Positive Grid BIAS FX (IOS)

Started by mbenigni, April 14, 2015, 07:47:02 AM

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Elantric

QuoteHave worked out some of the Midi implementation. Still trying to work out how to assign Control changes to an effect parameter. For example, CC#7 to Volume pedal and CC#11 to Wha pedal.

Positive Grid Hi Victor, that's coming in 1.0.1, should be out in a few days
https://www.facebook.com/positivegrid/timeline

Elantric



Get BIAS FX on the App Store: http://apple.co/1DOmmVx

There are already hundreds of pedalboard configurations available on ToneCloud for you to own. We are currently working with professional artists, producers, and engineers from all over the world to create a massive, ever-growing library of extraordinary virtual pedalboards and rigs for BIAS FX.





Building a live metal preset from scratch in Positive Grid BIAS FX for iPad. (I started from nothing) First a short time lapse to show exactly how I tested gear, created, adjusted and slaved the rig to MIDI. Then you'll hear all different sounds I got and finally the preset in a mix!

mbenigni

I read enough here to convince me to fork over the $30:

http://www.positivegrid.com/2015/04/all-you-need-to-know-about-bias-fx/

Love the idea of IAA modules that can be placed anywhere in the FX chain.  Once they get MIDI learn working for continuous stuff, e.g. level controls, this will be gold.

The only real unknowns at this point are latency and stability.  I know Positive Grid stuff can sound great.

whippinpost91850

Please report your findings, when you get a chance

Elantric

#29
QuoteI read enough here to convince me to fork over the $30:

Same here ;)

I suspect I need to slow down and pray for an updated  "BIAS FX"  Owners manual
http://help.positivegrid.com/hc/en-us/categories/200390055-BIAS-FX-iPad


I'm using an iPad AIR 128GB

I launch BIAS FX , and anytime I want edit an Amp, it launches my prior purchased "BIAS" , then after I make my Amp edits in Bias,  the app  wants to go to Jamup Pro XT ( not Bias FX)
http://help.positivegrid.com/hc/en-us/articles/204942805-BIAS-Amp-Integration

BIAS Amp Integration
BIAS FX is fully integrated with BIAS AMP (sold separately), all 12 included amp models can be opened into BIAS AMP, tweaked and import back to BIAS FX.

When in amp's control panel, you'll see a BIAS icon roll in from right side of screen, tap on the small tube icon and you can send current amp into BIAS amp to do more detail tuning like changing preamp tube or adjust compression in transformer and so on , after adjustment, you can click on BIAS FX icon on top bar in BIAS Amp , it'll send this adjusted amp back to BIAS FX.

You can also delete your custom amp in BIAS FX by tapping on the garbage icon under the small tube icon , it will delete the amp from your amp list .

Note: You are not allowed to delete default amps.

Note: if you are JamUp user, by default it will show JamUp icon on BIAS AMP upper bar, press and hold JamUp icon to show BIAS FX option, then you can select BIAS FX as your default multi-effects app. We are working to improve the UX to make it more obvious for BIAS FX users.



  ^^ Too bad that does not work! ^^

If you already own other Positive Grid IOS Apps and they are currently installed on your iPad, so far at this hour BIAS FX is a buggy mess IMHO.

Hang on to your money until they sort out the bugs

mbenigni

Quoteyou can select BIAS FX as your default multi-effects app

If that's not actually working, then I'll probably just uninstall JamUp temporarily, for purposes of testing Bias FX "as intended".  Until they get these details sorted out, anyway.

I'm running an iPad Air 128G as well.  Seems like 5 minutes ago it was latest and greatest; already I'm wondering whether it will keep up.   ::)

Elantric

#31
QuoteIf that's not actually working, then I'll probably just uninstall JamUp temporarily, for purposes of testing Bias FX "as intended".  Until they get these details sorted out, anyway.

