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.

AUM plus (discussion)

AUM is now my most used app period.

I can see why it is a popular app and why the developer seems to desire to keep it from feature bloat. Sometimes, an apps seeming simplicity of design hides what is complexity in nature of great design.

I would however like to see an AUM that steps up just a few more notches in complexity of features. Towards a full blown DAW, but not that of the old tired paths travelled - something that keeps its simplicity of design, keeps its modular nature, but goes even further towards a unique touchscreen experience.

I sometimes spend hours just admiring the design and thoughtful nature behind some of the iOS apps that say - “I was made for touchscreen”. Things like: The Seline Redux keyboards, TC-11, DrumJam, Spacecraft, Borderlands, Borderlands, Etc etc.

Imagine an AUM that takes the principles of the best of iOS touch apps to heart, keeps its current simplicity to start, but takes a modular approach to its role within the iOS music making environment. Not full DAW as we know it, but something else.

Here’s a few ideas:

Imagine an extension to AUM that is the timeline of a traditional DAW. Now you’ve spent three hours making some of the usual AUM tracks filled with AU this and AU that. Now you select each lane you want to transfer to the Timeline app. One button press after a few selections and all your tracks chosen are now in place on their own timeline tracks, with all the fx in place and already in groups!

To make the selection process easy, a graphic representation of each track could be grabbed and then slide it into a grouping circle. Simple touch screen choices (and probably some complex programming) overlay of what are time consuming and complex procedures that ruin that artistic groove.

Nanostudio 2s design shows much promise, but lacks that final hurdle towards the basic needed to be a DAW. AUM gives us the simplicity and speed for creativity, but becomes a barrier to the continuation of musical process - it stops at its own selfish design pleasures and leaves us wanting just a bit more. IMO modularity is the answer.

Modularity. Not within a singular app, but with clever communication between apps. As above - keeping AUM simple, but adding optional further complexity of process and features, but trying to avoid the complexity of using the processes.

Ideas. Thoughts. Musings.

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Comments

  • Once an AUM project is transferred to the timeline, which would be synced to AUM, you could delete tracks in AUM or even start a new project that is still linked to the Timeline app.

    Now you can design new tracks to eventually move over to play with the timeline app, or just play over it.

    Synergy between two apps and some screen transfer tools would be needed to see what was happening with position on the timeline and also sync between the two. These would be the issues to overcome.

  • Yeah, with a simple clip-launcher (Midi, Audio & Automation) and time-line recording things §would be pretty neat especially if it's easy to create, organize and edit the clips.

    And well, I really wold love to have an AUv3 sampler on par with Ableton Simpler but that's another discussion...
    (Imagine AUM with built-in Simpler with direct loading/streaming from AudioShare etc).

    But yeah, we'll have to wait and see what 2020 brings...

  • @Samu said:
    Yeah, with a simple clip-launcher (Midi, Audio & Automation) and time-line recording things §would be pretty neat especially if it's easy to create, organize and edit the clips.

    And well, I really wold love to have an AUv3 sampler on par with Ableton Simpler but that's another discussion...
    (Imagine AUM with built-in Simpler with direct loading/streaming from AudioShare etc).

    But yeah, we'll have to wait and see what 2020 brings...

    Or some modular design agreement between certain devs, so that an AU Simpler-like had some design and ease of use features between AUM and itself.

  • @Fruitbat1919 said:

    @Samu said:
    Yeah, with a simple clip-launcher (Midi, Audio & Automation) and time-line recording things §would be pretty neat especially if it's easy to create, organize and edit the clips.

    And well, I really wold love to have an AUv3 sampler on par with Ableton Simpler but that's another discussion...
    (Imagine AUM with built-in Simpler with direct loading/streaming from AudioShare etc).

    But yeah, we'll have to wait and see what 2020 brings...

    Or some modular design agreement between certain devs, so that an AU Simpler-like had some design and ease of use features between AUM and itself.

    I would like to see the ability to simply drag different tracks from AUM into a sample player touch UI and it automatically makes up a playable keyboard instrument, complete with zones and layers etc.

  • @Fruitbat1919 said:

    I would like to see the ability to simply drag different tracks from AUM into a sample player touch UI and it automatically makes up a playable keyboard instrument, complete with zones and layers etc.

    GarageBand can do that :)
    (Ie. create a sampler instrument from any audio-event on the time-line dragged to the sampler track).

    If you look back on pasts posts there is a red-line of request for Ableton Simpler, Cubase Sampler Track and Serato Sample as AUv3's and those would do what you wish to do :)

    But yeah, I hold no higher hopes for now but at the same time I'm quite sure that we'll see a few new AUv3 samplers pop up during this year...

