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.

TouchOSC released! Create MIDI control surfaces, etc.

13

Comments

  • According to the devs there is a bundle coming, but as always Apple takes ages with these

  • heshes
    edited June 2021

    @yug said:

    @Carnbot said:

    @yug said:
    Still on the fence about this one. It looks great but I was expecting a bit more from its scripting engine. I checked the manual and it does not seem possible to build sequencers with it. But it's ok, I think I was expecting too much :)

    Anyway, new TouchOSC looks like a cool app for building interactive control surfaces

    I'm not a coder, but what makes you think that it can't do sequencers?
    The app comes with a Pong game clone which makes me think it should be possible....

    You can make it send periodic MIDI messages, based on system time, but that's about it
    There are no MIDI clock events at all, internal or external

    MIDI clock events are simply MIDI messages, so I see no reason why you could not just roll-your-own system to send MIDI clock messages based on system time. Or, conversely, to process MIDI clock messages that are received by TouchOSC. The system for doing this would be built in Lua, which is known for being a very fast and efficient language (it's often incorporated in games to allow user-scripting, where speed is essential), and would presumably be reusable, so once someone creates a MIDI clock bolt-on they could share it with other TouchOSC users. And users could collaborate to develop and improve the clock-message functionality. At least, this approach is typically how issues like this are solved in general purpose languages like Lua. It would be preferable for TouchOSC to have the capability added by the TouchOSC developer, but should be possible for TouchOSC users to create MIDI clock functionality (and similar, fairly "low level" things) even without that.

  • Can someone please clarify this for me? I'm trying to set this up so I can run touchOSC from my iMac and my iPad. I went through the tutorials and am confused about what exactly is happening. So, do MIDI and OSC do the same stuff? Or are they actually capable of doing different stuff? As long as my device is connected to the bridge, is there any reason to use one over the other? I can connect through USB from my iPad but if I connect over Wifi, the address is different from the Wifi address on my iMac. It gets all confusing cause I'm not sure if I'm using OSC or MIDI when I have both enabled. Looks like both OSC and MIDI are being sent at the same time in Protokol. Can someone clarify how best to think about all this?

  • heshes
    edited June 2021

    @gkillmaster said:
    Can someone please clarify this for me? I'm trying to set this up so I can run touchOSC from my iMac and my iPad. I went through the tutorials and am confused about what exactly is happening. So, do MIDI and OSC do the same stuff? Or are they actually capable of doing different stuff? As long as my device is connected to the bridge, is there any reason to use one over the other? I can connect through USB from my iPad but if I connect over Wifi, the address is different from the Wifi address on my iMac. It gets all confusing cause I'm not sure if I'm using OSC or MIDI when I have both enabled. Looks like both OSC and MIDI are being sent at the same time in Protokol. Can someone clarify how best to think about all this?

    I would disable OSC unless you have a specific use for it. MIDI and OSC are two different systems that do basically the same thing, but differently. You need only one (at least if all your gear supports that system). I expect you're used to using MIDI, which is what you should continue to use. Most synth-related software and hardware isn't even capable of communicating via OSC.

  • @hes said:

    @gkillmaster said:
    Can someone please clarify this for me? I'm trying to set this up so I can run touchOSC from my iMac and my iPad. I went through the tutorials and am confused about what exactly is happening. So, do MIDI and OSC do the same stuff? Or are they actually capable of doing different stuff? As long as my device is connected to the bridge, is there any reason to use one over the other? I can connect through USB from my iPad but if I connect over Wifi, the address is different from the Wifi address on my iMac. It gets all confusing cause I'm not sure if I'm using OSC or MIDI when I have both enabled. Looks like both OSC and MIDI are being sent at the same time in Protokol. Can someone clarify how best to think about all this?

    I would disable OSC unless you have a specific use for it. MIDI and OSC are two different systems that do basically the same thing, but differently. You need only one (at least if all your gear supports that system). I expect you're used to using MIDI, which is what you should continue to use. Most synth-related software and hardware isn't even capable of communicating via OSC.

    Thanks. This really helps...

  • I wish more apps used OSC as well as midi.

