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.

Download on the App Store

Audiobus is the app that makes the rest of your setup better.

Group The Loop 2.0 released - Now Universal 😎

wimwim
edited October 2019 in General App Discussion

Haven’t tried it yet, but looks like some great new features.

Group the Loop by Jack Marshall https://apps.apple.com/us/app/group-the-loop/id1029416579

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Comments

  • This looks like it could go well with a dawless setup. What does it mean by ‘... with song structure’?

    What do you think @wim ?

  • Song structure means it has different groups of loops that you can launch with quantisation so you can build intro, bridge, chorus... from looping workflow. :wink:

  • Long time coming but wow, that's a big update. Congrats to Jack!

  • wimwim
    edited October 2019

    @gregsmith said:
    This looks like it could go well with a dawless setup. What does it mean by ‘... with song structure’?

    I’ve been back and forth between Loopy HD and GTL for some time, but have always come back to Loopy. GTL is better than Loopy for keeping track of which loop is which, launching multiple loops at once, but I like Loopy’s excellent Audiobus integration and ease of adjusting the start point of loops. But, all that said, before trying out the new GTL release.

    What is lacking to make either what I really want for a dawless setup (unless GTL has new tricks up its sleeve) is song position that can be tied to something like X2. I would gladly give up all the looping features for something simple that’s timeline based and follows song position by midi clock. Something like MultiTrack DAW, but with midi time code. Or simple audio clip tracks in X2.

    Without that, the only real use I get out of loopers is jam practice, or forcing myself to not obsess over details when making music.

  • Big downside for me with GTL, even after the update: no Audiobus state saving. :|

  • The user and all related content has been deleted.
  • Congrats on the update. Plenty of interesting meat.

  • edited October 2019

    @wim Though there isn't a song position control exactly, you can set it so group switching happens after the longest loop or at any bar between the 1st up to the 64th (if you have loops up to 64 bars) - it's under Clock Settings/Sync Quantum.
    EDIT: It also allows for Key Bindings to typing keyboards as well as MIDI devices, which is nice if you have the smart keyboard or a similar peripheral device.

    I've been using the beta for a couple months and love it even more than the original. My GTL workflow typically involves either NS2 or BM3 as the Input Source. I save a corresponding project file in whichever host/DAW so I can have my synth sounds and drum pads all staged in one app. This also allows me to apply more fx or add simultaneously playing sounds to individual loops.

    It may be blasphemy to say on this forum, but I never found an AB/Loopy setup that clicked with me.

    GTL is a lot of fun with just apps as sources, but I really dig using it with an audio interface as a looper for the OP-1 synth/sampler. Between the loops and the 4 track recorder on the OP-1 it's definitely possible to be DAWless.

  • @wim said:

    @gregsmith said:
    This looks like it could go well with a dawless setup. What does it mean by ‘... with song structure’?

    I’ve been back and forth between Loopy HD and GTL for some time, but have always come back to Loopy. GTL is better than Loopy for keeping track of which loop is which, launching multiple loops at once, but I like Loopy’s excellent Audiobus integration and ease of adjusting the start point of loops. But, all that said, before trying out the new GTL release.

    What is lacking to make either what I really want for a dawless setup (unless GTL has new tricks up its sleeve) is song position that can be tied to something like X2. I would gladly give up all the looping features for something simple that’s timeline based and follows song position by midi clock. Something like MultiTrack DAW, but with midi time code. Or simple audio clip tracks in X2.

    Without that, the only real use I get out of loopers is jam practice, or forcing myself to not obsess over details when making music.

    Song position not sure as sample but you can do a lot of marvels with its programming bindings feature so maybe there's a way... I don't have X2, could you explain a bit the workflow please?
    It could be possible launch groups from other app cues as example... meanwhile proper timeline or AUv3 version arrives. At its forums there are interesting discussions about all of these being myself very interested on arranger capabilities and upgrades. The drawback at the moment is about midi clock which was never a priority (even it emerges time to time to the forum).

    @wim someday AUv3 will arise and all of you wanting to integrate it into AB3/AUM will get the goods... the good news are that it's the next in the to do list almost as @jmarshallgtl has stated some time ago...

  • @wim said:

    @gregsmith said:
    This looks like it could go well with a dawless setup. What does it mean by ‘... with song structure’?

    I’ve been back and forth between Loopy HD and GTL for some time, but have always come back to Loopy. GTL is better than Loopy for keeping track of which loop is which, launching multiple loops at once, but I like Loopy’s excellent Audiobus integration and ease of adjusting the start point of loops. But, all that said, before trying out the new GTL release.

