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.

Any Apps That Might Make My Voice Better?

I have a pretty weird singing voice. Too low, too high, nothing just right. Kept me from wasting my life in music (God is good). I can sing on pitch and my speaking voice has been complimented quite often ( tho it sounds cruddy to me on playback... You know that feeling). Any advice?

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Comments

  • Do you want to process your voice as it is or improve your singing skills with practice?

  • I think if you can sing in tune then your voice should be OK, Bob Dylan proved that. Some compression and reverb and maybe some double-tracking is all you need.

  • @McDtracy process as it is. @richardyot ...Dylan's voice became strangely satisfying, even in his various incarnations. Mine, not so much.

  • Singing is much more difficult than playing an instrument. I've been practicing singing pretty hard for about a year-and-a-half now, and it's still a struggle. There is no magic app. You just practice and slowly get better. Very slowly, in my case.

  • @Wrlds2ndBstGeoshredr said:
    Singing is much more difficult than playing an instrument. I've been practicing singing pretty hard for about a year-and-a-half now, and it's still a struggle. There is no magic app. You just practice and slowly get better. Very slowly, in my case.

    I know that feeling! I'm five years in, and still only passable.

  • @richardyot said:
    I think if you can sing in tune then your voice should be OK, Bob Dylan proved that. Some compression and reverb and maybe some double-tracking is all you need.

    So how do you best do a vocal double-tracking with iOs!?

  • The Waves AudioTrack IAP in Cubasis could be a good start and after that a touch of reverb.
    If more 'vocal effects' are needed the TC-Helicon VoiceRack FX AUv3 is a good addition :)

  • @marcuspresident said:

    @richardyot said:
    I think if you can sing in tune then your voice should be OK, Bob Dylan proved that. Some compression and reverb and maybe some double-tracking is all you need.

    So how do you best do a vocal double-tracking with iOs!?

    Recording the vocal twice is always the best :)

  • Ok! The hard way, right. :smile:

    @richardyot said:

    @marcuspresident said:

    @richardyot said:
    I think if you can sing in tune then your voice should be OK, Bob Dylan proved that. Some compression and reverb and maybe some double-tracking is all you need.

    So how do you best do a vocal double-tracking with iOs!?

    Recording the vocal twice is always the best :)

    @Samu said:
    The Waves AudioTrack IAP in Cubasis could be a good start and after that a touch of reverb.
    If more 'vocal effects' are needed the TC-Helicon VoiceRack FX AUv3 is a good addition :)

    Is it like HarmonyVoice or better?!

  • wimwim
    edited January 2019

    @LinearLineman, I have the same problem and have worked for years to get my vocals to sound better. I feel like I’ve finally come up with something that works pretty well. It’s time consuming but worth it in the end. Maybe it will help you.

    1. Get a decent mic. It doesn’t need to be the ultimate microphone because we’re not trying to capture all the nuances of a fabulous voice, are we? But it needs to be good enough that we’re not fighting other issues due to a crap mic.
    2. I always double track, triple track, fourple track my vocals (as time and patience allows). This takes time, but is one of the best ways to compensate for lackluster vocal quality.
    3. I then carefully pan and eq each track so that you’re filling up an appropriate stereo field. I like to solo each take and EQ and compress them separately to sound as best individually as possible, then combine them and EQ and compress again.
    4. I put warmer on the combined track (I’m currently favoring ReAmp, but this varies). This can be a great help if not overdone.
    5. I don’t favor chorus myself, but is good to try if things still aren’t coming together.
    6. For reverb or delay, I use a send track. Then before the reverb I EQ out everything below about 400Hz and above about 4000Hz. This helps keep the effect tighter. I adjust the effect(s) while soloing to where it starts to sound good, then back it off a little. I recheck after un-soloing.
    7. Finally, I mute all vocal channels. This last step is the most critical, and has helped my vocals more than any other technique I’ve found so far.

    Hope it helps.

  • @marcuspresident said:

    Is it like HarmonyVoice or better?!

    Don't have Virsyn's Harmony Voice so I can't tell...
    I do have Virsyn's Harmony Eight but mainly use as a 'multi-tap delay' together with pitch-shift per 'tap'.

