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.

I need iOSaturation!!

So I have some effects with saturation control..
Re1 tape, dig it but doesn't have a lot of control as it's not the effects main feature..

Enso has great saturation as well but only works when you create a loop which I'm not always going to do, and again it is limited in control...

Fly tape can saturate but I feel it's more of a bit crushing thing..

Daw cassette, pretty dirty almost too much and little control...

And I think that's all I have but I'm away from my iPad so I maybe missing somethings..

What I am looking for is to add a nice phat saturation that gets dirty but not all super hissy / noisey distorted that's just loud and annoying and needs low passed to death to kill the hisssss
.. i like that sound of recording via Mic thru an amp to get that old style studio recording phatness ... So I'm thinking maybe re amp, (but it is 20 bucks so I wanna be sure) from klevgrand is worth looking at but it's hard to tell in yt videos how good it is...
Also... Degrader ? Looks like it can do a good job but I don't want to bit crush per say...

Is there a good iOS solution? Or should I just peak my recordings into the red hha

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Comments

  • Reamp has been well worth it for me. A comparatively expensive plugin, but a surprising range of distortion and saturation sounds that is subtle but distinct. The eq sections really bring out extra character. Everything just sounds better going through Reamp, to me at least. I would recommend reading the manual to get a sense of how it can be used and the sounds the developers were going for.

    Degrader is also really cool, but more extreme of a sound and a more limited palate. I would also throw out Grind from Audio Damage as another option worth looking at.

  • Flection
    Squashit
    Caramel
    Swoopster
    Fuzz plus 3
    Grind
    Muckraker
    Wavefolder
    Nils
    Shaper
    Warm distortion
    Reamp
    Dc 9 overdrive
    Resampler

  • apesoft limiter, Dedalus and also Tap delay has nice saturation

  • Re-Amp is my favourite, I even prefer it to FabFilter Saturn. What I like about it is that you have a lot of control over the tone and also you can easily achieve quite subtle effects - the harmonic selector switch (which lets you choose how many additional harmonics are added to the signal) is absolutely great.

  • Could you define "saturation", please. I've messed with it but don't understand.... tho I think I know what phat means😂

  • Saffron Saturator

  • Audio damage Grind is nice. It’s worth buying the bundle it’s part of, lots of nice stuff in there.

  • @mjcouche said:
    Saffron Saturator

    Yes- this has what you want.

  • Daw cassette can do nice saturation but its default setting is very overloaded. Just set all the controls for the best quality and adjust the input control for the saturation level.

  • edited March 2019

    @LinearLineman said:
    Could you define "saturation", please. I've messed with it but don't understand.... tho I think I know what phat means😂

    The quick definition is that saturation is a type of distortion typical of analog machines. Historically analog gear always added noise to the signal. Digital sounds are more pure, so saturator effects add back in the analog distortion/drive/grit/dirt/warmth/etc. to the tone.

    A wildly over simplified answer, but I hope it helps.

  • AUM's saturation node is the best on iOS imo. I also find the distortion algorithms of Suger Bytes WOW to be far superior to any others on the plat form (lot of good competition there too).

  • Saffron for sure. my favorite by far

  • @Carnbot said:
    apesoft limiter, Dedalus and also Tap delay has nice saturation

    Absolute agreement on these picks. :)

    In my desktop DAW I use Sly-Fi Axis on every channel as it saturates, compresses and colours beautifully whilst respecting the source material. It's coded by UBK and is based on his hardware remakes of the API 550 a/b channel EQs. If you know UBK's work you'll know the Axis is worth checking out (if you don't already own it that is!).

    I really didn't think that I'd find an equivalent EQ/Saturation plugin on iOS. There's plenty of options that provide heavier distortion effects, but I had to kiss a lot of saturated frogs until I found my princesses! And those princesses I stumbled on by pure chance.

    I like Alessandro's products so I purchased apeSoft Limiter blindly. Boy was I surprised by its ability to saturate in a very similar manner Axis (most of the time I'm not using it as a limiter at all, just something that enhances the source material). It's now something that I add to most channels (or sub-groups) on iOS in much the same way that I use Axis on the Desktop.

    Dadelus has the same saturation flavour as apeSoft limiter (I'm sure Alessandro is using a variation of the algorithm he uses in his limiter), and it's worth adding that one of his other Amazing Noises products 'DubFilter' is equally adept at proving saturation colour when the filter is used with a light touch. I just hope Alessandro converts Dadelus to AUv3 (the others have already been converted).

    Going back in time I used to use Virsyn's VTape in much the same way as Axis (and still use the tape delay from the same package), so I was pleased to see that Tap Delay used the same saturation algorithms even though it's not advertised as a saturator.

    Over the years I've found that the majority of saturation plugins or EQ's the profess to saturate with 'warm', natural, non-linear distortion that respects the source material, fail at living up to their claims. And here on iOS I've found 4 plugins that don't advertise themselves as saturation plugins and they beat the majority of options that do advertise themselves as such.

    Happy days... :)

  • I was going to suggest Tap Delay by VirSyn, but I see it got a late mention just now by @jonmoore . He has a lot of good info in his post.

    I will add Amp One to the suggestions, if you want to explore tube saturation. I haven’t tried it yet, I just heard about it like 30 minutes ago, but it is free and looks totally kick-ass. I am eager to try it, maybe you will want to try it too. Give it a look on the AppStore.

    Amp ONE - Guitar amps and effects processor based on connection of the circuit simulation and machine learning by Vladimir Titov
    https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/amp-one-guitar-amps-effects-processor-based-on-connection/id936560060?mt=8

  • apeSoft's Limiter can create some really face-melting digital distortion. I love pushing that app into ridiculous territory - it really delivers in spades.

