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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Auria vs Cubasis 3

edited April 2020 in General App Discussion

I know they are different beasts with different strengths and weaknesses but also have a lot in common as they both are high rated and popular daws with audio and midi manipulating features. This is not a thread to blame any app or developer as both daws are excellent and are coded and cared for by skilled and passionate developers. Shoutout to Wavemachine Labs and Steinberg!

I know the specs and the technical differences. I’m more interested to hear from the heavy and not so heavy duty users here if and why they prefer one over the other for audio and midi recording and editing.

That surely will help some of us to make a decision.

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Comments

  • Cubasis 3 is currently not in great shape by all accounts, but is being developed far more actively than Auria. So even as an Auria user I would place my long-term bet on Cubasis 3. However my feeling is that NS2 will actually take the crown once it finally adds audio tracks.

    iOS DAW development is not very profitable, and only Steinberg can maintain a full-time team (presumably at a loss). WML (who develop Auria) and Blip (who develops NS2) both need to juggle with other commitments in order to survive.

    Right now, today, Auria is still the best for audio and mixing. Personally I do all the MIDI work elsewhere (NS2, Gadget, GagageBand or Cubasis), then export stems to mix in Auria. For me personally this offers a very stable and solid workflow where I can use each app to its strengths - I really believe this is the best possible workflow on iOS right now. Things may change in the future depending on what happens with Cubasis 3 or NS2. YMMV of course.

  • @richardyot said:
    Cubasis 3 is currently not in great shape by all accounts, but is being developed far more actively than Auria. So even as an Auria user I would place my long-term bet on Cubasis 3. However my feeling is that NS2 will actually take the crown once it finally adds audio tracks.

    iOS DAW development is not very profitable, and only Steinberg can maintain a full-time team (presumably at a loss). WML (who develop Auria) and Blip (who develops NS2) both need to juggle with other commitments in order to survive.

    Right now, today, Auria is still the best for audio and mixing. Personally I do all the MIDI work elsewhere (NS2, Gadget, GagageBand or Cubasis), then export stems to mix in Auria. For me personally this offers a very stable and solid workflow where I can use each app to its strengths - I really believe this is the best possible workflow on iOS right now. Things may change in the future depending on what happens with Cubasis 3 or NS2. YMMV of course.

    Thanks @richardyot I really like your sound and appreciate your input! Sounds like a nice workflow! Curious about NS2 adding audio. Would be great to have an all in one DAW one day!

  • @richardyot do you hear a difference between a mix in ios auria and a daw like logic on a computer ?

  • @mlau said:
    @richardyot do you hear a difference between a mix in ios auria and a daw like logic on a computer ?

    No! There's no rational reason to expect any difference, Auria uses a 32 bit engine. With similar plugins the results are the same.

  • I share @richardyot ‘s thoughts on Cubasis — not in great shape at present, but very pretty and makes you look forward to a day where most features are working

  • @richardyot tx ! that’s very good to know

  • So after giving Auria Pro a serious spin I’m a little disappointed. I appreciate the routing capabilities and the general look and feel but you are right @richardyot the midi side of the app doesn’t seem to be all ripe yet. It feels a bit flimsy and buggy. When I closed and reopened Auria all midi notes in my project were gone. All empty. That’s not cool at all!
    I bought and will try out NS2. Will also revisit GarageBand and Cubasis 2. Oh well...

  • @jacou said:
    So after giving Auria Pro a serious spin I’m a little disappointed. I appreciate the routing capabilities and the general look and feel but you are right @richardyot the midi side of the app doesn’t seem to be all ripe yet. It feels a bit flimsy and buggy. When I closed and reopened Auria all midi notes in my project were gone. All empty. That’s not cool at all!
    I bought and will try out NS2. Will also revisit GarageBand and Cubasis 2. Oh well...

    For midi NS2 is the best. I spent a lot on Auria and I feel cheated when I realized that midi is really bug. I lost a week of my free time to understand that Auria was totally unusable on the midi side. I used Cubasis 2 which rock stable. Then I bought Nano Studii 2 because Cubasis 2 went 100% cpu without reason. With the same auv3 instruments and effects, NS2 was 50%.
    Now I bought Cubasis 3 because I need audio, and it seems very good.
    Actually:

    Cubasis 3 is the best for both audio and midi projects.

    Nanostudio 2 is the best for only midi project.

    Auria should be the best for audio (but I don’t think I will use it anymore, the interface is really confusing)

    When nanostudio 2 will have audio tracks I will buy the iap and see what is better.

    Obsidian is wonderful.

  • I agree with most opinions here regarding C3 vs NS2 (I don't own Auria though - I use only iPhone).
    C3 is still at its infancy, and needs to grow (I hope it will because I paid quite a lot for it). NS2 is excellent even though it has no audio tracks. Once NS2 gets the audio tracks, followed by AUv3 effect automation (which dev said is coming afterwards), that's it for me.

