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.
S/PDIF input to iPhone/iPad
I need an easy and cheap way to dump tracks from my vs-1680 to my IOS world. There are a few ways to make this happen, but I would prefer no excess D/A A/D, as few steps as possible, and low cost.
I have done a few tracks with my iRig Pro, which was a pain as I had to due each track separately and then had to get the two tracks in sync. While the result sounds good, it is still doing a D/A to A?D loop.
It seems like there SHOULD be something simple out there that can simply do the S/PDIF to USB thing, but I'm fine with an audio interface that takes care of this need while giving me at least two balanced channels with good pre amps and maybe some other extras. I would also love any solution to be as close to or under $100, though the full interface option I would pay $125-175 for.
Either optical or coax are both options.
Comments
Beringher UCA222 $29 at Amazon
@fifer said:
You need Reaper DAW for VS->PC->iOS
http://www.reaper.fm/download.php
and a plugin called "reaper_vs.dll" on the bottom of the page
http://www.ps139.com/vs880ex/util/
For doing the opposite ( iOS->VS ) the Beringher UCA222 as @Musikman4Christ suggested is fine. But keep in mind UCA222 does not have digital In, only Output.
I used to own the 1680. Great machine.
The UCA is cool cause you can do two tracks at a time from your 1680. The analog outs to the RCA ins of the UCA. The signal should be crystal clear as long as you watch the meterings. Record into garageband, auria or cubasis or even my favorite, Audioshare
it has a really nice input meter that's bright and clear. Once you create all your sample files in Audioshare, you can export them to whatever DAW u like.
Your budget is a little low for interfaces with both analog and S/PDIF I/O. Focusrite 6i6 will do it, plus you get MIDI, and decent mic preamps, but at $250 new.
I've been searching for just S/PDIF USB I/O without luck for a year now.
I did find this collection, but look at the prices!
http://www.thewelltemperedcomputer.com/HW/USB_SPDIF.htm
I would love to get a Focusrite, and may someday. I really wish the iConnect Audio had S/PDIF in!!
I looked into the reaper path before and ran into issues. I'll take a fresh look at it as this would offer some great advantages.
Thanks all!
Agreed 6i6 is a good middle price way to go for that @dwarman - I have one and like it, although the preamps are not as good as some other interfaces in the same general price range. Most would probably not notice, but in doing some comparitive tests recently, I found that the 6i6 preamps were not quite as crisp in the high end. I was doing some specific tests, so I noticed though...
http://www.alesis.com/io2 ???? Says it has spdif in and out.
Do you have a price? Amazon doesn't carry it AFAIKT, only the IO2 Express, which is audio only, no S/PDIF or MIDI interfaces..
Check out the Komplete Audio 6 by Native Instruments. Confirmed to work with iPad and sports the most different types of ins/outs (incl. S/PDIF) for a box this size/price that I've come across. Also comes with a very cool software package.
http://www.native-instruments.com/en/products/komplete/audio-interfaces/komplete-audio-6/
B&H sells for $200 right now. I bought one used at used.guitarcenter.com. There are two there at the time of posting this. 1 for $110. Not a bad deal.
The Complete Audio 6 looks really interesting. Not sure why I have not seen more of that unit while searching. Did read a few reviews, much of it good, but two big concerns. One bind the THD which is not that great. .01
The other is the limited input gain, much lower than ideal.
I already have an iRig Pro for single vocal tracking, and also have a decent mic pre setup when I'm in the studio, so this would be used mostly for instrument tracking, the outputs, monitoring, and the digital IO.
Might be a great deal as such!
Still, at this price point, the advanced features of the iConnectAudio are very attractive if it only had S/PDIF....
For whatever it's worth, I haven't noticed anything that sounds like distortion when using the Komplete Audio 6. But, then, I'm not a professional producer, just a hobbyist musician. The input gain hasn't proved to be a problem for me either but perhaps that's because most all popular audio software has adjustable input gain in case you need an extra boost. If you're using Audiobus, for example, there's a huge amount of headroom with the input level control. Good luck with whatever you choose.
