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.

MultiTrack DAW Opinions

Really looking for a nice, simple solid DAW. Don’t need MIDI. Multiple audio tracks, mono and stereo, good default effects. Simple punch in/punch out for overdubs.

Been using Auria for years, but I’m tired of the odd issues that I get. Love the result, but damn, I’m tired of spending time I was supposed to be recording trying to figure out why something’s not working.

Looking at recording a couple of guitar tracks, vocals, percussion. I want it to work every time. Would love to have an archive to Dropbox or mix to Dropbox function. Good reverb, delay, compression, EQ would be great. Simple to use.

No or low latency when recording along to previous tracks. I’m using an Irig Duo interface.

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Comments

  • It’s great. Lots of people here love it too. The UI is a little idiosyncratic, but it’s fast-ish.

    Also worth considering — GarageBand. It’s free, and good, but no simple punch in/out.

  • It's the closest thing to reel-to-reel functionality in software - totally distraction free and easy to operate... and ... tape positions at speed of light. B)

  • As I've been saying since 2012 (wow!): Does it STILL not have a count-in option for recording?

  • edited January 2020

    No, but it has a metronome and you can give two bars (or whatever) count in you need! And judging by the amount of updates it’s had recently I would say the dev doesn’t think it’s needed. With respect have you contacted the dev and asked him/ her about it?

  • @Telefunky said:
    It's the closest thing to reel-to-reel functionality in software - totally distraction free and easy to operate... and ... tape positions at speed of light. B)

    Can you have multiple IAA/AU plugins per track?

  • Maybe we can help you figure out how to help you get what you need out of AP?

    All the iOS DAWs have stuff, you will need to work around.

    MT Daw is super quick and efficient for recording and rough edits, but there is no automation. It is a great virtual multitrack tape deck. But no frills.

  • Multitrack DAW is great for just straight audio, I really like it for recording my guitar and little bit of mixing and arranging. Even the stock effects are pretty nice

  • @espiegel123 said:
    Maybe we can help you figure out how to help you get what you need out of AP?

    All the iOS DAWs have stuff, you will need to work around.

    MT Daw is super quick and efficient for recording and rough edits, but there is no automation. It is a great virtual multitrack tape deck. But no frills.

    I’ve been using AP for years. It does everything I need, and more. But I have found too many problems over the years that eat my time and frustrate me badly. It may just be that I’m old and not terribly bright, but yesterday I was ready to throw something.

  • @rickwaugh said:
    Can you have multiple IAA/AU plugins per track?

    Yes - and you can rearrange their order via dragging.

  • I bought it. I imported my tracks from Auria into it for the song I’m working on. I’ll mess with it and see how it goes.

  • Lord, I really like this. It has absolutely everything I want, with one exception so far. If I want to mess with the levels of a phrase or one region that I recorded after the fact, in Auria I use the gain adjustment, and select the area I want to change, or I use automation. Anyone have any idea on how to do that in Multitrack DAW?

  • You could fake it by a cut of the area in question, paste it on a free track, adjust level there and then copy and paste it back to it's original position.
    Afaik on copy it renders level and fx settings according to what's active on the track.
    The paste location isn't very precise, but you can use the crossfade indicators as guides: during drag they will vanish when the original position is hit (as then there are no overlaps).

  • Just for completeness and because I messed some parts with Ferrite (my preferred cut/edit tool):
    In MTD you have to split at beginning and end of the section supposed to be altered.
    Then copy and paste the split part to a free track, adjust the level fader of this new track and choose freeze (snowflake symbol) from fx/input settings.
    Set the main selection marker (timeline) to exactly the snippet size (otherwise it will copy the whole track during next step)
    Copy the frozen snippet, delete the split part from source track, paste into the empty area and drag to precise destination. (there are no crossfade markers, these are in Ferrite)

    For a simple level change that's a lot of steps... but the procedure may be useful in case you want a couple of more complex fx processing steps at a single section of the track.

  • @rickwaugh said:
    Really looking for a nice, simple solid DAW. Don’t need MIDI. Multiple audio tracks, mono and stereo, good default effects. Simple punch in/punch out for overdubs.

    Been using Auria for years, but I’m tired of the odd issues that I get. Love the result, but damn, I’m tired of spending time I was supposed to be recording trying to figure out why something’s not working.