    It's is really good for complex apps because it's address based so goes by names, you don't run out of midi numbers and channels etc. So it's useful in things like Touchdesigner and Resolume where you can have vast numbers of controls and layers, it's very easy to get lost with midi mapping. OSC has much better resolution and speed as well.

    OSC is a bit of an initial pain to setup but then it's much less confusing overall.

  • Very interesting reading regarding MIDI vs OSC.

    What ever happened to MIDI 2.0?

    Are there any apps on the App Store right now (other than this control app) that accept OSC messages?


  • It suits even just for silly design mockups :smiley:
    I guess it would be quite hard to implement it in any tracker kind of way, but it was fun.

  • @ronnieb said:
    Honestly the built in editor is worth the price alone, so much more convenient! Exited to see what comes of the scripting too, it’s even got be reading up on Lua trying to wrap my head around the basics to see what’s possible.

    Anyone here experienced with Lua?

    https://www.reddit.com/r/lua/

  • @Edward_Alexander said:
    Are there any apps on the App Store right now (other than this control app) that accept OSC messages?

    The just-released miRack update includes OSC compatibility.

  • @hes said:

    @yug said:

    @Carnbot said:

    @yug said:
    Still on the fence about this one. It looks great but I was expecting a bit more from its scripting engine. I checked the manual and it does not seem possible to build sequencers with it. But it's ok, I think I was expecting too much :)

    Anyway, new TouchOSC looks like a cool app for building interactive control surfaces

    I'm not a coder, but what makes you think that it can't do sequencers?
    The app comes with a Pong game clone which makes me think it should be possible....

    You can make it send periodic MIDI messages, based on system time, but that's about it
    There are no MIDI clock events at all, internal or external

    MIDI clock events are simply MIDI messages, so I see no reason why you could not just roll-your-own system to send MIDI clock messages based on system time. Or, conversely, to process MIDI clock messages that are received by TouchOSC. The system for doing this would be built in Lua, which is known for being a very fast and efficient language (it's often incorporated in games to allow user-scripting, where speed is essential), and would presumably be reusable, so once someone creates a MIDI clock bolt-on they could share it with other TouchOSC users. And users could collaborate to develop and improve the clock-message functionality. At least, this approach is typically how issues like this are solved in general purpose languages like Lua. It would be preferable for TouchOSC to have the capability added by the TouchOSC developer, but should be possible for TouchOSC users to create MIDI clock functionality (and similar, fairly "low level" things) even without that.

    Mozaic has a timer that is "sample-accurate in milliseconds" and runs independently from host tempo. TouchOSC does not have anything like that.
    You can kinda simulate a timer if you add your code to a callback function like update(), which is called every time a control is about to be updated after finishing processing user input and received messages. But it's not accurate and does not seem to have high enough resolution

    I actually found a way to make it process MIDI clock messages and I'm getting mixed results. I'm using Ableton Live as a midi clock source, tempo is set to 120bpm. The midi monitor utility shows midi clock packets arriving every 20-21ms, but in TouchOSC I get intervals from 15 up to 40ms. So, it's not very accurate but probably good enough for most cases. Well, it depends on what you are trying to build. I think it looks promising

    Please note that I was doing my tests on a fast mac computer using an empty project (no controls). No idea how it will behave on the ipad and if the project contains a lot of controls.

    Let me know if you wanna see my code.

  • I must say I like Lua. It's simple and easy to learn
    Also, if you don't know, there's an iOS IDE for Lua similar to Pythonista: https://codea.io

  • heshes
    edited June 2021

    @yug said:

    @hes said:

    @yug said:

    @Carnbot said:

    @yug said:
    Still on the fence about this one. It looks great but I was expecting a bit more from its scripting engine. I checked the manual and it does not seem possible to build sequencers with it. But it's ok, I think I was expecting too much :)

    Anyway, new TouchOSC looks like a cool app for building interactive control surfaces

    I'm not a coder, but what makes you think that it can't do sequencers?
    The app comes with a Pong game clone which makes me think it should be possible....

