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.

Who loves GeoShred?

I just got it and I’m having a whole ton of fun. Are the additional IAP instruments worth it? My hope is they allow for tones with different attack, release profiles rather than the plucky nature of the standard guitar you get to work with. Is that right? What a joy it is to play though

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Comments

  • edited March 2021

    I love it! I would go so far as to say I think it is perhaps the greatest instrument ever developed for the iPad.

    However, for me at least, it can take a lot of practice to get an acceptable performance. Plus, it doesn't help that my DAW still lacks MPE support, so for recording I have to just treat it like a guitar rather than a MIDI instrument. Thus, while I hope to use it more soon, I've actually only completed one project with it so far.

    I was more than pleased with the results, and it was exactly what the track needed. I was honored that MoForte liked the track so much that they featured it on their social media. The piece evolves through sections, and GeoShred comes in around 2:40:

  • And yes, the SWAM IAPs can take things to even great heights! But, even though it helps to have past experience with a guitar fretboard and such, it is still to some extent like learning a new instrument. With practice, and with careful attention to the expressive techniques of the instrument you are trying to emulate, you can get very impressive results. In some ways it makes things much easier to play certain types of riffs than you could on a string instrument. It depends on the melody. Flying up and down diatonically is a breeze. But when I needed to play a melody like Freedom Jazz Dance, I had to actually turn the iPad sideways because of the combination of the intervals of the original tune and Geoshred's 4th-based "tuning system". So, it can be very easy for certain things, but for other times you need to figure out ways to bend it to your needs. :#

  • Love-hate relationship for me. I never succeeded finding a realistic guitar sound but playing on the screen is a lot of fun...

  • I love it as a controller, and with SWAM also as an instrument. It's super-expressive.

    This is a "guitar solo" performed in GarageBand with Geoshred as a controller driving a Roli Noise guitar through Nembrini MRH810.

    (This is the solo in context as part of a song):

    I'm currently writing a track that uses the SWAM saxophone. The great thing about that sax is that you can make it sound quite dirty and growly, so it's not that cliché sax sound, but something much more gritty and interesting.

  • @richardyot said:
    I love it as a controller, and with SWAM also as an instrument. It's super-expressive.

    That's cool! I've never tried to use it with anything other than its internal sounds.

  • @Lady_App_titude said:

    @richardyot said:
    I love it as a controller, and with SWAM also as an instrument. It's super-expressive.

    That's cool! I've never tried to use it with anything other than its internal sounds.

    It's definitely worth trying with MPE synths, it can do some funky stuff.

  • Here's a burst of the SWAM Sax - with the expression controls you can dial in a more gritty Madness-style sound to get a New Wave sax feel, more Martha And The Muffins and less Gerry Rafferty:

  • Well the good news is I’m not trying to emulate any real instrument, or play other people’s tunes. I just love the expressiveness and the tones I can get even with just the guitar. I’ll be shredding in diatonic mode for the most part. So the IAPs greatly expand the sound palette? I’m hoping to finesse some pad type sounds out of it.

  • It was pretty much worthless before the SWAM update. Now it's a must have. At least until SWAM expands their auv3 ecosystem in the next decade or so (if you're willing to spend basically the same for their software on ipad as they charge on desktop). Before, Geoshred had awful sounds, a bad UI, with an inferior isomorphic keyboard to Velocity Keyboard. Now it's got great sounds, with a bad UI, and an inferior isomorphic keyboard to Velocity Keyboard. Even when SWAM expands, Geoshred will likely remain the cheapest place on the planet to access SWAM sounds. So it's kind of a timeless classic now in a way

  • @db909 said:
    Well the good news is I’m not trying to emulate any real instrument, or play other people’s tunes. I just love the expressiveness and the tones I can get even with just the guitar. I’ll be shredding in diatonic mode for the most part. So the IAPs greatly expand the sound palette? I’m hoping to finesse some pad type sounds out of it.

    If you want pads there are some in the presets but you can also obviously use Geoshred to drive any MPE-enabled synth, in which case the world's your oyster. Try using it to drive Moog Model D for example.

  • I really like the app as an MPE controller. The presets for controlling various apps are very useful.

    I do like the GeoSWAM instruments and the built-in ones as well. It’s definitely in my rotation of apps that are most frequently used.

