FLASHFWD

Audiobus could drive mobile music recording in a new direction

By Kira Grunenberg

When studying any kind of music tech or audio-focused major in college, it is crucial to have an unwavering understanding of how sound gets from the microphone to the tape deck and to understand the mechanics in between those points before one dives into the modern digital tools of the present.

A new app launched today, called Audiobus, created via a collaboration of independent software development company, A Tasty Pixel and Audanika, a company of digital instrument inventors, touches on these fundamental lessons. The app further supports the idea that older tech and basics are important, despite the relatively young existence of the music app market. 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.

A functional, tool based app, the appropriately named Audiobus similarly connects other music tool apps for simultaneous use in mobile recording on iOS devices. Summed up on their homepage, the app lets you, “Send audio from [one] app, filter it through another [and] receive it in [a third.] Live.” The greatest noticeable advantage to Audiobus’s concept, is the widened, cumulative pool of features that will become available to users from every individual app they connect.

Initially, Apple only permits about 100 individuals to beta-test apps working toward official release. Therefore, although anticipated and somewhat buzzed among industry folk for many months, Audiobus’s slots were set aside for developers, since the overall potential and use of the app is affected by how many others are on board with Audiobus’s software.

Explained well on the Audiobus Tumblr account, Audiobus is unlike, and drastically more intricate than, other API, because there is so much app combination potential:

Let’s compare it to the SoundCloud API for example. Any app that supports the SoundCloud API will have the ability to upload its audio output to SoundCloud. It can also receive streaming audio from SoundCloud and deal with the meta information that every SoundCloud track has.Every app that supports it interacts with the SoundCloud servers. Audiobus on the other hand makes apps interact with each other. The amount of complexity added by this is enormous. That apps can be arranged in a variety of ways, and perform a variety of roles – inputs, effects and outputs – within the Audiobus connection graph complicates matters even further. Another level of complexity is added by the fact that audio must be low-latency and in sync with other streams, or musicians will complain — and rightfully so. At the same time, audio recorded from the system has to be flawless and glitch-free, because users won’t accept artefacts in the final renderings of their recordings.

An older Tumblr update from September 3 saw that 250 developers had already signed up to work with Audiobus’s software development kit and more have been requesting to sync as time goes on. Apps that are in full, functional use with Audiobus now, are listed on the main website and separated into categories for “Input,” “Effects” and “Output” based function. Currently the list is far lower than 250, at only 12 but many demo videos have already surfaced, showcasing ambitious musicians using Audiobus as is and the results have excited many a DIY individual. A few of the apps listed include:

The amount of care and meticulous integration time given to every developer who wants to be part of Audiobus, means that the number of usable apps might only rise slowly for now. However, support from both Audiobus and the integrated app developers are being pushed as a valued priority and consumer feedback is encouraged; either through community forum discussion or even direct contact with the company. The Audiobus team is relying on a more long-term product appreciation, indicating increased app power over time and isn’t looking to get initial attention with a large collaborative list before their cohorts are ready. When Audiobus starts to gain momentum, mobile recording could see a serious boom in both frequency and quality thereof.

Audiobus is available for $9.99 in the iTunes Store.

Below is one of the various user demos of Audiobus.

EDIT, 12/10/12, 8:31PM EST: This article originally stated that Audiobus was a sole creation of the independent software development company, A Tasty Pixel and should have mentioned the digital instrument developer Audanika, which is a co-creator to Audiobus and has been edited to reflect such.

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

Comments

comments

Related Posts