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looks right, maybe your channels are wrong in the IO plugin? they move around when you build the aggregate differently. based on your above AMS screen it looks like you want output 3/4 and input 4/5. you know you got it right when you hit ping and get a value.
I can't be sure, but I think it worked briefly with this last change. Then it stopped working and I couldn't get it to work again. Something in this chain isn't ready for prime-time. Modstep is the easiest to delete and reinstall. If that doesn't give me reliability, I think I'll abandon this pursuit. Might reinstall Studiomux Server too. Thanks for trying to troubleshoot this with me.
Reinstalled Modstep fresh, reinstalled Studiomux server fresh. Restarted desktop and hard reset on iPad. Didn't make any difference. It's baffling that it worked for you @wellingtonCres but not on my system, but I can't think of anything else that I haven't tried. Maybe a future update to Modstep, LPX, the OSX aggregate system, or the Studiomux server, etc. might fix the problems, but if I can't get it working with Modstep or get any tech support from the Modstep/Studiomux folks, then I'm definitely not going to bother with buying the Studiomux app to try.
It's not vital for me, but it would have been nice to be able to use the fx I have on my iPad, within the LPX environment as external fx, but it doesn't appear that it's reliably possible at present. After all the different configurations and attempts, I think I only got it to work for about 10 secs tops.
works just fine (ish) with the studiomux app, so im laying the blame on modstep... cmon apple, help us out here
In your test using Modstep with LPX instead of Studiomux... which fx were you using? I tried 3 or 4 different ones, both AU and IAA with no luck. But, maybe the particular fx used make a difference?
just tried a bunch of different ones, no different. modstep cuts in and out, mostly out
Hi Skip - I don't have Logic, but this example should be conceptually the same, easy, and uses all free stuff. My only concern with your scenario - I can't quite glean your audio input/output setup.
I'm going to show this with Hosting Au, as it's only about a 600kb download, and is free.
Connect iPad to USB port of Mac (or powered hub directly connected to Mac via official Lightning-to-USB adapter)
Open Audio Midi Setup, Enable the iPad. (**The Inter Device Audio Mode (iDAM) that you enable in AMS is a 2 in/2 out 48khz, 24 bit USB Audio 2.0 isochronous pipe. So it can send and receive audio.
Open Hosting Au, and then Select the iPad on the 1st input Slot of the Ext-in/Track D bus.
Launch an app on the iPad like Launchpad - play a clip, you should hear it from whatever your Output Device is, which set via the last bus slot on the Master Channel in Hosting Au.This is the equivalent of having Audio-in to the DAW, But it has some limitations regarding your request, so I'll use Studiomux.
Keep the Launchpad clip playing, open Studiomux, add Launchpad to the first IAA Input Channel
Now on IAA input Channel 2, load up an FX App, in my case Apefilter, then tap the top of the Channel Strip, and set Channel 2, to Listen to Channel 1 (and 2).
Now to complete your routing concept, go back to Hosting Au, and Load a VST or Au in the second Slot of the Ext-in/Track D bus (A built in Apple one, Desktop Au etc). That should do it. Here's a screen shot:
So in my example you can have Audio bidirectionally processed via multiple apps and channels (on iPad or Mac) between the Mac/iPad. This is actually one of my main workflows.
Some troubleshooting stuff:
After you've enabled the iPad 9 (IDAM as they call it), the connection can be auto-severed by Quicktime, tethering, and Photo import. Other than those, it follows normal USB Audio 2.0 isochronous transfer protocols. Up to 80% of the USB Bandwidth is dedicated to the Audio Transfer with USB 2.0 (**regular USB 2.0, not Audio here), if you happen to have the 12.9 iPad Pro it uses USB 3.0, which allocates up to 90% of its bandwidth to the isochronous pipe). In other words, normal interrupts like file transfers and the like won't affect the integrity of the connection. Like I mentioned above, I can't figure out what your audio scenario is, but given that you've got some odd poor-quality audio coming over, my guess would be that the issue is somewhere in the input/output schema. Hope this helps!
seems to me that idam is 2 in and 0 out and 44.1k
edit: im still on el cap, did this get an upgrade for sierra??
you need studiomux to send audio to the ipad, and to bridge MIDI
Ahhh... this may be the difference in why your setup works with Modstep and mine doesn't. I'm running the latest version of Sierra.
This is an excerpt from the WWDC intro of iDAM that provides most the details:https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2015/507/
ok so does it report as 2 in 2 out and 48k in AMS for anyone?
and does this actually create a coreaudio routable ports on both ios and osx?
this seems to just send ios system audio mix over to osx system audio...
Regarding channels. It's 2 channel, L/R. If Mono it plays out both Channels, but records only 1. The following is from the USB 2.0 Audio standard on isochronous audio. In an isochronous transfer, the notion of Channels is replaced by Audio Streams, as the channelizing is done at the HAL (Hardware abstraction layer) of the endpoints (Mac/iOS). As the doc. notes there is also audio conversion taking place. In the Mac all audio is converted to LPCM 32 bit floating point. Also to note that Audio conversion often takes place twice, as the audio is converted on its way into the Kernel, and then again when its converted back to its endpoint's format. So while you can have multiple channels on either side of the isochronous connection, they are, as noted below, interleaved to a single endpoint.
