All Aboard Audiobus 2

By Kira Grunenberg

December 2012 was the last time the Audiobus app made a big splash on the iOS scene, when this amazing, connective tool first appeared in the iTunes App Store. Amateur and experienced musicians alike benefitted from the app, which changed mobile music creation on a fundamental but significant level. Audiobus was recently presented with the honor of Electronic Musician Editor’s Choice for 2014. Now with the release of its successor, Audiobus 2, praise for this Australian-based team stands to continue.

To give some context on Audiobus, let’s start with the app’s name, which illuminates a surprising amount about what Audiobus 2 primarily does for musicians:

“A mixing board has a type of component, referred to as a “bus,” which in the most minimal of terms, functions as a path for signals to move through. They can condense the number of signals to give simultaneous control while mixing or route audio to outside effects or devices, (among other functions) depending on the type of bus being utilized.”

That action of routing and directing signals is the chief function of Audiobus, allowing for signal path adjustments between audio apps and their respective audio routing. Audiobus 2 retains and improves that key functionality and is redesigned to have a more user-intuitive structure.

The primary enhancements offered by Audiobus 2 span three major feature additions:

• Multi-Routing
• State-Saving
• Presets

As the name might suggest, the Multi-Routing feature allows for users to have as many inter-app link-ups as their iOS device can physically handle running. This lack of confinement is the cornerstone building block to what is a highly customizable and efficient app experience, thanks to the other two enhancements.

The Presets and State-Saving features are very similar and build on one another, much like the Multi-Routing feature. For example, if a user has five apps to choose from when using Audiobus 2 and each of those five apps has the ability to be finely adjusted with proprietary, in-app sliders or knobs, the State-Saving feature is the champion to call upon here.

After adjusting specific parameters in an app, the need to re-configure settings in the future would be frustrating. That redundancy is eliminated with State-Saving, which restores those placements with a quick, single reload tap during the next use. Then, once those individual numbers are locked in on one app, Audiobus 2 Presets do the work of State-Saving on a larger scale, preserving entire inter-app connection chains rather than just the settings for single apps.

Audiobus 2′s SDK will eventually be available to any developer who wants to make their specific app compatible but, even on just the first day of public availability, over a dozen apps are already prepared to take advantage of the aforementioned State-Saving capability, showcasing the app’s programming potential.

Audiobus 2 itself is a sleek, high quality app but, what makes it stand out is not a fancy aesthetic or a bait-and-switch gimmick. The app simply addresses every possible angle of what it means to be a “highly effective support tool.” Michael Tyson, developer of Audiobus, explains it best:

“[Audiobus 2 is] an app that makes all your other apps better, more versatile, more creative…and [I] think it’s going to help people get even more out of their apps and their iOS devices.”

Audiobus 2 is $4.99 in the iTunes App Store.

Keep an eye out for the ongoing announcements of new Audiobus 2-compatible apps, sure to be appearing in droves once the SDK is more openly shared.

You can follow Audiobus on Twitter, as well as find them on Facebook.

Below are demonstrations of Audiobus 2′s Presets and Multi-Routing features in action:

Presets

Multi-Routing

*Note that the Multi-Routing functionality is accessed after a $4.99 USD in-app purchase.

Kira is an old school music nerd with a love for all things creative; always searching for music’s common ground. She graduated with an M.A. in Performing Arts Administration from New York University. Drop her a tweet @shadowmelody1.

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