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.

Tonestack Pro Big Sale

Didn't see this posted elsewhere, but it seems Tonestack Pro (AU guitar sim and effects suite) is on sale and cheaper than I recall seeing it. The "Pot o' Gold" (which includes everything? right?) is $17.99 IAP.
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/tonestack-pro-guitar-amps-fx/id1529842791

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Comments

  • Not my favorite sounding of the amp sim apps, but this is a fantastic price. For the effects collection alone…

  • I came to this topic in hopes they changed it to ios 12
    Pains my pocket that I cannot buy this awesome offer 😂

  • I came to this topic in hopes they changed it to ios 12
    Pains my pocket that I cannot buy this awesome offer 😂

  • Even if never used on guitar, agreed, it is worth it as an effect powerhouse. IMHO.

  • @Ailerom said:
    Even if never used on guitar, agreed, it is worth it as an effect powerhouse. IMHO.

    Agreed.

  • edited August 2021

    @JoyceRoadStudios said:
    Not my favorite sounding of the amp sim apps, but this is a fantastic price. For the effects collection alone…

    That's a great point. It's certainly more cost effective than the U-He Overloud effects package, correct? And easy enough to use in the FX chain underneath a Nembrini amp.... Or any instrument, really. I'm trying to remember what the price of the "pot o' gold" was in the original offering....

  • @ExAsperis99 said:
    I'm trying to remember what the price of the "pot o' gold" was in the original offering....

    When it was my favorite, before there were AUv3 options, the Motherload was $89 as I recall. And I paid to get everything. Cheaper than collecting Amplitube bundles of Star rigs.

  • Looks like the Pot-O-Gold was $19.99 and the base was $4.99, according to ABF archives, so a nice discount…

  • It’s got some very nice and unique effects. Octavers, doublers, nice reverbs and delays and the fantastic Bluefurr.
    Here’s a demo I made with the Bluefurr octaver/fuzz. There’s not too many options for octavers and ToneStack has a few good ones, with nice tracking.

  • I bought the basic app. On the fence about the pot of gold. I love Yonac and the price is fair just don’t think I actually need all these.

  • Still haven't bought the Pot 'O Gold.

    Possibly a stupid question, but how do the effects compare to MixBox CS?

  • @ocelot said:
    Still haven't bought the Pot 'O Gold.

    Possibly a stupid question, but how do the effects compare to MixBox CS?

    MixBox CS emulates classic studio rack gear... stereo devices with high fidelity audio specs.
    Guitar Amp Sims tend to offer guitar stomp box clones that know the speaker will only render mids and lows. You don't find guitar amps with tweeters as a general rule... just 10-12 inch drivers that sound best after they start to fall apart.

    So, I find the MixBox CS to be great for mastering uses and Guitar Amp sims effective for guitars and pretty poor for other uses... by design. They need to target the mids and lows and don't have parts to protect the high or even to insure a low noise floor. Several pedals attached and you usually get rumble and hum... so you buy a noise gate pedal. It's a whole market based on tones that covet many forms of distortion.

  • I think that’s an excellent question, @ocelot, since many seem to be interested in just the value in the effects…

  • @god said:
    I bought the basic app. On the fence about the pot of gold. I love Yonac and the price is fair just don’t think I actually need all these.

    Don’t need it, don’t buy it. Simple.

  • @ecou said:

    @god said:
    I bought the basic app. On the fence about the pot of gold. I love Yonac and the price is fair just don’t think I actually need all these.

    Don’t need it, don’t buy it. Simple.

    Can you have a talk with my wife, please?

  • @wim said:

    @ecou said:

    @god said:
    I bought the basic app. On the fence about the pot of gold. I love Yonac and the price is fair just don’t think I actually need all these.

    Don’t need it, don’t buy it. Simple.

    Can you have a talk with my wife, please?

    😂 😂 😂

  • @wim said:

    @ecou said:

    @god said:
    I bought the basic app. On the fence about the pot of gold. I love Yonac and the price is fair just don’t think I actually need all these.

