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.

Staffpad now available for ipad with Kontakt-libraries IAPs

2

Comments

  • @ScottVanZandt said:
    This app is really impressive to me. I’ve been trying to create decent sounding orchestral music on iOS for years and now I finally can. Here’s my first attempt with this program. I used all Cinesamples libraries for this one, and the composition process was mostly glitch-free. I'm actually surprised at how well it it all works.

    Impressive work, thanks for sharing. Did you have the chance to compare this app with Notion and if yes, how different (better) is it ? What is the price of the Cinesamples libraries ?

  • edited February 2020

    @cuscolima said:

    @ScottVanZandt said:
    This app is really impressive to me. I’ve been trying to create decent sounding orchestral music on iOS for years and now I finally can. Here’s my first attempt with this program. I used all Cinesamples libraries for this one, and the composition process was mostly glitch-free. I'm actually surprised at how well it it all works.

    Impressive work, thanks for sharing. Did you have the chance to compare this app with Notion and if yes, how different (better) is it ? What is the price of the Cinesamples libraries ?

    I've tried using Notion in the past but it never really clicked with me. For Staffpad, once you get through the first few days of the torture that is learning a new piece of software, you begin to do stuff automatically without thinking about it, like you can REALLY get into the zone and focus on just the music. I think the high quality sample playback engine motivates me to stick with it. It's extremely rewarding. In other notation programs, the playback can sound pretty good, but still has a slightly synthetic sound to it that will never sound natural.

    There are 3 major brands of orchestra samples available: Cinesamples, Spitfire, and Orchestral Tools. Each one is divided into instrument categories: Strings, Brass, Woodwinds, Choir, Piano, Percussion, and maybe 1 or 2 more depending on which company you choose from. Each instrument category costs $99.00, so for a full orchestra from Cinesamples, it'll be $500-$600. Luckily, I just got my income tax refund, so the timing was perfect for me.

    The instruments really do articulate each note how it is entered, and there's no machine-gun effect at all. They all have that round-robin-random or whatever it's called built into it. I did however mixdown each instrument section individually. For example, I would solo all the woodwind instruments, export the audio, and then move on and do the other sections. I imported these 5 sections as 5 audio tracks into Cubasis 3: Woodwinds, Brass, Strings, Chromatic Percussion and Rhythm Percussion. I wanted a little more control over the dynamics, although the dynamic controls/automation within Staffpad are quite good, I was having issues with the Brass being just a little too loud, same with the rhythm percussion.

    I dropped the master mix level in Cubasis down to around -6 db, drew in volume automation for each audio track to make minor adjustments where I felt it was needed, and then mixed down into a single audio file. I exported that audio file to Lurssen Mastering Console to bump up the volume and help "glue it all together" into a nice rich, balanced sound - as best as I could anyway - I'm not a pro at this at all - it's all guess work for me :)

  • @ScottVanZandt said:

    @cuscolima said:

    @ScottVanZandt said:
    This app is really impressive to me. I’ve been trying to create decent sounding orchestral music on iOS for years and now I finally can. Here’s my first attempt with this program. I used all Cinesamples libraries for this one, and the composition process was mostly glitch-free. I'm actually surprised at how well it it all works.

    Impressive work, thanks for sharing. Did you have the chance to compare this app with Notion and if yes, how different (better) is it ? What is the price of the Cinesamples libraries ?

    I've tried using Notion in the past but it never really clicked with me. For Staffpad, once you get through the first few days of the torture that is learning a new piece of software, you begin to do stuff automatically without thinking about it, like you can REALLY get into the zone and focus on just the music. I think the high quality sample playback engine motivates me to stick with it. It's extremely rewarding. In other notation programs, the playback can sound pretty good, but still has a slightly synthetic sound to it that will never sound natural.

    There are 3 major brands of orchestra samples available: Cinesamples, Spitfire, and Orchestral Tools. Each one is divided into instrument categories: Strings, Brass, Woodwinds, Choir, Piano, Percussion, and maybe 1 or 2 more depending on which company you choose from. Each instrument category costs $99.00, so for a full orchestra from Cinesamples, it'll be $500-$600. Luckily, I just got my income tax refund, so the timing was perfect for me.