    Looking at recording a couple of guitar tracks, vocals, percussion. I want it to work every time. Would love to have an archive to Dropbox or mix to Dropbox function. Good reverb, delay, compression, EQ would be great. Simple to use.

    No or low latency when recording along to previous tracks. I’m using an Irig Duo interface.

    if working with a few tracks , nothing beats AUM

  • @hisdudeness said:

    @rickwaugh said:
    Really looking for a nice, simple solid DAW. Don’t need MIDI. Multiple audio tracks, mono and stereo, good default effects. Simple punch in/punch out for overdubs.

    Been using Auria for years, but I’m tired of the odd issues that I get. Love the result, but damn, I’m tired of spending time I was supposed to be recording trying to figure out why something’s not working.

    Looking at recording a couple of guitar tracks, vocals, percussion. I want it to work every time. Would love to have an archive to Dropbox or mix to Dropbox function. Good reverb, delay, compression, EQ would be great. Simple to use.

    No or low latency when recording along to previous tracks. I’m using an Irig Duo interface.

    if working with a few tracks , nothing beats AUM

    How do you edit audio tracks in AUM?
    How do you punch-in record and overdub?
    Until now, AUM would have been my last choice for recording, editing and arranging audio tracks.

  • @rs2000 said:

    @hisdudeness said:

    @rickwaugh said:
    Really looking for a nice, simple solid DAW. Don’t need MIDI. Multiple audio tracks, mono and stereo, good default effects. Simple punch in/punch out for overdubs.

    Been using Auria for years, but I’m tired of the odd issues that I get. Love the result, but damn, I’m tired of spending time I was supposed to be recording trying to figure out why something’s not working.

    Looking at recording a couple of guitar tracks, vocals, percussion. I want it to work every time. Would love to have an archive to Dropbox or mix to Dropbox function. Good reverb, delay, compression, EQ would be great. Simple to use.

    No or low latency when recording along to previous tracks. I’m using an Irig Duo interface.

    if working with a few tracks , nothing beats AUM

    How do you edit audio tracks in AUM?
    How do you punch-in record and overdub?
    Until now, AUM would have been my last choice for recording, editing and arranging audio tracks.

    as I mentioned ... only when working with a few tracks and want a superquick workflow then AUM

    Punch in no, you are right

    but for couple of tracks I would suppose u can live without it

    Audio editing on the fly not possible but workaround like multitrack recorder Auv3 available, but for couple of tracks I can get
    by with file player and audio share

    I have had too many crashes on Auria and Cubasis ( of course recoverable via snapshots)

    If you need ultimate flexibility (e.g comping) then im afraid its logic

  • @hisdudeness said:

    @rs2000 said:

    @hisdudeness said:

    @rickwaugh said:
    Really looking for a nice, simple solid DAW. Don’t need MIDI. Multiple audio tracks, mono and stereo, good default effects. Simple punch in/punch out for overdubs.

    Been using Auria for years, but I’m tired of the odd issues that I get. Love the result, but damn, I’m tired of spending time I was supposed to be recording trying to figure out why something’s not working.

    Looking at recording a couple of guitar tracks, vocals, percussion. I want it to work every time. Would love to have an archive to Dropbox or mix to Dropbox function. Good reverb, delay, compression, EQ would be great. Simple to use.

    No or low latency when recording along to previous tracks. I’m using an Irig Duo interface.

    if working with a few tracks , nothing beats AUM

    How do you edit audio tracks in AUM?
    How do you punch-in record and overdub?
    Until now, AUM would have been my last choice for recording, editing and arranging audio tracks.

    as I mentioned ... only when working with a few tracks and want a superquick workflow then AUM

    Punch in no, you are right

    but for couple of tracks I would suppose u can live without it

    Audio editing on the fly not possible but workaround like multitrack recorder Auv3 available, but for couple of tracks I can get
    by with file player and audio share

    I have had too many crashes on Auria and Cubasis ( of course recoverable via snapshots)

    If you need ultimate flexibility (e.g comping) then im afraid its logic

    I find Cubasis 2 rather stable as long as I don't load too many plugins, for audio and MIDI track recording I found it stable and reliable.
    Yes, there are many workarounds in AUM using plugins with multiple open windows that you have to resize every time when loading the project, so are they fun to use?
    I don't think so.