    Don’t need it, don’t buy it. Simple.

    Can you have a talk with my wife, please?

    Sorry, I don’t speak that language.

  • Thanks @McD that makes sense. Years ago, I tended to use the bass guitar versions of modulation fx pedals on full-range instruments, since they seem to work on a wider frequency range. Or use studio rack effects.

    I often wonder about these new crop of boutique fx pedals (Cooper, Chase Bliss, Eartquaker, Red Panda) that people use with keyboards and grooveboxes. Impedance, sensitivity, etc.

  • edited August 2021

    Imagining wifes on another forum discussing the same about app addiction... :D

  • @ecou said:
    Sorry, I don’t speak that language.

    😂

  • edited August 2021

    @ocelot said:
    Still haven't bought the Pot 'O Gold.

    Possibly a stupid question, but how do the effects compare to MixBox CS?

    As @McD says, the effects collections inside guitar apps are tailored to the frequencies of guitars and basses and such use cases. It doesn’t mean you can’t use them for broader non-guitar applications, but it means you have to go further with param adjusting to get there. Of course many studios use guitar stomp boxes on the desk, for the flavor.

    MixBox is more for your rack style mixing and mastering tools for projects across all instruments, though it does feature some amps or guitar centric effects. And there are plenty of guitar centric developers who release preamps and effects meant for broader use. Oh yeah, MixBox is fantastic.

  • edited August 2021

    Thanks @JoyceRoadStudios

    Do you know if the new crop of $$$ boutique digital stompboxes use some form of impedance switching, that magically knows what type of instrument is being plugged in? And digitally adjusts the effect to match?

    From my reply to McD a couple of posts up:

    I often wonder about these new crop of boutique fx pedals (Cooper, Chase Bliss, Eartquaker, Red Panda) that people use with keyboards and grooveboxes. Impedance, sensitivity, etc.

    Hmm, or they could be like studio rack effects - full-frequency-range but with very high impedance inputs ('universal'), to handle passive Strats and Teles.

  • @ocelot said:
    Thanks @JoyceRoadStudios

    Do you know if the new crop of $$$ boutique digital stompboxes use some form of impedance switching, that magically knows what type of instrument is being plugged in? And digitally adjusts the effect to match?

    From my reply to McD a couple of posts up:

    I often wonder about these new crop of boutique fx pedals (Cooper, Chase Bliss, Eartquaker, Red Panda) that people use with keyboards and grooveboxes. Impedance, sensitivity, etc.

    Hmm, or they could be like studio rack effects - full-frequency-range but with very high impedance inputs ('universal'), to handle passive Strats and Teles.

    Do you mean digital but hardware, or do you mean software like inside iOS?

  • I was thinking about those Chass Bliss and Cooper digital hardware stompboxes.

  • edited August 2021

    @ocelot said:
    I was thinking about those Chass Bliss and Cooper digital hardware stompboxes.

    It’s a good question, I don’t know about those specific units you posted, but there are a few things worth noting about this. It is a case by case basis. Generally stompboxes expect to receive a high impedance signal from a guitar, but we are forgetting that modern amps now have fx loops, and that send is line level. Some effects loop sends can be switched between line and high impedance, and some fx loops are buffered. Some pedals sound horrible in an fx loop, either because they don’t like to receive a line level or there’s a buffering mismatch either with the pedal or with the amp. Some pedals in an fx loop can receive line level and high impedance and not bat an eye. It has to do with the effect design the the gain staging at the input point, not with some sort of futuristic sensor. Effects that aren’t stomp boxes, like rack unit effects for example, have an easier time in the amp’s effects loop as they are often designed for line level. Anyway, generally speaking pedals are meant to go in front of the amp and they take a hi-Z signal from the guitar. Some pedals have a “bass” and “guitar” input, some pedals have stereo inputs, “Low” and “High” sensitivity are generally reserved for an amp’s pre amp. But a combo input that senses and then switches between hi-Z, lo-Z, inst., line, that kind of thing is reserved for audio interfaces. Some interfaces separate inputs into “direct guitar”, “xlr with phantom” or “line”, and often using one cancels out the other. But these days there are plenty of interfaces with combo xlr/trs/ts inputs that can handle whatever. Some have toggles that require switching to indicate to them what kind you want it to be, others are automatic. So at that point a digital pedal sim inside an app doesn’t care or know what kind it’s receiving, because the interface is the middle man and has already converted the input signal to whatever it needs to be once it reaches the app. That’s one of the flexibilities of digital modeling. But the pedal in the app is still tailored to frequency curves and eq shapes of whatever instrument it’s designed for, however in the digital realm there are barely any rules.