    The instruments really do articulate each note how it is entered, and there's no machine-gun effect at all. They all have that round-robin-random or whatever it's called built into it. I did however mixdown each instrument section individually. For example, I would solo all the woodwind instruments, export the audio, and then move on and do the other sections. I imported these 5 sections as 5 audio tracks into Cubasis 3: Woodwinds, Brass, Strings, Chromatic Percussion and Rhythm Percussion. I wanted a little more control over the dynamics, although the dynamic controls/automation within Staffpad are quite good, I was having issues with the Brass being just a little too loud, same with the rhythm percussion.

    I dropped the master mix level in Cubasis down to around -6 db, drew in volume automation for each audio track to make minor adjustments where I felt it was needed, and then mixed down into a single audio file. I exported that audio file to Lurssen Mastering Console to bump up the volume and help "glue it all together" into a nice rich, balanced sound - as best as I could anyway - I'm not a pro at this at all - it's all guess work for me :)

    Sounds really really good! :) Silly question but does Staffpad have midi in so one could play things instead of using the apple pencil?

  • @Treaszure said:

    @ScottVanZandt said:

    @cuscolima said:

    @ScottVanZandt said:
    This app is really impressive to me. I’ve been trying to create decent sounding orchestral music on iOS for years and now I finally can. Here’s my first attempt with this program. I used all Cinesamples libraries for this one, and the composition process was mostly glitch-free. I'm actually surprised at how well it it all works.

    Impressive work, thanks for sharing. Did you have the chance to compare this app with Notion and if yes, how different (better) is it ? What is the price of the Cinesamples libraries ?

    I've tried using Notion in the past but it never really clicked with me. For Staffpad, once you get through the first few days of the torture that is learning a new piece of software, you begin to do stuff automatically without thinking about it, like you can REALLY get into the zone and focus on just the music. I think the high quality sample playback engine motivates me to stick with it. It's extremely rewarding. In other notation programs, the playback can sound pretty good, but still has a slightly synthetic sound to it that will never sound natural.

    There are 3 major brands of orchestra samples available: Cinesamples, Spitfire, and Orchestral Tools. Each one is divided into instrument categories: Strings, Brass, Woodwinds, Choir, Piano, Percussion, and maybe 1 or 2 more depending on which company you choose from. Each instrument category costs $99.00, so for a full orchestra from Cinesamples, it'll be $500-$600. Luckily, I just got my income tax refund, so the timing was perfect for me.

    The instruments really do articulate each note how it is entered, and there's no machine-gun effect at all. They all have that round-robin-random or whatever it's called built into it. I did however mixdown each instrument section individually. For example, I would solo all the woodwind instruments, export the audio, and then move on and do the other sections. I imported these 5 sections as 5 audio tracks into Cubasis 3: Woodwinds, Brass, Strings, Chromatic Percussion and Rhythm Percussion. I wanted a little more control over the dynamics, although the dynamic controls/automation within Staffpad are quite good, I was having issues with the Brass being just a little too loud, same with the rhythm percussion.

    I dropped the master mix level in Cubasis down to around -6 db, drew in volume automation for each audio track to make minor adjustments where I felt it was needed, and then mixed down into a single audio file. I exported that audio file to Lurssen Mastering Console to bump up the volume and help "glue it all together" into a nice rich, balanced sound - as best as I could anyway - I'm not a pro at this at all - it's all guess work for me :)

    Sounds really really good! :) Silly question but does Staffpad have midi in so one could play things instead of using the apple pencil?

    Not a silly question at all! Unfortunately, there is no midi in. I'm thinking that is part of the reason the app plays back so smoothly without stuttering. It might be that it's constantly freezing tracks in the background each time you edit a measure. I'm not completely sure of this, just a theory.

    What I found myself doing when sitting at a midi keyboard was opening sound module apps that can do background audio (SampleTank, Beathawk, iSymphonic), to play along with what I had written so far in StaffPad. That's how I would figure out what notes to enter. Once I get something down, I can work away from the piano for a while, but when I need to experiment with new chord progressions and melodies I return to the keyboard.