  • If you set MTD as the output for your tracks in AudioBus, then MTD just adds those tracks automatically. It’s amazing with AB. I can’t think how it could be easier to quickly get some tracks down.

  • I have a tendency to confuse this app (by Harmonic Dog?) with the Multitrack Recorder app by 4Pockets which also makes Meteor.

    Any comparisons between this app and the 4Pockets multitrackers?

  • @hisdudeness said:

    @rs2000 said:

    @hisdudeness said:

    @rickwaugh said:
    Really looking for a nice, simple solid DAW. Don’t need MIDI. Multiple audio tracks, mono and stereo, good default effects. Simple punch in/punch out for overdubs.

    Been using Auria for years, but I’m tired of the odd issues that I get. Love the result, but damn, I’m tired of spending time I was supposed to be recording trying to figure out why something’s not working.

    Looking at recording a couple of guitar tracks, vocals, percussion. I want it to work every time. Would love to have an archive to Dropbox or mix to Dropbox function. Good reverb, delay, compression, EQ would be great. Simple to use.

    No or low latency when recording along to previous tracks. I’m using an Irig Duo interface.

    if working with a few tracks , nothing beats AUM

    How do you edit audio tracks in AUM?
    How do you punch-in record and overdub?
    Until now, AUM would have been my last choice for recording, editing and arranging audio tracks.

    as I mentioned ... only when working with a few tracks and want a superquick workflow then AUM

    Punch in no, you are right

    but for couple of tracks I would suppose u can live without it

    Audio editing on the fly not possible but workaround like multitrack recorder Auv3 available, but for couple of tracks I can get
    by with file player and audio share

    I have had too many crashes on Auria and Cubasis ( of course recoverable via snapshots)

    If you need ultimate flexibility (e.g comping) then im afraid its logic

    I quite like AUM for various reasons. But punch in and out not being there, when you’re an OCD perfectionist, is just not on. I have a habit of writing overly complex music, so I tend to need to fix my problems. :D

  • @GovernorSilver said:
    I have a tendency to confuse this app (by Harmonic Dog?) with the Multitrack Recorder app by 4Pockets which also makes Meteor.

    Any comparisons between this app and the 4Pockets multitrackers?

    Very different beasts. 4Pockets is prettier certainly. Not sure if there is a standalone version, but the one I was looking at was meant to run as an AU unit inside something like AUM. MTD is a standalone DAW. But it does the job, low memory footprint, very NOT buggy from the reviews I’ve seen of it, (4Pockets has some quibbles from folks,) and the dev is very responsive. These are all things I like. He’s going to bring in automation, he’s talking about thsi summer, and if that’s so it would pretty much fill my basic DAW needs completely.

  • @rickwaugh said:

    @GovernorSilver said:
    I have a tendency to confuse this app (by Harmonic Dog?) with the Multitrack Recorder app by 4Pockets which also makes Meteor.

    Any comparisons between this app and the 4Pockets multitrackers?

    Very different beasts. 4Pockets is prettier certainly. Not sure if there is a standalone version, but the one I was looking at was meant to run as an AU unit inside something like AUM. MTD is a standalone DAW. But it does the job, low memory footprint, very NOT buggy from the reviews I’ve seen of it, (4Pockets has some quibbles from folks,) and the dev is very responsive. These are all things I like. He’s going to bring in automation, he’s talking about thsi summer, and if that’s so it would pretty much fill my basic DAW needs completely.

    Automation ... meh. What this needs before anything else is the ability to follow MIDI clock and song position pointer. If it just had that one thing, I'd use MTD for all audio, and I'd have the perfect companion for Xequence 2. Such a great app, but gets little use here since I can't effectively coordinate it with anything else.

  • McDMcD
    edited January 2020

    Now is the time of our discontent.

    @wim said:
    What this needs before anything else is the ability to follow MIDI clock and song position pointer.

    Can any DAW do that with Xequence as the master clock? @j_liljedahl wrote that it's not possible to have a clock and sync to another. It's the DAW in a DAW problem. Ableton Link was hoped to solve this problem but didn't I think. Sync is still broken on IOS in this area.

