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

  • The password stuff will settle down. Don’t tell anybody but I use a shortcut that types my password using a keyboard shortcut (using an old
    App called Butler).

    As for the rest, Mac obviously isn’t windows. If you try and use it as if it was it will just be frustrating.

    It’s a bit like trying to use Ableton Live and getting frustrated about it not having a feature from Cubase even though it opens up all sorts of new possibilities. You just have to approach it with an open mind if you want to get the best out of it.

  • @tja said:
    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.

    I don't use the iCloud keychain and don't have to enter the App Store password repeatedly. If you're getting the prompt for your password each time you try to make a purchase then check the options in System Preferences | Apple ID | Media & Purchases.

    On another note, I've just had 45 minutes on the phone with Apple Support trying to get something done about the fact someone is repeatedly locking me out of my Apple ID by trying to log in to my iCloud email, sometimes multiple times each day.

    They won't do one goddam thing about it. Apparently an email address that I had no say in, don't want and have never used can't be modified or removed. I just have to put up with being thrown out regularly, or I could delete my Apple ID losing about £700 of software and media in the process.

    Not remotely happy with Apple right now.

    Craig Federighi just got an email. Don't suppose it'll do any good, but...

  • @AlanC3 said:

    @tja said:
    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.

    I don't use the iCloud keychain and don't have to enter the App Store password repeatedly. If you're getting the prompt for your password each time you try to make a purchase then check the options in System Preferences | Apple ID | Media & Purchases.

    Ohhh, you're saving my life!

    I changed both entries to "Never Require", that should solve my current main problem!

    On another note, I've just had 45 minutes on the phone with Apple Support trying to get something done about the fact someone is repeatedly locking me out of my Apple ID by trying to log in to my iCloud email, sometimes multiple times each day.

    They won't do one goddam thing about it. Apparently an email address that I had no say in, don't want and have never used can't be modified or removed. I just have to put up with being thrown out regularly, or I could delete my Apple ID losing about £700 of software and media in the process.

    Not remotely happy with Apple right now.

    This is also my impression!

    In case you did not know: If someone is trying to access your iCloud keychain with a wrong password too often, that chain of keys will be deleted at Apple and you will loose any and all passwords!

    Another reason, why I prefer a KeePass database over iCloud keychain.

    But I only go that thing yesterday, so I will need a lot more time to get comfortable - I will try!

  • edited December 2020

    @tja said:
    In case you did not know: If someone is trying to access your iCloud keychain with a wrong password too often, that chain of keys will be deleted at Apple and you will loose any and all passwords!

    I know all about it. My Apple ID is of the form (firstname)(lastname)(at)icloud(dot)com and someone with the same name thinks it's his. He got a SIM from GiffGaff two months ago using my iCloud email to do it and has been trying to get into the account ever since. Meanwhile GiffGaff have been sending me emails containing his personal data. :o

    Getting locked out is a pain because I have 2 macs each with 2 different versions of macOS installed, 3 iPhones and 2 iPads with various iOS versions and screen sizes for testing. Each of them need the password entering twice: once for iCloud, then again for the App Store. So I unlock the account, sometimes get forced to change the password, and then have to enter the password 18 times... over and over...

    Incidentally, if you don't want an iCloud email address (that you have no control over) adding to your Apple ID you have to make sure you never turn on the email option in the iCloud preferences. Not easy, because OS updates will sometimes 'helpfully' turn all the options on for you.

  • edited December 2020

    @tja said:

    In case you did not know: If someone is trying to access your iCloud keychain with a wrong password too often, that chain of keys will be deleted at Apple and you will loose any and all passwords!

    Citation?

  • @Liquidmantis said:

    @tja said:

    In case you did not know: If someone is trying to access your iCloud keychain with a wrong password too often, that chain of keys will be deleted at Apple and you will loose any and all passwords!

    Citation?

    Never heard of that happening. They'll lock your account after too many password attempts or disable it if someone keeps trying to reset the password via iforgot.apple.com, but you can get it back even if you have 2FA enabled and don't have a trusted device either through the multi-day account recovery process or by using a recovery ID if you've set one up.

  • @AlanC3 said:

    @Liquidmantis said:

    @tja said:

    In case you did not know: If someone is trying to access your iCloud keychain with a wrong password too often, that chain of keys will be deleted at Apple and you will loose any and all passwords!

    Citation?

    Never heard of that happening. They'll lock your account after too many password attempts or disable it if someone keeps trying to reset the password via iforgot.apple.com, but you can get it back even if you have 2FA enabled and don't have a trusted device either through the multi-day account recovery process or by using a recovery ID if you've set one up.

    Never heard it here either, and Google doesn’t seem to turn up anything on this.