  • @espiegel123

    My favourite quote from that great SoS article.

    "Describing distortion in words is like describing the flavours of cheese through the medium of dance..."

    :)

  • Waiting for REamp going in sale. This should have been my purchase in the intro sale. Cheap me ;)

  • I can't be 100% sure about best because I didn't use all iOS saturators, but Reamp is good. It's good even compared to descktop heavyweight saturators like Softube Harmionics, ​Contemporary Color and stuff from Brainworx and Waves

  • I hardly know good saturation from bad (wet tee-shirt competitions excepted), but I do know that reamp has pretty much infinite control. I feel like if I can’t dial in something good with that one, then it’s just because I don’t know how. I get results that sound good to my ears every single time. I don’t see how one can go wrong. I’m glad I got in at the intro sale price though.

  • Another good solution for adding interesting color are custom guitars chains in Positive Grid Bias Amp or Bias FX. It's only IAP and often crashes on my iPad Air but when it works it can sound impressive. And you can make bunch of chains for your taste and needs so it's workflow will stay almost on the same level as other auv3 saturators. But flexibility and tonal posibilities will be much higher

  • Master Record

  • edited March 2019

    As always, @Daveypoo, thanks!
    @espiegel123, that is a great article which I recommend many should read. Of course the psychological aspect was the most interesting for me and raises some questions in my mind....
    1/ the premise that analog sound was something people in the tape and record age became used to as “warm”, primarily because of technological shortcomings like heat, the degradation of tape, etc. so, do the young uns hear this stuff, too? Is it something they want to hear?

    2/the SOS article claims that analog warmth created a sound that was not lifelike, but super-lifelike.... more vivid. Is this something we need in recorded music? Isn’t the real thing enough?

    3/when we hear stuff and are not directly a-b ing with and without, does my brain adjust and not miss something I heard thirty years ago?

    4/can most people hear this stuff naturally, or is it like developing a taste for fine wines?
    Me, though my hearing by medical standards is still super good, when I fool with effects like compression, saturation, tube vs tape, amp sims, etc. I am mostly at sea to differentiate, and even when I do it is not necessarily that one is preferable to another, but just a myriad of choices and possibilities.

    5/lastly, does all this audio detail help people make music or hold them back? The pursuit of the perfect recording seems like a holy grail, especially on desktop or iOS. And also like Xeno’s paradox. One never really arrives. Folks loved listening to scratchy records. Is it all in our minds?

    I think Sound on Sound is the best out there for the broad coverage of all things musical for the layman. I am grateful it exists and recommend it to those not familiar with their terrific hardware, software, instrument, and theoretical reviews and articles.

  • @LinearLineman said:
    As always, @Daveypoo, thanks!

    No problem - helping folks out and complaining about my own inadequacies is what I'm here for!

  • I always use fabfilter saturn in the mastering stage, right before the limiter. But in aum i do use amazing noises limiter a lot, although usually as a placeholder. I do like the way it sounds a lot but i usually export with zero mastering and build my mastering chain in audioshare.

    As someone else mentioned klevgrand daw cassette is very good but you have to dial back a lot and work on the input.

  • REAMP for subtile
    Shaper for creative
    Grind for "holy S#!t my ears won't stop bleeding!!!!"

  • ^this!

  • edited March 2019

    So many good answers in here!!! Lots of info... This community is great!! But you guys are horrible for my wallet lolol

    Some of these I've never heard of and I'm looking into em now!
    I totally forgot about the saturation in AUM, but I used to use it a lot when I first got AUM long ago... Deff dig that one for a quick boost!

    And the saturation from effects that don't claim to be "saturation effects" is an excellent observation, deff gonna look into those as it seems they do other great things like, delays!

    I really dig kelvs stuff and re amp seems like it is a great plug in over all for just making things "sound better" every review and reply tends to agree with that theory and state once they add it to a sound they don't want to remove it, so I feel like it is an essential regardless of whether if it's the best actual way to get that warm think saturation or not. But just to make things less digitally clean and more realistic.

    Now you guys made me want all these other effects too 🤣🤣🤣 the ape stuff, saffron, amazing noises ... All of em must become mine soon lol

  • McDMcD
    edited March 2019

    On the App Store "Limiter - Audio Processor" is sold by Amazing Noises so the mentions of ApeSoft struck me as wrong... then I hit the ApeSoft website and there's Limiter. Then I recalled that there's some code sharing between these 2 vendors and perhaps Limiter updates got shifted to Amazing Noises for ongoing support/marketing. (Any clues?)

    Limiter is a great tool but it does squash the "color" too much for me. Lately, I'm using NYCompressor to control volume and get that endless sustain without loosing the essential sound quality of the source instruments tone.

    ReAmp is a great equipment emulator and the effects are great to enhance the tone and it sits well in front of NYCompressor.

    There's a "beta" Impulse Response tool coming that helps put the instrument into a real room with a quality cabinet and mic.

    I complete my chain with AudioReverb.

    This set up is for someone that wants to get something akin to a Dumble Amp's qualities from an IOS "channel strip" (I use AUM to capture all the small settings in one shot).

    Putting an Enso Looper in the mix with a Bluetooth pedal is amazing. ReAmp isn't available for iPhone but Limiter is to add a little saturation color. So, I have a guitar processor module in my pocket that sound a lot more transparent than the ToneStack Amp sim for anyone that likes Fender style tube amp tones.

  • edited March 2019

    As mentioned before but lost in a long list...

    Shaper by k-machines. Does a full range from very subtle to very dirty but generally very pleasant. A lot of control including resonator module.

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