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.

Random MacOS questions from a Windows user

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Comments

  • tjatja
    edited December 2020

    @Liquidmantis said:
    Also I’d recommend going into the trackpad settings and turning on all the gestures.

    Mission Control is critical for me.
    https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204100

    Here’s a way to reproduce (and extend) the Windows method of Window management.
    https://rectangleapp.com/

    I only now notice your posting, sorry.

    I have no trackpad, in case Mission Control requires that - i will check out both, thanks!

    EDIT: Mission Control seems to be installed already, it gives a nice overview.

  • I’m running Yabai on 11.1, but I’m running from head.

    BetterTouchTool is another power tool. :wink:

  • tjatja
    edited December 2020

    @Liquidmantis said:
    I’m running Yabai on 11.1, but I’m running from head.

    I tried "master" ... will have another look later (Xcode is still resolving deltas ... seems to take hours).

    BetterTouchTool is another power tool. :wink:

    Thats sounds like "touch" ... i only have a mouse ;-)

    But from https://folivora.ai i see that it also has other features.
    May look at this later, thanks!

  • I can only move files to "bin" and after that empty the "bin".

    Cannot find an option to directly delete files - can that be true?

  • @tja said:
    I can only move files to "bin" and after that empty the "bin".

    Cannot find an option to directly delete files - can that be true?

    Command-option-delete.

  • @tja said:
    I tried exactly that, but on no tab on the Custom Color (Color Wheel to Pencils), I could see something where I could enter a hex code.

    Anyway, for now I just choose one of the darker greys that are provided.

    Click the RGB Sliders icon (second from the left) on the Colors dialog, choose RGB sliders from the drop-down list then click the gear icon next to the drop-down and choose '8-bit (0-255)'. That'll give you the 'Hex Color #' field.

    The dialog retains the settings; I set mine up that way ages ago and forgot it isn't the default.

  • For window management get Magnet from the Mac App Store. Also set up hot corners if you want to quickly view the desktop, though you will find that viewing the desktop is a much rarer occurrence than on Windows.

  • @tja Coming from Windows and switching to MacOS about ten years ago, it took me about a year to really feel at home with it. I'm still a fan of Windows 7 but I dislike Windows 10, an OS that always tries to be the purpose itself instead of silently doing its job.
    I wouldn't recommend to buy lots of 3rd party Mac utilities until you've learned to get along well with native OS X. The only utility I would recommend to purchase right out of the box is a proper firewall that allows you to block outgoing connections by app, destination IP, port and protocol. Search online for options, I remember that HandsOff and Little Snitch are quite good.
    There are many useful tweaks... like the "open terminal here" and "create text file here" as icons in the Finder window.
    If you're looking for something like Total Commander on Mac, let me tell you: It simply does not exist.
    There is "Commander One Pro" for which the author claims to be the "Official TC counterpart on Mac" but it's neither as stable nor as feature rich as TC. It's quite buggy actually and it has difficulty handling large files and archives.

    About homebrew: I could not live without it. No way.

  • @u0421793 said:
    In general the more you embrace (well the more I’ve embraced) the Apple ways of doing things rather than alternatives, the more my life has become easier.

    This. Just give in and do things the Apple way. Accept that everything is integrated seamlessly. I.e., by not using Keychain you’re making your life unneccessarily painful. Don’t be stubbborn, use the system’s strengths.

  • I know you hate subscriptions, but SetApp is a pretty sweet deal. For the cost of a couple of apps I was already upgrading annually I now have a full library of options. Might be worth just subscribing for a month to trial apps to see what's worth buying.

    More goodies:

    • Alfred - way better than just Spotlight.
    • Hammerspoon - AutoHotKey for Mac.
    • Karabiner Elements Own your keyboard, do things like make Caps work as ESC when pressed alone, or as CTRL when used in conjunction with another key.
    • Hazel - automated clean up utility. Unlike Windows, you don't have to worry about installing/uninstalling apps and cluttering up your Registry, but this helps clean up stray plists and other helper files when you remove an app.
    • MacUpdater - keep your apps up-to-date.
    • Keyboard Maestro - automation, macros, and more.
  • Here’s a thing most people have no idea you can do:

    If you want to print a listing of a folder or directory to a printer, as a nice list, you used to be able to do this back in old system4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 etc but not since OS X. But you can.