  • wimwim
    edited December 2020

    @tja, I also use a separate password vault as my master password database. Mine makes it easy to look up, then copy/paste my ridiculously complex random passwords (that I generally don't even know). However, since getting the Mac, I've relented a bit and now allow the local keychain to store low-risk passwords such as for forums and the like, while not storing critical ones such as my banking accounts. It just saves time not having to pull up the other password app.

    My Apple ID password is, of necessity, less complex and random than the rest. I don't want to have to type a ridiculous password to log on to my Apple devices, so that becomes the weak link. This is why I don't store anything critical in the keychain.

  • tjatja
    edited December 2020

    @Liquidmantis said:

    @tja said:

    In case you did not know: If someone is trying to access your iCloud keychain with a wrong password too often, that chain of keys will be deleted at Apple and you will loose any and all passwords!

    Citation?

    That's a bit weird.
    I read that already several times, and i also see it, when i search with Google:

    But on the linked URL https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202755 i cannot read this text anymore.
    As if Apple changed this recently - but then, this website is already in archived mode.

    And the same continues, when i concretely search for the sentence:

    Lots of result, but on the linked page https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204085 i cannot see it anymore.

    Either this is not true anymore, or Apple got bad feedback and did remove those statements.
    No idea :-O

  • tjatja
    edited December 2020

    @AlanC3 said:

    @Liquidmantis said:

    @tja said:

    In case you did not know: If someone is trying to access your iCloud keychain with a wrong password too often, that chain of keys will be deleted at Apple and you will loose any and all passwords!

    Citation?

    Never heard of that happening. They'll lock your account after too many password attempts or disable it if someone keeps trying to reset the password via iforgot.apple.com, but you can get it back even if you have 2FA enabled and don't have a trusted device either through the multi-day account recovery process or by using a recovery ID if you've set one up.

    This 2FA is simply a very bad idea, or better, a bad implementation.

    What if you only have one device and drop it into the ocean?

    You can never get back into your account, as you have no trusted device and no trusted phone number anymore.

    So you need to initiate the recovery process.... whatever that means.
    And does that work? How?

    But what stops another person from doing the same, esp. when you are dead and they have access to your SIM card and therefor your trusted phone number?
    They would not even need to try this recovery process!

    This is nothing but a giant security hole!
    The security questions were much better.

  • @wim said:
    @tja, I also use a separate password vault as my master password database. Mine makes it easy to look up, then copy/paste my ridiculously complex random passwords (that I generally don't even know). However, since getting the Mac, I've relented a bit and now allow the local keychain to store low-risk passwords such as for forums and the like, while not storing critical ones such as my banking accounts. It just saves time not having to pull up the other password app.

    My Apple ID password is, of necessity, less complex and random than the rest. I don't want to have to type a ridiculous password to log on to my Apple devices, so that becomes the weak link. This is why I don't store anything critical in the keychain.

    I will try today, if this works for me.
    The only thing that comes to mind, is to login into a website and check if i get asked to store the password in the (local) keychain.
    But i fear that this will not be the case - and i found no way to "restart" use of the keychain.

    But the main problem was my cryptic Apple Id password that i constantly need to type in.
    But now i changed the settings, so that i do not get asked anymore when installing Apps.

    I add something about password safes and a way to access them:

  • tjatja
    edited December 2020

    Those cryptic and long passwords may be more secure, but that means you need some password safe.
    And this password safe needs to be accessible easily, with a password that you can remember.

    But where do you store this password safe?
    It would be needed on some cloud storage...

    But this again means, you need to be able to access this storage without a long cryptic password too.
    Otherwise, you may not be able to reach your password safe.

    This get's even more ridiculous, when you try to use Google Drive, iCloud Drive or OneDrive!

    All of them already require some form of 2FA, either per email or per SMS to a phone number.
    As your email may also require an SMS to a phone number, when trying to read from a new device - it seems that you can loose everything when you lost your device with exactly this phone number!

    Or maybe, you were in jail or got robbed in a forein country, or any other rare and strange situation were you simply have no access to your trusted devices or your phone number.

    How could you get to your password safe then?

    There only seems to be two solutions:

    1. You need to store the password safe in Dropbox, as it does not seem to require 2FA.

    This means, that you need to use a password that you can remember for Dropbox!

    1. Or, you need to store the password safe in any other cloud storage, but in some shared folder, where you can access it without additional means.

    This means, you need to write, store, post the link to that shared storage on some public place, where you can access it without any additional password or 2FA. In some public forum, for example,

    I see no other safe way to get back to your passwords.

    And the whole thing is simply not possible at all with Apple keychain... which is another reason not to use it.