  • @ScottVanZandt said:

    @Treaszure said:

    @ScottVanZandt said:

    @cuscolima said:

    @ScottVanZandt said:
    This app is really impressive to me. I’ve been trying to create decent sounding orchestral music on iOS for years and now I finally can. Here’s my first attempt with this program. I used all Cinesamples libraries for this one, and the composition process was mostly glitch-free. I'm actually surprised at how well it it all works.

    Impressive work, thanks for sharing. Did you have the chance to compare this app with Notion and if yes, how different (better) is it ? What is the price of the Cinesamples libraries ?

    I've tried using Notion in the past but it never really clicked with me. For Staffpad, once you get through the first few days of the torture that is learning a new piece of software, you begin to do stuff automatically without thinking about it, like you can REALLY get into the zone and focus on just the music. I think the high quality sample playback engine motivates me to stick with it. It's extremely rewarding. In other notation programs, the playback can sound pretty good, but still has a slightly synthetic sound to it that will never sound natural.

    There are 3 major brands of orchestra samples available: Cinesamples, Spitfire, and Orchestral Tools. Each one is divided into instrument categories: Strings, Brass, Woodwinds, Choir, Piano, Percussion, and maybe 1 or 2 more depending on which company you choose from. Each instrument category costs $99.00, so for a full orchestra from Cinesamples, it'll be $500-$600. Luckily, I just got my income tax refund, so the timing was perfect for me.

    The instruments really do articulate each note how it is entered, and there's no machine-gun effect at all. They all have that round-robin-random or whatever it's called built into it. I did however mixdown each instrument section individually. For example, I would solo all the woodwind instruments, export the audio, and then move on and do the other sections. I imported these 5 sections as 5 audio tracks into Cubasis 3: Woodwinds, Brass, Strings, Chromatic Percussion and Rhythm Percussion. I wanted a little more control over the dynamics, although the dynamic controls/automation within Staffpad are quite good, I was having issues with the Brass being just a little too loud, same with the rhythm percussion.

    I dropped the master mix level in Cubasis down to around -6 db, drew in volume automation for each audio track to make minor adjustments where I felt it was needed, and then mixed down into a single audio file. I exported that audio file to Lurssen Mastering Console to bump up the volume and help "glue it all together" into a nice rich, balanced sound - as best as I could anyway - I'm not a pro at this at all - it's all guess work for me :)

    Sounds really really good! :) Silly question but does Staffpad have midi in so one could play things instead of using the apple pencil?

    Not a silly question at all! Unfortunately, there is no midi in. I'm thinking that is part of the reason the app plays back so smoothly without stuttering. It might be that it's constantly freezing tracks in the background each time you edit a measure. I'm not completely sure of this, just a theory.

    What I found myself doing when sitting at a midi keyboard was opening sound module apps that can do background audio (SampleTank, Beathawk, iSymphonic), to play along with what I had written so far in StaffPad. That's how I would figure out what notes to enter. Once I get something down, I can work away from the piano for a while, but when I need to experiment with new chord progressions and melodies I return to the keyboard.

    Alright! :) Thanks for the reply.

  • @ScottVanZandt said:

    @cuscolima said:

    @ScottVanZandt said:
    This app is really impressive to me. I’ve been trying to create decent sounding orchestral music on iOS for years and now I finally can. Here’s my first attempt with this program. I used all Cinesamples libraries for this one, and the composition process was mostly glitch-free. I'm actually surprised at how well it it all works.

    Impressive work, thanks for sharing. Did you have the chance to compare this app with Notion and if yes, how different (better) is it ? What is the price of the Cinesamples libraries ?

    I've tried using Notion in the past but it never really clicked with me. For Staffpad, once you get through the first few days of the torture that is learning a new piece of software, you begin to do stuff automatically without thinking about it, like you can REALLY get into the zone and focus on just the music. I think the high quality sample playback engine motivates me to stick with it. It's extremely rewarding. In other notation programs, the playback can sound pretty good, but still has a slightly synthetic sound to it that will never sound natural.