    Some rudimentary googling brings up relevant articles. There are exceptions to everything, and it’s worth experimenting… I will assume the two stomps you posted above can handle and process lot more than just guitar signals…

    These links basically cover everything. Interesting topic…

    https://www.sweetwater.com/insync/line-level-pedals/

    https://www.sweetwater.com/insync/using-pedals-mixing/

    https://www.thegearpage.net/board/index.php?threads/amps-loop-line-level-not-good-for-pedals.818813/

  • Thanks @JoyceRoadStudios, appreciate it. I'll take a look at your links (gotta love Sweetwater's guides).
    Gain staging can be a pain sometimes. Buffered/non-buffered, impedance mismatches, sensitivity, amps/volts/watts, max i/o level in dBu, not to mention other headaches like offset and phase issues, modular-level to line-level, speaker cables vs instrument...it's good to have a basic understanding and lots of little fixer boxes just like we need lots of dongles for Apple devices. (I used to be stage hand and nowadays just want to make music) :smile:

    So at that point a digital pedal sim inside an app doesn’t care or know what kind it’s receiving, because the interface is the middle man and has already converted the input signal to whatever it needs to be once it reaches the app. That’s one of the flexibilities of digital modeling. But the pedal in the app is still tailored to frequency curves and eq shapes of whatever instrument it’s designed for, however in the digital realm there are barely any rules.

    Good point! That's why keeping everything in-the-box is so much easier. But the new crop of hardware is tempting, and I was wondering if there was some new tech. Like those Neutrik combo jacks on some audio interfaces that can automatically detect what's being plugged in.

    Thanks again!

  • @ocelot said:
    Thanks @JoyceRoadStudios, appreciate it. I'll take a look at your links (gotta love Sweetwater's guides).
    Gain staging can be a pain sometimes. Buffered/non-buffered, impedance mismatches, sensitivity, amps/volts/watts, max i/o level in dBu, not to mention other headaches like offset and phase issues, modular-level to line-level, speaker cables vs instrument...it's good to have a basic understanding and lots of little fixer boxes just like we need lots of dongles for Apple devices. (I used to be stage hand and nowadays just want to make music) :smile:

    So at that point a digital pedal sim inside an app doesn’t care or know what kind it’s receiving, because the interface is the middle man and has already converted the input signal to whatever it needs to be once it reaches the app. That’s one of the flexibilities of digital modeling. But the pedal in the app is still tailored to frequency curves and eq shapes of whatever instrument it’s designed for, however in the digital realm there are barely any rules.

    Good point! That's why keeping everything in-the-box is so much easier. But the new crop of hardware is tempting, and I was wondering if there was some new tech. Like those Neutrik combo jacks on some audio interfaces that can automatically detect what's being plugged in.

    Thanks again!

    There totally could be new tech for this! I just haven’t read about it yet. I’m still justifying to myself why vintage analog pedals and circuits are better than digital hardware pedals (they’re not, they’re just “cooler”?)

  • edited August 2021

    So what exactly is part of the pot o gold in terms of effects? Has anyone done a comparison?

  • edited August 2021

    Ack. So on the fence with this… Anybody figure out how low the audio buffer size goes? I hate that this is the only app (that I’ve seen) with uselessly relative buffer settings like “tiny” and “minuscule”. Need this iPhone SE 2020 to start pulling some weight!

    THU does 32ms and sounds gud but isn’t $18 right now. 😂

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