Audiobus

Developed by A Tasty Pixel and Audanika.

FINALLY! Monday December 10th iOS music starts taking a huge leap forward.

Its been a long time coming, and just about everyone making music with iOS has been eager for the Audiobus arrival. The wait ends (12-10-12) and a new era of streamlined iOS music production begins.
Am I hyping a bit? Yep. I have been not so patiently waiting for this. I might even say dreaming of this.

Audiobus is simple in concept. It certainly isn’t nearly as simple to engineer.
It allows compatible music apps to play with, through, and record each other.
Just select the app or apps Input for a synth, another as an Effects unit, and lastly the Output goes to the app doing the recording. Animated arrows will indicated an active connection. Easy. That’s it. At least that’s all we need to know. It just works.

There are not a lot of apps ready to go yet, but you can be sure the list of apps supporting Audiobus will grow fast. As it does and more are on the bus, the need for AudioCopy / Paste will equally dwindle. Sorry ACP. The SDK will eventually become public for all developers of music apps to implement this critical tool. Some highly anticipated apps like Auria, Audulus, EchoPad, Magellan and many more will be coming. Inside Audiobus is a handy list of apps currently compatible.

Using Audiobus is fast and simple. Each app connected will have a small remote controller relevant to each apps function. Each app connected will have its icon appear on the remote. For example I was playing in GlitchBreaks as the input, and sending it to Loopy HD as the output recording. I didn’t have to switch apps to record, in fact that remote I mentioned was neatly tucked away at the bottom of the screen in GlitchBreaks (on the left side in Loopy) with a record button. I hit record, and started playing out some wild glitches. Loopy captured the whole thing. Each recording easily went to an empty track perfectly in sync. Piece of cake! Of course switching apps is just a easy, there’s a little button on the remote to switch between apps very quickly. So much better than copy paste.

For more on Audiobus such as detailed instructions, information, and list of compatible apps please click HERE to visit the website.

Included in Audiobus is also a handy audio input. So you can use Audiobus to capture audio through a mic, and route it through effects and/or to an output. If you get stuck on your first day with how to work it all, there is a complete instruction manual contained within the Audiobus app.
That’s about all there is to it. Nothing could be finer. No lengthy complicated process to learn. This was made with great care to fit in to your workflow seamlessly. I’m sure unless you just stepped out of Tardis it won’t take much to sell you on Audiobus.

Must Have App Of The Year!
5 stars. Get it from iTunes App Store Monday December 10th. No looking back.

UPDATED 1-28-13

Audiobus now offers users a choice of latency settings. Now users can choose between 256 & 512 buffer settings. iPads 3&4 will default to 256, but earlier devices now default to 512.
Depending on your preferences or needs operating in 512 is likely to benefit most people conserving much needed system resources on all devices. Whatever you prefer, at least there is now an option for individuals to choose what works best for them.