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.

How Does A Creator Flourish?

edited March 2019 in Other

? (my new approach)

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Comments

  • Define terms.

  • Find an audience.

  • edited March 2019

    Making a positive impact with that which you create may be the highest form of being. To that end, I’d like to publicly thank you for the massive impact your melodic private dedications made on my love and her family through a very rough time. I frequently played the music you sent me in the hospital for Denisse and her father as she never left his side for 2 months. I can’t quantify how much it meant to them and others who happened past his room. I just sat with him through one of his daily and dreadful 4 hour dialysis sessions and a much needed distraction came by way of his nurse coming by and asking, “any new music?” Thanks again old guy!🙏🏾

  • Feeds on reaction -good and bad.

  • Completely forgetting the creative process. Making a strict path of technical perfection. Never, never become your own audience. Your job is Not to listen in a relaxing or inspiring way. Leave that for the masses.

    Reverse engineer your favorites. Try to make exact copies. This is the way to flourish.
    Also, become very peculiar about time-management, and very defensive when asked “why don’t you put it down for a minute and join the rest of us.”

  • Have something to lose/put it all on the line?

  • @JohnnyGoodyear... confused! If you mean a creator flourishes by defining his or her parameters for working/satisfaction, I couldn't agree more. If you want me to define more clearly... flourish=satisfaction (contentment, community, excitement, joy) + productivity (new stuff, new understanding, evolution)

    Thank you so much for saying those kind words, @WillieNegus, it was my pleasure. and please give my best regards to your family. I hope things are at least stabilized. And please offer them some of my latest stuff on SoundCloud, including the new midi interpretation experiments (always promoting! I love this midi interpretation thread. Please join in, either with a midi project or with your interpretation of one!).

    If I look at my own recent productivity (60 postings in 8 months) I am kind of shocked. Actually, the most productive I have been in thirty years 😂😳🙈😎, it is easy to attribute the causes... 1/the fabulous tools, possibilities and ease of the iOS platform, and 2/this forum and its goodhearted, generous, talented and knowledgeable souls.

    To say one thing more, I know my own creative satisfaction has a lot to do with not seeking perfection, but in the continual flow of musical expression. I try to complete a track in one sitting after improvising the material in bulk. I fear there are quite a few out there who seek perfection not for its own sake (in other words out of love for perfection, damn the effort and time) but for other reasons. I think we all know that what those reasons might be.

    That's why the midi experiment interests me so much. @Onkey said something like "you can make a piece of music and blame the guy who provided the midi tracks!" He was joking, but really I think he understood the pressure of creating material that meets one's own standards. That self judgement is often incorrect, but putting that aside, working from another's foundational material is very freeing and points to one thing in particular (for me): in a way it doesn't matter what you start with. It is the working of it that makes a satisfying end result. If you think of the musical material as a lump of wet clay it can easily become a beautiful bowl. But if your idea is that you must begin with a beautiful bowl it may just as easily become a lump of wet clay!

    I was taught to understand that musical creation at its core is mysterious and cosmic. I simply don't know where it comes from, just that "I" have to get out of its way. I believe this is a universal truth.

  • @zetagy, yours is a perfect use of perfection. You make it a tool, not an obstacle. Good words and advice. My mom would always find me in the basement as a kid at 3am building balsa wood airplanes She always admonished: Leave some for tomorrow. Wtf! I was a balsa wood artist!

  • “I was taught to understand that musical creation at its core is mysterious and cosmic. I simply don't know where it comes from, just that "I" have to get out of its way. I believe this is a universal truth.“
    -@LinearLineman

    Yes, quite accurate and profound. We seem to have two selves. Or two sides, like an iceberg. The known and visible side feels separated from everything. The world is an object to observe, fear, own, etc. This side is not bad, but without its other half can become dangerously shallow. The other hidden side is like the part of the iceberg below water. It’s our foundation, connected to everything. Made of millions of parts and in turn part of an even larger whole. At home with the dirt, the animals and insects, the trees, the electromagnetic energies. This is the fertile soil which births creative acts, from the smallest word or gesture to the largest masterpiece. The two sides work together. One is the raw material. The other is the tools and knowledge that shape it into something useful and expressive.

    Or as Lisa Simpson put it... Bleeding Gums Murphy taught me that music is like a fire in your belly that comes out of your mouth, so you better stick an instrument in front of it. 🙂

  • @MonzoPro said:
    He creates.

    Constantly

  • @JohnnyGoodyear
    😄 It is good that there is a protective covering on my iPad for those times that i spit out coffee while laughing!