  • wimwim
    edited January 2020

    Nah. I'm not discontent with MTD. I just wish I could make more use of it. It seems a recurring theme that developers get sucked down the AU/IAA support rat hole, investing huge amounts of time into it, rather than thinking about how their apps could work more effectively with others. I kinda think they're missing opportunities there.

    It's far too easy looking in from the outside to think I know what's best, but I got no skin in the game, so my opinion is worth nothin'. The MTD developer should do what he thinks is best and that he is most interested in. :D

  • edited January 2020

    @McD said:
    Now is the time of our discontent.

    @wim said:
    What this needs before anything else is the ability to follow MIDI clock and song position pointer.

    Can any DAW do that with Xequence as the master clock? @j_liljedahl wrote that it's not possible to have a clock and sync to another. It's the DAW in a DAW problem. Ableton Link was hoped to solve this problem but didn't I think. Sync is still broken on IOS in this area.

    Are you sure he meant it that way?
    If course it's not possible to mix the internal clock with a different external clock in a useful way but a DAW can always be a clock master or slave to an external clock.
    Ableton is one of the better examples (if you set it to low clock latency).
    The tricky part is to sync audio tracks to stay in sync with external clock but it's entirely possible, albeit with somewhat higher CPU load. Apps like Loopy HD or Blocs Wave can do realtime-stretching of audio clips already, unfortunately most DAWs cannot - most likely because developers are afraid of power users complaining or not being ready to accept that in slave mode, a DAW will need more CPU power.
    Same for LINK. It doesn't matter if it is the LINK clock or the MIDI clock that could change over time, the audio tracks will always have to be time-compressed or stretched in order to run in sync with the beat.

    Sync is not broken on iOS, it's just broken in a number of apps.

    Edit: When syncing Xequence 2 to Loopy HD, make sure that:
    In Loopy HD, enable Settings > Clock Sync > MIDI Sync = On and Clock Source = Virtual MIDI.
    In Xeq2's MIDI setup page, choose Loopy HD as a MIDI destination and enable 'Sync' and 'Absolute'.

  • wimwim
    edited January 2020

    @McD said:
    Now is the time of our discontent.

    @wim said:
    What this needs before anything else is the ability to follow MIDI clock and song position pointer.

    Can any DAW do that with Xequence as the master clock? @j_liljedahl wrote that it's not possible to have a clock and sync to another. It's the DAW in a DAW problem. Ableton Link was hoped to solve this problem but didn't I think. Sync is still broken on IOS in this area.

    BM2 is the only one I know of that can. I'm not interested in going that route, so timeline synced audio is out of reach still. I can deal tho. ;)

    @j_liljedahl, didn't say it wasn't possible. He said he wasn't interested in doing it.

    The tricky part is to sync audio tracks to stay in sync with external clock but it's entirely possible, albeit with somewhat higher CPU load. Apps like Loopy HD or Blocs Wave can do realtime-stretching of audio clips already, unfortunately most DAWs cannot - most likely because developers are afraid of power users complaining or not being ready to accept that in slave mode, a DAW will need more CPU power.

    ^This. Though, for my own part, I wouldn't even ask for time stretching. Maybe clip trimming and fade-in / out is all I would care about. But any developer is probably convinced that people will slam them for not having real-time time stretch, and they're probably right too.

    Nobody want's to do this, so I assume it's just one of those things that just isn't in the cards. That's cool.

    You can't always get what you want
    You can't always get what you want
    You can't always get what you want
    But if you try sometimes, well, you just might find
    You get what you need

    Damn. Now that's gonna be stuck in my head all day ... and I did it to myself.

  • Oh btw, so sorry I forgot the most excellent DAW candidate that can slave to MIDI clock: The latest update of BeatMaker 3!

  • edited January 2020

    Take a look at Audio Evolution Mobile
    for BOTH phone and tablet.

    Discchord / Tim Webb tutorials

    I bought it and have just started exploring it. It hosts AU instruments and effects. I've finally figured out how to setup an instrument/effects in AUM and route the audio through Audiobus to Audio Evolution for recording, editing, arranging, and mixing.

    Now to see how it fares recording/editing midi.

    (PS super smooth scrolling and track zooming WITH MARKERS. Nicer to use than Cubasis 2 IMHOP)

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