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.

Worth upgrading iPad Mini 2 to current model iPad?

I'm currently using Mini 2 with A7 chip. My current workflow is making audio loops and bringing them into BM3 to arrange them. Adding drums with Ruismaker in BM3 and recording those individual drums to audio. Running ProQ on every track for EQ and maybe 2-3 other plug in effects from Brambos and AudioDamage. Usually have about 10 audio tracks when I'm done. Responsiveness is kind of painful in BM3 by the end of making a track. I want to upgrade (hoping for some black friday deals this year). Would current iPad with A10 fusion chip be a noticeable upgrade in performance? Benchmarks show it's probably a little more then 2x performance but not sure how that will translate to my workflow.

Comments

  • I did a similar upgrade last year.. a Mini 2 (32GB) -> iPad 2018 (128GB) and I noticed a pretty big difference. You'll get:

    • a bigger screen
    • an extra 2 GB of RAM (3 total on the 2019 compared to 2 on the 2018)
    • newer faster Chipset, CPU + GPU
    • and you can run the newer iOS 13 which is pretty good for external file access etc... the Mini 2 can only go up to iOS 12 max.
    • Get the 128GB version.. 32GB is just too small

    I think the new iPad would handle 10 audio tracks + fx in BM3 pretty easily.. I'm super happy with what I have.. of course I'd love a Pro model with maxed out RAM + storage - BUT - I also need to eat.. once in awhile.. :)

  • +1 What @royor said.

    I actually have the mini 2 and the iPad 9.7" and I would say without a doubt it's worth upgrading. For what apple have the current iPad priced at it's an insanely good deal...($329 for 32GB and $429 for 128GB). I also work mostly in BM3, which runs surprisingly well on an older model, but after upgrading you'll notice a definite uptick in performance. Plus you'll be able to run other apps that require a bit more RAM. And like royor said the increased screen size will offer such a better experience you'll wonder how you did it on such a small screen. Not sure where you'll be purchasing but you also might consider the trade-in program though apple ...if you want to trade-in the mini you;ll get the price knocked down a bit.

    do it ,for sure.

  • Thanks for the advice. I've been reading some other threads and thinking the new iPad Air might be the sweet spot since it has the A12 chip so I'll be more future proof but the regular iPad with the A10 sounds like it will be a good upgrade. I'm going to hand down the mini to my kid so not worried about trade in but going to wait to see if there are any good black Friday deals like last year since it's only a few weeks away. The smaller screen doesn't bother me but I'm sure I'll appreciate having more screen real estate

  • @rms13 from what you've described I'd consider you a "power user" already.
    If I was to decide for myself, I would definitely go with the new Air.
    My experience is that single-core CPU performance does make quite a difference with audio and the new Air does make a notable difference (about 1.5x).
    When using apps supporting multiple cores like BM3 with multiple AUv3 plugins, you'll be able to use more cpu-demanding plugins and developers tend to make use of the increasing power to deliver better-quality algorithms for example.

  • edited November 2019

    Resale price on mini 2 is not much, it’s still able to run almost every music app. Used 2018 iPad can be found for bargain price with a bit of searching.

    Two device is very nice

  • @rs2000 said:
    @rms13 from what you've described I'd consider you a "power user" already.
    If I was to decide for myself, I would definitely go with the new Air.
    My experience is that single-core CPU performance does make quite a difference with audio and the new Air does make a notable difference (about 1.5x).
    When using apps supporting multiple cores like BM3 with multiple AUv3 plugins, you'll be able to use more cpu-demanding plugins and developers tend to make use of the increasing power to deliver better-quality algorithms for example.

    After a lot of chatter/threads about multicore on the forum I think the conclusion was that audio processing on iOS is all done on the same single core. So multicore scores seem for the most part to be irrelevant purely for audio processing.

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

    @rs2000 said:
    @rms13 from what you've described I'd consider you a "power user" already.
    If I was to decide for myself, I would definitely go with the new Air.
    My experience is that single-core CPU performance does make quite a difference with audio and the new Air does make a notable difference (about 1.5x).
    When using apps supporting multiple cores like BM3 with multiple AUv3 plugins, you'll be able to use more cpu-demanding plugins and developers tend to make use of the increasing power to deliver better-quality algorithms for example.

    After a lot of chatter/threads about multicore on the forum I think the conclusion was that audio processing on iOS is all done on the same single core. So multicore scores seem for the most part to be irrelevant purely for audio processing.

    This isn't quite true. While there is a single audio rendering thread, apps and plugins can use multithreading for user interface , animation, etc AND hosts/standalone can do multithreading of audio with some care. Not to mention that there is lots of OS stuff happening that can run in parallel on multi core machines.