    Go to the settings where the printers are, drag a printer icon from the list (ie, the one and only printer icon if you only have one printer) to the desktop (which creates an alias). Then drag a folder icon to the desktop printer alias. It will print a listing of that directory to your printer.

  • @Masanga said:

    @tja said:
    I can only move files to "bin" and after that empty the "bin".

    Cannot find an option to directly delete files - can that be true?

    Command-option-delete.

    Thanks, but this leads to a pop-up that asks if i really want to do that :) ;)
    So strange ideas :smile:

  • @AlanC3 said:

    @tja said:
    I tried exactly that, but on no tab on the Custom Color (Color Wheel to Pencils), I could see something where I could enter a hex code.

    Anyway, for now I just choose one of the darker greys that are provided.

    Click the RGB Sliders icon (second from the left) on the Colors dialog, choose RGB sliders from the drop-down list then click the gear icon next to the drop-down and choose '8-bit (0-255)'. That'll give you the 'Hex Color #' field.

    The dialog retains the settings; I set mine up that way ages ago and forgot it isn't the default.

    Ahhh, great!

    Many thanks :smile:

  • @kveis said:
    For window management get Magnet from the Mac App Store. Also set up hot corners if you want to quickly view the desktop, though you will find that viewing the desktop is a much rarer occurrence than on Windows.

    Yes, got Magnet already!

    Googled "Hot Corners" and set all four of them, together with "control" - quite interesting, thanks!

    The two right corners are on the second monitor, which i did not expect.

  • @rs2000 said:
    @tja Coming from Windows and switching to MacOS about ten years ago, it took me about a year to really feel at home with it. I'm still a fan of Windows 7 but I dislike Windows 10, an OS that always tries to be the purpose itself instead of silently doing its job.
    I wouldn't recommend to buy lots of 3rd party Mac utilities until you've learned to get along well with native OS X. The only utility I would recommend to purchase right out of the box is a proper firewall that allows you to block outgoing connections by app, destination IP, port and protocol. Search online for options, I remember that HandsOff and Little Snitch are quite good.
    There are many useful tweaks... like the "open terminal here" and "create text file here" as icons in the Finder window.
    If you're looking for something like Total Commander on Mac, let me tell you: It simply does not exist.
    There is "Commander One Pro" for which the author claims to be the "Official TC counterpart on Mac" but it's neither as stable nor as feature rich as TC. It's quite buggy actually and it has difficulty handling large files and archives.

    About homebrew: I could not live without it. No way.

    Yes, I can image that this will take me some time too!
    I liked Windows 7, but I prefer Windows 10 now - both were configured with Windows XP style :wink:

    OK, firewall added to my TODO list, thanks!

    Homebrew .... will google about it more deeply. But then, this is about package / software management - I may not need it after the initial set of Apps.

    Out of curiosity, I installed iOS Drambo and LumaFusion ...
    None of my DAWs seem to be possible.

    Nooooooo (MacOS does not key-repeat?!?) I do not want to buy Logic Proooooo :D

  • @brambos said:

    @u0421793 said:
    In general the more you embrace (well the more I’ve embraced) the Apple ways of doing things rather than alternatives, the more my life has become easier.

    This. Just give in and do things the Apple way. Accept that everything is integrated seamlessly. I.e., by not using Keychain you’re making your life unneccessarily painful. Don’t be stubbborn, use the system’s strengths.

    I will try, but Keychain is not really an option, as I have more devices, including a Windows PC and a Windows Laptop. I need something platform independent.

    KeePass is the right thing for me on Windows, and StrongBox on iOS / iPadOS.
    For Mac, I now also installed StrongBox - so that i can use the same database on OneDrive for all of my devices.

  • @Liquidmantis said:
    I know you hate subscriptions, but SetApp is a pretty sweet deal. For the cost of a couple of apps I was already upgrading annually I now have a full library of options. Might be worth just subscribing for a month to trial apps to see what's worth buying.

    More goodies:

    • Alfred - way better than just Spotlight.
    • Hammerspoon - AutoHotKey for Mac.
    • Karabiner Elements Own your keyboard, do things like make Caps work as ESC when pressed alone, or as CTRL when used in conjunction with another key.
    • Hazel - automated clean up utility. Unlike Windows, you don't have to worry about installing/uninstalling apps and cluttering up your Registry, but this helps clean up stray plists and other helper files when you remove an app.
    • MacUpdater - keep your apps up-to-date.
    • Keyboard Maestro - automation, macros, and more.