  • @tja said:
    But on the linked URL https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202755 i cannot read this text anymore.

    I can, and it's exactly as you quoted it. My apologies for doubting you. The article has been archived, so who knows if they still follow that policy, but they definitely did at some point.

    @tja said:
    So you need to initiate the recovery process.... whatever that means.
    And does that work? How?

    If you have 2FA activated there are two possibilities:
    Account recovery: https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT204921
    Using a recovery key: https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT208072

    The recovery key gets you back in quickly but is dangerous. If you activate it then it's the only way to get your account back: lose the key and you're locked out forever.

  • @tja if I may dive a little into this password / security "off-topic" Gedöns ;)

    This whole 2FA / "Forgot my password" / Keychain / Security Questions / Blablabla thing is something very typical in today's society (yes, I'm old).

    Basically, a group of people (average internet users) have a problem (shitty passwords / memory), and then try to move the responsibility / blame to another group of people (software developers). Or to put it differently, a problem which has a simple solution (strong passwords and own responsibility for them on the password owners) is taken away from the source and moved to a different location where it doesn't belong, creating a host of other problems that are many times worse than the original.

    It happens in many other areas of society, like the "LETHAL DANGER!!!" signs next to each puddle of mud or creek, "CAUSES CANCER" labels on SSDs (Californian law because some eejit has eaten one and then gotten cancer), etc.

    When I started using the internet around 1995, there simply was no "Forgot password" feature, no 2FA, no "Another device" for recovery, no security questions, etc. -- I was simply responsible for MY shit and if I messed up, I had to deal with it.

    Sorry for derailing the thread. When you get old and frustrated, you tend to divert every conversation into a more general philosophical discussion :D

    (I know I also see things very pragmatically and maybe slightly simplistically sometimes ;))

  • @tja said:
    But i fear that this will not be the case - and i found no way to "restart" use of the keychain.

    You can reset the local keychain: run Keychain Access, Preferences, Reset My Default Keychains. Be careful with that: you lose everything in your Login and Local Items keychains, including a lot of system generated stuff.

  • @AlanC3 said:

    @tja said:
    But i fear that this will not be the case - and i found no way to "restart" use of the keychain.

    You can reset the local keychain: run Keychain Access, Preferences, Reset My Default Keychains. Be careful with that: you lose everything in your Login and Local Items keychains, including a lot of system generated stuff.

    I dont want to loose anything, just try to use a local keychain.

    I tested this, and Keychain was in the list, as was StrongBox - so this seems to work.
    I cannot currently test if I can add password to the local keychain, as i don't need some new account somewhere.

    I will try to use the local keychain for the developer account, if I ever get one :)

  • @tja said:
    Those cryptic and long passwords may be more secure, but that means you need some password safe.
    And this password safe needs to be accessible easily, with a password that you can remember.
    ... etc.

    All security is about tradeoffs. I do store the password database in the cloud so that I can access it from any device if needed. The cloud account has a ridiculously complex password, but I only ever need to enter it unless accessing from a new device. The password database has a difficult to crack password, but something I constructed that I will hopefully remember. In case I do forget it, I do have a paper copy of the database tucked away somewhere secure.

    Yes, if I was in any of the circumstances you mention, I'd have some issues. I deem those unlikely enough that I accept the risk.

    As for passwords, the randomness and length of them is more born out of convenience than fear that they would be cracked. I have one rule: no two sites ever have the same password. Therefore, cracking one is will never result in compromising the rest (unless the one compromised is the recovery email address, then I might have a problem. :# ). Most sites have password strength requirements, and it's just easier to let the password safe program generate them.

    A friend of mine, a professional security expert, and the most paranoid person I know, uses what I think is an ingenious system that obviates the need for a password safe. He has a memorized algorithm for constructing passwords that combine a fixed phrase he won't forget with info about the site and a few other tricks. The result is a password that is always unique, very difficult to crack, but always able to be recalled without difficulty. This is the best method I've ever come across. Some day I may switch over to this.

  • I tend to agree, @SevenSystems

    But it is a bit more complicated.

    There are actual reasons for a second factor!

    Nowadays, you can never really be sure which malware spied on your passwords - there is simply some possibility, that the password got stolen!

    If you need to login somewhere, it give more security if not only the password is required.
    This may be a keyfile, something like a Yubi-Key, some second device where you are logged in, a an email-address, an phone number, additional one-time passcodes, or additional security questions.

    I just don't think that it is good to enable other people who gain control over an email-adress or a phone number (SIM card) to reset the password!

    To be honest there should be NO way to reset the password, without knowing the old password!

    At least not with the only such an second factor.

    This is like what you said ... just don't forget your password.

  • I installed and tested "Rectangle"!