    There are 3 major brands of orchestra samples available: Cinesamples, Spitfire, and Orchestral Tools. Each one is divided into instrument categories: Strings, Brass, Woodwinds, Choir, Piano, Percussion, and maybe 1 or 2 more depending on which company you choose from. Each instrument category costs $99.00, so for a full orchestra from Cinesamples, it'll be $500-$600. Luckily, I just got my income tax refund, so the timing was perfect for me.

    The instruments really do articulate each note how it is entered, and there's no machine-gun effect at all. They all have that round-robin-random or whatever it's called built into it. I did however mixdown each instrument section individually. For example, I would solo all the woodwind instruments, export the audio, and then move on and do the other sections. I imported these 5 sections as 5 audio tracks into Cubasis 3: Woodwinds, Brass, Strings, Chromatic Percussion and Rhythm Percussion. I wanted a little more control over the dynamics, although the dynamic controls/automation within Staffpad are quite good, I was having issues with the Brass being just a little too loud, same with the rhythm percussion.

    I dropped the master mix level in Cubasis down to around -6 db, drew in volume automation for each audio track to make minor adjustments where I felt it was needed, and then mixed down into a single audio file. I exported that audio file to Lurssen Mastering Console to bump up the volume and help "glue it all together" into a nice rich, balanced sound - as best as I could anyway - I'm not a pro at this at all - it's all guess work for me :)

    Thank you very much for the detailed answer. I also understand that with the 90$ "base package" you don't have a lot of included instruments and you will certainly have to buy extensions packages to have something really usable. This also change a lot of things budget-wise

  • McDMcD
    edited February 2020

    Poking around in Google I discovered a sound demo of the string available in the Core Staffpad iPad product:

    That same composer also has demo's of all the IAP string products for StaffPad.

    It strikes me that this is like the early days of IOS DAW's when the FF FX we're embedded in Auria Pro and later converted to AUv3 formats. Is there a viable packaging for sound playback of sample sets? I don't think SF2 or SFZ have all the right bells and whistles.
    On desktops I think it also targets a popular playback tool like Kontakt, Logic Pro X, etc.

    Anyone know this application/product space well? Maybe Staffpad will expose MIDI In/Out and support loading AUv3 sample based products at some point. I'd expect they use MIDI internally to get 3 vendors working at introduction.

    This product is designed for Composers that communicate with written scores.
    There's also a reader app that every member of an orchestra can use to display their individual part by connecting to one instance of StaffPad.

    It's not intended for MIDI based compositional uses. There are still college students that would want this
    and this app is cheaper than the big desktop products in comparison and runs on less expensive and more portable iPads. It's a game changer for that musical environment on of little value here. You can't render a piano-based performance for example. It's not by note input ONLY.

    Staffpad is $89 for the notation/hand input.

    The 3 sound engine vendors product cost:

    CineWinds $99.99
    CineHarps StaffPad Edition $69.99
    CineBrass StaffPad Edition $99.99
    CineStrings StaffPad Edition $99.99
    CinePerc StaffPad Edition $99.99
    CinePiano StaffPad Edition $69.99
    CineStrings Solo $69.99

    Spitfire Originals Felt Piano $29.99

    Berlin Strings $99.99
    Berlin Strings First Chairs $99.99 (these are solo instruments)

  • Is there "con sordino" strings or muted brass in the internal sounds or extended libraries ?

    Thanks
    GF

  • @gfcalvi said:
    Is there "con sordino" strings or muted brass in the internal sounds or extended libraries ?

    Thanks
    GF

    Hmmm, I don't see those listed anywhere in the available instruments for any of the IAPs. I thought that maybe you could just enter the text "con sordino" below or above the staff and it would change it, but I couldn't get it to work. For strings, you can enter the text "pizz" and "arco" to switch between pizzicato/plucked and the regular sustain sound. I thought it might work to achieve the muted sound, but I guess that's not currently available. I might email the developer and find out if they plan to add that in the future.