Oh, I'm not saying I know it would have any significant impact on anything I'm working on but a review was just comparing the Complete to the Focusrite and pointed it out.
At the moment, this looks like it might be my best bet. I think I'm going to schedule some time to figure out the reaper/export system to see how involved that is. For songs/projects with numerous tracks where I really want to spend time mixing/producing on ios then I'm sure that would be better. For cases where I just want to get the two mixdown tracks to master and share, S/PDIF transfer would be very handy!
fifer please report back on how much and what you have to go through in your process.
Will do!
Thanks for all the great input all!
@Justajiva, I can't get Komplete Audio 6 SPDIF In to sync on iOS. On PC/Mac, there is a driver utility which you have to open, and tell it to use external sync to the incoming SPDIF clock. iOS is class compliant, and has no way to tell it to sync, and it doesn't.
Does anyone know how to make this work?
This is one reason I still keep my old white Macbook (not Macbook Pro) around — it has optical in/out on the 3.5mm audio in/out jacks. The jacks work as electrical audio jacks as well as optical, for both input and output.
Did you find any solutions? I’m trying to send SPDIF audio to my iPad from my mac mini using Komplete Audio 6 interface on ipad, and a Motu ultralite mk4 on mac. Works great sending iPad audio to mac, but I just can’t get incoming signal to work :-/
I’m assuming a no go at this point w/o sync.
You can move audio between a Mac and IOS using a USB-to-lightning cable and the IDAM capability.
https://developer.apple.com/documentation/audiotoolbox/enabling_usb_audio_and_midi_for_ios
No extra hardware or audio conversion steps needed.
I wish IDAM had bi directional audio support, unfortunately I think it’s only 1-way, iPad to Mac, which spdif does well at now. Trying to send desktop audio to iPad so I can use iOS effects, then sending effected signal back to desktop, live.
Arg. Sorry but hopefully I and someone else will learn something.
Zoom U-44
Analogue 1+2 in/out
Spdif 3+4 in/out
Solid.
I use it everyday.
Focusrite 6i6 v2, I use it for this exact purpose. Spdif into ios from other sources, spdif out to the motu connected to my pc. Spdif from motu to speakers, no needless a/d d/a 👍
I bought mine 175$ from focusrite
Is there anyone who can confirm that the MOTU Ultralite Mk 4 will allow S/PDIF to and from an iPad and do the necessary syncing?
Thanks
It doesn‘t work... there is no iPad with S/PDIF support - you need 2 Interfaces.
In which case it depends on the (yet unknown) 2nd one
The only interfaces that handle 2 hosts simultaneously are iConnectAudio4+ and 2+ .
(as frequently discussed, I have a 4+ and used that feature extensively)
But the required control panel software is quite a big grain of salt...
He was asking about using a MOTU interface on his iPad that has spdif. And I gather his Mac is one of the ones with spdif support.
Thanks for the replies and sorry, I should have been clearer.
I have a Motu 828mk2 I am using with the Mac.
I was hoping that someone who has used an Ultralite Mk4 with an iPad might be able to let me know if the audio can go both ways through S/PDIF with synch through the audio settings on an iPad. It’s not clear in the manual and I haven’t had a reply from MOTU yet. Also the UL Mk4 doesn’t have word clock, unlike the 828mk2 so the synch would have to be through the S/PDIF signal.
I guess if that does work then ADAT might also be worth trying.
I use usb ministreamers from minidsp on the adats of my 828. They've been a little tough to get due to chip shortages. You can also buy any old, used class compliant interface, throw it on the iPad and connect the adats of the 828 and whatever. That will give you 8 channels instead of 2.
@AlmostAnonymous so the signal chain would be (without an 828) with a MOTU M2? Not applicable?
You would have to have an interface with ADAT/SPDIF?