    Phantastic software, i already feel nearly home, able to sort windows in a structured, fast and easy way!

  • I tried to find some basic Swift App on github, that i could test for an initial Xcode test.

    I found https://github.com/devxoul/SwiftUITodo but Xcode bulks out on it, with lots of errors.
    May come from the fact that it is 2 years old.

    Going to seek something different to get basic familiarity with Xcode ...

  • @wim said:
    A friend of mine, a professional security expert, and the most paranoid person I know, uses what I think is an ingenious system that obviates the need for a password safe. He has a memorized algorithm for constructing passwords that combine a fixed phrase he won't forget with info about the site and a few other tricks. The result is a password that is always unique, very difficult to crack, but always able to be recalled without difficulty. This is the best method I've ever come across. Some day I may switch over to this.

    This is an interesting idea, i use something similar for accounts where i need to change the password regularly - and incorporate the months and year into the password.

    But i have no generic method so far.

    I also try to use separate passwords for different accounts - but out of history, this is an ongoing task :-)

    I have those goals:

    1. Have all my passwords in a password safe
    2. For all important accounts, use different and cryptic passwords
    3. Do not allow to reset any passwords over only a phone number
    4. Have a way to gain access to my password database without needing any secondary factor

    As far as I understand, you can reset the password with Apple's 2FA with a SIM card of a trusted phone number. Therefore, I try to not go this route.

    Google also offers 2FA, but when you do not add a working email address, there is no way to reset the password - only with a set of one-time codes. This seems to be better than the Apple method.

  • @tja said:
    Google also offers 2FA, but when you do not add a working email address, there is no way to reset the password - only with a set of one-time codes. This seems to be better than the Apple method.

    You can create a single-purpose email address with a cryptic name and good password as a recovery email address. All recovery messages should be purged from this account after use.

    In fact, using your regular email address as a password recovery address is very bad practice.

  • tjatja
    edited December 2020

    @wim said:

    @tja said:
    Google also offers 2FA, but when you do not add a working email address, there is no way to reset the password - only with a set of one-time codes. This seems to be better than the Apple method.

    You can create a single-purpose email address with a cryptic name and good password as a recovery email address. All recovery messages should be purged from this account after use.

    In fact, using your regular email address as a password recovery address is very bad practice.

    True.

    I am seeking a new email provider, as I try to get away from Google (which I use for several email addresses).

    I also have my own virtual servers, but as I wrote, I try to find a way to get back into my accounts without any second factor - or the requirement that those servers still are running.

    But this goes far beyond this thread and topic :smile:

    I still try to find a ready-to-compile Xcode project, but had no luck so far.
    Currently "alacritty" is downloading, but this seems to hang at "Checking out..."

    Very strange :o

  • I can hand you the Xequence project, but you have to promise to add a tempo track, time signature track AND make it an AUv3 before January 😉

  • @SevenSystems said:
    I can hand you the Xequence project, but you have to promise to add a tempo track, time signature track AND make it an AUv3 before January 😉

    :-D :-D :-D

    Then better not ;)

  • @SevenSystems said:
    I can hand you the Xequence project, but you have to promise to add a tempo track, time signature track AND make it an AUv3 before January 😉

    Just a few lines of code, how hard could it be? 👨🏻‍🍳

    I still haven't figured out how to get around this new Mac asking for my password every time I look at it funny. 😂

  • I have another "random question":

    With "Rectangle", i can flip windows to certain positions, which is great.

    But the Menu lists, for example, control-option-left to flip the window to the left half of the screen.
    That simply does not work!

    But it works with control-command-left instead!

    On my keyboard, a Keychron K1V4, the leftmost buttons on the lowest row are:

    control option command

    What is wrong here?!?

  • @tja said:
    I have another "random question":

    With "Rectangle", i can flip windows to certain positions, which is great.

    But the Menu lists, for example, control-option-left to flip the window to the left half of the screen.
    That simply does not work!

    But it works with control-command-left instead!

    On my keyboard, a Keychron K1V4, the leftmost buttons on the lowest row are:

    control option command

    What is wrong here?!?

    Is that keyboard one that also works with windows? Because if you use a windows keyboard on Mac cmd and option are switched- the “windows” key is command.

  • The Keychron looks to be a Mac-first keyboard, but for me, Rectangle moves with CTRL-OPT-Left as marked. Does your keyboard need an update to flip to Mac mode?

  • @mrufino1 said:
    Is that keyboard one that also works with windows? Because if you use a windows keyboard on Mac cmd and option are switched- the “windows” key is command.

    Ohhh.

    I am so stupid.

    The keyboard can be switched, and somehow, i simply forgot to do so - having few time with MacOS so far.

    Thanks and sorry!!!

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