    You can make it send periodic MIDI messages, based on system time, but that's about it
    There are no MIDI clock events at all, internal or external

    MIDI clock events are simply MIDI messages, so I see no reason why you could not just roll-your-own system to send MIDI clock messages based on system time. Or, conversely, to process MIDI clock messages that are received by TouchOSC. The system for doing this would be built in Lua, which is known for being a very fast and efficient language (it's often incorporated in games to allow user-scripting, where speed is essential), and would presumably be reusable, so once someone creates a MIDI clock bolt-on they could share it with other TouchOSC users. And users could collaborate to develop and improve the clock-message functionality. At least, this approach is typically how issues like this are solved in general purpose languages like Lua. It would be preferable for TouchOSC to have the capability added by the TouchOSC developer, but should be possible for TouchOSC users to create MIDI clock functionality (and similar, fairly "low level" things) even without that.

    Mozaic has a timer that is "sample-accurate in milliseconds" and runs independently from host tempo. TouchOSC does not have anything like that.
    You can kinda simulate a timer if you add your code to a callback function like update(), which is called every time a control is about to be updated after finishing processing user input and received messages. But it's not accurate and does not seem to have high enough resolution

    I actually found a way to make it process MIDI clock messages and I'm getting mixed results. I'm using Ableton Live as a midi clock source, tempo is set to 120bpm. The midi monitor utility shows midi clock packets arriving every 20-21ms, but in TouchOSC I get intervals from 15 up to 40ms. So, it's not very accurate but probably good enough for most cases. Well, it depends on what you are trying to build. I think it looks promising

    Please note that I was doing my tests on a fast mac computer using an empty project (no controls). No idea how it will behave on the ipad and if the project contains a lot of controls.

    Let me know if you wanna see my code.

    I don’t have TouchOSC yet. But cool that you’re already experimenting with ways to enable midi-clock functionality. I obviously don’t have a good feel for the TouchOSC/Lua environment. I expect there are plenty of projects out there with Lua where Lua has been used to generate and receive midi clock. (One example I found from a quick Google search: https://github.com/okyeron/midi-demo/blob/master/midi-clock.lua ). I don’t know, maybe there’s something about Lua working within TouchOSC that creates insurmountable problems. But maybe it’s worth experimenting further and/or asking the TouchOSC developer whether an end user bolt-on of midi clock functionality seems feasible, if it is what the best approach would be for “bolting-on” the functionality, whether there are plans to add that functionality as built-in so users don’t need to bolt-on, etc.

  • @hes said:
    I don’t have TouchOSC yet.

    You can try the desktop version, it seems to work fine without a license

  • @branis said:
    The description says: " we support every type of wired & wireless MIDI connection..." I guess that includes Bluetooth MIDI. Can anyone confirm?

    To answer to myself - yes it does. Though it doesn't see my bluetooth midi adapters (CME WIDI Master and WIDI Jack) unless I open e.g. Gadget and connect it there. I can then close Gadget, but the connection becomes visible to TouchOSC.

    As an exercise I created a Korg monologue controller. I don't know why I'd ever need it, but the process was fun :smile:

  • @branis said:

    @branis said:
    The description says: " we support every type of wired & wireless MIDI connection..." I guess that includes Bluetooth MIDI. Can anyone confirm?

    To answer to myself - yes it does. Though it doesn't see my bluetooth midi adapters (CME WIDI Master and WIDI Jack) unless I open e.g. Gadget and connect it there. I can then close Gadget, but the connection becomes visible to TouchOSC.

    As an exercise I created a Korg monologue controller. I don't know why I'd ever need it, but the process was fun :smile:

    Very attractive. Which was the kiss of death for midi designer

  • wimwim
    edited June 2021

    @branis said:

    @branis said:
    The description says: " we support every type of wired & wireless MIDI connection..." I guess that includes Bluetooth MIDI. Can anyone confirm?

    To answer to myself - yes it does. Though it doesn't see my bluetooth midi adapters (CME WIDI Master and WIDI Jack) unless I open e.g. Gadget and connect it there. I can then close Gadget, but the connection becomes visible to TouchOSC.