  • @richardyot : That was beautiful, man.. Really a great synopsis !

  • @god said:
    I agree with most opinions here regarding C3 vs NS2 (I don't own Auria though - I use only iPhone).
    C3 is still at its infancy, and needs to grow (I hope it will because I paid quite a lot for it). NS2 is excellent even though it has no audio tracks. Once NS2 gets the audio tracks, followed by AUv3 effect automation (which dev said is coming afterwards), that's it for me.

    Actually C3 is quite usable. I’m a fan of C2 and I bought 3 when it went on sale a few days ago. The only problem, actually, is DSP which rises to 100%. Sometimes I need to kill the app and restart it. Apart from that, C3 is similar to 2, but more efficient.

  • I got cb2 in the sale last week.
    I just use it for arranging stems that have been made in AUM.
    I am really happy with it. I think £15.99 is a great price for an app that was £49.99 not long ago.
    I understand that there probably wont be many updates with it now that cb3 is out but for my needs its ok as it is.

  • @jacou strange ! i got auria 5 days ago, went through, pushed it quite a bit, and it works great here... am on ipad pro 11 last ios

  • @mlau said:
    @jacou strange ! i got auria 5 days ago, went through, pushed it quite a bit, and it works great here... am on ipad pro 11 last ios

    Well.. maybe the problem is my iPad Air 1. A little outdated I guess...

  • Some people here swear by AEM. I tried it a while ago and found the interface very clunky, but that may well have changed. I also use Auria for mixing - tried it for recording but it didn't work for some reason (this was a long time ago though).

    Like a few people here I'm impatiently waiting for Nanostudio to get audio, AU3 automation and a couple of other things (improved AU3 midi, sidechaining and better swing implementation). The UX on Nanostudio is so good, that it's hard for me to use anything else. Plus Obsidian obviously.

  • godgod
    edited March 2020

    @cian said:
    Some people here swear by AEM. I tried it a while ago and found the interface very clunky, but that may well have changed. I also use Auria for mixing - tried it for recording but it didn't work for some reason (this was a long time ago though).

    Like a few people here I'm impatiently waiting for Nanostudio to get audio, AU3 automation and a couple of other things (improved AU3 midi, sidechaining and better swing implementation). The UX on Nanostudio is so good, that it's hard for me to use anything else. Plus Obsidian obviously.

    So true. Actually, NS2 has some AUv3 automation, you can map the 8 NS2 knobs to plugin parameters, but only for instrument plugins (not effect plugins), and you are limited to 8 parameters because of only 8 knobs (I think it's plenty enough for most uses anyway), and you can not record the midi from inside the plugin window - only from the NS2 built-in keyboard.

    I bought AEM a few days ago and I agree with you. The interface is clunky. Also, I still haven't figured out how to automate the AUv3 plugins..

    I think Cubasis is very far behind as far as midi editing goes and I hope it'll at least catch up in with some of the capabilities that NS2 has. What I also love about NS2 is that you can stack multiple patterns within a single track and also you can change the tempo and time signature in the middle of project - these features are not to be found on any other DAW (at least DAWs for iPhone).

    But yeah, it's hard for me to use anything else besides NS2. Maybe except for GarageBand for rock/jazz/metal since the software instruments there are just the best IMO.

  • Actually another option that I've never tried because it's quite expensive, but gets good reviews, is MultiTrackStudio. On paper it hits all of my needs.

  • Remember why I never bought MTS. It doesn't have a track arrange view like every DAW under the sun. Well that and the cost. $50 is a lot to spend on something that might not work the way you want it to.

    Shame - it looks very powerful in most regards, but really unable to work track by track. Unless there's some clever work around I'm missing.

  • @cian it’s only £29 in the U.K. App Store, dunno if it’s dropped recently.

  • $30 gets you the basic version. If you want more tracks (which I suspect I would), and various other things it's another $20.

    But true, only $30 to 'test' an app I may never use :)

  • Incidentally, how would one lash together an assemblage of apps using Audiobus to essentially emulate (or even exceed) the capabilities and usability of Cubasis or Auria?

    I’d personally have no idea, I’ve not really ventured into the world of using more than one app at the same time (because I did everything in Gadget, then exported full separate audio tracks into Auria).

  • Xequence/Nanostudio for MIDI, and AUM for audio/routing/hosting would probably be the best solution. It would be a pain to setup though.

  • Unfortunately Cubasis and AES do not have time signature/tempo change I bought them Both and with no audio in NS2, Auria Pro is my only IOS option

  • @u0421793 said:
    Incidentally, how would one lash together an assemblage of apps using Audiobus to essentially emulate (or even exceed) the capabilities and usability of Cubasis or Auria?