  • wimwim
    edited February 2020

    Three things and I’d have all I need:

    1. Song Position Pointer support ... so AUM’s timeline could sync with other apps such as X2.
    2. A good MIDI piano roll and timeline plugin which follows AUM’s timeline, but also has the ability to mark multiple loop regions and easily trigger those loop regions by midi.
    3. An audio playback timeline with the same. Offline time-stretching is good enough for my purposes, but probably the clamor for realtime time stretching would be overwhelming.

    Only #1 need be a native AUM modification. Unfortunately the developer isn’t interested. Hence, the absolute need for 2 and 3, which I truly hope someone becomes interested in doing.

  • @Samu said:

    @Fruitbat1919 said:

    I would like to see the ability to simply drag different tracks from AUM into a sample player touch UI and it automatically makes up a playable keyboard instrument, complete with zones and layers etc.

    GarageBand can do that :)
    (Ie. create a sampler instrument from any audio-event on the time-line dragged to the sampler track).

    If you look back on pasts posts there is a red-line of request for Ableton Simpler, Cubase Sampler Track and Serato Sample as AUv3's and those would do what you wish to do :)

    But yeah, I hold no higher hopes for now but at the same time I'm quite sure that we'll see a few new AUv3 samplers pop up during this year...

    It’s one of the few areas beyond the DAW itself, that seems to have been quite neglected in iOS. Yes, we have some players, but nothing that fulfills the more complex sampler as an instrument role

  • @wim said:
    Three things and I’d have all I need:

    1. Song Position Pointer support ... so AUM’s timeline could sync with other apps such as X2.
    2. A good MIDI piano roll and timeline plugin which follows AUM’s timeline, but also has the ability to mark multiple loop regions and easily trigger those loop regions by midi.
    3. An audio playback timeline with the same. Offline time-stretching is good enough for my purposes, but probably the clamor for realtime time stretching would be overwhelming.

    Only #1 need be a native AUM modification. Unfortunately the developer isn’t interested. Hence, the absolute need for 2 and 3, which I truly hope someone becomes interested in doing.

    Yes, seems like iOS modular DAW like or DAWless dreams or just out of reach :p

  • >

    It’s one of the few areas beyond the DAW itself, that seems to have been quite neglected in iOS. Yes, we have some players, but nothing that fulfills the more complex sampler as an instrument role

    There is AudioLayer from Virsyn but it's hardly something I'd call fast to work with.
    (You can't even play/preview the sample using a keyboard when trimming the sample after recording it).

    For now I'm stuck with BM3 for my sampling needs but the rest of the app has other issues...

    For me personally I'd be fine with Ableton Simpler, and if would need layers just load another instance of the AUv3.

    Who knows, maybe 2020 will be the year when Ableton brings something other than Link for iOS/iPadOS :)

  • @Samu said:
    Yeah, with a simple clip-launcher (Midi, Audio & Automation) and time-line recording things §would be pretty neat especially if it's easy to create, organize and edit the clips.

    Would you see any value in a MIDI AUv3 plugin with multiple outputs, auto-extending loops, laid out like Live's session view, but without a MIDI editor?

  • @Samu said:

    >

    It’s one of the few areas beyond the DAW itself, that seems to have been quite neglected in iOS. Yes, we have some players, but nothing that fulfills the more complex sampler as an instrument role

    There is AudioLayer from Virsyn but it's hardly something I'd call fast to work with.
    (You can't even play/preview the sample using a keyboard when trimming the sample after recording it).

    For now I'm stuck with BM3 for my sampling needs but the rest of the app has other issues...

    For me personally I'd be fine with Ableton Simpler, and if would need layers just load another instance of the AUv3.

    Who knows, maybe 2020 will be the year when Ableton brings something other than Link for iOS/iPadOS :)

    I love the sampling side of BM3. I don’t use the app often now because of issues, but I used to be able to do the simple sampling setups quickly and as desired - I’m not finding this way of working transferring to AudioLayer for myself. AudioLayer is fine for making an instrument when using other software to create a sound pack, but BM3s sampler was great for on the fly creation of sample sets and instruments combined. I would gladly buy the BM3 sampler as an AU for quite a bit of money in iOS terms.

  • Nothing major ... I'd just like to be able to drag and drop FX and instruments across channels - move and/or duplicate ... would save a heap of time. Apematrix style. But AUM's a magnificent app ... effectively my audio operating system. Crisp minimalism.

  • @jipumarino said:

    Would you see any value in a MIDI AUv3 plugin with multiple outputs, auto-extending loops, laid out like Live's session view, but without a MIDI editor?