    That is standard. BLE Midi connections don't happen automatically. Some app always has to manually initiate the connection, after which it's available everywhere. You might want to hunt around in TouchOSC to see if it has it's own BLE Midi connection option. Most apps now have it. If TouchOSC doesn't then that's something that should definitely be requested of the developer. It's not difficult to implement.

    I wish BLE Midi connections could be made persistent in some way.

    [edit] meh. I guess it doesn't have a connection dialog. I'll look into requesting it. Until then, any app (Audiobus, AUM, whatever) can be used to make the initial connection. Korg supplies the free BLE Midi Connect app that can do this too.

  • @audiobussy said:

    @branis said:

    @branis said:
    The description says: " we support every type of wired & wireless MIDI connection..." I guess that includes Bluetooth MIDI. Can anyone confirm?

    To answer to myself - yes it does. Though it doesn't see my bluetooth midi adapters (CME WIDI Master and WIDI Jack) unless I open e.g. Gadget and connect it there. I can then close Gadget, but the connection becomes visible to TouchOSC.

    As an exercise I created a Korg monologue controller. I don't know why I'd ever need it, but the process was fun :smile:

    Very attractive. Which was the kiss of death for midi designer

    Yes, the controls look pretty nice and there is quite a bit of customization options

    @wim said:
    [edit] meh. I guess it doesn't have a connection dialog. I'll look into requesting it. Until then, any app (Audiobus, AUM, whatever) can be used to make the initial connection. Korg supplies the free BLE Midi Connect app that can do this too.

    Thanks, I sent a message to the developer too. Hopefully he will add it

  • @ronnieb said:
    Honestly the built in editor is worth the price alone, so much more convenient! Exited to see what comes of the scripting too, it’s even got be reading up on Lua trying to wrap my head around the basics to see what’s possible.

    Anyone here experienced with Lua?

    All of Monome's gear, eg Norns, uses Lua. There is a whole community over at Lines dedicated to teaching it.

  • @Carnbot said:
    According to the devs there is a bundle coming, but as always Apple takes ages with these

    Yay!
    https://apps.apple.com/us/app-bundle/touchosc-generations/id1571055482

  • @ashh said:

    @ronnieb said:
    Honestly the built in editor is worth the price alone, so much more convenient! Exited to see what comes of the scripting too, it’s even got be reading up on Lua trying to wrap my head around the basics to see what’s possible.

    Anyone here experienced with Lua?

    All of Monome's gear, eg Norns, uses Lua. There is a whole community over at Lines dedicated to teaching it.

    @ashh do you have a link for that? I don’t know Lines…. Thanks!

  • @yug said:

    @hes said:

    @yug said:

    @Carnbot said:

    @yug said:
    Still on the fence about this one. It looks great but I was expecting a bit more from its scripting engine. I checked the manual and it does not seem possible to build sequencers with it. But it's ok, I think I was expecting too much :)

    Anyway, new TouchOSC looks like a cool app for building interactive control surfaces

    I'm not a coder, but what makes you think that it can't do sequencers?
    The app comes with a Pong game clone which makes me think it should be possible....

    You can make it send periodic MIDI messages, based on system time, but that's about it
    There are no MIDI clock events at all, internal or external

    MIDI clock events are simply MIDI messages, so I see no reason why you could not just roll-your-own system to send MIDI clock messages based on system time. Or, conversely, to process MIDI clock messages that are received by TouchOSC. The system for doing this would be built in Lua, which is known for being a very fast and efficient language (it's often incorporated in games to allow user-scripting, where speed is essential), and would presumably be reusable, so once someone creates a MIDI clock bolt-on they could share it with other TouchOSC users. And users could collaborate to develop and improve the clock-message functionality. At least, this approach is typically how issues like this are solved in general purpose languages like Lua. It would be preferable for TouchOSC to have the capability added by the TouchOSC developer, but should be possible for TouchOSC users to create MIDI clock functionality (and similar, fairly "low level" things) even without that.