  • Great playing @Lady_App_titude and @richardyot . I treat GS as a real instrument i.e. you need to practice to get the best out of it. Re the 4th based layout don't forget you can change it to standard guitar layout (or anything you want). As @richardyot says it also makes a great controller plus it is incredibly deep in its own right if you want to manipulate it's effects and control surface. Big fan!

  • I actually like the internal synth. This is an unmodified factory patch:

  • A nice update has just dropped :

  • @richardyot said:
    I love it as a controller, and with SWAM also as an instrument. It's super-expressive.

    This is a "guitar solo" performed in GarageBand with Geoshred as a controller driving a Roli Noise guitar through Nembrini MRH810.

    (This is the solo in context as part of a song):

    I'm currently writing a track that uses the SWAM saxophone. The great thing about that sax is that you can make it sound quite dirty and growly, so it's not that cliché sax sound, but something much more gritty and interesting.

    Very nice, Richard!

  • @NeuM said:

    @richardyot said:
    I love it as a controller, and with SWAM also as an instrument. It's super-expressive.

    This is a "guitar solo" performed in GarageBand with Geoshred as a controller driving a Roli Noise guitar through Nembrini MRH810.

    (This is the solo in context as part of a song):

    I'm currently writing a track that uses the SWAM saxophone. The great thing about that sax is that you can make it sound quite dirty and growly, so it's not that cliché sax sound, but something much more gritty and interesting.

    Very nice, Richard!

    Thanks :)

  • edited June 2021

    Geoshred is amazing, it’s just a shame that the vast majority of the presets are swamped by over the top FX.

  • @Michael_R_Grant said:
    Geoshred is amazing, it’s just a shame that the vast majority of the presets are swamped by over the top FX.

    I raised that exact issue with them and asked them to add more usable sounds. I assume they had the SWAM deal in the works for some time, but it wasn’t very long after I mentioned this to them that they announced the SWAM sounds for their app. Barring evidence to the contrary, I’ll take the credit. ;)

  • @Michael_R_Grant said:
    Geoshred is amazing, it’s just a shame that the vast majority of the presets are swamped by over the top FX.

    Michael, you can modify the presets to adjust the FX to your liking under "Menu> Model & FX".

  • @Michael_R_Grant , just adding to @moForte , if you look at https://forum.audiob.us/discussion/45438/biomusic-nature-inspired-ambience, this is an example of all effects including the Amp being removed from GeoShred. Also added a Body control. By doing this it is in effect just a basic ‘guitar(s)’ which you can feed through external effects.

  • edited June 2021

    @moForte said:

    @Michael_R_Grant said:
    Geoshred is amazing, it’s just a shame that the vast majority of the presets are swamped by over the top FX.

    Michael, you can modify the presets to adjust the FX to your liking under "Menu> Model & FX".

    Sure, but why did you design the presets with so much FX on them in the first place? Surely it's a common complaint. I can understand there being a few made this way so that you can show off the FX, but it seems to be nearly every one and they're basically unusable in a mix.

  • @Michael_R_Grant said:

    @moForte said:

    @Michael_R_Grant said:
    Geoshred is amazing, it’s just a shame that the vast majority of the presets are swamped by over the top FX.

    Michael, you can modify the presets to adjust the FX to your liking under "Menu> Model & FX".

    Sure, but why did you design the presets with so much FX on them in the first place? Surely it's a common complaint. I can understand there being a few made this way so that you can show off the FX, but it seems to be nearly every one and they're basically unusable in a mix.

    I think the main purpose of Geoshred initially was to have an immediate fun as soon as you touch the screen, while playing through the presets.
    So no AUv3 host integration, rack FX insertion, mastering and so on. Just play and have fun.

    As GeoShred (with the introduction of GeoSwam) has gotten more "serious" for some people as a music making app, one may have been looking for more neutral presets but the initial spirit has remained. Well, at least this is how I explain what you are wondering.

  • edited June 2021

    Recorded a little number called “Conquistador” using the updated GeoShred and their SWAM Cello using iOS GarageBand. One thing I’ve noticed is the GeoShred app refuses to retain the Expression button every time I record a new insert on the same MIDI track. Perhaps the @moForte folks could investigate?

  • @NeuM just wondering, do you ‘save as’ and create a new preset each time you alter the current preset? I tend to use the original preset name and add ‘FE’ at the end so I know it’s the altered version and it seems to work ok.

