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.

Samsung's new Pro-Audio SDK (zero/low latency audio & MIDI) and a DAW called Soundcamp for Android

Supports third party plugins too and looks like Thumbjam will be one of the first to be ported from iOS.

"The Pro-Audio SDK 2.0 provides low-latency audio and MIDI functionality to Samsung Android devices, and it also has zero-latency Audio/MIDI connections between independent music apps.
Soundcamp is a Samsung is a developed mobile DAW app that harnesses the full power of the Pro-Audio SDK and can be integrated with multiple 3rd party music apps for up to 8 tracks."

http://www.musicalandroid.com/blog/samsung-android-sdk-with-no-or-very-low-latency-plus-daw

"Professional Audio provides the following features:
Musical Instrument Creation
API for creating professional instrument applications
Support for all functions of the JACK Audio Connection Kit
Plug-ins
Plug-ins for acoustic piano, steel guitar and a standard drum kit
Support for USB Audio devices
Support for Audio input
Usage of the real-time scheduler
It can make a connection between apps at the SDK level
It is easier to move to other apps and support its remote control"
http://www.palmsounds.net/2014/10/android-is-going-pro-with-zero-latency.html

Comments

  • Currently it is for one device. Later they might add older S5 support. This thing is not Android globally, just samsung.

  • edited October 2014

    hopefully this could blow up and get apples arse moving with developing the IOS music platform further into the hardwiring of IOS.

    maybe Apple should buy Audiobus and its team and let them loose with the nuts and bolts of IOS perhaps?

  • Careful. That is a genuinely subversive, not to say downright dangerous, idea. I mean with Instagram going for a cheap billion, what price AB?

  • edited October 2014

    To be honest, Apple has provided us with an awesome platform for music apps almost from the beginning. They got all the important things right.

    Hopefully what this Samsung initiative will do is spur Google and the other Android device manufacturers to follow along.

  • I've got so much money invested in ios apps now that I can't see me changing for a very long time.

  • thank god! I have been waiting for android to get on board with low latency audio so I can expand my set-up with cheap android tablets! with android- there's also a better chance at getting some kind of legacy VST host- I miss some of my VSTs since I switched from Laptop to iPad- but I will never go back to clunky windows/mouse interface-

  • VSTs would still have to be ported to any Android platform because the architecture is different. I don't expect you'll see anything magical appearing over there with regard to those.

  • http://www.musicalandroid.com/blog/samsung-daw-and-low-latency-solution-more-news

    "My worst fears are aliviated...
    Was thinking with the new Android audio SDK that it somehow would split Android music app usage into two camps by not being able to use other music apps that is not optimized for the Samsung devices but having spoken to a Samsung representative the apps will work fine but with the same latency as "regular" Android ( which may not be bad at all with Android L when it comes out... ) In either case the apps that are ported if my understanding is correct will be as apps inside the Samsung DAW - Soundcamp, which there is a screenshot of above.
    Which in either case if you like the DAW the apps will be optimized for Soundcamp just like a VSTi / VST and lets not forget the midi capabilities...

    For developers here is what is said without the interpretation above...

    So, the developers can implement two switchable audio engines in one app, Android legacy and the Pro-Audio, then they can register their apps to any stores such as Play store.
    However, if they want their apps to be recommended in Soundcamp, the apps have to be registered in Samsung Galaxy store.
    So once a Soundcamp compaitable app is installed, it will be shown and will be able to be used in Soundcamp regardless of what store it is from.

    However, if they want their apps to be recommended in Soundcamp, the apps have to be registered in the Samsung Galaxy store.

    So far there is only one Android app being ported the excellent Heat Synthesizer the other apps are ported from iOS and include so far:
    Amplitube and EZVoice from IK Multimedia, ThumbJam, Guitarism and MorphWiz.
    Plus what comes included in the DAW making it a bigger music making experience than anything on the market as is...

    It is already ready for Samsung Note 4 and Note Edge and will be made available for Note 3 and Galaxy S5 plus all releases of highend Samsung devices.

    There is also a slight chance that this Pro audio SDK will be available for other brands as well as the response I got ended with-
    "In short, Samsung Pro-Audio SDK will work only on Samsung devices for now."
    That, if it happens will probably take a long time...
    But as is the year of 2014 will most certainly end with a big step forward with both Google's Android L coming and then Samsung releasing Soundcamp.
    The only thing negative that I can tell is that the apps ported have to be implemented as a app inside Soundcamp ( at least to begin with? ) so that would probably exclude apps as Caustic and SunVox from using Samsungs solution to latency?

    To finish here is a video of a music performance using Soundcamp with Amplitube and Morphwiz."

  • http://www.musicalandroid.com/blog/some-corrections-to-yesterdays-samsung-post

    "Plus that to make it clear that apps that works inside Soundcamp will also work as standalone apps outside of the DAW.
    Have asked for some official screenshots so if Samsung is not keeping them for official release we hopefully would be able to see some of them tomorrow."

  • I bet your ass apple and Samsung will make damn sure that ios and android won't play nicely together. They're so good at that!

  • edited October 2014

    @BiancaNeve said:

    I've got so much money invested in ios apps now that I can't see me changing for a very long time.

    same here.And however Android will mature in this case,Music/apps on iOS is/are years ahead.Won't change anytime soon.Would be good to have more competition though.