    Mozaic has a timer that is "sample-accurate in milliseconds" and runs independently from host tempo. TouchOSC does not have anything like that.
    You can kinda simulate a timer if you add your code to a callback function like update(), which is called every time a control is about to be updated after finishing processing user input and received messages. But it's not accurate and does not seem to have high enough resolution

    I actually found a way to make it process MIDI clock messages and I'm getting mixed results. I'm using Ableton Live as a midi clock source, tempo is set to 120bpm. The midi monitor utility shows midi clock packets arriving every 20-21ms, but in TouchOSC I get intervals from 15 up to 40ms. So, it's not very accurate but probably good enough for most cases. Well, it depends on what you are trying to build. I think it looks promising

    Please note that I was doing my tests on a fast mac computer using an empty project (no controls). No idea how it will behave on the ipad and if the project contains a lot of controls.

    Let me know if you wanna see my code.

    So far, Lemur seems to be the only DIY control surface that comes with a sequencing engine.
    My experiments with Mozaic have quickly ended because although it supports halfway precise timers, the interpreter is simply not fast enough to achieve tight timing without eating the CPU.

  • @rs2000 said:

    @yug said:
    Mozaic has a timer that is "sample-accurate in milliseconds" and runs independently from host tempo. TouchOSC does not have anything like that.
    You can kinda simulate a timer if you add your code to a callback function like update(), which is called every time a control is about to be updated after finishing processing user input and received messages. But it's not accurate and does not seem to have high enough resolution

    I actually found a way to make it process MIDI clock messages and I'm getting mixed results. I'm using Ableton Live as a midi clock source, tempo is set to 120bpm. The midi monitor utility shows midi clock packets arriving every 20-21ms, but in TouchOSC I get intervals from 15 up to 40ms. So, it's not very accurate but probably good enough for most cases. Well, it depends on what you are trying to build. I think it looks promising

    Please note that I was doing my tests on a fast mac computer using an empty project (no controls). No idea how it will behave on the ipad and if the project contains a lot of controls.

    Let me know if you wanna see my code.

    So far, Lemur seems to be the only DIY control surface that comes with a sequencing engine.
    My experiments with Mozaic have quickly ended because although it supports halfway precise timers, the interpreter is simply not fast enough to achieve tight timing without eating the CPU.

    Yep. I plan to have another look at Lemur. It's been a while since I touched it last time. Its editor used to crash on start, but seems to work fine now.
    It looks abandoned though. I've seen numerous complaints about problems with newer versions of macOS and non-existent user support

  • @yug said:

    @rs2000 said:

    @yug said:
    Mozaic has a timer that is "sample-accurate in milliseconds" and runs independently from host tempo. TouchOSC does not have anything like that.
    You can kinda simulate a timer if you add your code to a callback function like update(), which is called every time a control is about to be updated after finishing processing user input and received messages. But it's not accurate and does not seem to have high enough resolution

    I actually found a way to make it process MIDI clock messages and I'm getting mixed results. I'm using Ableton Live as a midi clock source, tempo is set to 120bpm. The midi monitor utility shows midi clock packets arriving every 20-21ms, but in TouchOSC I get intervals from 15 up to 40ms. So, it's not very accurate but probably good enough for most cases. Well, it depends on what you are trying to build. I think it looks promising

    Please note that I was doing my tests on a fast mac computer using an empty project (no controls). No idea how it will behave on the ipad and if the project contains a lot of controls.

    Let me know if you wanna see my code.

    So far, Lemur seems to be the only DIY control surface that comes with a sequencing engine.
    My experiments with Mozaic have quickly ended because although it supports halfway precise timers, the interpreter is simply not fast enough to achieve tight timing without eating the CPU.

    Yep. I plan to have another look at Lemur. It's been a while since I touched it last time. Its editor used to crash on start, but seems to work fine now.
    It looks abandoned though. I've seen numerous complaints about problems with newer versions of macOS and non-existent user support

    That's quite true unfortunately but the on-device editor works well enough so that I've never needed to use the desktop editor in the past.
    Make sure you get your choice of templates from the user library and grab some information from the community forum, you never know, last time after it went down it took maybe half a year until it was up again.

    But that doesn't change the fact that Lemur is stil an outstanding solution for MIDI control.