Its a shame they could not offer a "Jamup Pro Deluxe" - with the whole arsenal of the things I use in Jamup Pro XT: Sampler, 8-Track, Jam - and included all the updates of BIAS, BIAS FX


I have clocked far more hours using iPad +iRig Pro and Jamup Pro / Bias - specifically using the Jamup Pro XT's Sampler, 8-Track, Jam features for learning new songs. Being forced to uninstall  Jamup Pro ( with the need to re-authorize all my prior purchases after a  Jamup Pro reinstall), just to try BIAS FX seems very clunky!

mbenigni

QuoteIts a shame they could not offer a "Jamup Pro Deluxe" - with the whole arsenal of the things I use in Jamup Pro XT: Sampler, 8-Track, Jam - and included all the updates of BIAS, BIAS FX

I was really hoping for a single app that incorporated effects into Bias (amps) without the need to jump in and out to fine tune the amp itself.  I understand that keeping all of those variables "exposed" during performance might not be practical or even feasible, but there has to be a more elegant solution than resorting to iOS "multitasking" and flipping to an entirely different app.  For instance, if those fine-tuning amp settings could be frozen/ unfrozen as needed without leaving Bias FX.

So now Positive Grid has three apps where I was hoping for one.  Ah well...  Still the best sounding amp sim on iOS IMO.

mbenigni

QuoteI have clocked far more hours using iPad +iRig Pro and Jamup Pro / Bias - specifically using the Jamup Pro XT's Sampler, 8-Track, Jam features for learning new songs. Being forced to uninstall  Jamup Pro ( with the need to re-authorize all my prior purchases after a  Jamup Pro reinstall), just to try BIAS FX seems very clunky!

Lucky for me I never get any actual work done.  ;)

Elantric

#34
Positive Grid BIAS FX (IOS) User Manual (PDF)

see attached

I created this from the web site  - for "offline"' reading
http://help.positivegrid.com/hc/en-us/categories/200390055-BIAS-FX-iPad

Elantric

I got to play with Bias FX - impressed. The included presets supply a good indication of BIAS FX capabilities. Great sound. Fast patch changes. I'm happy and between this app and Auria DAW. The iPad is a very professional tool.

mbenigni

#36
Quote from: Elantric on May 01, 2015, 06:53:52 AM
I got to play with Bias FX - impressed.

Me too, albeit very briefly.  First impressions:

- Sounds great, but pretty much just as I recall Bias and JamUp sounding great.  I'd have to do some pretty critical A/B listening to determine whether there's an actual improvement to justify the new expense, and my having lost all of the IAP I paid for in JamUp.

- Tone out of the box is what I've described before as "fatter and phasier" than the KPA's very transparent tone, but most of this is probably down to the way the presets are set up.  Eliminating effects and tweaking tonestack gets me back into "real amp" land.  Again, all pretty much as I recall from JamUp.

- Selection of amps and effects looks a little thin at first glance, especially after being used to JamUp with tons of IAP.  $30 to basically lose some ground here.  :(

- MIDI learn is awesome.  Continuous pedal control is a must, and I look forward to its introduction in v1.0.1.  But I'm already annoyed by the arbitrary requirement that PC's be used for patch change and CC's be used for everything else.  My best controller (MIDI Moose) is PC only, and I can't see any reason MIDI learn shouldn't be able to recognize PC's for any onscreen control.  Same problem, different year, basically.  :(  MIDI Solutions Event Processor will address, but its another box, another cable... the kind of thing I'm extra sensitive about with an iPad solution, where convenience is so much a part of the value proposition.

- Latency is tricky.  It was way too slow when I first started the app, then I engaged ultra-low latency and it was fine.  Later when audio became a little less stable (see below) I turned ultra-low off again, and latency remained fine, but audio remained unstable.  Not convinced that switch is working as intended.

- Reverbs and distortion pedals - though I wish there were more - sound SO MUCH NICER than the KPA's IMO.  This is really an embarrassment to the KPA IMO: that after three years there still isn't a convincing spring reverb, nor a moveable reverb module, and that IMO the dirt stomps are all pretty uninspiring.  CK keeps telling us that his Tube Screamer algorithm is identical to the real TS on his desk, but I'm just not feeling it.  The only overdrive pedals that work for me in the KPA are the ones that users have baked into their own amp profiles.  (E.g. the Rigbuster stuff is amazing.)  I can't put my finger on it - maybe in part it's the psychological effect of a pretty GUI, but I find myself more inspired more quickly working with Bias FX effects than with Kemper's.  Consider cost, and that's a pretty crazy observation.