    Yes if it was possible to at least quantize the clips either during recording after recording.
    We have midi-generator AUv3's that could be used to feed the clip-recorder and the 'pre-editing' could be done using those (ie. create bass-lines, chord patterns etc).

    But sure I do get that it would be pretty frustrating if there was no way to edit a live-recording...

  • @Fruitbat1919 said:
    I would gladly buy the BM3 sampler as an AU for quite a bit of money in iOS terms.

    Then let's hope we see something like that pop up during 2020 then :)
    It's a toxic topic over at the Intua BM3 forums due to various reasons...

  • @Samu said:

    @Fruitbat1919 said:
    I would gladly buy the BM3 sampler as an AU for quite a bit of money in iOS terms.

    Then let's hope we see something like that pop up during 2020 then :)
    It's a toxic topic over at the Intua BM3 forums due to various reasons...

    Would need to make sure that any sound packs load quickly though. With the full BM3 app, each sound pack downloaded takes ten times longer to load then the last. If it’s not been fixed, the last time I downloaded the lot took me nearly a whole week!

  • If AUM just had a basic timeline, which showed the different tracks waveforms, and allowed us to move along the timeline to record. This would make AUM the most valuable music production tool on iOS. I don’t even think the ability to edit (beyond “undo”) is needed. We just need the ability to get multiple tracks down, then can export to a daw for any timeline editing and finishing touches. As it stands now, I mainly use AUM for messing around and maybe exporting a loop I probably won’t use.

    I know 4pockets multitrack recorder can achieve this, but the setup is extensive enough, and it just doesn’t flow naturally enough to be better than routing to a DAW. AUM has a brilliant setup for quickly getting into the creative process. We have multiple DAWs that can pickup where AUM stops. We just need AUM to bridge that gap a little for the perfect workflow IMO.

  • @Fruitbat1919 said:

    Would need to make sure that any sound packs load quickly though. With the full BM3 app, each sound pack downloaded takes ten times longer to load then the last. If it’s not been fixed, the last time I downloaded the lot took me nearly a whole week!

    I don't use any of the BM3 sounds packs, only stuff from my own sample collection.
    It's more fun to sample the apps thru effect I've got on my iPad :)

    But yeah, I got the idea.
    Amazon hosts the BM3 downloads and I have no clue how much bandwidth Intua pays for...
    (I don't even have enough space in my iPad to download all the ZIP files for extraction).

  • @Samu said:

    @Fruitbat1919 said:

    Would need to make sure that any sound packs load quickly though. With the full BM3 app, each sound pack downloaded takes ten times longer to load then the last. If it’s not been fixed, the last time I downloaded the lot took me nearly a whole week!

    I don't use any of the BM3 sounds packs, only stuff from my own sample collection.
    It's more fun to sample the apps thru effect I've got on my iPad :)

    But yeah, I got the idea.
    Amazon hosts the BM3 downloads and I have no clue how much bandwidth Intua pays for...
    (I don't even have enough space in my iPad to download all the ZIP files for extraction).

    Yep I’m waiting until I get a new iPad with more storage.

  • @FriedTapeworm said:
    If AUM just had a basic timeline, which showed the different tracks waveforms, and allowed us to move along the timeline to record. This would make AUM the most valuable music production tool on iOS. I don’t even think the ability to edit (beyond “undo”) is needed. We just need the ability to get multiple tracks down, then can export to a daw for any timeline editing and finishing touches. As it stands now, I mainly use AUM for messing around and maybe exporting a loop I probably won’t use.

    I know 4pockets multitrack recorder can achieve this, but the setup is extensive enough, and it just doesn’t flow naturally enough to be better than routing to a DAW. AUM has a brilliant setup for quickly getting into the creative process. We have multiple DAWs that can pickup where AUM stops. We just need AUM to bridge that gap a little for the perfect workflow IMO.

    Yes, that’s my idea really. Not to make AUM much more complex, but to make the transfer to timeline use much less complex

  • wimwim
    edited February 2020

    I don’t find Multitrack Recorder difficult to set up at all. I just put it on a bus channel, then route whatever I want to record to that bus until I’m done recording.

    It’s just lacking a couple of features that I’d like to see, but apparently will not be happening. So, yes, if there were something elegantly integrated into AUM, I would love that.

  • AUM is one of my all time favourite apps ever! 👍💗🚀 While I’d love other features, like clip launchers, etc..

