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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Cubasis, Audiobus & Midi Clock: How does it work?

edited February 2013 in App Tips and Tricks

Hello everyone,
I just bought Cubasis to see what it looks like and there is one thing that astonishes me. I've been working with loopy which can send a very comfy start/stop signal to funkbox and other apps for recording loops during audiobus. Cubasis has midi implementation and there is also a clock in for Cubasis in funkbox. But the start/stop trigger doesn't work. What am I doing wrong?

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Comments

  • You're not doing anything wrong. As far as I know the MIDI implementation for clock sync is not yet able to do this. Emphasis on yet.

  • $50 for an app the does not do clock sync, are you kidding me? Isn't that what makes an app a DAW?

  • DAW - Doesn't Anything Work?

    Thought that was obvious...

  • You the man now, DAW?

  • Nah, just the deputy - Deputy DAW.

  • DAW Gone it why won't this MIDI work?!?!?!?!

  • It can be so DAWting sometimes.

  • We need some rim shot samples about now!

  • rim shot samples would be dawsome.

    Tip your bartender...

  • Can Cubasis send midi clock to Loopy HD? I have Cubasis set to send midi clock, and Loopy's clock input set to Cubasis, but Loopy does not seem to be syncing to Cubasis.

  • @Sebastian said:

    You're not doing anything wrong. As far as I know the MIDI implementation for clock sync is not yet able to do this. Emphasis on yet.

    ;-)

  • @obiwahnkentobi said:

    @Sebastian said:

    Emphasis on yet.

    ;-)

    That was 14 months ago. Is 1.8 going to fix this?

  • 1.8 of what?

  • edited April 2014

    The problem is two-fold, I believe. First, Cubasis does not send clock events from its own virtual MIDI port, so if you are in another app and try to configure "Recv Clock from Cubasis" it will do nothing. Secondly, the send clock option in Cubasis does a broadcast send to all other apps' virtual midi inputs, so Loopy HD is receiving it, BUT when you hit play in Cubasis, it does not send a clock start, only a song position followed by a clock continue message (then the usual ticks), which some apps don't respond to properly. I thought Loopy would, but I just tested it and something weird is definitely going on.

    Also, Cubasis's clock events are not properly timestamped, so other apps may not even handle any of it well, if they don't override the empty timestamps themselves (necessary, but meaning the events from Cubasis are always a little jittery).

  • That's threefold... :)

  • @gburks said:

    Can Cubasis send midi clock to Loopy HD? I have Cubasis set to send midi clock, and Loopy's clock input set to Cubasis, but Loopy does not seem to be syncing to Cubasis.

    Welcome to the twisted world of IOS MIDI sync. Daway with the fairies.

    You may want to try midibus. It is cheap and may do the trick. Emphasis on 'may'.

  • One trick I've been using to get around some of the madness is:

    1) Setup Midibridge to map the transport controls on my hardware keyboard to midi start and stop commands (using the stream byter).
    2) Setup the two apps that I want to start and stop in sync to both receive clock (or transport if available) from Midibridge.

    This doesn't allow for Song Position unfortunately, but at least it syncs up the beats.

  • edited May 2014

    OK, here's a shot at it. This solution works on an Axiom Air Mini 32. There's some weirdness in how they implemented.

    For example, the transport keys (stop, play, record) are actually mapped to Midi CCs #16, 17, 18 with note on/off. This means that hitting the Play key sends on Midi CC 16 at 127. Releasing it sends on Midi CC 16 at 0.

    1) Download Midibridge https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/midibridge/id449160859?mt=8... This isn't the only cool thing you can do with it. The dev is extremely responsive on the Audeonic forum and will help you figure out if something is possible and how to map it.

    2) Open the Stream Byter inside Midibridge. You will have to understand that all messages will be entered in Hex instead of Decimal. For example Stop is Midi CC 16 (decimal) = Hex 10, Play is Midi CC 17 (decimal) = Hex 11, etc.

    3) Map the transport functions to send clock signals. Midi Start is FA and Midi Stop is FC. In the code used by Stream Byter it would look like this:

    B0 10 = FC
    B0 11 = FA
    ^ B0 is denoting Midi channel 1

    Its not something that is super easy to set up, but its learnable. Every controller will have a slightly different set up to make this work. I've also used Midibridge to setup keyboard splits to control different apps as well as block note off messages to enable continuos looping (this controller only works as momentary).

  • I just did a quick test using MIDIBus as the external clock to drive Cubasis. Cubasis doesn't respond. I sure hope most developers get their act together in this area the same way they did with AudioBus.

  • Cubasis does not receive midi clock......it only sends.Try using Midibridge not Midibus and set core midi destination to localhost. I use this method(trick?) to sync StepPolyArp to Cubasis all the time and it works pretty well.

  • Is it still the case that Cubasis doesn't send MIDI Start messages?

  • I have been successful in triggering start, stop and tempo sync using Cubasis with a number of apps. However, the apps will only work when using the app in Cubasis via IAA; not AudioBus. The app must accept MIDI clock, which it receives from Cubasis through IAA. The app also must be able to turn on or off the external MIDI clock function.

    Some of the apps that work are: BeatHawk; Different Drummer; DrumJam; Drum Perfect; Elastic Drums; Gadget; Loopy HD; these are the apps I have tested so far. Notice, most of what I tested are drum or sequence oriented apps. It would be important for synth only apps, also to sync to MIDI clock; because you might want their built-in arpeggiators to sync to tempo.

  • Thanks. Are you sure it's sending MIDI Start and not MIDI Continue? I have a beta tester for Cubasis, so I'll work it out.

  • Yes, it did do start and stop with the above apps mentioned. I hope I remembered which ones really worked, it gets confusing. Some apps (not mentioned) didn't work, even if they clicked on External MIDI Clock. So, I guess it is how well their MIDI implementation is?

  • It really does get confusing! For instance, I've never managed to get Auria to generate a Start. For Start, it does a MIDI Song Position Pointer of zero followed by a MIDI Continue.

  • I think you have to wait for Auria Pro to be released. The current Auria has no MIDI implementation.

  • @bsantoro said:
    I think you have to wait for Auria Pro to be released. The current Auria has no MIDI implementation.

    It does, actually, I just got Diode working with it after a lot of arm wrestling. I think it's a confusing UI and some lies it tells that make people think it's not there.

  • Wow, Auria Pro should be even better?

    I take it back, I don't think that Loopy HD worked with start and stop.

  • @bsantoro said:
    Wow, Auria Pro should be even better?

    I take it back, I don't think that Loopy HD worked with start and stop.

    Sigh. Will the madness never end?

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