Right from the start, it was pretty obvious that Audiobus was going to need a way to remote-control the apps in the connection graph. If you’re recording your noodlings on SoundPrism in Loopy, you need a way to toggle track recording or overdubbing from SoundPrism.

This is how the connection panel came to be – it’s a panel that slides out from the edge of the screen in each connected app (left, right or bottom, it’s the app dev’s choice) and gives you access to all of the apps within the current connection graph. You can tap the app icons to switch, and the controls that each app advertises are available here.

I’ll be defining a standard set of controls that apps can advertise, which will include record, play/pause, and a set of sliders and things that can be used to adjust stuff like live filter parameters.

Users’ll be able to grab the panel and push it to the side, so you’re left with just a sliver of panel that can be dragged back out the same way the iOS notification area is, with a swipe from the edge.

// Michael