@Ocsprey although you kind of lost me
I think you're definitely onto something with your suggestion of using Hosting AU. I was able to route my iPad running Modstep into Hosting AU and output. Hosting AU also shows Studiomux Generator as a possible instrument, and it ALSO shows Studiomux Effects as a possible effect.
What I'd like to be able to do is either create an audio track in Logic Pro X or import an audio file into a Logic track. Then, route that audio externally to use my many iPad effects, then back into Logic Pro X with the effect added.
As you can see from this thread, I haven't had much luck using Modstep and Studiomux Server only. But, with what you've suggested, it should be possible to route the audio out of LPX and into Hosting AU, apply Studiomux effects hosted in Modstep, then route the output back into Logic Pro X. Or, maybe not. My brain is scrambled a bit with all the different configurations I've tried, but I think what I'd like to do, ie. use my iPad as an external fx processor for Logic Pro X, etc. might be possible. Possibly utilizing Soundflower in the config?
Thanks for Hosting AU suggestion!
Sure Skip - Always enjoy your posts. I spent much head-scratching time with audio routing. Once you come back to it, it'll probably clear up for you, that happens with me anyway. It's mostly just about where you want to sum and channelize etc. As I said way up there - Loopback is the way to go - its devices show up in AMS - if you create just a default Loopback device, it functions as a Virtual-thru - this allows you to monitor audio anywhere in the chain, or record particular aspects of it, while streaming it. For an extra 10 bucks or something you get SoundSource, which is like LineIn, but more advanced. I did have SoundFlower working before I switched to Loopback - but because its unsupported, and has effectively been purchased/custodianship transferred, to Loopback, I ultimately shelled out for it. For me it was worth it so I could get low latency audio from iPad and PC into my Mac in ways like you describe - so I get all that extra processing power, and offloading all the files and whatnot to a shared drive. I think Core Audio and MIDI are quite brilliant, but it took a long while to figure out the Where/When/Why of documentation and protocols - which is ongoing!
@Ocsprey I kind of got the Hosting AU to sort of work, but the effects I had loaded in Modstep were coming out very distorted and mangled. There's also AU Netsend/receive that's supported in Logic Pro X and Hosting AU, but I couldn't ever get it connected.
Loopback is $99. A bit pricey for basically a supported version of Soundflower. I wonder how Dante Via compares at half the price?
Is it safe to assume that if I couldn't get this working using only Audio Midi Setup, with Studiomux Server and Modstep... that I likely wouldn't be able to get it to work with the Studiomux app either? $10 appears to be the least expensive option at this point... unless I could find a way to get Hosting AU or Modstep to work.
buy studiomux and you could be doing this 1 min later
I know... that's what you've said. But, you've also said that it "kind of works", etc. or something like that. You also got it briefly working with Modstep, when I've failed, but you're also not running Sierra and I am.
It's not a huge deal and I have no problem just buying Studiomux if it's just going to work with minimal headache, but if it doesn't... I don't want to have to ask for a refund. I've been teetering on the line of refund abuse in the last couple of months, so I'm trying to be more thoughtful about my purchases and do a little research before I plunge into anything new.
Via is good, but doesn't support iPad or wireless, it also has a 44.1khz limitation, unless you're working with Dante hardware. It's also 60 bucks per device, and you need the DVS too if you're going pc to mac. I will say tho it does work well routing audio pc <--< mac. It's probably the most widely implemented Ethernet audio protocol right now, but I opted not to go with it as the hardware is too proprietary and costly.
My needs are fairly low end at this point. Will likely take a chance on studiomux first, but I don't have high hopes since the recently updated Modstep doesn't work for me. I'd guess that since it doesn't work, studiomux wouldn't either.
So, for low cost it looks like it's either try studiomux or musicIO.
Thanks!
Well... major face palm. I've finally got this working with Modstep. Somewhat reliably, but also kind of flakey as others have said.
I was making one little mistake over and over again. Should've seen it earlier because I'd seen it in one of the first tutorial/demo videos I'd watched by our own esteemed colleague "The Audio Dabbler" extraordinaire @gmslayton
He did a video for Audiomux and I was following the same directions, but using Modstep instead.
The mistake is right there in my screen shots I posted too. Doh!!!
What I was doing wrong was putting my AU and/or IAA effects and/or instruments in my first track in Modstep as was instructed a few times in this thread. But, this is false. You need track one to receive from using the studiomux server. I rewatched the original video I'd started with about 4 days ago, and there it was.. any track but 1.
I just wanted to post this for anyone else who have tried to do what I've been trying to do, and run into the same problems.
It's still kinda flaky, but but it definitely works. I managed to create an instrument track in Logic Pro X that was fed by an instrument on track 2 of Modstep, then used a send to record it to an LPX audio track on a separate bus. Then, created another LPX audio track and recorded both the instrument fed by Modstep while ALSO adding another AU effect on track 3 of Modstep.
Also, I created a third audio track in LPX, and imported another audio track into it, then used an IAA and AU effect loaded into track 4 of Modstep to filter my LPX audio track.
This is pretty much all I wanted to be able to do in the first place. Yayyyyyy!!!!!
Thanks to all who helped me with this.
Here's Audio Dabbler's video I watched that revealed the simple error I was making: