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.

My thoughts on klevgrand’s stark.

I wanted to record an audio demo so i bought the app.
What a disappointement!
I’ve tried the presets.not much to keep in all of those.it sounds so thin and digital.
This hp thing(you know,stereo cabinet to widen the sound is absolutely unnatural and useless to my ears.
I’m really sorry and i may sound harsh(really sorry dev),but really,nothing was pleasing to my ears and me.
I’m gonna ask for a refund.I almost NEVER do this,but this time i will because i will not use this app.
Vstomp app(you can’t find it anymore on the app store😢😢)was so much better than spark and maybe even better than bias(which i really like).
Once again,sorry for my rude comments but....

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Comments

  • Woaah - wow, thanks for the honesty, @flo26 Definitely some things to consider!

  • And i would like to add that i love reamp!!

  • The fact that you’ve shared your work and haven proven how great your ears are means people here value your opinion! Thanks for sharing. I’m loving it for keys but still haven’t tried guitar yet.

  • edited April 2019

    @flo26 said:
    And i would like to add that i love reamp!!

    That's fair. I like Reamp too, but it's VERY subtle. Wanting to hear @bedheadproducer feedback on the other thread as well.

  • @flo26 said:
    I wanted to record an audio demo so i bought the app.
    What a disappointement!
    I’ve tried the presets.not much to keep in all of those.it sounds so thin and digital.
    This hp thing(you know,stereo cabinet to widen the sound is absolutely unnatural and useless to my ears.
    I’m really sorry and i may sound harsh(really sorry dev),but really,nothing was pleasing to my ears and me.
    I’m gonna ask for a refund.I almost NEVER do this,but this time i will because i will not use this app.
    Vstomp app(you can’t find it anymore on the app store😢😢)was so much better than spark and maybe even better than bias(which i really like).
    Once again,sorry for my rude comments but....

    Thanks for sharing @flo26 . I am glad to hear that it wasn't my imagination. I went to the Klevgrand SoundCloud page yesterday evening to listen to the demos. Some very nice guitar playing, but the recordings through Stark all sound like DI recorded guitar rather than through a mic'd guitar amp. I can see how non-guitar players might not notice but to my ears it sounded like guitar through some effects and straight into the board.

    I love a number of other Klevgrand offerings. And maybe with some tweaking Stark can sound better than on the demos they posted.

    For all the limitations of Bias, ToneStack and Amplitude, they all can achieve a pretty convincing amp in a room recorded through a mic simulation (whether or not it sounds like the actual amp and stomp box it is emulating). I didn't hear any of that in the Stark samples or what has been posted here.

  • I posted similar thoughts in the Stark thread earlier today. And as it happens I also love ReAmp, so I was a little disappointed with this offering.

  • @flo26 said:
    I wanted to record an audio demo so i bought the app.
    What a disappointement

    Was literally waiting for your evaluation. You are the first call guitarist around here as far as I’m concerned. Thank you

  • edited April 2019

    It’s really kind but only your ears can judge.that was only my opinion😉😉.

  • edited April 2019

    Yep - I fought my excitement all day yesterday and barely avoided pulling the trigger on this. I'm a victim of the classic "Well, it's just $10..." line of thought, but it's nice to hear some other opinions. The demos so far sounded nice, but I'm not hearing anything I can't already get here with what I've got, which is increasingly becoming the new threshold by which I purchase an app.

  • I am in this club, too.
    I was not hearing the awesomeness in the demos.

    But it does look convenient to use, all compact in one window. It sounds ok in general on various things, but I don’t feel the need for it right now. Maybe later, though.

  • I'm holding out hope for Yonac to port Tonestack to AUv3. After investing in all the Motherload updates, I'm ready for this one to drop. No news, no rumors - only HOPE!

    Yeah, AU is still a massive selling point for me, and Klevgrand is typically a no brainer.

  • It does have its own sound, although probably not the greatest for guitar.
    I do like the UI and the idea of being able to choose from a list of stompboxes.
    The amp and cabinet sims definitely add some character, they might be better suited to synths?
    Some of the stompbox pedals are too limited by today's standards, a few more controls could have made them much more useful.

  • I like it. You just need to take some time to dial it in. Feed it a healthy signal and you’re good.

    I like one of the Strat presets. Sounds as good as my actual amp when recorded.

  • It's working nicely being fed from Tines which was always that bit too thin and clean for me before

  • Nice tremolo. Haven’t tried it on guitar yet. I’m using it as a sound shaper for now.

  • It’s a good addition to your master chain.

  • I decided to keep my counsel to myself on Stark until seeing this post.

    Rather than being swept away with my inner "must buy at 9.99" instinct, I decided to download the desktop demo first and I'm glad I did.

    Whilst my thing mainly involves keys and synths, I use and own many 'guitar' amp/cab/distortion plugins. I wasn't expecting Stark to be a match for the likes of a Softube combo but I was expecting to dial in something I like (having exhausted the presets) but overall the characteristics that came most to mind were ones of boxiness and muddiness. And I used the highest quality Rhodes and Wurlitzer sample-sets from Keyscape and Kontakt to feed into Stark, and even attempted listening to different components of Stark in isolation by replacing them with other components I know well from my plugin collection.