  • @rs2000 said:

    @yug said:

    @rs2000 said:

    @yug said:
    Mozaic has a timer that is "sample-accurate in milliseconds" and runs independently from host tempo. TouchOSC does not have anything like that.
    You can kinda simulate a timer if you add your code to a callback function like update(), which is called every time a control is about to be updated after finishing processing user input and received messages. But it's not accurate and does not seem to have high enough resolution

    I actually found a way to make it process MIDI clock messages and I'm getting mixed results. I'm using Ableton Live as a midi clock source, tempo is set to 120bpm. The midi monitor utility shows midi clock packets arriving every 20-21ms, but in TouchOSC I get intervals from 15 up to 40ms. So, it's not very accurate but probably good enough for most cases. Well, it depends on what you are trying to build. I think it looks promising

    Please note that I was doing my tests on a fast mac computer using an empty project (no controls). No idea how it will behave on the ipad and if the project contains a lot of controls.

    Let me know if you wanna see my code.

    So far, Lemur seems to be the only DIY control surface that comes with a sequencing engine.
    My experiments with Mozaic have quickly ended because although it supports halfway precise timers, the interpreter is simply not fast enough to achieve tight timing without eating the CPU.

    Yep. I plan to have another look at Lemur. It's been a while since I touched it last time. Its editor used to crash on start, but seems to work fine now.
    It looks abandoned though. I've seen numerous complaints about problems with newer versions of macOS and non-existent user support

    That's quite true unfortunately but the on-device editor works well enough so that I've never needed to use the desktop editor in the past.
    Make sure you get your choice of templates from the user library and grab some information from the community forum, you never know, last time after it went down it took maybe half a year until it was up again.

    But that doesn't change the fact that Lemur is stil an outstanding solution for MIDI control.

    I love Lemur, but the lack of support and it's apparent abandonment, plus the current price, makes it feel like a waste of money. I have it for my Androids and always enjoyed using it.

  • @stown said:

    @ashh said:

    @ronnieb said:
    Honestly the built in editor is worth the price alone, so much more convenient! Exited to see what comes of the scripting too, it’s even got be reading up on Lua trying to wrap my head around the basics to see what’s possible.

    Anyone here experienced with Lua?

    All of Monome's gear, eg Norns, uses Lua. There is a whole community over at Lines dedicated to teaching it.

    @ashh do you have a link for that? I don’t know Lines…. Thanks!

    Yep, here you go. :)

  • @ashh said:

    @stown said:

    @ashh said:

    @ronnieb said:
    Honestly the built in editor is worth the price alone, so much more convenient! Exited to see what comes of the scripting too, it’s even got be reading up on Lua trying to wrap my head around the basics to see what’s possible.

    Anyone here experienced with Lua?

    All of Monome's gear, eg Norns, uses Lua. There is a whole community over at Lines dedicated to teaching it.

    @ashh do you have a link for that? I don’t know Lines…. Thanks!

    Yep, here you go. :)

    Can anyone tell me if TouchOSC supports long sysex messages? (like e.g. 500 bytes in one message?)
    I've read that Sysex can only be received on root level and using lua only but no specifics listed in the non-searchable, non-pdf online manual.

  • is there any reason TouchOSC couldn't be used to make a Roland JD-Xi patch editor?

    I think it uses sysex for most of the controls rather than NRPN/cc but judging by things like the awesome looking Korg controller @branis made it should be ideal?

  • @zah said:

    @Carnbot said:

    @echoopera said:
    Does anyone know of it already comes with some presets and or example setups?

    Or do we just import from the v1 of the app?

    It does come with some presets, not loads though.

    I just bought TouchOSC and I feel like a real dumb-ass.

    I open it, and it opens to the Editor.

    But I see no way to get at the few templates or presets that should be available. The manual is no help here. :(

    Can anyone help out? Thanks!

  • @zah said:

    @Carnbot said:

    @echoopera said:
    Does anyone know of it already comes with some presets and or example setups?

    Or do we just import from the v1 of the app?

    It does come with some presets, not loads though.

    I just bought TouchOSC and I feel like a real dumb-ass.

    I open it, and it opens to the Editor.

    But I see no way to get at the few templates or presets that should be available. The manual is no help here. :(

    Can anyone help out? Thanks!

    You press the little three lined menu to the right, then press the little book icon.

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