  • edited October 2014

    I don't think having music apps on Android is a competition at all, I think of it as a new market.

    And yes, apps implementing the new Samsung SDK can run standalone (with the same low latency) as if they were loaded into a DAW like Soundcamp. I expect other parties will write some other DAWs that do the same thing. You can think of the capabilities of JACK (used by the new SDK) as a combination of Audiobus, IAA, and virtual CoreMidi.

  • edited October 2014

    @sonosaurus said:

    I don't think having music apps on Android is a competition at all, I think of it as a new market.

    Of course, as you should.

  • With Samsung's announcement today of a 60% drop in operating profits, I don't think development of this SKD and it's associated third party supplier participation will be high on Samsung's agenda. This SDK is also not universal in Android land. Apple is not perfect but it is THE tech company for musicians. Cue iOS music.

  • edited October 2014

    With the way iOS 8 has gone and undoubtedly more of the same to come down the road with iOS 9, etc., I will be watching Android capabilities with great interest, even if it's only on one manufacturer's hardware. By the time I will be able to replace my iOS 7 iPad 2, it may well make sense to ditch Apple entirely and see what the competition has to offer. Choice is a good thing.

  • When the profits go down, that is exactly where companies look at what the competition is doing to enjoy the success.
    Apple with all of their brilliance have got some serious issues and Samsung even though quite unusable for music, have pushed out some great products nonetheless. My GF never leaves the house without the charger for her IPhone 5 while I go to bed with 30% battery on my 3 year old galaxy s2. Inability to make music on a phone = negligible problem! phone dying by lunch time = huge problem. Sorry, don't want to start android vs ios dogfight. Just venting...

  • Just watched the video. Wow, feels like late 80's all over again.

  • My iPhone 5's battery lasts all day long. People who use apps that keep updating in the background all the time like a female friend at work will do better to completely shut down those apps instead of going around with a charger. Shutting down apps improves battery life significantly as my friend found out when she realised it was the Instagram app that was killing her battery. The app was updating every few minutes or so and she was on the phone all day long although at work. Sometimes battery life has nothing to do with the make of the phone but it's how you use the phone.

    Still, this quarter is bad enough for Samsung so the iPhone 6+ quarter will all but decimate Samsung's phone profits. When you have a 60% drop in profits and Apple on form, Samsung will have to get a lot more FUD out there to stop the rot. Not.

  • Getting off of social media has made my phone and my life better! ;-)

    I was having a battery drain issue last week on my 4s and found some recently installed apps that had background updating on, seems to be better now that they're off. The only app I allow to do that is google maps, which only runs when I need it.

  • Firstly, thanks in advance for your help. I just downloaded the synthesizer app, Morphwiz-Play on my Samsung Galaxy S5 and it is AWESOME! Question though, why is the latency so bad? There is at least a .25 second delay in between me playing the note, and the sound being produced. This article seems to point to this issue being fixed, but it definitely hasn't. Any suggestions?

    Much appreciated!

  • The new SDK that addresses the latency problem is not yet available on the S5. But the good news is that it's coming soon when Samsung releases Android Lollipop for it. Then supported apps (a newer Morphwiz, ThumbJam, Guitarism, Amplitube, and more) will become available to you on the S5 and Note3 (as well as the already supported Note4).

  • edited November 2014

    @jj2man Some days ago I talked with an developer who is specialized in music apps for Android. He told me that some Android devices have a remarkable high touchscreen latency. You have to add this latency to the audio latency to understand the "unsnappieness" of some devices. Question to the Android developers here: If the touchscreen latency is dependent of the touchscreen hardware, how can Lollipop solve the problem?

  • @klangsulfat said:

    @jj2man Some days ago I talked with an developer who is specialized in music apps for Android. He told me that some Android devices have a remarkable high touchscreen latency. You have to add this latency to the audio latency to understand the "unsnappieness" of some devices. Question to the Android developers here: If the touchscreen latency is dependent of the touchscreen hardware, how can Lollipop solve the problem?

    It won't which is why the still high 20ms latency is only officially supported on Nexus 7 for Lollipop. This is probably also why Samsung took matters into their own hands so they can control the hardware aspect to minimize any touchscreen latency.

  • I mentioned this in another thread, but as you likely know we already support Samsung Professional Audio SDK but to bring near-zero latency to other devices (including those running 4.0 so there isn't even a requirement for Lollipop) we'll be unveiling something at NAMM 2015: http://www.ikmultimedia.com/news/?item_id=5235 (if that doesn't show up, it is featured on our main page and http://www.ikmultimedia.com/news )

  • @ikmultimedia said:

    I mentioned this in another thread, but as you likely know we already support Samsung Professional Audio SDK but to bring near-zero latency to other devices (including those running 4.0 so there isn't even a requirement for Lollipop) we'll be unveiling something at NAMM 2015: http://www.ikmultimedia.com/news/?item_id=5235 (if that doesn't show up, it is featured on our main page and http://www.ikmultimedia.com/news )

    Will it be only available for IK Multimedia or will other developers also be able to use this new solution to create apps?

  • Details will be clearer once we unveil the full information at NAMM.

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