    ..The only thing I really want is landscape support on larger iPhones (seeing at least 3/4mixer tracks simultaneously for instance)

  • i use aum everyday, and every time i open my ipad to dabble.
    i love the idea of there being a time line / sequence recorder /midi looper being built right into aum .
    imagine a midi looper like the one in firo4 being baked right into each aum channel or even an auv3 version of it , you’d never have to leave!

    a big thing id like to see, is to be able to swap out aums keyboard with kb1 or really any other similar app.. where you can drag and drop it where aums keyboard currently sits to swap it out, maintaining the hide function, and the simple , press the keyboard icon per track to activate it, but if it just snapped into place right there that would be amazing, as it stays out of the way but easy to call upon. scales , mpe , etc! even if aums native keyboard becomes more complex allowing to set scales that would cover it!

  • @reasOne said:
    i use aum everyday, and every time i open my ipad to dabble.
    i love the idea of there being a time line / sequence recorder /midi looper being built right into aum .
    imagine a midi looper like the one in firo4 being baked right into each aum channel or even an auv3 version of it , you’d never have to leave!

    a big thing id like to see, is to be able to swap out aums keyboard with kb1 or really any other similar app.. where you can drag and drop it where aums keyboard currently sits to swap it out, maintaining the hide function, and the simple , press the keyboard icon per track to activate it, but if it just snapped into place right there that would be amazing, as it stays out of the way but easy to call upon. scales , mpe , etc! even if aums native keyboard becomes more complex allowing to set scales that would cover it!

    Yep I agree with the keyboard idea. I suggested it ages ago when discussing modular and DAWless workflows on here. The built in keyboard does suck and It’s a pain to have to replace it often. I often use it just for changing the root note in apps.

  • I would rather have these timeline suggestions put into another app or be optional as I prefer the streamlined version of AUM and wouldn’t want the bloat. I don’t find it that difficult to export my AUM audio into another DAW for timeline based projects.

  • @InfoCheck said:
    I would rather have these timeline suggestions put into another app or be optional as I prefer the streamlined version of AUM and wouldn’t want the bloat. I don’t find it that difficult to export my AUM audio into another DAW for timeline based projects.

    I agree with your view here.

  • @InfoCheck said:
    I would rather have these timeline suggestions put into another app or be optional as I prefer the streamlined version of AUM and wouldn’t want the bloat. I don’t find it that difficult to export my AUM audio into another DAW for timeline based projects.

    That’s the whole idea of the suggestion. The idea is to make the whole thing optional apart from the part where you graphically choose which part of your AUM project to have exported in the selected form you want - quick, streamlined and completely optional. The screen for doing this would be accessed via the menu and would not need to alter the UI except for an optional small timeline position indicator.

    While I understand that transferring the setups of AUM projects is perfectly easy to do, it is without doubt time consuming. I probably average 5 to 15 AUM setups every day, sometimes more. Transferring a good set up to Cubasis though takes way longer than it takes me to make most the projects - automation of the process would help and save lots of time.

  • @Shiro said:

    @InfoCheck said:
    I would rather have these timeline suggestions put into another app or be optional as I prefer the streamlined version of AUM and wouldn’t want the bloat. I don’t find it that difficult to export my AUM audio into another DAW for timeline based projects.

    I agree with your view here.

    See reply above. The fact is if done right, you wouldn’t hardly see any difference at all.

  • @Fruitbat1919 said:

    @Shiro said:

    @InfoCheck said:
    I would rather have these timeline suggestions put into another app or be optional as I prefer the streamlined version of AUM and wouldn’t want the bloat. I don’t find it that difficult to export my AUM audio into another DAW for timeline based projects.

    I agree with your view here.

    See reply above. The fact is if done right, you wouldn’t hardly see any difference at all.

    I rather not have a timeline in AUM but that just my view. Too much bloat and development for the one developer. Some built in audio looper like some suggested seems appropriate for the app though.

  • @Shiro said:

    @Fruitbat1919 said:

    @Shiro said:

    @InfoCheck said:
    I would rather have these timeline suggestions put into another app or be optional as I prefer the streamlined version of AUM and wouldn’t want the bloat. I don’t find it that difficult to export my AUM audio into another DAW for timeline based projects.

    I agree with your view here.

    See reply above. The fact is if done right, you wouldn’t hardly see any difference at all.

    I rather not have a timeline in AUM but that just my view. Too much bloat and development for the one developer. Some built in audio looper like some suggested seems appropriate for the app though.

    While the idea definitely would require work, the timeline idea as written would hardly affect the main AUM app at all visually and so would not have much of the problems of bloat - well not in the sense most people express it.

    I’m wondering if I’ve just written the idea in a way that has confused people to what it would actually entail - shame I don’t have the tools to make a mock up so it would be easier for people to conceptualise.

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