What is Audiobus ?

Audiobus is a bridge app that allows live audio routing between apps on iOS.

For example, you can directly receive the audio from a synthesizer app directly in BeatMaker 2.

This tutorial will guide you to setup your virtual studio and work with other apps.

Prerequisites

• The Audiobus app (paid), download here, updated to the latest version. Website: http://audiob.us
  
• One or multiple Audiobus compatible apps, check the list here: http://audiob.us/apps/, updated to their latest version
• A compatible device. Recommended devices: iPad 3 / 4, iPhone 5. The device needs at least iOS 5.0 installed
• BeatMaker 2.4.3 or more recent

Before you start...

• Ensure "Keep running in background" is ON in the general BeatMaker 2 settings in the iOS Settings app. This is enabled by default but you might want to double-check.

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• We suggest to reboot your device or exit any running apps to maximize performances.
• If you have an older device, change the Audiobus latency to 512 frames. This is also required if the audio suffers from stuttering/drops. 

Connecting sender apps to BeatMaker 2

1. Launch Audiobus, on the left side, add the apps you want to use to send audio. Here we used Animoog and Sunrizer

2. On the right side, add BeatMaker 2. Tap the app icons to launch them. 

3. On the BeatMaker 2 startup panel, press NEW PROJECT

4. An audio track is automatically created for each connected app. Also, they are being monitored and armed for recording

5. To send MIDI notes to the connect apps, ensure they are configured accordingly (this might be the case by default,

check the apps documentation). Then, add an empty keyboard sampler by pressing the + INSTR. button on the

studio pop-up. Also, please ensure MIDI OUT is enabled in the settings panel (Studio popup > Gear icon > MIDI SETUP).

6. Once created, bring the keyboard sampler screen and start playing: if everything is set-up correctly, you will hear

your app audio coming through BeatMaker 2 audio tracks. 

You might need additional MIDI configuration, for example, deciding which channel the instrument will send MIDI.

To do so, press the MIDI icon on any keyboard or drum instrument to bring the MIDI Setup panel.

7. You can configure the audio tracks by pressing the AUDIO button on any audio track.

There, you can enable or disable monitoring and arming, apply input gain and setup a noise gate.

 A track needs to be armed to be recorded on the sequencer.

Remember that you can add audio effects on every audio track !

Manually create an audio track for an Audiobus app

If you want to manually add an Audiobus-enabled audio track in BeatMaker 2 follow these steps.

1. Press the + INSTR. button on the studio pop-up to bring the NEW INSTRUMENT panel

2. Select AUDIO TRACK

3. Once created, press its AUDIO button near the thumbnail

4. Select the bus associated to the app.

5. Enable monitoring, record arming, etc.

Controlling the BeatMaker 2 sequencer from another app

When switching to other app, you can still control the sequencer using the Audiobus transport buttons.

Any app connected to Audiobus will show this connection panel:

You can control:

• Backward: jump back to the first bar
• Play/Pause
• Record (on/off)

 It will exactly follow the sequencer behavior.

Controlling the BeatMaker 2 sample recorder from another app

If you are working with the instrument sample recorder tool (Keyboard sampler / Drum sampler), and switching

to an Audiobus-enabled app, you will be able to control the record button from outside BeatMaker 2.

For example, if you want to resample an app to create a new keyboard sampler preset, you can do this:

1. Create an empty keyboard sampler, and open the keyboard screen. Press SETTINGS.

2. Bring the MAPPING EDITOR and create a new EMPTY ZONE on an empty keyboard sampler preset:

3. Press the RECORD SAMPLE button. The inline sample recorder is shown:

4. Select the app, ensure MONITOR is enabled. Note that if you already have an audio track setup and monitoring

the app, you will hear the audio multiple times at once.

5. Switch to any other app, now, the Audiobus connection panel will look like this:

5. Press the REC button in the Audiobus connection panel. This will initiate the sample recoding.

NOTE: The SAMPLE text confirms you are recording a sample and not controlling the sequencer.

6. Play on the app, everythins will be recorded in a new sample.

The connection panel will look like this when you are recording:

7. Press the REC button again and get back to BeatMaker 2, from there you can preview the recorded sample, save it, or launch recording over.

8. Once you leave the sample recorder, Audiobus buttons will be recovered to controlling the BeatMaker 2 sequencer.

Send BeatMaker 2 audio to another Audiobus-enabled app

1. Open Audiobus and add BeatMaker 2 to the left sender apps

2. Press its icon to launch it

3. Connect a receiver app in Audiobus, launch it

4. The BeatMaker 2 audio output will go through Audiobus and will be received to the receiver app