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.

Recording from IOS to IOS device using USB only

McDMcD
edited February 2019 in Other

I have 2 iPhones and an iPad.

I would like to use Apps on the iPhones and record the output on the newest iPad.

If I cable 2 of them to an iConnectAUDIO4+ will I be able to record the iPhone output on the iPad without having Digital-to-Audio and Audio-to-Digtal conversions (lossless audio recording)?

Is there any other powered USB Hub that will allow this type of recording?

All digital, all the time FTW!

Comments

  • Yes. You can go iOS to iOS, digitally, with the iconnectAudio4. Can't do all three at once though (that I'm aware of).

  • Coincidence - I was thinking about deleting the Ravenscroft Piano app off the iPad and keep it on the iPhone (as I have loads of storage on the phone - more that the iPad!) and looking for a way to record into the iPad on cubasis. This could be the way to go! Thanks

  • @ajmiller said:
    Coincidence - I was thinking about deleting the Ravenscroft Piano app off the iPad and keep it on the iPhone (as I have loads of storage on the phone - more that the iPad!) and looking for a way to record into the iPad on cubasis. This could be the way to go! Thanks

    I tried the D-to-A and A-to-D path through my current audio interface and it's OK given the $300 cost of getting the iConnectAUDIO4+. I have a lot of the Colossus Piano models and it consumes 25GB on my iPhone. So, I got a refurbed iPhone SE with 128GB of storage to load every App I own. I just need to move AUM setups from the iPad to the iPhone to avoid having to fight the useless iPhone UI.

    I'm finding I can craft a guitar FX chain in AUM and load it to the iPhone and velcro it to the guitar and have a really mobile guitar rig. I have a Breedlove Acoustic with a Fishman Isys Guitar Pickup/Preamp that has USB Micro-B female port. USB Micro-B cables are a lot less bulky too. Of course, the Fishman is performing the A-to-D function but it's probably comparable to the iPhones little A-to-D chip for quality. It sounds great. I'm sure @Telefunky can hear the issues but when talking a walk or setting up for an open mic every ounce, cable and electronic device counts.

  • No, I'm shure I cannot hear any issues with a Fishman PU system.
    But I bet a 25GB piano lib is outperformed by a humble 2MB Korg sample set from the 90s on an open stage gig... o:)
    Here's my favourite one they used on the DSS1 sampler
    http://www.synthmania.com/Korg DSS-1 Sound Library/KSDU-022 Pianos/A01 GR.PIANO.mp3

  • @Telefunky said:
    But I bet a 25GB piano lib is outperformed by a humble 2MB Korg sample set from the 90s on an open stage gig... o:)

    Just to be clear. The Colossus $56 "Brown Concert Grand" sample is 12GB, the $26 White Piano is about 6GB the black $16 Yamaha is about 4GB, the$15 EPianos are about 3GB's total for about 8 EP types models. I personally like them more that the Neo Soul's but most like the grunge of the Neo Soul samples because the Rhodes usually sound that distorted (in a good way). Very tube-like.

    What you say about a good small sample piano is very accurate. In a band or a complex mix a piano need to cut through the frequency spectrum with a lot of highs. But for solo piano that sound is like a can opener mixed with something that sound be soothing.

    I fired my band (I just gave up on a pro career actually and got a degree in Engineering to make some money and have benefits). I now play solo piano exclusively now with headphones so I can hear myself make mistakes and avoid carpal tunnel syndrome from trying to compete with electric instruments. On one stage I sat right in from of the bass players speaker cabinet and had to try and sing in tune. Recordings prove I wasn't up to the challenge. I just wore ear plugs and got through it to play my rent.

    RC275 (as the @LinearLineman will attest) is the closest you can get to owning a IOS piano that gives the rewards of owning a concert grand. And you can play at 2AM while everyone in the house is asleep. The pianos in the current crop of digital pianos are even better than that.

    Colossus is better than RC275 but it won't function as an AUv3 instrument in a DAW. It just hits the 340MB barrier and the DAW kills it. IAA gets around this but then the DAW produces crackling so why bother. Just play it solo and recording it from an outboard iPhone is the best approach.

  • edited February 2019

    I attest! @McD. Tho the Korg American model D is extra fine, but will not play thru a midi track and not velocity adjustable. That being said I only use the RC275 now to double piano samples recorded from my Kawai MP11se. Love is fickle, but, yes, on iOS it is my fave.

  • edited February 2019

    I assume you want to play the piano by sequencer or recorded midi.
    The example above is for shure not the greatest for a solo performance, but imho it's got just the right ingredients to handle a band context in a sub par acoustic ambience.

    A great solo instrument giving the perfect illusion under cans is a very different story.
    It will suffer much more from a low quality PA system and those infamous room conditions.
    (which you already know of course)

    An interface like the iCA4+ isn't the most convenient with it's wallwart, but in the end you'll need some analog output connections anyway.
    (headset sockets on mobile devices aren't your most reliable gig companions)
    The 2 USB cables will provide power to your iPhone and iPad, move about 10 digital stereo pairs and a bunch of midi channels between the devices, connect to the PA or FoH mixer and may add local monitoring under your own control.

    It's a good package with a fair price tag and I have to admit I like iConnectivity for their technical achievements as much as I hate them for their product philosophy and support.
    Afaik they have the only reliable multi-host setup in town.
    Setup itself is kind of a pita (particularly in the beginning), but once completed it's a nice performer.