    So, the improvements in performance for multi-core iPads is due to more than just processor speed improvements.

  • edited November 2019

    @espiegel123 said:

    @AudioGus said:

    @rs2000 said:
    @rms13 from what you've described I'd consider you a "power user" already.
    If I was to decide for myself, I would definitely go with the new Air.
    My experience is that single-core CPU performance does make quite a difference with audio and the new Air does make a notable difference (about 1.5x).
    When using apps supporting multiple cores like BM3 with multiple AUv3 plugins, you'll be able to use more cpu-demanding plugins and developers tend to make use of the increasing power to deliver better-quality algorithms for example.

    After a lot of chatter/threads about multicore on the forum I think the conclusion was that audio processing on iOS is all done on the same single core. So multicore scores seem for the most part to be irrelevant purely for audio processing.

    This isn't quite true.

    I did say ‘purely for audio processing’. So we are saying the same thing.

    While there is a single audio rendering thread, apps and plugins can use multithreading for user interface , animation, etc AND hosts/standalone can do multithreading of audio with some care. Not to mention that there is lots of OS stuff happening that can run in parallel on multi core machines.

    So, the improvements in performance for multi-core iPads is due to more than just processor speed improvements.

  • @AudioGus said:

    @espiegel123 said:

    @AudioGus said:

    @rs2000 said:
    @rms13 from what you've described I'd consider you a "power user" already.
    If I was to decide for myself, I would definitely go with the new Air.
    My experience is that single-core CPU performance does make quite a difference with audio and the new Air does make a notable difference (about 1.5x).
    When using apps supporting multiple cores like BM3 with multiple AUv3 plugins, you'll be able to use more cpu-demanding plugins and developers tend to make use of the increasing power to deliver better-quality algorithms for example.

    After a lot of chatter/threads about multicore on the forum I think the conclusion was that audio processing on iOS is all done on the same single core. So multicore scores seem for the most part to be irrelevant purely for audio processing.

    This isn't quite true.

    I did say ‘purely for audio processing’. So we are saying the same thing.

    While there is a single audio rendering thread, apps and plugins can use multithreading for user interface , animation, etc AND hosts/standalone can do multithreading of audio with some care. Not to mention that there is lots of OS stuff happening that can run in parallel on multi core machines.

    So, the improvements in performance for multi-core iPads is due to more than just processor speed improvements.

    Your comment gives the impression that one won't experience significant improvements in audio processing, and I don't think that is true. From a user's perspective one will see significant improvement even if technically some of it comes from off-loading non-audio to another core. AND hosts can make use of multithreading and do some audio-related multithreading. miRack and GarageBand do this and it may be that other hosts/DAWs do also.

  • If you’re happy with the form factor go for mini 5. I had it for a couple of weeks and it works as smooth as air 2 which despite age is a phenomenal machine. The screen was too small for me. Otherwise just go for second hand pro 10.5. Still the best deal in town and second hand 64Gb can be had for well under $400. You get 4Gb ram, great speakers and headphone jack.

  • @supadom said:
    If you’re happy with the form factor go for mini 5. I had it for a couple of weeks and it works as smooth as air 2 which despite age is a phenomenal machine. The screen was too small for me. Otherwise just go for second hand pro 10.5. Still the best deal in town and second hand 64Gb can be had for well under $400. You get 4Gb ram, great speakers and headphone jack.

    It should perform like the Air 3

  • edited November 2019

    @tja said:

    @supadom said:
    If you’re happy with the form factor go for mini 5. I had it for a couple of weeks and it works as smooth as air 2 which despite age is a phenomenal machine. The screen was too small for me. Otherwise just go for second hand pro 10.5. Still the best deal in town and second hand 64Gb can be had for well under $400. You get 4Gb ram, great speakers and headphone jack.

    It should perform like the Air 3

    FWIW IPad Pro 10.5 on paper, should be twice as fast as air 2. In real life they’re really close, at least in what I do, which of course will vary depending on user case.

    I’m not saying that you’re wrong, just that I wouldn’t blindly trust benchmarks.

  • tjatja
    edited November 2019

    @supadom said:

    @tja said:

    @supadom said:
    If you’re happy with the form factor go for mini 5. I had it for a couple of weeks and it works as smooth as air 2 which despite age is a phenomenal machine. The screen was too small for me. Otherwise just go for second hand pro 10.5. Still the best deal in town and second hand 64Gb can be had for well under $400. You get 4Gb ram, great speakers and headphone jack.

    It should perform like the Air 3

    FWIW IPad Pro 10.5 on paper, should be twice as fast as air 2. In real life they’re really close, at least in what I do, which of course will vary depending on user case.

