Remember way back when wobble bass was all the rage? It was a heady time. Kids were getting started in synthesis with their very first iOS synth apps, Skrillex was a darling of all the awards shows, EDM was being heralded as the 2nd coming of Electronica, nothing like the late 90’s bubble-burst known as “Electronica.” Ah yes, I can remember it like it was yesterday. It was… yesterday, actually. Well, anyways, people still kind of like their wobble bass and iOS apps so why not give them a dose of neo-retro with a Animoog tutorial, mixed with a bit of wobbly-bassyness for good measure:
Korg is back in the iPad app space again with an “all-in-one” box offering called “Gadget.” With a wide variety of percussion and instrument synthesizers coupled with a fairly robust sequencing engine Gadget eschews the in-app purchasing model in favor of giving you an entire mini-DAW workspace right out of the gate. Gadget is optimized for use with the iPad Air and newest Mini models. Check out the full hands-on with the guys from Sonic Touch in the video below.
Like a lot of musicians today, you probably have an iPad filled with really cool apps in and of themselves, but struggle to find a way to bring them together into your recording workflow. You realize, for example, that Animoog sounds fantastic, but without a way to integrate it with your other iPad apps it’s on its own little island. Thankfully it appears that that is all changing with the introduction of AUDIOBUS.
Delivering the promised land of iOS app integration is no small feat but early reviews are showing that we may just have a winner. The app works by routing your individual apps as input and output busses to and from eachother. So you can, for instance, load up a drum machine like iELectribe and while you have that beat going, open up a synth app and compose a line and then bring them all together in a recording app like Multitrack DAW for a fully multitrack recordable session. You can then export those output busses to a mangler tool like Loop Twister or GlitchBreaks and then resend them back. Same goes for FX modules (finally, a practical way to make use of iKaossilator!)
This app has just became available as of Dec, 2012 but is already supported but many of the most popular apps on the AppStore. Time will tell, but it’s virtually certain that all of your favorite app developers will come aboard and issue updates to allow compatibility with AUDIOBUS.
With iOS7 comes huge promise for the future of professional audio integration within iOS itself, as well as integrating with external pro studio setups. For the latter we have a major game changer in the release of the iConnect MIDI interface featuring realtime midi messaging and audio pasthrough between your desktop DAW software and your iOS music making app of your choice. What does this mean? It means you can essentially turn all of those beautiful sounding synths, drum machines and audio tools within your iPad or iPhone into real-time instruments you can play and record midi events to from your existing desktop sequencer setup. This is a brilliant merger between the charm and creativity found in oldschool external midi setups, with the accessibility and variety found in modern virtual instruments.
Check out a fantastic discussion and demonstration of the power in this humbly priced device from SonicState. Skip to 12:40 to see the magic happening:
In this video we take a look at midi routing between Cubasis and outside apps, as well as a basic review of the different features available in Cubasis.
If you are interested in importing Cubasis sessions into Cubase 6 or Cubase 7, you will need the Cubasis importer extension. You can download it from our mirror under Software & Utilities, or go to Steinberg’s official Cubasis Session Importer page.
