The Jazz Bon Temps: Audiobus 3 launched – iconic iOS music app moves to v.3.0

As I’ve posted recently, long-standing iOS music makes have been waiting with some anticipation for the the arrival of Audiobus 3. Well, the wait is now over; Audiobus 3 arrived on the App Store this morning.
As promised by the Audiobus team, the new version has three new headline features. First, the app provides MIDI routing between compatible apps, making it easier to configure your overall arrangement of apps within a specific Audiobus project.

Audiobus 3 has arrived…. along with new MIDI and mixing features accessible via the tab buttons at the base of the main screen.

Second, Audiobus will now support Audio Unit plugins as well as Audiobus and IAA compatible apps. This is obviously an important development given that AU is now making considerable progress under iOS and, for some iOS musicians, is perhaps meaning that an app such as Audiobus might be less critical in their workflow. Adding AU support means that you can get the best of both worlds within Audiobus; it’s proven app connectivity features and access to all the new AU apps.

Audiobus now supports AU instruments and effects including, of course, multiple instances.

Third, Audiobus 3 includes an input mixer allowing you to balance volumes of all your audio sources. Again, this is a very useful addition, particularly for those using Audiobus within a performance context and running multiple apps; it makes it much easier to control the balance of their various audio outputs from a single, convenient, screen.

The AU support provides access to the instrument (or effects) AU control panel from within Audiobus itself.

The combination of these new features, alongside the inter-app audio connectivity that Audiobus already provides, plus the fact that all your project configurations will be saved for instant recall, will, of course, allow Audiobus 3 to perform a much more comprehensive role as an ‘music app hub’ than the current version. Current Audiobus users will, therefore, undoubtedly be very keen to start using the new version.
Anyway, you can download now. The app requires iOS10.2 or later, is universal, a 47MB download and is priced at UK£9.99/US$9.99. There are no IAPs to purchase; all features are included in the base price of the app. And if you don’t wish to move to the new version, Audiobus 2 is going to stay on the App Store as a separate product.

Audiobus 3 includes basic mixing features for your various audio sources.

I think ‘new product’ – as opposed to ‘free update’ – is inevitable for such a major update to Audiobus, both in terms of starting with fresh code (and only having to carry a minimum of backwards compatibility stuff into the new code?) and an income stream to support the considerable development time involved. Given what the Audiobus team have given to the iOS music making community over recent years, I don’t think we can have too many complaints about this approach.
Also launched today and eight new MIDI-based apps from Midiflow development team and that are designed specifically to make use of the new MIDI routing features within Audiobus 3. These look like very useful utility apps and I’ll post a separate news item on these later today….

There are also a new range of Midiflow app released today for use with Audiobus 3.

Of course, there are alternatives. While Audiobus was perhaps an essential app for every iOS musician for a number of years, with the advent of Audio Units in iOS9 (and the somewhat wider adoption of AUv.3 with iOS10) and the launch of AUM back in February 2016, some iOS music makers have adopted a different route to their inter-app connectivity. Indeed, given the headline features of AUM – IAA/AU/Audiobus app hosting, MIDI routing, mixer, flexible audio routing – it will make for an interesting comparison between the detailed specifications in each of these areas when I get around to doing a full review of Audiobus 3.
That will follow shortly; until then, check out the launch videos below and then hit the download button to find out more via the App Store :-)