third party instruments, samples, effect for GB ios

mollybloom

Hey All,

Sorry if this question has been posted a gazillion times: i just purchased an ipad air with garageband and I am really having fun working with it. However, the number and type of instruments/samples/effects are only so many - is there any way to add more of these things to Garageband? Or is it hermetically sealed against any third party stuff?

Best

Jens

Tickletiger

Hi Jens
The really good news is there are two ways of getting 3rd party apps
In the GB instrument selection menu select inter app audio, many third party instruments and effects can be selected here
Since you are on the Audiobus forum, I assume you have AB, if not, get it!
If you open AB, and select GB to go in the output slot, you can chain any instrument and effect into the slots for input and effect, when you into GB, open an audio recorder in the instrument selection menu, to be able to record into GB.
The possibilities are endless, and I suggest you look at the app sales which are ending soon

fjcblanco

Maybe this could help you:

http://www.askaudiomag.com/articles/adding-free-sound-effects-to-garageband-for-ios

mollybloom

Hey Tickletiger,

Thanks so much for the comment! I do not have AB - I honestly just wrote my question here since it seems to be one of the main hubs for audio production via Ipad May I bother you a bit more and ask for a description of what AB exactly does? Can i keep the very intuitive interface from GB when adding third party stuff? And since I am totally new to ipad: App sales? Is it seasonal? Sorry for being such a f***** noob :-)

@ fjcblanco: thanks a lot, i ll check that out!

kgmessier

@mollybloom said:

May I bother you a bit more and ask for a description of what AB exactly does? Can i keep the very intuitive interface from GB when adding third party stuff?

Start with the description on the main page:

http://audiob.us

mollybloom

Oh, that looks exactly like what I need! Just one question (which doesnt quite get answered in the video): if i want to add third party effects to something recorded with garageband, can i route it like "GB - effect - GB" or how would that work?

Thanks so much for the already invaluable advice!

fjcblanco

Well, if you record something with GB, you have an audio file, so yo can import it as Audio Track, so you can, in theory, do whatever GB can do.

I you're thinking about use GB a lot, I think apps like Audiobus and Audioshare are a must. Keep in mind that GB only works with AB on the Output slot.

mollybloom

Oki doki, that cleared that up. And i just bought AB and somewhat figured out how it works - that is one (extremely) handy program, pretty blown away by how it just opens GB up :-)

Will

Go buy all of the Kymatica apps.

You may have already realized that you can't record out of GB via Audiobus. But you can copy audio tracks out. Then, load them into AudioShare (via pasting) and use that as the source (AB Input Slot)->into whatever effects app you like (AB Effects/Filter Slot)->GarageBand (AB Output slot).

Kymatica's Audioshare is pretty much a must-have at this point. And you'll be blown away by Aufx:Dub and Aufx:space if you're into time based effects.

Lots of different guitar effects apps, all pretty damn good. JamUp is on sale right now. Flying Haggis has considerably fewer features but is incredibly great.

For 'natural' instruments, start with the venerable Thumbjam. TJ is one of those apps you use to show off how amazing your iPad is.

For even broader library of traditional instruments, you might checkout BS-16i if you don't mind doing a little leg work or SampleTank if you just wanna pay the man. Note that TJ has many free more sounds available to it than are initially downloaded with the app. You find links within the app. Sampletank is more of a 'keep buying my In App Purchases' sort of affair. The sounds are high quality and the app is clean. It totally lacks TJ's amazing playability though.

For synths and/or weird shit generators, well, jeez, impossible to even say there are so many good ones.

JohnnyGoodyear

@mollybloom If there were Ten Commandments in the book of what you're looking for this would be about most of them...

@syrupcore said:

Go buy all of the Kymatica apps.

You may have already realized that you can't record out of GB via Audiobus. But you can copy audio tracks out. Then, load them into AudioShare (via pasting) and use that as the source (AB Input Slot)->into whatever effects app you like (AB Effects/Filter Slot)->GarageBand (AB Output slot).

Kymatica's Audioshare is pretty much a must-have at this point. And you'll be blown away by Aufx:Dub and Aufx:space if you're into time based effects.

Lots of different guitar effects apps, all pretty damn good. JamUp is on sale right now. Flying Haggis has considerably fewer features but is incredibly great.

For 'natural' instruments, start with the venerable Thumbjam. TJ is one of those apps you use to show off how amazing your iPad is.

For even broader library of traditional instruments, you might checkout BS-16i if you don't mind doing a little leg work or SampleTank if you just wanna pay the man. Note that TJ has many free more sounds available to it than are initially downloaded with the app. You find links within the app. Sampletank is more of a 'keep buying my In App Purchases' sort of affair. The sounds are high quality and the app is clean. It totally lacks TJ's amazing playability though.

For synths and/or weird shit generators, well, jeez, impossible to even say there are so many good ones.

Will

On second thought, for synths, if animoog and/or Thor are stil on sale I'd consider starting there. Sale prices are basically highway robbery (where you are robbing them and you still get the girl at the end of the movie).

mollybloom

Thanks so much for the advice! After having played around with AB for a couple of days i have a couple of questions:

1) Inter-app seems to be able to do some of the same things too, right? However, sometimes GB inter-app cannot find the app ("the inter-app audio app you have selected is not available at this time"); is this just a glitch or am doing something wrong?

2) I still quite havent figured out how to make AB work everytime; sometimes, the third party instrument i set in the input slot don´t make any sound in GB - again, glitch or me being an idiot?

Thanks a lot!

funjunkie27

@mollyblloom - AB uses IAA at the core, so there are definitely similarities, however AB provides a floating control panel,nstate savings, and more routing options than IAA.

In regards to GB, what instrument do you have selected? You should be set to mic.

Tritonman2

go to settings for your ipad and then under general hit the privacy button , under the privacy tab will be a feature to turn the mic on and off for your various apps, just make sure the app in question has it's mic setting turned to on.

mollybloom

Ok, so it was me who was an idiot - the microphone thing solved it nicely Now just ONE last question (who am i kidding, hahaha): Is there a way to synchronize a (step) sequence from a third party program that is linked to GB via AB so that it matches the time stamps in GB? If I for instance want to record a bass-sequence from Thor synth in GB unto a beat, is there a way to make it record it so it is in synch with the beat? I tried matching up the metronomes in the two programmes, but I still seem to have to rely on starting the sequence/pressing record at the exact moment for them to match, and it would be so much easier (and a lot more exact) if they could match it up automatically.

thankthankthanks again = )

Will

unfortunately, not. If the tempos are the same, you can line it up manually once in garageband but skootching the audiotrack forward or backward.