    VoiceRack FX has nice 'effects' if one wants to sound like Popeye or Olive or maybe simulate some megaphones etc. etc.

    Found a nice video on YouTube where a person plays around with the VoiceRack FX app :)

  • edited January 2019

    Thanks everyone for your helpful suggestions. @wim, that is wonderfully detailed advice. I am afraid I am showing a significant knowledge gap here, but what do you mean "mute all the vocal tracks" in point 7? I think I might be missing a bit of basic understanding about how recording works. Thanks @samu. Interesting app.

  • wimwim
    edited January 2019

    @LinearLineman said:
    Thanks everyone for your helpful suggestions. @wim, that is wonderfully detailed advice. I am afraid I am showing a significant knowledge gap here, but what do you mean "mute all the vocal tracks" in point 7? I think I might be missing a bit of basic understanding about how recording works. Thanks!

    No worries. It’s a little known and somewhat esoteric technique. Sorry, I should have explained it in more detail.

    Muting the vocal tracks results in an attenuation of the sound down to zero dB. This is accomplished through advanced algorithms that it’s probably best not to explore here. Suffice to say that it results in the user perceiving that the vocals do not appear at all in the mix. This technique is generally considered the most effective means of rendering the timber and styling of certain vocalists in a satisfying and ultimately comforting manner.

    Some experts recommend zero-tracking the vocals rather than multi-tracking them, unplugging the microphone, deleting the audio tracks before the final mixdown, and even phase cancellation by inverting on a duplicate track. But I find muting all vocals to be just as effective.

    I struggled mightily with my vocals until I discovered this technique. Sure there are other ways to go about it, but I offer this one here as a time-saving tip that is hopefully as effective for you as it has been for me.

  • edited January 2019

    .

  • my humble guess about @wim 's point 7 is how much the track is loosing by the missing vocals - so one is going to accept the personal performance much easier.
    Yet point 1 is the most important:
    a decent microphone that fit's your voice and performance.
    I'd rather suggest delay and only a bit of reverb to avoid drowning personality in fx sauce.

    My most stunning fx experience from last year was just that, one of the oldest delays that was kind of pumped up in it's days to provide reverb (at the end of the 70s).
    It was a software emulation (of course), but the result had me sitting slack-jaw in front of the screen - big surprise.

  • edited January 2019

    I remember reading that John Lennon didn’t like his voice and constantly asked George Martin to use effects to change it. That really might be an interesting strategy. Treating the voice like an instrument. Putting effects on it and twisting the sound and delivery to fit the expressiveness and intention of the song, rather than to necessarily sound “good” (whatever that be. Tastes differ wildly. I often prefer singers with character and passion rather than perfect pitch and 5 octave range. Stevie Ray Vaughn, Janis Joplin, Bob Marley, Joe Strummer, Bono, Springsteen, and of course John Lennon for example)..

  • edited January 2019

    @wim you are wicked funny

  • As a poor singer, I find the limits of software manipulation are soon reached. I think the suggestions to learn how to sing better will yield more significant improvement more quickly especially the @AndyPawlak advice.

  • Skillshare, Masterclass, and Udemy are pretty useful apps. Skillshare is subscription only. Masterclass is hella expensive, but you can choose either the annual subscription or buy each class outright. Udemy is about the most budget-friendly one-time-purchase option. Currently their classes are running mostly at $11.99 per class.

    I've not taken any singing lessons off of any of these, but I'm sure they are on Udemy. :)

    As far as vocal production is concerned, @wim basically covered it.

  • edited January 2019

    Singing is like laying your penis out on an anvil and handing out hammers.

    The trick is learning to trust in the decency of 99% of the human race. Still, 1 out of 100 is still a tough bet to make.

    Why does anyone do this? No one sings perfectly by the standards of all people. Every singer has been injured by the off hand comment. "You sound like your testicles are being put in a vice." "How do you think I get up to that G."

    I used to sing with bands and I was an OK singer. I added good harmonies but covered 15% of the lead singing since we played 30 hours a week and played without great monitors so it was easy to loose your voice regularly due to strain.

    But I found that 10% of the audience thought I was very talented.
    I was their favorite whil I knew perfectly well the lead singer was in front for 2 very good reasons. His voice and another one... it will come to me. Of yes, he could fill a house with females hoping to catch his eye. That is enough to keep a band working.