    I’d personally have no idea, I’ve not really ventured into the world of using more than one app at the same time (because I did everything in Gadget, then exported full separate audio tracks into Auria).

    There are many ways ... none completely satisfactory. The best I've found for my uses is using Xequence 2 for sequencing, Audiobus and AUM for hosting. But, there is a huge gaping hole: The ability to easily freeze/unfreeze tracks when CPU gets overloaded, and the ability to arrange audio clips along a timeline and have them play back in sync with the rest of the timeline.

    By the time I work all that out, I realize how much easier it is in a DAW. Still, I like the flexibility and the non-intimidation of starting out with just a "jam" and building from there vs. starting out with a "project" ... if that makes any sense.

  • When I did take a brief foray into actually finishing things productively and to a schedule (WeeklyBeats 2018), I found that Auria was the only tool that had literally everything needed to go from A to Z without cobbling things together. I tried just about every other workflow, and Auria emerged as the most practical, if not enjoyable.

  • @wim said:

    @u0421793 said:
    Incidentally, how would one lash together an assemblage of apps using Audiobus to essentially emulate (or even exceed) the capabilities and usability of Cubasis or Auria?

    I’d personally have no idea, I’ve not really ventured into the world of using more than one app at the same time (because I did everything in Gadget, then exported full separate audio tracks into Auria).

    There are many ways ... none completely satisfactory. The best I've found for my uses is using Xequence 2 for sequencing, Audiobus and AUM for hosting. But, there is a huge gaping hole: The ability to easily freeze/unfreeze tracks when CPU gets overloaded, and the ability to arrange audio clips along a timeline and have them play back in sync with the rest of the timeline.

    By the time I work all that out, I realize how much easier it is in a DAW. Still, I like the flexibility and the non-intimidation of starting out with just a "jam" and building from there vs. starting out with a "project" ... if that makes any sense.

    It does – the stages of commitment, starting with low-overhead noodling, and then sometimes before you know it you want to formalise what you’ve got and have a system.

    If there were a sort of ‘best practice’ intro or quick-start to the above mentioned Xequence 2 / Audiobus / AUM and whatever else is needed for nearly everyone, it’d be great (wasn’t there one some while ago, by someone?).

  • @u0421793 said:

    @wim said:

    @u0421793 said:
    Incidentally, how would one lash together an assemblage of apps using Audiobus to essentially emulate (or even exceed) the capabilities and usability of Cubasis or Auria?

    I’d personally have no idea, I’ve not really ventured into the world of using more than one app at the same time (because I did everything in Gadget, then exported full separate audio tracks into Auria).

    There are many ways ... none completely satisfactory. The best I've found for my uses is using Xequence 2 for sequencing, Audiobus and AUM for hosting. But, there is a huge gaping hole: The ability to easily freeze/unfreeze tracks when CPU gets overloaded, and the ability to arrange audio clips along a timeline and have them play back in sync with the rest of the timeline.

    By the time I work all that out, I realize how much easier it is in a DAW. Still, I like the flexibility and the non-intimidation of starting out with just a "jam" and building from there vs. starting out with a "project" ... if that makes any sense.

    It does – the stages of commitment, starting with low-overhead noodling, and then sometimes before you know it you want to formalise what you’ve got and have a system.

    If there were a sort of ‘best practice’ intro or quick-start to the above mentioned Xequence 2 / Audiobus / AUM and whatever else is needed for nearly everyone, it’d be great (wasn’t there one some while ago, by someone?).

    There are more than a few threads that touch on this, but no comprehensive "cookbook". The discussions and questions of various workflows get unfocused. Even semantics such as "DAW-less Workflow" have become contentious.

    A focused "Alternative to DAW Cookbooks" thread might be a neat idea.

  • @wim said:
    When I did take a brief foray into actually finishing things productively and to a schedule (WeeklyBeats 2018), I found that Auria was the only tool that had literally everything needed to go from A to Z without cobbling things together. I tried just about every other workflow, and Auria emerged as the most practical, if not enjoyable.

    Even for MIDI? I need to Auria out again don't I and really see if I can learn it properly. Though it seems like it's quite buggy these days, which doesn't sound super fun.

  • Currently I'm leaning towards using Nanostudio for getting the basic track down, and then editing it in something else. Probably Auria, though Cubasis seems easier to use if less powerful.

  • I feel the same way. But i have to rewire my brain to not expect the same workflow in Cubasis to be same in Auria. But once you get the flow going, it all makes sense.

    @wim said:
    When I did take a brief foray into actually finishing things productively and to a schedule (WeeklyBeats 2018), I found that Auria was the only tool that had literally everything needed to go from A to Z without cobbling things together. I tried just about every other workflow, and Auria emerged as the most practical, if not enjoyable.

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