  • Do you think this would be a good app for learning notation? I have a few educational apps that cover the basics, but it seems like having such a hands-on system like Staffpad (along with a guide) might make the learning process much more engaging and rewarding.

  • @ScottVanZandt said:
    This app is really impressive to me. I’ve been trying to create decent sounding orchestral music on iOS for years and now I finally can. Here’s my first attempt with this program. I used all Cinesamples libraries for this one, and the composition process was mostly glitch-free. I'm actually surprised at how well it it all works.

    That’s beautiful ❤️

  • Wonderful, finally really high quality orchestra samples on an iPad. It´s not cheap and i normally do no sheet music but this is really a game changer (yes, i know these days everything is a game changer but this really is) for iOS.
    These are not just stripped down versions of their 100 GB Kontakt libraries but these involved a lot of work to play along with the StaffPad engine. There is a lot more than plain midi going on in the background. So i think the price is O.k.
    Maybe a bit salty that you have to buy things "again" even if i own some of the full libraries for Kontakt but these are indeed like new scripted from the raw samples so that is that.
    Alone the fact that these engine runs on an iPad today is a good sign for the future.
    I also wished it has midi inout/output but like said there is more going on and the expansion packs are specially made for the StaffPad engine. That is also the reason it really sound so good (for me it does). There are already a lot demos to find on you-tube and this is indeed a gamechanger for me.

  • The app store description says it has midi import/ export. Not exactly midi in/out but it's something.

  • edited February 2020

    @mjcouche said:
    The app store description says it has midi import/ export. Not exactly midi in/out but it's something.

    Great to hear, That definitely increases the apps utility.

    P.s. “Youcompose” might be good companion app for Staffpad, particularly for beginners who are just getting into multi-part orchestral/jazz composition. It has a decent AI algorithm that creates harmonies based on your lead line, that you can export all the midi parts. The built in sounds aren’t anything to write home about, but it could generate some useful accompaniments that might serve as a good starting point in Staffpad. Here’s a short improv I did in my first go at the app:

  • So mainly every demo i heard with StaffPad just sounds amazing. F.e. this guy here made a Berlin Strings test i really love and man does it sounds great. If i think this now coming all from an iPad if you want and it just takes a few GB.
    You are of course limited in number of mics and whatever but it seems to translate really outstanding well from written to these wonderful playback. This put even some much bigger Kontakt libraries to shame.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=64&v=kJ_tQgI3zwQ&feature=emb_title

  • @Clueless said:
    So mainly every demo i heard with StaffPad just sounds amazing. F.e. this guy here made a Berlin Strings test i really love and man does it sounds great. If i think this now coming all from an iPad if you want and it just takes a few GB.
    You are of course limited in number of mics and whatever but it seems to translate really outstanding well from written to these wonderful playback. This put even some much bigger Kontakt libraries to shame.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=64&v=kJ_tQgI3zwQ&feature=emb_title

    Holy cow that sounds incredible

  • Another new thread popped up for details.

  • Is this AUv3?

  • edited March 2020

    I was going to comment on this, but decided i should maybe listen to it first. Maybe even try it? :D

  • @ipadbeatmaking said:
    Is this AUv3?

    No. It doesn't do MIDI in or out. It just allows you to write notes and hear what they could like with quality sample packs.
    Not really a great fit for this forum except for some well trained in musical notation for creating very old school scores.

    Before commuters this was the only way to provide instructions to music reading musicians with any precision. Computers have found many ways to optimize this approach of manual data entry and literal playback from notation.

    Still, there is a user base that this helps by generating editable scores and letting you hear the results with quality samples
    before printing and releasing real ensembles of musicians at a very high rate of $/hour for rehearsing, recording and performances.

    In the paper world their were assistant orchestrators, copyists, librarians all focused on making, managing and archiving paper based scores. Broadway, orchestras, big churches and school ensembles all supported this model of music production.

    Now... an iPad with a pen. Magic.

  • Nice to read and hear you @ScottVanZandt. it sounds beautiful. How, exactly, did you upload it to SoundCloud?

    Will you now use this solely for your orchestral pieces? Can you export it as a wav to an iOS DAW and add synths, etc? Sorry for the beginner’s questions.

