Audiobus: Use your music apps together.
What is Audiobus? — Audiobus is an award-winning music app for iPhone and iPad which lets you use your other music apps together. Chain effects on your favourite synth, run the output of apps or Audio Units into an app like GarageBand or Loopy, or select a different audio interface output for each app. Route MIDI between apps — drive a synth from a MIDI sequencer, or add an arpeggiator to your MIDI keyboard — or sync with your external MIDI gear. And control your entire setup from a MIDI controller.
Download on the App StoreAudiobus is the app that makes the rest of your setup better.
Iconnectivity Audio 2+
I am looking for user experiences of people that use this product as a connection between windows pc and ipad ( pro) .. as well as audio and midi interface with external gear ( keyboards and modules in my case)...
Does this work well, or would i be better off with 2 usb audio interfaces and connect them over midi and audio?
Comments
Did you try StudioMux? I do have the iCA2+ just sitting there ... seems to be getting better results with Studiomux recently... Maybe it's me, but, ICA2+ never worked for me. Got one here with the 30 pin connector and adaptor... It can be yours for a fair price...
Yes studiomux does its job... but not in my setup, where i want audiobus to be the central backbone ... and thats on the ipad..
For me the 2+’s preamps were super noisy (and iconnectivity claimed that the noise level I was getting/measuring was normal for that device.) But ymmv depending on how much gain you need from them.
Yes, for dynamic mics it's rather humble: at 57dB gain the noisefloor is -55dB.
As (most) condensor mics require much less gain, at 40dB gain the noisefloor is -70 dB.
For comparison: a quality input stage like the Audient ID22 has a noisefloor of -85dB at 57dB gain setting. I just measured both devices with a terminated input.
While a 30dB difference in measured figures reads dramatic, it doesn't tell the whole story.
You can in fact record with a dynamic mic and won't drown in an ocean of noise.
Tbh I don't fully understand the gain control on the iCA, for the mic signal seems to come out with way more impact than gain setting suggests - possibly the scale is 'misaligned' or whatever...
ps: I have an iCA4+ and which I've used with a MacMini and a Win-7/64 system. It may not be a high end audio scorer, but it's solid and it's versatility is outstanding. The routing works as advertized between systems, saves a lot of cables.
via 2 of the analog ports to the iPad.
Additional use is to connect Pro Tools TDM (on MacOS-9)
You mention the 4+, are those figures from the 4+ or the 2+? I recall iconnectivity claiming that the 2+ had a higher noise floor than the 4+..
I love my 4+. I don’t use it with mics, so I can’t say anything about the preamps (line-in bypasses them as on pretty much all audio interfaces). But for routing and reliability it’s fantastic. I also like that all the inputs (on the 4+) are switchable to Hi-z.
I use it with a Mac and an iPad. It’s also great for inter-Mac routing, between Logic and Ableton, say.
Getting your head around the setup takes a while. But once you have it, it’s very powerful. I’d much rather have the powerful-yet-slightly-confusing routing matrix of the iConfig app than something simpler and more limited. This is a power-user tool after all. It takes a bit of work to learn all its features.
Sound-wise it’s neutral. Also, nice and stable. And don’t forget, the headphone out is also an addressable stereo/dual-mono output.
I do find it weird that the unit gets warm even when powered off, but iConnectivity support tells me this is normal. I just switch it off at the wall.
@ohwell yes, I measured the iCA4+, but wouldn't expect a fundamental difference in preamp design in such a short period.
The specs published by iConnectivity are fairly useless (or misleading...) as the noise figure is claimed relative to a mic signal of 1000 mV
Another (important) aspect of noise with such interfaces (powered by an external, non-grounded, 2 pole powersupply) is hum and 'noise bleed' from other devices on the same powerline, in particular if they are interconnected.
It depends on the individual electric installation and can spoil figures by upto 20dB.
(in my case both interfaces were properly grounded with no perceivable hum or buzz)
Just to clarify, it’s not the preamp design that is different and gives the 2+ a higher noise floor than the 4+. According to iconnectivity’s engineers, it’s something to do with the compromises they made to cut the parts cost on how the 2+ handles power – Eg usb vs dedicated psu. (That’s what their engineers claimed in a detailed back and forth about the noise floor of the 2+ some years back.)
Whether the higher noise floor of the 2+ is a problem highly depends on the OP’s use case. It’s just something worth having in mind in evaluating whether it’s a good choice for your needs.
It's simply to cut the external PSU from the package (aka no upfront payment for a thousand units)
The iCA2+ can still be fed by any such PSU and the voltage regulation inside the box is most likely identical, so you may expect identical performance from both units.
true
That’s the point. Iconnectivity support claims (via email, reporting back from talking to their engineers) that the internal voltage regulation is different between the 2+ and the 4+. They say the 4+ internally adjusts to the available voltage, allowing for lower noise floor with an external psu. But to lower the cost of the 2+ (relative to the 4+), they built the 2+ internal power handling to always assume lower usb bus voltages, even when the power supply would allow for higher voltage. Here’s how the rep put it:
“ After much testing and back and forth on our team it looks like they are saying it [the noise figures I was measuring] will be a normal noise floor for that unit. Apparently our AUDIO4+ unit is quieter but the 2+ does have a noise floor that high.” They followed up with this clarification of why the 4+ has a lower noise floor: “I was talking more extensively about this with one of the engineers here today and the reason we can have a better setup on the AUDIO4+ is because we know exactly what voltage is going into the device but with the AUDIO2+ we have to assume the lower bus voltage because many will use only bus power. We then could've worked the bus vs. supply separately but it would've cost more parts wise and therefore put the price up.”
Thanks for the details... that's in fact a serious concern. I never ever expected the design to be that strange.
That's interesting but weird decision. Guess I won't get 2+ as a backup / portable for my 4+ or just not use the preamps.
Yeah, at least when I had one, it ended up feeling like an iffy compromise to meet a lower price point. What made the 2+ a hard sell for me was just how much better the preamps and noise floor performance was on many of the sub 200$ usb audio interfaces. (These days even more do with things like the motu m2/m4.) I wonder if they changed anything since: that email exchange was from 2017.
TBH, I’m also not clear on whether I would have had problems with the higher noise floor of the 2+ if I had been using the preamps with devices that don’t need much gain.