  • @rud said:
    @NeuM just wondering, do you ‘save as’ and create a new preset each time you alter the current preset? I tend to use the original preset name and add ‘FE’ at the end so I know it’s the altered version and it seems to work ok.

    In this case, this was just the stock preset and I clicked on the Expression button. No big deal. There should be no need to Save or Save As, since the state of the app should be saved with the “.band” file.

  • @Paulo164 said:

    @Michael_R_Grant said:

    @moForte said:

    @Michael_R_Grant said:
    Geoshred is amazing, it’s just a shame that the vast majority of the presets are swamped by over the top FX.

    Michael, you can modify the presets to adjust the FX to your liking under "Menu> Model & FX".

    Sure, but why did you design the presets with so much FX on them in the first place? Surely it's a common complaint. I can understand there being a few made this way so that you can show off the FX, but it seems to be nearly every one and they're basically unusable in a mix.

    I think the main purpose of Geoshred initially was to have an immediate fun as soon as you touch the screen, while playing through the presets.
    So no AUv3 host integration, rack FX insertion, mastering and so on. Just play and have fun.

    As GeoShred (with the introduction of GeoSwam) has gotten more "serious" for some people as a music making app, one may have been looking for more neutral presets but the initial spirit has remained. Well, at least this is how I explain what you are wondering.

    The preset designers wanted to show the possibilities. Note that when creating a new preset it's just a guitar and you are free to explore from there.

    One thought is that if you are navigating the presets by clicking through "All Presets" which is just an unorganized pool or all the presets it might be frustrating. It's better to navigate them by Setlist (aka bank).

    For our next release we will be releasing the transitional Plucked String 1.5 model (The current model is plucked string 1.0). This will include a number of classic plucked stringed instruments, well known guitars, south asian instruments, etc, etc. We will send out a survey in a few days to poll users about what instruments we might do next. You can also simply drop us a note at [email protected]

  • @rud said:
    @NeuM just wondering, do you ‘save as’ and create a new preset each time you alter the current preset? I tend to use the original preset name and add ‘FE’ at the end so I know it’s the altered version and it seems to work ok.

    Rud, if you modify a factory preset it's name will be red until you save it. It then turns yellow, We have an FAQ about this behavior "What do the colors of the preset names mean?":

    http://www.moforte.com/geoShredAssets5.0/help/FAQs/#colors

  • @moForte said:
    For our next release we will be releasing the transitional Plucked String 1.5 model (The current model is plucked string 1.0). This will include a number of classic plucked stringed instruments, well known guitars, south asian instruments, etc, etc. We will send out a survey in a few days to poll users about what instruments we might do next. You can also simply drop us a note at [email protected]

    Oh, that’s a great news !

  • @moForte said:

    @Paulo164 said:

    @Michael_R_Grant said:

    @moForte said:

    @Michael_R_Grant said:
    Geoshred is amazing, it’s just a shame that the vast majority of the presets are swamped by over the top FX.

    Michael, you can modify the presets to adjust the FX to your liking under "Menu> Model & FX".

    Sure, but why did you design the presets with so much FX on them in the first place? Surely it's a common complaint. I can understand there being a few made this way so that you can show off the FX, but it seems to be nearly every one and they're basically unusable in a mix.

    I think the main purpose of Geoshred initially was to have an immediate fun as soon as you touch the screen, while playing through the presets.
    So no AUv3 host integration, rack FX insertion, mastering and so on. Just play and have fun.

    As GeoShred (with the introduction of GeoSwam) has gotten more "serious" for some people as a music making app, one may have been looking for more neutral presets but the initial spirit has remained. Well, at least this is how I explain what you are wondering.

    The preset designers wanted to show the possibilities. Note that when creating a new preset it's just a guitar and you are free to explore from there.

    One thought is that if you are navigating the presets by clicking through "All Presets" which is just an unorganized pool or all the presets it might be frustrating. It's better to navigate them by Setlist (aka bank).

    For our next release we will be releasing the transitional Plucked String 1.5 model (The current model is plucked string 1.0). This will include a number of classic plucked stringed instruments, well known guitars, south asian instruments, etc, etc. We will send out a survey in a few days to poll users about what instruments we might do next. You can also simply drop us a note at [email protected]

    That’s great news. A spectrum of traditional plucked (and strummed?) instruments would go a long way toward making production more efficient.

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