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.
iPad headphone Jack output - audio quality ?
I'm curious as to what people think about the audio quality of the iPad's headphone output ? I understand there's different devices in different generations of the iPads.
I had a look over on an audiophile forum and became rather confused with information / mis-information !
I've got the iCconnectMIDI2 primarily for it's audio pass-through, but I'm still curious as to the headphone jack's quality. Out of interest, I plugged in my old Shure E500s, which are an early version of the high-end Shure triple driver IEMs and it was noiseless. I'd bought an 'audiophile' Digital Audio Player in the past that was more hissy.
Comments
Compared to cheap usb interfaces ,the quality is very good. Actually I am in the middle making my own DIY interface with switchable (mono) line /instrument/mic in and using the headphone out as line out....
It is very good quality. Ironically, the original iPod shuffle had one of the most highly regarded quality digital conversion headphone signals.
Basically, in matters such as this, I'd always say: if you can't tell the difference yourself, then it's certainly good enough.
It has become quite good on the iPhone 5s and up. The adc is even pretty good, and with a powered interface like the iRig stomp the headphone jack is quite usable. With the constantly falling price of technology, I don't think the converters are any worse than digital pedals from from 10-15 years ago. The problem I'm currently seeing is that measure mode is broken in the low level software, which causes instruments to be processed like speech (rolled off at around 200Hz). While it would be ideal to use a digital connection, the Digitech iStomp died a quick death because it relied on a 30 pin connector.
I bought the UCA222 recently and while i thought the iPad was good there's a clear improvement with the UCA222, greater detail and i can hear things i couldn't via the line-out like the artifacts introduced by Gadgets limiter even when it's turned right down.
Thanks for the comments,
I presumed the quality was pretty good.
I'm a little surprised that there haven't been more responses as I presume a number of people are recording to Desktops from the headphone socket (?) of their iPads.
Almost every video I make is via the headphone output, and if I record out from the iPad and into say the iTrack Dock I also just use the HO, I do have a Fiio E17 which is superb sound quality so maybe I should at some point make a video and compare the two. But IMHO its way good enough for most things, although I'm sure the audiophiles would disagree, especially when they use a spectrum anylizer or some such other piece of gear to "look" at the sound. I would say if it sounds good then it is good
Interesting to be talking about this just as the Pono player is barfing:
https://www.yahoo.com/tech/it-was-one-of-kickstarters-most-successful-109496883039.html
If you watch the documentary "The Distortion of Sound"
you'll learn about the breakdown in audio fidelity. tl;dr: music recorded with microphones that cost thousands of dollars is played on earbuds that cost $9.99.
That said, I do believe in different levels of quality for different applications. Songs are both both sounds and ideas. My brainy college daughter recently said, "People used to listen to albums. Then they started listening only to songs. Now, they don't even listen to the whole song." Soundcloud is pretty bad quality for listening, but more than sufficient for discovery, and on the go listening or listening through laptop speakers.
If I had a dollar for every argument I had with an audiophile who claimed that the higher fidelity product will win, I'd be a rich man. Most people don't care, and wouldn't even seem to notice. I used to feel snobby about it, and now accept it as individual biology and preference. Some of us just "feel" the music more, and we notice when something is missing.
But I think it's important to embrace what I'm going to call "consumer audio" quality (as opposed to "audiophile audio" quality). High-quality options still exist. Go hog wild on your recording set up, and release your FLAC or Voggs (I'm leaving vinyl out of this!). But there is a music revolution happening at relatively low-resolution, and as an old man, I find it awesome. Don't be afraid to create and share at SoundCloud and Youtube qualities. Everytime I play a tutorial from Doug, Tim, etc. I put on my good cans and thoroughly enjoy it inspite of the relatively lower found quality.
Eventually, quality will improve. I'll never forget the first time I heard a pre-release demo streaming stereo audio from Xing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xing_Technology in 1989. Real audio was only streaming mono at the time. And remember I was used to a Walkman, and then a big-assed Discman. Anyway, I was blown away by the quality. Keep in mind, less than 20 years ago, you couldn't stream stereo, and video was the size of a postage stamp.
But this advance will not be driven by consumers, in the same way Apple exploited the "retina" display. It will mostly be a result of gradual improvements in technology over time, mostly in compression, bandwidth, and storage.
I use this audio interface when I want really good quality output:
http://amzn.com/B000KW2YEI
But I almost always use the audio out.
The other issue is freeing up my lightning port. Sometimes you ~have~ to route the audio out the ear jack. I haven't found a way to use a USB hub to attach both a controller and the audio interface. Has anyone else had success with it?
Last week I was remastering (in Final Touch) some of the music I made in the 90s using real synths (not even midi) and had all this time only survived on MiniDisc. Almost everything I made in those days was essentially mono. I really didn’t pay a lot of attention to the stereo sound field, didn't bother panning more than a few degrees left or right, and kept them there.