  • edited March 2019

    @LinearLineman said:
    @JohnnyGoodyear... confused! If you mean a creator flourishes by defining his or her parameters for working/satisfaction, I couldn't agree more. If you want me to define more clearly... flourish=satisfaction (contentment, community, excitement, joy) + productivity (new stuff, new understanding, evolution)

    I think what I meant as regards defining terms (it feels like hours ago, I'm really very tired :)) was concerning the word flourish. If we define what that means to us we will have likely answered the question (or provoked others that might lead us there).

    Thus for some finance leads to flourishing whereas others flourish entirely internally (and therefore on their own terms alone). If to flourish is to create great work it might require a logical conclusion of suicide such is the pain that produces the work OR the doing of the work itself is the thing that provides peace finally (and thus flourishment) to the creative concerned.

    My own best work was def. done in the grip of addiction (madness and war), but I have flourished (stayed alive) since ceasing. And, yes, my work is far paler. Worthwile question.

  • Creating for the sake of creating, regardless of an audience, is my current yard stick for ‘creator flourishing’.

    Anything beyond that involves other motives/intensions/needs/work/courage etc. I haven’t openly shared much in around ten years but tell myself I am in the upgrading/learning/sandbagging/stockpiling phase for when I have a platform or vehicle that excites me again and I will sift through the archives and collect/polish off a bunch of ‘new’ ‘albums’.

    Sure Rich, err, I mean Gus, maybe you will finaly send that demo tape to Dick Clark (or at least bring back the old website). Boy my html is rusty but being a squealy pawn in the big streaming ‘like’ games just doesn’t excite me. Anyway, been making stuff. Happy with what I am making but feel the need to wrap it in an audio/visual thing of some sort... or not, clock is ticking with or without my intensions and... uh oh, I feel a depressing turn coming on, best I just wrap this one up.

  • @waynerowand said:

    @MonzoPro said:
    He creates.

    Constantly

    When I can squeeze it in - just been cleaning mould off the window frames, so time for a music session now :)

    @AudioGus said:
    Creating for the sake of creating, regardless of an audience, is my current yard stick for ‘creator flourishing’.

    I currently have four musical 'projects', or recepticles. The most user friendly goes into my Horse Gas thing, and stuff that's a bit weirder, punkier, or crappier, gets shoved into the 2nd and 3rd projects...and the really terrible stuff that should really be deleted ends up in the 4th.

    Since I have limited time for my musical noodlings, I can't really afford to throw anything away so it all gets used. And since no-one really buys or listens to what I do anyway, it doesn't really matter. What does matter, is having a focus - or end destination for what I'm doing, and thinking it sounds ok.

    Making music makes me happy and I'd do it anyway, but having somewhere to put it other than my hard drive, so other people might listen to it (Soundcloud, Bandcamp, Twitter etc.), means I try harder to do something half decent. It forces me to think more about the end result and to try and improve the quality of my output. Makes it more real.

    So I'm constantly creating regardless of whether anyone's listening or not, but at the same time trying to progress to feel I'm doing more than just wanking off an experimental jazz art project. I'm nearly there.

  • @AudioGus ...I admire your current yardstick but how do you maintain your motivation by just creating for your own use (achievement) only and not relying on the buzz from someone else saying “I like/dislike that”?
    Or by ‘regardless of an audience’ do you mean from actually performing in front of others?
    I don’t perform live now but , I think, unless I played some of my poor efforts (all really) to my family sometimes I would get bored .

  • The user and all related content has been deleted.
  • @MonzoPro said:

    @waynerowand said:

    @MonzoPro said:
    He creates.

    Constantly

    When I can squeeze it in - just been cleaning mould off the window frames, so time for a music session now :)

    @AudioGus said:
    Creating for the sake of creating, regardless of an audience, is my current yard stick for ‘creator flourishing’.

    I currently have four musical 'projects', or recepticles. The most user friendly goes into my Horse Gas thing, and stuff that's a bit weirder, punkier, or crappier, gets shoved into the 2nd and 3rd projects...and the really terrible stuff that should really be deleted ends up in the 4th.

    Since I have limited time for my musical noodlings, I can't really afford to throw anything away so it all gets used. And since no-one really buys or listens to what I do anyway, it doesn't really matter. What does matter, is having a focus - or end destination for what I'm doing, and thinking it sounds ok.

    Making music makes me happy and I'd do it anyway, but having somewhere to put it other than my hard drive, so other people might listen to it (Soundcloud, Bandcamp, Twitter etc.), means I try harder to do something half decent. It forces me to think more about the end result and to try and improve the quality of my output. Makes it more real.

    So I'm constantly creating regardless of whether anyone's listening or not, but at the same time trying to progress to feel I'm doing more than just wanking off an experimental jazz art project. I'm nearly there.

    Right on Monzo, I have been genuinely inspired by your output and vision. Let it pour!