    I saved those, to be considered later - many thanks!
    This could be too much for me, right now :smile:

  • @u0421793 said:
    Here’s a thing most people have no idea you can do:

    If you want to print a listing of a folder or directory to a printer, as a nice list, you used to be able to do this back in old system4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 etc but not since OS X. But you can.

    Go to the settings where the printers are, drag a printer icon from the list (ie, the one and only printer icon if you only have one printer) to the desktop (which creates an alias). Then drag a folder icon to the desktop printer alias. It will print a listing of that directory to your printer.

    Thanks, added to tipps-and-tricks ... :smile:

  • tjatja
    edited December 2020

    Trying to compile "yabai" with Xcode, this windows is still at "Resolving deltas" while cloning.

    I will cancel this.

    EDIT: Could not be canceled, also not by quiting Xcode.
    I will shutdown the Mini soon and try again tomorrow ...

  • @tja said:

    @Masanga said:

    @tja said:
    I can only move files to "bin" and after that empty the "bin".

    Cannot find an option to directly delete files - can that be true?

    Command-option-delete.

    Thanks, but this leads to a pop-up that asks if i really want to do that :) ;)
    So strange ideas :smile:

    Yes, I don't actually know a way to get rid of the popup – though as you've probably already figured, command-d will dismiss it and delete the file.

  • edited December 2020

    @tja said:

    @u0421793 said:
    Primary display is governed by which one (in the settings) has the little ‘menu bar’. This is draggable, and if you drag it from one to the other, you move the primary display. Of course you can drag the displays spatial relationship to each other, too, so you can have one on top of the other, swap sides, have one higher than the other (useful to mimic the influence of a cluttered desk arrangement) and you can change the refresh/scale/size separately. If you press ‘gather displays’ or whatever it’s called (I’m on my iPad, my Macs are upstairs) you get both control panels stacked together in the same place so you can easily control them in case you’ve lost one display (eg accidental settings that result in invisible output on one monitor)

    Many thanks, the "Gather Displays" already helped! :smile:

    But I am not sure what you mean with "little menu bar" ...

    Both monitors have a menu bar at the upper border, starting with the Apple and then "Finder ..."

    And then there is an App bar like on iPadOS on the bottom, but this is only on my larger, landscape monitor - which should be the primary display.

    But it does not seem to be the primary display at reboot.

    The “menu bar” that is being discussed is a little white strip across the top of the rectangle that represents your displays in the monitor arrangement tab of the displays preferences. Just click on that and drag it to the other rectangle to change which monitor is your primary. Only one will have it, so you drag to the other one if you want to change which is primary.

  • I think the windows snapping thing is patented, so it’s not in the system. Just resize the windows, it’s pretty quick. I hate using spit screen.

    You kind of have to use keychain. If you sign into iCloud for example it saves the password in the keychain so you don’t have to put it in all the time. If you enter an email account into the mail app, it saves it to the keychain. There is iCloud Keychain and Local keychain. You don’t have to use the iCloud Keychain. If you reset your Local Keychain everyday because you don’t want to use it or use terminal to disable it you are going to have some problems.

    I used to use Windows 7, but I switched to Mac about 2 years ago. I do have a Windows 10 surface that I use for some light games that don’t work on Mac. I can’t stand the interface.

    If you are in Finder/Desktop, go to the menu bar, click on help, and enter MacOS Help. It’s the manual to the OS. Also, the help menus are usually pretty helpful.

  • Seriously unimpressed with my new Mac Mini and MacOS.

    First Mac Mini arrived and the PSU died an hour in. The replacement arrived today and I am having nonstop glitches, took 2 hours to get my trackpad working and now it's crashed again trying to download BigSur update...

    I've been a mac fanboy for a long time but this OS is driving me insane.

  • @BroCoast said:
    Seriously unimpressed with my new Mac Mini and MacOS.

    First Mac Mini arrived and the PSU died an hour in. The replacement arrived today and I am having nonstop glitches, took 2 hours to get my trackpad working and now it's crashed again trying to download BigSur update...

    I've been a mac fanboy for a long time but this OS is driving me insane.