    It's highly possible that Stark works well for more metal type tones but I had expected better for keys.

  • edited April 2019

    Question ...

    @flo26 said
    For all the limitations of Bias, ToneStack and Amplitude, they all can achieve a pretty convincing amp in a room recorded through a mic simulation (whether or not it sounds like the actual amp and stomp box it is emulating). I didn't hear any of that in the Stark samples or what has been posted here.

    Could you combine this with MicSwap to “fix” this or any other convolution? I do hear the “clean bite” that people seem to remark on.

    @AndyPlankton said:
    It's working nicely being fed from Tines which was always that bit too thin and clean for me before

    Yes to this. I fattened up NeoSoul Keys the same way which I always end up doing external to the synth because it’s effects like the rest of the great sounding app are fiddly in AU

  • @espiegel123 I had exactly the same impressions when listening to SoundCloud demos but I didn’t want to rain on Klevgrand’s parade. Still happily in love with TS.

  • @supadom said:
    @espiegel123 I had exactly the same impressions when listening to SoundCloud demos but I didn’t want to rain on Klevgrand’s parade. Still happily in love with TS.

    +1

  • Yeah - no disrespect to Klevgrand, but no one dev can please every user all the time. So this one was a mis-fire for some - doesn't mean I'm not psyched to see what they come up with yet.

    So yeah - holding off for now. While the demos certainly made the dry guitars sound "different" they didn't necessarily make them sound "more realistic" for lack of a better descriptor. At this point, realism is what I need out of an amp sim - I can get the rest of the tones with the ones I've got.

    And besides - if I need better presets for Tonestack, I just call my good buddy @flo26

    ;)

  • This is a typical case of 'what's a goldmine for one is a s-it hole for another'.
    Sound is always subjective...

    Not being a 'string w-kr' I like the effects for what they are running synths & drums and other stuff thru them ;)
    (I have come a cross string players who can discuss the quality of a delays for hours and when I listen to it I just go, hmh, sound like noisy sh-t to me and the subjective terms as 'warmth' etc is just a few distorted frequencies and extra noise).

    It's the same when discussing with analog purists it always ends up in matter of taste...

  • @Daveypoo said:
    I'm holding out hope for Yonac to port Tonestack to AUv3. After investing in all the Motherload updates, I'm ready for this one to drop. No news, no rumors - only HOPE!

    Yeah, AU is still a massive selling point for me, and Klevgrand is typically a no brainer.

    Also heavily invested.

  • Well, I have most of them, the one I really liked has now gone, you know the one? Most of the time I now run the katana 100 into the iPad, sounds great. I’ll be giving this one a miss. Great forum and I should get involved more rather than sitting back.:-)

  • @Wrecked said:
    Well, I have most of them, the one I really liked has now gone, you know the one? Most of the time I now run the katana 100 into the iPad, sounds great. I’ll be giving this one a miss. Great forum and I should get involved more rather than sitting back.:-)

    If only there were an amp sim which sounds as good as a Katana (which is, of course, an amp sim).

  • @Wrecked said:
    Well, I have most of them, the one I really liked has now gone, you know the one? Most of the time I now run the katana 100 into the iPad, sounds great. I’ll be giving this one a miss. Great forum and I should get involved more rather than sitting back.:-)

    Yep - I wish Flying Haggis still worked.

  • I'm not a guitar player, so I can't judge it on that, but I just had some serious fun just with Tines and Stark in combination. Got some surprising sounds out of it. Not necessarily vintage, but very nice. So I'm quite pleased with it so far.

  • I like Stark a LOT. Just simple preset makes totally boring bass sounding full, warm and adds power to it... great plugin !

    original loop
    https://www.dropbox.com/s/6xbpao7viqtywjh/Loop.wav?dl=0

    bassline with Stark applied
    https://www.dropbox.com/s/tmscpagy5q4yq3n/Loop(StarkOnBass).wav?dl=0

    for me - mojo added, it tooks 10 seconds istead of many minutes of eq and other ovedrive plugins tweaking... for me winner.

  • I can totally see why really good guitar players, who often center what they do around their guitar playing and tone, would be dissapointed in Stark. But for me it’s about getting “close enough” quickly, and most importantly, being able to quickly leave off and pick up again with minimum fuss.

    I can always go back and re-amp a track with ToneStack, Amplitube, or Bias once the difficult part - getting something good down - is done. Stuff doesn’t just flow out of me like it does with really good guitar players like @flo26. The quicker I get up and running, the less I get distracted with tone hunting, and the quicker I can recover from constant interruptions, the better I do. I’m happy to temporarily trade off dialing in the ultimate tone for the convenience Stark provides.

    I really appreciate @flo26’s honest feedback about his experience. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s shared with other players more skilled than I am. I’m happy with Stark, but I’m a different class of guitar player altogether.

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