- Fender amps (although there are precious few of them included with Bias FX) sound more "Fendery" than the KPA profiles I've found.  Really hard to put my finger on this.  It's not just a matter of their having more high-end - both products can be tweaked for EQ.  There's just a bouncy "openness" - probably something to do with negative feedback or some other very technical thing I don't personally understand.  :)

- Stability, the big nasty caveat.  I've gotten accustomed to the KPA producing perfectly reliable audio output with practically zero latency.  With Bias FX, all seemed well until I threw reverb into the mix.  Immediately, my old friends Snap, Crackle, and Pop arrived to the party.  Reverting to normal latency settings did not help.  Turning on airplane mode didn't help.  Even removing the reverb didn't help.  I suspect I'd need to reboot the iPad, and run leaner patches thereafter, to get back to clean audio.  :(  What this means is you personally have to vet all of your presets for memory and CPU usage to ensure that you'd trust each of them on stage.  I guess that's just the way it goes with open-ended software on a general computing device.

- Bias Amps Integration.  We're still where we were with JamUp.  It sucked then and it sucks now.  This is a brand new product for PG, so I call it a missed opportunity.  If you open Bias from Bias FX (hate the naming convention BTW) to tweak an amp, then return to Bias FX, Bias itself doesn't really close, nor does it remain in the state you left it.  Navigating back finds you back at its launch screen again.  Weird.  Is it eating up memory?  CPU cycles?  Who knows?  It should be properly closed, because by this point its functioning is redundant with Bias FX's.  (Related bug - if I have split audio with two amps in Bias FX, then modify an amp in Bias, both amps in Bias FX are replaced with that new amp.)  In short, clunky.

- Inter-app Audio is basically a mess, but isn't it always.  The menu that pops up when you insert an IAA module includes apps I've never even installed, and configuration (e.g. deleting the broken module) thereafter gets very wonky.  This could be partly user error, since I was hacking around without having RTFM, but some things looked like straight up bugs.  More importantly, it looks like the IAA integration is for effects only, which was a big disappointment for me.  I was hoping to route softsynths into Bias FX patches, treat them with additional effects, crossfade, etc.  In fact, that was the primary reason I made the purchase.  Some things you can't know without trying; a demo version would have been very helpful here.

tldr:

Sounds wonderful, as expected.  But whether tone is sufficiently better than JamUp's as to warrant its price/ existence is indeterminate for me.  MIDI learn is great, excepting the PC/CC caveat.  I got Bias FX set up to meet my basic needs in 5 minutes; have been wrestling with the KPA for 3 years.  However, I don't know that I can trust its stability in terms of latency and clean audio, which is the one remaining reason I hesitate to sell my Kemper.

Elantric

#37
QuoteMy best controller (MIDI Moose) is PC only, and I can't see any reason MIDI learn shouldn't be able to recognize PC's for any onscreen control

Don't hold your breath while seeking a solution for this, the way the MIDI spec is setup - Patch Change Commands are not easily remapped to other duties like MIDI CC#where a value between 0-127 value is embedded.

QuoteThis is really an embarrassment to the KPA IMO: that after three years there still isn't a convincing spring reverb,

True, and Positive Grid BIAS FX's version of the '63 Fender Reverb is much closer to the sound of the "real deal" as are most of the other modeled effects in Positive Grid BIAS FX - they did a good job. I can finally create a convincing "reverb splashed" The Astronauts "Baja" Surf tone!

QuoteStability, the big nasty caveat.

I had one crash while using Positive Grid BIAS FX with an IAA feed to Noiise Flux:FX - great sounds though

I used the Roland UA-22 Duo Capture EX and latency was acceptable

mbenigni

QuotePatch Change Commands are not easily remapped to other duties like MIDI CC#where a value between 0-127 value is embedded.

Well, we can go back and forth on this one (in fact I think we have in the past LOL) but there are controls in Bias FX that are responding to CC messages without any regard for CC value - e.g. toggle buttons that I've confirmed work identically regardless of whether the leading value is 1 or 0.  These are cases where a PC message can just as easily be learned and mapped.  Basically, if I can program a simple remap for it with the Event Processor, Positive Grid should be able to do it with about three lines of code in their (otherwise impressive) MIDI learn functionality.

QuoteBIAS FX's version of the '63 Fender Reverb is much closer to the sound of the "real deal"

Yes - complex and smooth without any need to get bogged down with tweaking.  Genuinely inspiring.

Elantric

As you know i own LOTS of gear, and the only hardware I own  that will convert MIDI PC to MIDI CC is the MIDI Solution Event Processor Plus.