    What is lacking to make either what I really want for a dawless setup (unless GTL has new tricks up its sleeve) is song position that can be tied to something like X2. I would gladly give up all the looping features for something simple that’s timeline based and follows song position by midi clock. Something like MultiTrack DAW, but with midi time code. Or simple audio clip tracks in X2.

    Without that, the only real use I get out of loopers is jam practice, or forcing myself to not obsess over details when making music.

    Gotcha, and totally get what you mean about audio clips in X2. Whatever it is needs to somehow occupy timeline in X2 somehow.

  • @gregsmith said:

    @wim said:

    @gregsmith said:
    This looks like it could go well with a dawless setup. What does it mean by ‘... with song structure’?

    I’ve been back and forth between Loopy HD and GTL for some time, but have always come back to Loopy. GTL is better than Loopy for keeping track of which loop is which, launching multiple loops at once, but I like Loopy’s excellent Audiobus integration and ease of adjusting the start point of loops. But, all that said, before trying out the new GTL release.

    What is lacking to make either what I really want for a dawless setup (unless GTL has new tricks up its sleeve) is song position that can be tied to something like X2. I would gladly give up all the looping features for something simple that’s timeline based and follows song position by midi clock. Something like MultiTrack DAW, but with midi time code. Or simple audio clip tracks in X2.

    Without that, the only real use I get out of loopers is jam practice, or forcing myself to not obsess over details when making music.

    Gotcha, and totally get what you mean about audio clips in X2. Whatever it is needs to occupy timeline in X2 somehow.

  • I’m sure there’s a way that sending midi notes, program change, or cc’s from X2 can trigger loops when needed. It’s not the streamlined and visual workflow I’d like, but I imagine it can be done.

    But, always when it comes down to that, I decide that just doing it in a DAW is better.

    Ah well, maybe some day. Not gonna let it bother me. B)

  • Cool update.
    New UI is really nice and clean with some thoughtful touches like the revised input selection/input monitoring controls on the left.

    One thing I can’t figure out yet is whether it is possible to start cue/recording with a single tap on a blank part. I thought this was the default before but now I get this screen with option to record or import and have to select each time.

    anyone know anything? :p

  • @wim said:
    I’m sure there’s a way that sending midi notes, program change, or cc’s from X2 can trigger loops when needed. It’s not the streamlined and visual workflow I’d like, but I imagine it can be done.

    But, always when it comes down to that, I decide that just doing it in a DAW is better.

    Ah well, maybe some day. Not gonna let it bother me. B)

    I did quite some extensive testing of a daw less setup 2 years ago (so things might have changed), which involved ModStep (at the time) for midi and LP-5 for audio clips player or loops that I had created in Loopy.

    At the time it firstly failed on a too clunky import/export (on the fly) procedure, definitely not something one could do live, so I had to skip the "live" idea which had been my initial goal. I then pre-recorded some loops (in Loopy) and exported them to LP-5. Unfortunately LP-5 (and most of its alternatives) could only trigger samples via midi notes. As it was all using Link to keep them in sync, the midi note that triggered LP-5 had to be in the sync quantum before the sample was going to be played, otherwise it would wait one sync (Link) quantum before starting, which took away a lot of my thoughts on having a flexible system where songs could be structured "on the fly" (though I by then had left the "live" goal).

    Basically it turned into a more tedious way of doing DAW work, but without a DAW.

    It made me realise what I actually wished for was what you just described: an audio file/sample player that understood midi time code, but also that I would have liked some other means than midi notes for triggering.

    Having said all of that I was intrigued by this thread and have re-downloaded GTL and will experiment a bit with using other apps in parallell, as described by @3sleeves , and see where that lands me. :)

  • Really great to see this. Just redownloaded from the cloud, as the app had cleared itself off the iPad at some point out of lack of use, so I'll give the new version a whirl. I am super stoked to see more time signatures, a feature I'm sure I was among some of the crowd requesting it a long time ago. It looks like a lot of those new features got added, so very cool. We'll see now how it compares to Quantiloop, my current favorite, and Loopy HD.

  • It's beyond me that no one has combined an acoustic drum machine and looper.

  • @hellquist said:

    @wim said:
    I’m sure there’s a way that sending midi notes, program change, or cc’s from X2 can trigger loops when needed. It’s not the streamlined and visual workflow I’d like, but I imagine it can be done.

    But, always when it comes down to that, I decide that just doing it in a DAW is better.

    Ah well, maybe some day. Not gonna let it bother me. B)

    I did quite some extensive testing of a daw less setup 2 years ago (so things might have changed), which involved ModStep (at the time) for midi and LP-5 for audio clips player or loops that I had created in Loopy.