  • @Artj said:
    LOL at that D6 chord interpretation in a Mozart, who would likely prefer Bm7/D. :D

    Coming in this thread late and OT. @Artj - I’m curious what’s the difference? Isn’t Bm7 over D essentially the same as D6? I’m no music theory expert, especially when it comes to classical. Thank you 🙏

  • @McD said:

    @ipadbeatmaking said:
    Is this AUv3?

    No. It doesn't do MIDI in or out. It just allows you to write notes and hear what they could like with quality sample packs.
    Not really a great fit for this forum except for some well trained in musical notation for creating very old school scores.

    Before commuters this was the only way to provide instructions to music reading musicians with any precision. Computers have found many ways to optimize this approach of manual data entry and literal playback from notation.

    Still, there is a user base that this helps by generating editable scores and letting you hear the results with quality samples
    before printing and releasing real ensembles of musicians at a very high rate of $/hour for rehearsing, recording and performances.

    In the paper world their were assistant orchestrators, copyists, librarians all focused on making, managing and archiving paper based scores. Broadway, orchestras, big churches and school ensembles all supported this model of music production.

    Now... an iPad with a pen. Magic.

    Thanks for clarifying this

  • @maxwellhouser said: I’m curious what’s the difference? Isn’t Bm7 over D essentially the same as D6?

    Haha, nothing much, I'm afraid—just semantic. In those times, you could not really have a true D6 because they built chords by stacking up the third, the lowest note being the chord name. So if you have, from bottom-up, D-F#-A-B, the formal way in those times is to respell the pitches in the stack of the third form, B-D-F#-A, which is, like you said, Bm7. Thus D-F#-A-B would be seen as Bm7 in 1st inversion by Mozart's contemporaries.

    I think the concept of chord like D6 is the product of more modern music when we started having such thing as jazz. If you play Moonlight Serenade melody in D major, that first chord, in this case, should be called D6 because it's obviously the tonic, the home of the piece (Roman numeral "I" with added 6 somehow). It cannot be just Bm7 in 1st inversion (Roman numeral vi6/5).

    I'm sorry—this reads like the most boring thing on this forum! :s Need to save money for Staffpad, but then I'm also waiting for Egoist sale... :D

  • @LinearLineman said:
    Nice to read and hear you @ScottVanZandt. it sounds beautiful. How, exactly, did you upload it to SoundCloud?

    Will you now use this solely for your orchestral pieces? Can you export it as a wav to an iOS DAW and add synths, etc? Sorry for the beginner’s questions.

    Hello Michael, yes, I do plan on mostly using Staffpad for my orchestral works. You can export as a WAV file, or you can export as individual instruments or combinations of instruments (depending on which tracks you solo) and create multiple WAV files if you want to do some additional mixing in a DAW. I do plan on creating hybrid orchestral/synths pieces using this method in the future.

    The newest version of Soundcloud for iOS supports direct upload from your device - you do not need a computer. You just save the WAV file to a destination folder in the Files App on your iPad - I use the iCloud Downloads folder, and then you can upload the track by pointing to this folder during the upload process within the Soundcloud app.

    I composed a second piece in Staffpad, this one incorporating the CineSamples VOXOS choir. You can enter certain syllables into the lyrics and the choir will actually sing the syllables. These are the syllables you can choose from: A, E, I, O, U, Sa, Ra, Ca, Ma, Ta, Te, Re, Ne Do, Vo, Tu, Nu, Di, Cri, Vi, Ky, Ri Mi, Ti, Tus, Frayst, Nus, Tis, Sact, Vos.

  • Thanks, @ScottVanZandt. Damn, my friend, can’t you find any number of indie film makers who would love to have you do their soundtracks?

    Those Libraries are beautiful.

  • @ScottVanZandt said:
    You can export as a WAV file

    How long does it take to export a 3 minute project like this one into a wave file and how many discrete instrument parts are there in the score? Can you estimate the cost to have access to the instruments required or at least list the products involved in total and I'll do the math.