    Right atm I use mine to get out of the iPad into the analog (and digital crap) domain by using AUM to send one of the busses through a Lexicon Vortex delay and back into IOS.
    Midi (DIN) goes to a Yamaha TX7 that's fed into a JamUp Amp sim.
    One fx channel to the Vortex, another one parallel to an IOS delay to A/B different options or enhance certain aspects of sound.
    I'm still amazed (after using the iCA4+ for a couple of years) how easy such setups are accomplished. Big thumbs up to @j_liljedahl from Kymatica for his great work (AUM, Audioshare and AuFX) as without them it wouldn't be possible, at least not with such ease :+1:

    Your choice - just consider my blurb is IOS-9 only focussed. It works for me and I won't change it under no circumstances. Until I buy a new iPad...

  • Audreio is an ios app that transmits wireless audio between smart devices and / or to a vst loaded in your DAW.

    https://audre.io

  • McDMcD
    edited February 2019

    @Dr_M said:
    Audreio is an ios app that transmits wireless audio between smart devices and / or to a vst loaded in your DAW.

    https://audre.io

    I'll look into that and update the thread with my findings.

    UPDATE: Not acceptable for realtime. It introduces a 1/2 second latency between the iPhone App output and the Recording on the iPad. For a non-structured piano solo that might work. You would just listen to the iPhone audio without any delay and save the recording in the iPad's AUM or AB3 session. Just a little more convenient than transferring wave files between devices. I rarely start with Piano and add other tracks.
    The piano track is recorded last over a rhythm section or pattern of loops.

  • Worked for me when I tested it.

    From their site:

    No more listening to lossy compression! Audreio streams lossless 16-bit audio over local networks and remotely, and 32-bit when connected via cable. Stream in any configuration with our iOS App, AAX/VST/AU plugins, or desktop client app.

    High quality, fully automatic sample rate and channel count conversions (when needed), makes streaming between different environments seamless and easy.

    Audreio’s engine is optimized to deliver the lowest latency possible while maximizing reliability over any connection. When using the plugin, this latency is automatically compensated for in compatible DAWs.

    Even if network conditions are poor and dropouts can be heard during streaming, the recording is free from glitches. Record to a file in iOS, or automatically record in the plugin and drag from the plugin to the track to place the audio.

    No setup, no typing addresses, no configuration. Simply open the plugin or app and the devices are available to use.

  • @Dr_M said:
    Worked for me when I tested it.

    From their site:

    No more listening to lossy compression! Audreio streams lossless 16-bit audio over local networks and remotely, and 32-bit when connected via cable. Stream in any configuration with our iOS App, AAX/VST/AU plugins, or desktop client app.

    High quality, fully automatic sample rate and channel count conversions (when needed), makes streaming between different environments seamless and easy.

    Audreio’s engine is optimized to deliver the lowest latency possible while maximizing reliability over any connection. When using the plugin, this latency is automatically compensated for in compatible DAWs.

    Even if network conditions are poor and dropouts can be heard during streaming, the recording is free from glitches. Record to a file in iOS, or automatically record in the plugin and drag from the plugin to the track to place the audio.

    No setup, no typing addresses, no configuration. Simply open the plugin or app and the devices are available to use.

    I'm sure its great for streaming but when I press a MIDI controller key and hear music 1/2 of a second later it's unusable over a straight audio connection. If I spent $300 on iConnectAUDIO4+ and get this same result I'll be well and truly pissed. I'm probably going to just use my current Audio Interface until further notice. The differences between Colossus and RC275 are not great enough to justify pouring $300 into another piece of hardware when I really need a MIDI drum set. I mean really gotta have it this year.
    I'm sick of drum machines... they just don't listen. They are still machines.

  • Could you monitor from the device sending the audio?

    You could listen to the headphone port since your using WiFi/lightning to transmit audio.

    There may be a small delay on the receiver side but not from the output iPhone/iPad. Also if you use multiple instances of Audreio they sync together so that’s all the recordings align, besides a small delay. There’s less latency if you connect the devices directly with lightning cables, as described in the documentation.

    The lowest latency audio is always directly from the instrument.

    Audreio is a free app that lets you directly connect iOS devices to transmit lossless audio, much like an iconnect4, but without spending a couple hundred bucks.

    Did you try by directly connecting the iOS devices?
    Also if you used WiFi, how fast is your router?

  • In my experiences with Audreio and ICM4+ I never have those latency issues mentioned..., so possibly something else is the culprit with your setups? Only trying to be constructive here, but I also only ever had simple ideas for testing Audreio, and never used it in a longer session/show. It always was fast and super-reliable for me, though.
    Same for ICM4+, which I use incessantly for the last two years with only little hiccups sometimes (audio starts crackling, midicontroller gets lost, always solved by a quick refresh...). My 2c

  • Audreio is a streaming app, a completely different game from the iConnectivity drivers, which do near realtime transmission of audio data blocks.

    You can't tell the delay of the latter by listening, only when monitoring source and destination you get a slight phasing as an indicator of a few milliseconds displacement.
    (the difference is also expressed in Audreio's app description about transmission crackling while live monitoring, but flawless file receive. It's a 2 step process, not a single direct transfer)

    If you don't need to get audio from one device to the other, Bluetooth midi triggering may be an option while you output Audio via each device's headphone jack.
    This may introduce additional onboard latency due to Apple's specific handling of the headphone/speaker output in recent devices (or IOS > 10) iirc.

    The only reliable candidates seems to be the iCA2/4+ interfaces, as many comments here show.

  • @animal said:
    In my experiences with Audreio and ICM4+ I never have those latency issues mentioned..., so possibly something else is the culprit with your setups? Only trying to be constructive here, but I also only ever had simple ideas for testing Audreio, and never used it in a longer session/show. It always was fast and super-reliable for me, though.
    Same for ICM4+, which I use incessantly for the last two years with only little hiccups sometimes (audio starts crackling, midicontroller gets lost, always solved by a quick refresh...). My 2c

    My experience as well. Using Audreio with lightning cables reduces latency.

    @Telefunky - Bluetooth midi is another legit solution if it meshes with op’s needs.

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