    At the time it firstly failed on a too clunky import/export (on the fly) procedure, definitely not something one could do live, so I had to skip the "live" idea which had been my initial goal. I then pre-recorded some loops (in Loopy) and exported them to LP-5. Unfortunately LP-5 (and most of its alternatives) could only trigger samples via midi notes. As it was all using Link to keep them in sync, the midi note that triggered LP-5 had to be in the sync quantum before the sample was going to be played, otherwise it would wait one sync (Link) quantum before starting, which took away a lot of my thoughts on having a flexible system where songs could be structured "on the fly" (though I by then had left the "live" goal).

    Basically it turned into a more tedious way of doing DAW work, but without a DAW.

    It made me realise what I actually wished for was what you just described: an audio file/sample player that understood midi time code, but also that I would have liked some other means than midi notes for triggering.

    Having said all of that I was intrigued by this thread and have re-downloaded GTL and will experiment a bit with using other apps in parallell, as described by @3sleeves , and see where that lands me. :)

    Good post. Interested to hear how you get on/what you make of it etc.

  • I’m confused .. why do I see $9.99 on phone ?
    Is this a new app Version for phone ?

  • edited October 2019

    @hisdudeness said:
    I’m confused .. why do I see $9.99 on phone ?
    Is this a new app Version for phone ?

    Was wondering that myself. Already have the ipad version.

    P.s. took the plunge. U won’t be charged twice if u have it on the ipad.

  • Just noticed, it’s on sale $9.99 reduced from $12.99 until Oct. 13.

  • Just curious what advantages this would have over something like Stagelights (Zenbeats)clip arranger , ... less cpu ? Faster workflow?

  • @paradiddle said:

    @hisdudeness said:
    I’m confused .. why do I see $9.99 on phone ?
    Is this a new app Version for phone ?

    Was wondering that myself. Already have the ipad version.

    P.s. took the plunge. U won’t be charged twice if u have it on the ipad.

    Confirmed (and thanks for plunging :)

  • wimwim
    edited October 2019

    @reasOne said:
    Just curious what advantages this would have over something like Stagelights (Zenbeats)clip arranger , ... less cpu ? Faster workflow?

    I can’t think of any. More focused maybe?
    Mainly, just different, I guess. 🧐

    Sometimes different sparks creativity and new ideas?

    Oh, and I think you can trigger loops with notes while in Zenbeats you can only do that with midi cc’s if I remember correctly. Also, not sure if record, etc for clips in Zenbeats is midi mappable?

    Just winging it here....

  • @wim said:
    I’m sure there’s a way that sending midi notes, program change, or cc’s from X2 can trigger loops when needed. It’s not the streamlined and visual workflow I’d like, but I imagine it can be done.

    But, always when it comes down to that, I decide that just doing it in a DAW is better.

    Ah well, maybe some day. Not gonna let it bother me. B)

    It bothers me. I’m on a mission 😉

    However, I’m all good at the moment. Working my way through a new song using X2 AB and AUM and finding it super liberating. Haven’t found anything I can’t do yet.

    Also haven’t needed to push the buffer higher than 256 or needed to freeze any tracks. In stagelight my previous daw it would be crackle central by now.

    I’m almost done with the arrangement and sound design phase, I’m imagining mixing and mastering will be interesting. But we’ll see...

  • @JohnnyGoodyear said:

    @paradiddle said:

    @hisdudeness said:
    I’m confused .. why do I see $9.99 on phone ?
    Is this a new app Version for phone ?

    Was wondering that myself. Already have the ipad version.

    P.s. took the plunge. U won’t be charged twice if u have it on the ipad.

    Confirmed (and thanks for plunging :)

    Tnks it works

  • @reasOne said:
    Just curious what advantages this would have over something like Stagelights (Zenbeats)clip arranger , ... less cpu ? Faster workflow

    In GTL you can use IAA. As far as I know, that still hasn’t been implemented in Zenbeats.

  • edited October 2019

    Talking of loopers this looks like fun for people with deep pockets.

    https://singularsound.com/product/aeros-loop-studio/

  • @BiancaNeve said:
    Talking of loopers this looks like fun for people with deep pockets.

    https://singularsound.com/product/aeros-loop-studio/

    If BeatBuddy was anything to go by, I would stay away from singular sound (strictly ok)

  • @BiancaNeve said:
    Talking of loopers this looks like fun for people with deep pockets.

    https://singularsound.com/product/aeros-loop-studio/

    That or headrush looperboard are less capable of structured looping than GTL...

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