Fast forward to the 20-teens now, and you can’t even buy a hi-fi stereo system. I even can’t go into Curry’s (or your similar place if you’re foreign) and ask to buy a stereo amplifier. They don’t know what one is. They’ll show me a wall full of iPhone docks. Almost all of them are mono — many really are, most effectively are. It would be a fair assumption that today’s er kids, are consuming music in mono (much like my generation did on our transistor radios). So, I didn’t need to bother with stereo placement after all. Ahead of my time again, as usual!
That is an excellent documentary on delusional snobs. When I think of nuanced music that demands the highest fidelity I think Linkin Park, Snoop Dogg, Slash, and Hans Zimmer. Also, in the same video where we claim 256kbps AAC files and 320kbps MP3s are killing the "emotion" in music let's all have a nostalgia trip over cassettes and the Sony Walk-Man which was clearly the pinnacle of audio quality.
I don't think this will apply in your case but I was told by a performing DJ that the 1/8th inch output jack can sound like Shit on loud sound systems making the high end sound thin. In headphones and small sound systems, doesn't matter BUT on a loud club sound system, it DOES.
GREAT points above. I'm all for continued improvement in audio quality, but audiophile snobs and haters of digital technology have it all wrong. As the post above (@Matthew) nailed, MP3's and audio streaming aren't supposed to replace vinyl and studio quality analog recording - they replace 8-Tracks, Cassettes, and the FM Walkman. The whole idea behind audio compression is that for some applications, the version of music you are listening to only needs to be as good (and the file as large) as the medium for experiencing it can convey.
All that being said, a lot of people here do have the goal of making serious music and making their recordings as high quality as they can. So it's a good question to ask if we are going through all this work and money only to send the finished product throgh a freaking headphone jack. Fortunately, it sounds like most people who have used the newer devices with a line out through the jack are impressed enough with it for most purposes.
Audio out may be fine with the jack. I know that using it as an audio in for cheap guitar interfaces was a nightmare. I couldn't take iOS music with guitar seriously at all until I tried a digital interface (30-pin) or Lightning.
@johnfromberkeley I haven't had a problem connecting a controller & an audio interface (Focusrite 8i6) to a USB hub. Used to do it with an iPad 3 & iPad Air, not tried with iPad Air 2 but should work the same. I've got a normal USB hub from Maplins in uk, the long triangle shape ones. Give them a go mate.
I'd rate the headphone jack a 7 out of 10. Decent enough for most uses, but if you plug in any decent USB soundcard there's a very noticeable increase in sound quality and depth of the imaging. I'd be fine with the headphone jack for most live gigs, but for a bigger sound system or for recording, I always try and use a soundcard.
Interesting. Im about to hook my iPad up to my iMac for the first time. For best sound quality, do you use head phones out on the iPad and connect it to a soundcard (Apogee ONE in my case) whos connected to the Mac? Or is there a better way?
well said, Tarekith. Improved "depth of imaging" is a great term to describe the way my headphones sounded plugged into the Focusrite 2i2 compared to the headphone jack. All I could come up with was "wow" :-)
Agreed Tarekith and Hmtx
Torkel, the "better way" is to keep the signal completely digital. There are just a few ways to do that. For example :
http://www.iconnectivity.com/iConnectMIDI2plus
This will record the exact signal from iPad to Mac, zero loss of quality.
Lots to plus one in this thread.
Think my own thoughts are pretty inline with the balance of this thread: headphone out is fine, good even. Good interface is better. If you were going to make a 12-24 track recording on your computer with your iPad as source the not-awesome bits of the headphone interface would likely start to build up. If you're talking about 2-5 tracks, use whatever's clever.
All digital like the iconnect thingy will be best but again, only when the mediocre elements of a signal path start to build does it often matter. You can use the Secret Base Design app for an all digital workflow as well.
@johnfromberkeley A few thousand years of listening to songs, ~40 years of listening to albums (as an actual musical construct vs ~80 years as a collection delivery method), and then back to songs again. I love great albums but there's just nothing at all wrong or strange or short sighted or whatever with per-song culture. Not suggesting you're saying that, just fuel for the fire.
A few thousand years of listening to songs, ~40 years of listening to albums (as an actual musical construct vs ~80 years as a collection delivery method), and then back to songs again. I love great albums but there's just nothing at all wrong or strange or short sighted or whatever with per-song culture. Not suggesting you're saying that, just fuel for the fire.
I always seem to forget this and it's good to be reminded...
Totally. I love it. My soundcloud stream has more new music than I could listen to everyday.
That's interesting, because like others I have noticed a very big difference between listening through the headphone jack and through a USB interface (Scarlett 2i4 in my case). Even with easily driven low impedance phones like Sennheiser HD25-1s or Focal Spirit Pros there is a lot more bass with the digital interface, which this low cut filter might account for. If it's this down to a simple bug then it's quite a shame.