Overbridge as iOS/iPadOS app?

Elektron Software Overbridge
#1

How many of you would actually appreciate this? I am a big iPad user and daily commute with my Digitakt and/or Digitone. AUM workflow is amazing and adding those FabFilter and Eventide effects to each track separately would really be so, so nice. Not to mention being able to control parameters of itself via MIDI tracks in the plugin.

iPads and iPhones are both powerful enough to handle this. We now do have arm support, but I guess interface would have to be translated for touch controls. Not a developer, but I guess if enough people want it, it will happen eventually. Just thinking out loud, sorry if there is a thread about this already, but I couldn’t see it.

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Overbridge for iPad 2022
#2

That’d be all I need. Plus being able to run all my VST plugins on my iPad (and not pay twice). Technically I think it’s no problem.

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#3

….what? Lol. The thought of bringing anything other than my iPad on a train is like…. Impossible in my brain :exploding_head: not even room for an iPad sometimes when I was commuting haha.

That said, yeah for use with something like AUM or even Cubasis etc it’d be awesome.

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#4

This would keep me off my computer for pretty much everything except bigger projects and bulk sample editing/management. I’d love to have OB on my iPad for the individual output stuff.

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#5

LOL, besides commuting, I also like to take these on the cliffs or to the beach, nature and write something there looking off at the sea or into the forest when traveling.

#6

Oh ok, omg I was like…. How? Haha. Like where I’m at, there’re days I didn’t even have enough room to remove my phone from my pocket lol….

#7

There is just something about the iPad and AUM workflow that makes it less like a computer and more creative - at least for me. I obviously, at home, still use all other gear the computer for further editing, mixing and mastering, but what I consider my most felt pieces - all were started somewhere away from the desk, usually involving the iPad/iPhone as an effects and recording unit.

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#8

Absolutely. I wonder, with auv3 now sharing code, and having to get OB on m1 macs and beyond already, if at least a good hunk of the work will already be done?

Knowing apple and how OB seems to require background services, probably not…but at least a tiny bit there already? :joy:

I would absolutely love this, I avoid desktops unless I’m working. I know tons of folks are like that too. And ultraportable multitrack recording is crazy difficult aside from a traditional laptop and daw. I doubt it’ll come, but it would be my absolute top request.

I’d even settle for a stand-alone that can just act as a multitrack tape and am fine syncing those up after the fact.

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#9

That’s why I am asking if anyone else is interested… I guess if enough people agree, it might be worth it for them. Sadly a lot of people are still in the camp of iPad not being reliable - which is true for most better known hosts, even the Garage Band made by Apple. But, AUM had been stable for quite a while now, I literally had zero crashes in over a year and use tons of different plugins. Another point people make for not wanting to take iPad seriously, is the supposedly consistent dropping of support for old hardware devices. Which was true before the iPad pro became USB-C compatible. Now everything just works if it is class compliant. I had zero problems with all Audio and MIDI interfaces, controllers, even the bus driven ones.

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#10

After almost 20 years with Logic in the box, I went iOS about 5 years ago. Only went to Elektron because we were lacking a proper AU sampler until recently. Now I have 5, of course, and I enjoy the hardware workflow. But iPad is anything but unreliable if you just have running what you need and don’t try to run garbage plugins. AUM with quality plugins is more reliable than either Logic or Ableton on my couple year old iMac!

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#11

Sorry to dig out the thread, but there is one more issue with iPad OS atm…

We can’t connect more than one Audio I/O!

If there was a similar solution like for iMac aka
Aggregate Device this would open iPad to be the brain of a hardware setup for seqencing and processing the audio.

I wish this dream comes true in the near future.

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#12

I’m with you on this. Perhaps with the M1 iPad they will start looking into this. Although I’d imagine it’s not big on their to-do list. In the meantime I have to use 18/20 audio interface to accommodate my i/o and be able to do all the send/return, processing etc in AUM and it’s not very convenient or mobile. Would much prefer a couple USB cables to it.

#13

If they do it through an auv3 plug-in, like it is on the desktop systems, I don’t see any problem. Auv3 supports multi out without a hitch.

#14

I’m not sure how would this fix the issue if you can’t have two devices working at once. There would need to be some kind of an ipad mode implemented so that ipad doesn’t interpret hardware as audio i/o.

Right now I got Model:Samples and an analog mono synth and I need to connect them through Komplete Audio 6. I wish I could use audio over usb and save these two inputs for something else (vocal, guitar, etc.)

#15

Unfortunately my understanding is that the way device drivers on iOS and MacOS work is very different. On iOS, you can’t even build a driver for a USB device unless it is in a generic category that Apple support (e.g. USB audio/MIDI devices, USB storage) as far as I know… so I don’t think there’s any way to write an iOS app which could “speak” Overbridge with the current restrictions :frowning:

It’s a shame as I also prefer working on iOS, and also makes me think they should have gone with multi-channel class compliant USB audio rather than Overbridge…

#16

Yes that absolutely would have been ideal. I suspect if developed for new hardware only, that may/could have been the route. It is unfortunate and certainly a bummer I think about often as I consider adding an interface that supports both iOS and many adat I/o, but…there goes the portability and I might as well just buy a MacBook at that point lol

#17

hey … sort of just flirting with integrating IOS with my elektron gear and wanted to confirm that even with the latest updates, its still impossible to isolate elektron device tracks within AUM …right? say I wanted to only apply an IOS effect in AUM on the snare via the digi…not happening ?

#18

Yup, just a stereo mix available to iOS, not separate tracks.

#19

On some of the boxes, you can choose which tracks get sent to the USB out, whilst also hosting the iOS audio. Not perfect but its better than just sending the master signal.

#20

If you don’t mind being stuck at the desk, you could use Overbridge on the Mac, and route its outputs to an iPad via Studiomux, or an iConnectivity interface. Messy, but you get to use all those great iOS apps.

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