Audiobus: Mixer for Music Apps

I was a user from when this app first appeared, and for the first couple of years it was fantastic …. BUT.. it’s been getting buggier and buggier since, and I can’t remember the last time I used it and it worked the way it was supposed to. Take today’s session for example, I try to load an app into the input. Fails. I have to relaunch the app. Fails. Then I have to restart the entire iPad. Then it finally launches but says it might not perform properly. I select Aurea as my output, and when I launch it, wipes clean everything from the project I was working on, all tracks disappeared! Unbelievable. Fortunately I had a back up. I finally get it recording into Auria, but I have to work on the iPad internal speakers because it won’t recognize my Bluetooth speaker, no sound comes out, ever. So do my recording, go to close the app, and it glitches out and creates a giant volume surge out of the iPad speakers, not great for my tinnitus. Way to go, beginning to end an unpleasant experience. Deleted for good this time.

I read reviews, and I read the online manual for Audiobus. My main main purpose for getting Audiobus is that I need to route AUDIO to multiple BUSses. The manual says the app makes it possible for you to do this. However, after purchasing this, the only options are to route to L/R (or Out 1/Out 2). The app is not necessary to be able to do this. What I need is an app that will route audio from my iPad to multiple busses on a DAW on my computer. Audiobus is a really a virtual mixer that allows you to route audio from a handful of audio apps to one mixer and/or to other apps. Output is limited, but it can be resolved with the purchase of a physical audio interface to connect directly to your iOS device. This, in turn, eliminates the need for the app in particular live performance settings. To be fair, the app seems like it would do great if I actually used the apps that it is compatible with... which really is quite a few. I originally gave this a 1=star rating, but decided it wasn’t a fair rating just because it doesn’t do what I needed it to do. However, the app does seem to be good at its current design. Again, a demo version would’ve been extremely helpful in determining this prior to purchase.

This app is very, very good, except for one small problem. As a voiceover user, I cannot access the mixer controls. Voiceover, which is a screen reader built into all iOS devices, tells me that the mixer tab is dimmed or grade out. This makes it impossible for me to actually access these controls, which means that as a mobile Internet broadcaster, my levels are always at the highest end of the scale and in danger of clipping. If we can get this fixed in the next Version, I would be very, very grateful. Aside from that, I’m very happy with the functionality of this up. Great work guys!