True this would be a valuable tool - its just extremely rare

mbenigni


Elantric


supernicd

I'm glad to see some detailed and balanced reviews here.  Mostly what I've found is people complaining about this not being released as a free upgrade to JamUp.  So thanks! 

One thing that isn't really clear to me yet is the IAA component.  Is Bias FX actually an IAA host?  Could I load up a copy of ToneStack somewhere in the chain if I wanted to use one of it's effects alongside Bias FX?  Or load up a Kymatica app if I wanted to use it for my reverb or EQ?
Strat w/ GK-3, Godin LGXT
VG-99, GR-55, GP-10
---------------------------------------------------------------

tomtheguitarguy

So the upgrade to iOS 8 is "safe" now - in reference to the iOS 8 issues that have been noted/complained about...
http://www.tomtheguitarguy.com ~ http://www.tomcatsband.com
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Elantric

#44
I launch BIAS FX, choose a demo preset , click the Inter-App Audio icon on the top right, and a pull down menu is revealed with all your other installed IAA compliant IOS apps


I played for quite while using an IAA feed to NOIISE FLUX:FX   ( as an IAA FX Insert)  with BIAS FX





https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/flux-fx-by-adrian-belew-professional/id943915646?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D4



Read BIAS FX Manual here:
http://help.positivegrid.com/hc/en-us/categories/200390055-BIAS-FX-iPad

Elantric

#45
QuoteSo the upgrade to iOS 8 is "safe" now - in reference to the iOS 8 issues that have been noted/complained about...

I am holding off upgrading IOS to anything higher than IOS 8.1.3 ( no interest in Apple Watch for the time being) 

I'm currently using IOS 8.1.3 (12B466) on my December 2013 iPad Air 128GB - and all my IOS music apps are now  working.

If you want to run BIAS FX with the BIAS FX Stereo Reverb (as that eats the most CPU cycles) on an iPad 2 or original iPad   - its time for a newer generation iPad   

https://www.facebook.com/groups/PositiveGridBiasFxUsers/




Elantric

One thing I observe

If I launch BIAS FX on my iPad Air - even sitting idle, it will drain the iPad Air battery much faster than any other music app i own 

Performing a battery life test right now,  to see if I can make it through a 4 hour gig

supernicd

QuoteI launch BIAS FX, choose a demo preset , click the Inter-App Audio icon on the top right, and a pull down menu is revealed with all your other installed IAA compliant IOS apps

That is pretty cool.  Looks like you're actually able to move it around in the FX chain as well?  I don't suppose you can actually store it in your preset and have it recall the settings in the hosted app, can you?  That seems like it would be asking a lot...

Thanks for the manual link, I will peruse that.

QuoteSo the upgrade to iOS 8 is "safe" now - in reference to the iOS 8 issues that have been noted/complained about...

That is such a difficult question to answer unless you know someone who uses the exact same apps as you and has upgraded.  I took the plunge a while back because I was enticed by Korg Module.  I think a large majority of apps have updated for iOS 8 - definitely the big players have - but there's always a chance there's some app that's near and dear to you that hasn't and it could be a casualty of the upgrade.   I guess the safest thing is to go buy the latest greatest iPad and then you can keep one with iOS 7 just in case.  An expensive strategy, though.  iOS 9 will be out in a few months, and we can wonder all over again, huh? :)
Strat w/ GK-3, Godin LGXT
VG-99, GR-55, GP-10
---------------------------------------------------------------

mbenigni

#48
QuoteThat is pretty cool.  Looks like you're actually able to move it around in the FX chain as well?  I don't suppose you can actually store it in your preset and have it recall the settings in the hosted app, can you?  That seems like it would be asking a lot...

The MusicAppBlog review actually mentioned this very point:  apparently when you retrieve your patch, it will recall the location of the IAA module and load the corresponding app in the background, but that other app will not automatically load the preset/settings you were using when you stored the Bias FX patch.

mbenigni

QuoteI had one crash while using Positive Grid BIAS FX with an IAA feed to Noiise Flux:FX - great sounds though

I used the Roland UA-22 Duo Capture EX and latency was acceptable

Meant to follow up on this.  Did you get any pops/hiccups in audio output?  Or are you just being very careful with CPU usage?  Speaking of which, is there a CPU usage meter anywhere on screen?  I could have sworn JamUp had one... but I've been through so many amp sims now, who knows?