly tweaking knobs! Was considering Stark but haven’t seen much enthusiasm for it, and at 19.99 didn’t feel like just giving it a random try, yet...

  • IFX + Stark + Rooms! with some cab IRs should do the trick.

  • After years of agonizing over trying to find a great amp sim solution (I don’t own a desktop, just iOS), if a beginner or intermediate guitar player with aspirations to become a better guitar player asked me, I would say don’t waste your time and money on iOS unless you need a stopgap $-wise. I think anyone who means to improve and not just putter around will eventually come around to have their own sensibilities about tone. I say that because I never cared about tone, I’d just let someone do it for me. But after years of agonizing over trying to find a great amp sim solution on iOS, I found out I do care about tone. I’d easily advise to spend the money on hardware (not necessarily an amp, though!).

  • @oat_phipps said:
    After years of agonizing over trying to find a great amp sim solution (I don’t own a desktop, just iOS), if a beginner or intermediate guitar player with aspirations to become a better guitar player asked me, I would say don’t waste your time and money on iOS unless you need a stopgap $-wise. I think anyone who means to improve and not just putter around will eventually come around to have their own sensibilities about tone. I say that because I never cared about tone, I’d just let someone do it for me. But after years of agonizing over trying to find a great amp sim solution on iOS, I found out I do care about tone. I’d easily advise to spend the money on hardware (not necessarily an amp, though!).

    With the power, flexibility, and variety it offers, I think iOS is a great place for a beginning guitarist to start. Couple that with the myriad music-related apps that serve other functions (e.g., iReal Pro, Anytune Pro+, iStrobosoft), and you can get quite a lot of mileage in an eminently portable device.

    And if it turns out music isn’t your thing after all, you’ve still got a great tablet capable of doing much more than making a noise.

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