    I had some problems with mine, but I’ve more or less isolated the issues though they are still annoying.

    I haven’t tried, but I’m pretty sure you won’t want to try to download an earlier OS onto that M1. It is far from supported, and you will likely experience even more issues.

  • @DMan said:

    @BroCoast said:
    Seriously unimpressed with my new Mac Mini and MacOS.

    First Mac Mini arrived and the PSU died an hour in. The replacement arrived today and I am having nonstop glitches, took 2 hours to get my trackpad working and now it's crashed again trying to download BigSur update...

    I've been a mac fanboy for a long time but this OS is driving me insane.

    I had some problems with mine, but I’ve more or less isolated the issues though they are still annoying.

    I haven’t tried, but I’m pretty sure you won’t want to try to download an earlier OS onto that M1. It is far from supported, and you will likely experience even more issues.

    Yeah, I won't be trying that. 🙃

    I'm hoping the 11.1 update fixes some of the issues.

  • @DMan said:
    I think the windows snapping thing is patented, so it’s not in the system. Just resize the windows, it’s pretty quick. I hate using spit screen.

    Yes, Split Screen on Mac is quite strange.

    You kind of have to use keychain. If you sign into iCloud for example it saves the password in the keychain so you don’t have to put it in all the time. If you enter an email account into the mail app, it saves it to the keychain. There is iCloud Keychain and Local keychain. You don’t have to use the iCloud Keychain. If you reset your Local Keychain everyday because you don’t want to use it or use terminal to disable it you are going to have some problems.

    I am not a fan of storing passwords in different places.
    This should never be done.

    But MacOS seems to enforce that, which is simply a bad idea.
    As much as Apple likes Keychain, i cannot use it.
    I will test this for only the iCloud password when installing from the App Store.

    I used to use Windows 7, but I switched to Mac about 2 years ago. I do have a Windows 10 surface that I use for some light games that don’t work on Mac. I can’t stand the interface.

    If you are in Finder/Desktop, go to the menu bar, click on help, and enter MacOS Help. It’s the manual to the OS. Also, the help menus are usually pretty helpful.

    Thanks.

  • @tja said:
    I am not a fan of storing passwords in different places.
    This should never be done.

    But MacOS seems to enforce that, which is simply a bad idea.
    As much as Apple likes Keychain, i cannot use it.
    I will test this for only the iCloud password when installing from the App Store.

    Unfortunately you don't have any choice here if you're going to use the mac for development. The private and public keys for your developer account and the associated certificates and passwords live in the keychain, and you can't build, sign or distribute apps without them being present.

    And believe me, trying to load/unload them and keep everything in sync with your developer account manually is a monumental pain in the fundament. After you've done it once or twice following a clean OS install or the swap to a new machine you'll be doing just what brambos said: giving in and doing things Apple's way.

  • @AlanC3 said:
    Unfortunately you don't have any choice here if you're going to use the mac for development. The private and public keys for your developer account and the associated certificates and passwords live in the keychain, and you can't build, sign or distribute apps without them being present.

    Luckily, i have no developer account.
    That would only be needed, if i ever try to publish something, right?

    And believe me, trying to load/unload them and keep everything in sync with your developer account manually is a monumental pain in the fundament. After you've done it once or twice following a clean OS install or the swap to a new machine you'll be doing just what brambos said: giving in and doing things Apple's way.

    Apple seems to be more frustrating than i already thought.
    Thanks for the information!

  • This goes even further:

    I read above, that keychain can be used locally - but so far, I could not find such an option.

    Out of curiosity, i tried to enable iCloud keychain instead.
    But that is not possible!

    As it seems, I would need to enable two factor authentication for my Apple ID first - which will not happen.

    Apple is simply controlling too much.
    Not sure what to do.
    Being frustrated again.

    Maybe i should exchange my regular Apple ID by a new one, together with that dreaded 2FA and enabled iCloud keychain.

    But then, i loose my Safari bookmarks and access to my iCloud storage - which would render the whole Mac Mini mostly useless.

    I am wondering that all of you seem to live happily with this :-O

    Need to think.

  • OK, i need to enable keychain locally, without using iCloud.
    That should be possible.

    But i still see no way to enter my Apple ID password in a way, that the App Store does not ask again and again.

    All of this is so cryptic :o

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