    I’m not saying that you’re wrong, just that I wouldn’t blindly trust benchmarks.

    I was referring to Mini 5 being essentially the same as Air 3, but i seem to have misread what i was quoting. Sorry

  • @tja said:

    @supadom said:

    @tja said:

    @supadom said:
    If you’re happy with the form factor go for mini 5. I had it for a couple of weeks and it works as smooth as air 2 which despite age is a phenomenal machine. The screen was too small for me. Otherwise just go for second hand pro 10.5. Still the best deal in town and second hand 64Gb can be had for well under $400. You get 4Gb ram, great speakers and headphone jack.

    It should perform like the Air 3

    FWIW IPad Pro 10.5 on paper, should be twice as fast as air 2. In real life they’re really close, at least in what I do, which of course will vary depending on user case.

    I’m not saying that you’re wrong, just that I wouldn’t blindly trust benchmarks.

    I was referring to Mini 5 being essentially the same as Air 3, but i seem to have misread what i was quoting. Sorry

    No worries, you were right anyway air 3 should in theory be a lot faster, at least when looking at Geekbench benchmarks. The truth is that it only has 1gb more of ram often is a bottleneck when it comes to audio apps. I guess the best advice is to get the best one can afford because the hardware picture changes radically year by year.

  • It really depends on how you use the iPad.

    I have a mini 2 also.. I find completing a track on the iPad painful, not due to lack of power but to the insane amount of jerryrigging and workarounds involved in iOS music making.

    I enjoy my iPad and have a ton of cool apps. It is strictly a complementary tool as I'm about 10 times faster and more efficient on reason 10 and fl studio 20 (and I don't think I'm being hyperbolic.

    If you want to be iOS based maybe upgrade.

    Try not to fall into the trap of buying one app to get around the shortfalls of another app. I spent hundreds of dollars and hours of time doing this and never found a setup that works better than my PC daws. I'm done with that and am enjoying my pad as an instrument as opposed to a studio. (As an aside the lack of attention Apple seems to give iOS music making is concerning.)

  • +1 for the mini 5. Went from a mini 2 to 2017 iPad to mini 5; mini 5 is great for the price, size is fine (especially with the Apple Pencil for intricate piano roll editing, etc.) and actually kinda nice. I still have the 2017; mostly used as a TV or media player but does a great job doubling as a second device dedicated to a single app like GR-16 or any other non-AUv3 that’s annoying to use due to constantly switching windows. The mini 2 isn’t worth much (I got $100 for mine a couple years back) but it will still run a lot of apps and be great as a dedicated one or FX processor. I keep a lookout for old iPads on the cheap and try to consider them more like hardware with a few dedicated purposes instead of a do everything computer; the mini 5 has that covered. In many cases having several slower iPads, especially with how iOS handles RAM and cores, seems to (depending) be better than one powerhouse; though if you’re maxing out an app that a more powerful iPad can actually utilize, every little bit helps.

  • @dreamsaremaps said:
    +1 for the mini 5. Went from a mini 2 to 2017 iPad to mini 5; mini 5 is great for the price, size is fine (especially with the Apple Pencil for intricate piano roll editing, etc.) and actually kinda nice. I still have the 2017; mostly used as a TV or media player but does a great job doubling as a second device dedicated to a single app like GR-16 or any other non-AUv3 that’s annoying to use due to constantly switching windows. The mini 2 isn’t worth much (I got $100 for mine a couple years back) but it will still run a lot of apps and be great as a dedicated one or FX processor. I keep a lookout for old iPads on the cheap and try to consider them more like hardware with a few dedicated purposes instead of a do everything computer; the mini 5 has that covered. In many cases having several slower iPads, especially with how iOS handles RAM and cores, seems to (depending) be better than one powerhouse; though if you’re maxing out an app that a more powerful iPad can actually utilize, every little bit helps.

    Thanks. I checked Apple trade in and they will actually give me $70 credit for my Mini 2 which is probably more then I could get selling it on ebay. Of course I'd have to buy a new iPad from Apple and they never go on sale. So I'll still wait for black friday/cyber monday deals since Bestbuy/Walmart etc were selling base iPad for $249 last year.

    I actually like the form factor of the Mini and the fact that the new one has the same A12 chip as the Air would make me lean towards a new Mini for the cheaper price.

  • Coming from an old iPad 3 , I was all set to upgrade to an Air 3. Right at the last minute I switched lanes to a Mini 5. Really glad I did. The smaller form factor is just great and the power is plenty. As said above, paired with an Apple Pencil , finer editing is no problem at all.

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