  • edited March 2019

    @Jomodu said:
    @AudioGus ...I admire your current yardstick but how do you maintain your motivation by just creating for your own use (achievement) only and not relying on the buzz from someone else saying “I like/dislike that”?
    Or by ‘regardless of an audience’ do you mean from actually performing in front of others?
    I don’t perform live now but , I think, unless I played some of my poor efforts (all really) to my family sometimes I would get bored .

    I am pretty lucky to have the chance to work in a field where I can get a decent amount of respect for my skills doing mildly creative work in graphics (I am ultimately just an industry cog though, certainly not a star); but it is enough for me to have patience with my personal stuff (mainly music) to play the long game, so to speak. When I was younger I felt the need to get stuff out fast to get love back fast (or in the case of graphics, pay the rent). I do miss that sort of stream of consciousness release with music and maybe will get back into it, but feel I need a milestone to plant a flag in a project that sets a new bar for me.

    So yes, by 'regardless of an audience' I do mean, without anyone hearing it (not a live player). For the past ten years or so I have mostly been making things knowing that no one will hear X piece, but one day soonish I think they will hear at least an album or two. But yah, before that from the 90s to the mid aughts I was all about everything getting out. I think that mindset for me at the time and where I was skill wise just gave me compounded anxiety. Reality checks etc. Now I am just more realistic about where I am at and what I should expect when releasing something. So to wait, be patient, avoid too many shortcuts etc is finally seeping in.... in my 40s, lol.

    Anyway, I know it is the sign of a procrastinator to be 'waiting for features' but really I am doing two or three sketches a week and feeling great. But I am making a target of audio tracks in NS2 as the point for me to say 'ok, lets finish X tracks now'. Really, regardless of where the feature is at (functionality wise) at that point I will just do it. I am actually genuinely in love with this current set of tracks and their potential that I look forward to doing a nice critical review in a year or so and putting a nice big bow on the whole deal.

    By then I hope to have got a new ipad/pencil and be doing visual work for fun (couch/commute, balcony etc) without critical 'work voice' corrupting the efforts. The audio/visual balance is pretty important to me and it has been a long time since i had the same level of fun and freedom with visuals but that needs to happen in tandem.

  • edited March 2019

    @JohnnyGoodyear, thank you for the deep insights. As profound a statement as I have heard from you and very personal. That we feel we can trust this forum with our vulnerability is remarkable considering the context, as @Mcd would be quick to point out. I might say your creativity flourished but the creator struggled deeply. I am very glad you survived. Creating does come in waves. As I said, thirty years since the last great rush for me. Your time may come again. Life is full of surprises.
    @AudioGus, Sundays can be depressing in themselves. Remake one of McD's midi files. A definite pick me up!

  • @LinearLineman said:
    @JohnnyGoodyear, thank you for the deep insights. As profound a statement as I have heard from you and very personal. That we feel we can trust this forum with our vulnerability is remarkable considering the context, as @Mcd would be quick to point out. I might say your creativity flourished but the creator struggled deeply. I am very glad you survived. Creating does come in waves. As I said, thirty years since the last great rush for me. Your time may come again. Life is full of surprises.
    @AudioGus, Sundays can be depressing in themselves. Remake one of McD's midi files. A definite pick me up!

    Hehe, thanks, I was just going down a 'me spiral' for a sec. All is well again!

  • @Jomodu said:
    @AudioGus ...I admire your current yardstick but how do you maintain your motivation by just creating for your own use (achievement) only and not relying on the buzz from someone else saying “I like/dislike that”?

    Oh, also more specific to this, making music for me is just like playing a video game is to a gamer (speaking as a former mild enthusiast) or even just being engaged in a good documentary series or show. Yah it takes more muscles and juice to do than the former but it is just about fun. Creative anxiety is gone when there is no pressure to pay rent or win props.

  • Horses for courses. I hear most of known creative people need turbulence to generate. In my case it is mental peace, stability and environment. Give me all those three and I”m capable of factory level output.

    Wait, I forgot something....sleep.

  • edited March 2019

    With gratitude and mortality salience.

  • @gusgranite said:
    With gratitude and mortality salience.

    Very good and the next time you need a nom de plume Mort Salience....

  • Le Petit Mort might suit you better tonight @AudioGus.

    And check out the Procol Harum post. You’ll believe you can live forever!

  • @LinearLineman said:
    Le Petit Mort might suit you better tonight @AudioGus.

    And check out the Procol Harum post. You’ll believe you can live forever!

    I knew a woman on E2 who used that handle....I love GG, but it just wouldn't be the same :)

  • edited March 2019
    The user and all related content has been deleted.
  • You might want to use the handle yourself @JohnnyGoodyear. @Max23 its always been very good to me. Helps my creator flourish.

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