Getting Started With Audiobus for iOS

iOS musicians stand up. So you want to get audio from one iOS app to another? Audiobus is the app you should have already installed. Here's a quick getting started guide for setting up Audiobus.  

If you’re an iOS musician and you’re starting to take your portable flat computer seriously as an instrument, Audiobus is an absolute must. The premier way to get audio piped and patched from one app to another just keeps getting better and more reliable with every iteration. If you’re using an app like Bias FX and want to record your processed guitar into Auria, for example, you’ll want to utilize Audiobus to make the connection happen. Here’s how to get started down the road to making your iOS apps finally ‘talk’ to each other! 

Open Audiobus and Choose Your Source App 

Once you run Audiobus and give it permission to utilize your iOS device’s microphone/audio settings, you’ll see a simple signal chain of Input, Effects, and Output. Tap the ‘plus sign’ above the word input and you will be able to choose what app will be the source of your sound. In this case, I’m going to use GeoShred to generate some clean guitar sounds. In GeoShred, I’ll disable any effects, because I’m going to route GeoShred to another app in order to utilize the effect engine there.

Open Audiobus

  

First Stop, Effects! 

In between the input and the output you are able to choose an effect processor. Actually, if you purchase the ‘multi routing’ feature, you can insert a whole lot more in between input and output. For this case, though, I’m going to stick to a single app. I’ll tell Audiobus that I want GeoShred to go directly to Bias FX. I’ll then tap on the app to launch it and pick a preset that I think will sound good with GeoShred. Then, I’ll go BACK to GeoShred and play a little to see if I like what I hear.

Choose an Input

 

Where To Go Next? 

Finally, I’m going to send my processed GeoShred guitar to a DAW. I’ll choose Auria. After launching Auria, Audiobus will make all the necessary connections and route my guitar tone into a track in Auria. That’s it, I’m done! It’s there! Just like a DAW on my computer, Auria is now using GeoShred just like a virtual instrument, and utilizing Bias FX just like an AU plugin. I can record the processed guitar to a track and work with it as I like.

Choose an Effect

  

But That’s Not All… 

One of the coolest features about Audiobus is how it can give you the controls you need from just about any app. From Auria, I can swipe in from the upper right and see a little menu pop out that allows me to ‘jump’ back to GeoShred or Bias FX and make any necessary adjustments. No need to use the iOS task switcher, I can go directly to where I need to go using this menu.

I can also be in GeoShred, swipe in from the upper right, and trigger recording in Auria directly from this menu. This is incredibly helpful, as I have both recording and playback available from this menu. It saves me the time of trying to make super fast ‘app jumps’ in order to start my backing tracks for recording.

Inter-app control

 

Remote Triggers 

Once you get Audiobus mastered, check out their remote triggering app! If you want to save all of your iPad screen real estate for your music apps, you can set up controls for your various music apps on another iOS device and control it that way! Using Bluetooth LE, you can do so with minimal power usage and latency. It’s a brave new world for iOS music creators.

Web: https://audiob.us

 

Matt Vanacoro is one of New York's premier musicans. Matt has collaborated as a keyboardist in studio and on stage with artists such as Jordan Rudess (Dream Theater), Mark Wood (Trans-Siberian Orchestra), Mark Rivera (Billy Joel Band), Aaron Carter, Amy Regan, Jay Azzolina, Marcus Ratzenboeck (Tantric), KeKe Palmer, C-Note, Jordan Knig... Read More

Discussion

Lurch
I have nothing but good to say about Audiobus. They created the ability to hook up different apps and make iOS music truly useful. But.......... AUM is a new app that does much more than Audiobus and is a real game changer.

Want to join the discussion?

Create an account or login to get started!