    The results speak for themselves and are a tribute to your musical imagination and skills. Do you still do a lot of your IOS composing while commuting? I suspect this workflow model helps but it might be very batch oriented if the audio rendering takes several minutes to hear changes... can you just select a short segment with few instruments and get close to realtime? That would improve the effecitiveness for someone with as deep an understanding of music theory.

    Could kids be taught to use this system and learn music academically with feedback on results?

    I could see a lot of us using the regular IOS tools to create a project and then writing some orchestra backing material to include in a DAW's project as wave segment not unlike the classic recording work where orchestra were used to sweeten a studio created song like the Philly Sound of the disco era with elaborate string arrangements.

  • @Artj said:

    @maxwellhouser said: I’m curious what’s the difference? Isn’t Bm7 over D essentially the same as D6?

    Haha, nothing much, I'm afraid—just semantic. In those times, you could not really have a true D6 because they built chords by stacking up the third, the lowest note being the chord name. So if you have, from bottom-up, D-F#-A-B, the formal way in those times is to respell the pitches in the stack of the third form, B-D-F#-A, which is, like you said, Bm7. Thus D-F#-A-B would be seen as Bm7 in 1st inversion by Mozart's contemporaries.

    I think the concept of chord like D6 is the product of more modern music when we started having such thing as jazz. If you play Moonlight Serenade melody in D major, that first chord, in this case, should be called D6 because it's obviously the tonic, the home of the piece (Roman numeral "I" with added 6 somehow). It cannot be just Bm7 in 1st inversion (Roman numeral vi6/5).

    I'm sorry—this reads like the most boring thing on this forum! :s Need to save money for Staffpad, but then I'm also waiting for Egoist sale... :D

    Thank you, that’s helpful to know 😎

  • @McD said:

    @ScottVanZandt said:
    You can export as a WAV file

    How long does it take to export a 3 minute project like this one into a wave file and how many discrete instrument parts are there in the score? Can you estimate the cost to have access to the instruments required or at least list the products involved in total and I'll do the math.

    The results speak for themselves and are a tribute to your musical imagination and skills. Do you still do a lot of your IOS composing while commuting? I suspect this workflow model helps but it might be very batch oriented if the audio rendering takes several minutes to hear changes... can you just select a short segment with few instruments and get close to realtime? That would improve the effecitiveness for someone with as deep an understanding of music theory.

    Could kids be taught to use this system and learn music academically with feedback on results?

    I could see a lot of us using the regular IOS tools to create a project and then writing some orchestra backing material to include in a DAW's project as wave segment not unlike the classic recording work where orchestra were used to sweeten a studio created song like the Philly Sound of the disco era with elaborate string arrangements.

    It takes about 15 seconds to render 2 1/2 minutes worth of music to an exported WAV file. If you are not exporting and you just want to listen, you can hear any changes you make instantly by tapping the play button. I think a lot of the rendering/bouncing is already occurring after you edit each measure, so it's not really playing "live instruments", it's playing back rendered/frozen recordings of instruments. I think if you change the notes in one measure, it only has to re-render that one measure and seamlessly splice it back into the recording (not re-render every instrument part from start to finish). This is why MIDI In (playing with a midi keyboard) will probably never work with this app. But that's okay for me.

    Here is pricing for everything that went into my latest piece - it's not cheap, but you're paying hundreds of dollars, not thousands of dollars like their VST counterparts.

    StaffPad App: $89.99
    Cinebrass: $99.99
    CineStrings: $99.99
    CineWinds: $99.99
    CinePerc: $99.99
    CineHarps: $69.99
    CinePiano: $69.99
    VOXOS Choir: $99.99

    These are all Cinesamples Libaries. The libraries from Spitfire and Orchestral Tools are mostly the same cost.

  • @ScottVanZandt said:
    Here is pricing for everything that went into my latest piece - it's not cheap, but you're paying hundreds of dollars, not thousands of dollars like their VST counterparts.

    True. I'll bet people would be surprised how much music is rendered without any musician being paid to play from paper.

    Can you describe your input workflow? Do you input with a pen while on the bus to/from work?

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