    It's all a matter of taste. I could not bear to hear myself sing and that's the second problem. You will NEVER like your voice. You will only hear how bad you are. So, why should all of us sing? Because all of us can. You will find and keep an audience. Hopefully the rest will just ignore you and not take a whack at your manhood. But there are no guarantees. Man up. Sing us a song.

    RE: Tools. You want to add extra copies of your voice to improve the quality easily. A Multi-Tap Delay helps gets that multi-tracked sound faster and helps you listen to the song without having to sing it over and over and over. 4Pockets Multi-Tap Delay, Audio Damage Dischord4, Brambos Kosmonaut, RE-1 Taoe Machine could all help and are AUv3's for Cubasis use.

    If you want to catch the odd imperfect note add a pitch shifter or harmonization app like Hamonizr or Harmony-8. They both also allow you to play MIDI chords and hear yourself as a choir I think. I know Harmonizr does. I've used it. I own the other but I have this technical debt... I'll get to it.

    Reverb of course and to fix or hide your voice Dervoco (Vocoder) for that singing Robot sound that has made @bedheadproducer infamous as a lead singer. Mix that in with your real voice to hide behind. Honestly, as he peels away the masks I find that he's got a great voice. It's as full of character as is his writing. I'm sure yours will also reflect your true self... funny, caustic and not someone you'd want to start a war with but one you would go to a war with just for the adventure and the laughs.

    OT: My wife just took a video of me and sent it to me. I have become my father.

  • @Littlewoodg said:
    @wim you are wicked funny

    Yep.

  • @wim thank you Obi-Wim. The Seventh Rule is golden....

  • Yeah @wim, you crack me up 😂

  • @wim said:
    7. Finally, I mute all vocal channels. This last step is the most critical, and has helped my vocals more than any other technique I’ve found so far.

    Genius. If only we could do this for many popular artists. Just mute all vocals. :^)

  • This should be added to the FAQ.

    Q: Are there any apps that might make my voice sound good to me?
    A: No.

    It should probably be used in a more general form.

    Q: Are there apps that can give me talent?
    A: Apps can only enhance existing talents.

    Unless you use a subtractive approach.

    Q: How can I reign in my considerable talents?
    A: Scramble the outputs of the recordings.

  • wimwim
    edited January 2019

    I feel kinda bad for making light of such an important topic. So, please accept this as my sincere attempt to make amends.

  • @wim said:
    I feel kinda bad for making light of such an important topic. So, please accept this as my sincere attempt to make amends.

    Classic Woody. He should do a masterclass.

  • @wim. I fell hook line and sinker... The mute function has always been rather mystical to me..... But now your credibility is shot. I will have to take all your advice with a grain of mute!

  • Reverb of course and to fix or hide your voice Dervoco (Vocoder) for that singing Robot sound that has made @bedheadproducer infamous as a lead singer. Mix that in with your real voice to hide behind. Honestly, as he peels away the masks I find that he's got a great voice. It's as full of character as is his writing. I'm sure yours will also reflect your true self... funny, caustic and not someone you'd want to start a war with but one you would go to a war with just for the adventure and the laughs.

    OT: My wife just took a video of me and sent it to me. I have become my father.

    Nice. I will try that. And for Reverb is AudioReverb any good? And will FAC Chorus work as delay?

    /Marcus

  • edited January 2019

    @LinearLineman said:
    @wim. I fell hook line and sinker... The mute function has always been rather mystical to me..... But now your credibility is shot. I will have to take all your advice with a grain of mute!

    I'm telling you we need a HUMOR font. Wars could be avoided if we only had a HUMOR font.

    Until then we should use TEXT WRAPPERS FOR HUMOR.

    SH: = Start Humor
    -IT = Instance Termination

    Then we just wrap Humorous text in SH:-IT and laughter ensues everytime.

    Example of a famous Campaign Promise

    SH: And we'll get Mexico to pay for it -IT

    Almost all my post would be wrapped with SH:-IT and people would suddenly SH: Get me -IT. Right now they want to get at me.

    I'm absolutely serious about this SH:-IT stuff. No kidding. I'm using it until it goes viral.

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