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.
Guitar interface
I had the opportunity to out an irig2 ( not the jd one). I tried it with bias amp and it sounded horrible.....will I get sounds that sound higher quality like a Marshall tube amp if I went out and bought a behringer202 or apogee jam? If so which one? I'm a metal player and I want high quality distortion....please help
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The iRig HD2 is an excellent interface, fwiw and it looks like they are under $100 nowadays.
That being said, the various amp simulation apps can require some coaxing to get great sounds out of -- and there is no clear favorite. I know people that swear by ToneStack and some that swear by Amplitube and others that love BIAS.
What are you listening through?
Did you check your gain staging?
Right now I'm playing thru an podxt thru jbl studi monitors so I was wondering if bias amp would sound better if so I will hook up my monitor...what do you think?
I tried everything with the irig2 the quality just isn't there, then again few years back I used the griffin studio connect
What about the sonic port? Or the apogee jam.? Which is the better sounding?
I have heard good things about them but it may depend on the model--just as iRig HD2 is a different beast entirely from iRig 2 (and even iRig HD)
I have the Apogee Jam 96k and I like it very much. But I mainly play an acoustic guitar (nylon) through it with clean sounds
here's an example from a few days ago (Dropbox link)
playing is only so so, still figuring out, what, when and how much (.. and I will use a different guitar when I move back to the desktop)
do you mean this iRig 2 ??
So to be honest anything that plugs into your headphone jack is going to sound horrible, like you discovered. It can be fine, a lot of fun for jamming and practicing. But the audio signal is just generally sub-par and will be difficult to make it sound like anything but crap. iPads and iPhones are not really designed to process a strong signal in/out of the 3.5mm headphone jack in this way.
What you really want is a digital audio interface. iRig HD2, Sonic Port, Apogee Jam... These guys are going to sound infinitely better because they plug into the lightning port. Even better, you could use any class-compliant USB audio interface and you'll have tons of options. USB interfaces require using the "lightning to USB" adapter that Apple sells.
An important question is how you plan to use the interface, too. I.e. Just for playing into your iOS device or using the iOS device as effects box sitting between your guitar and an amp sometimes.
I use mine for both situations so that influenced my choice.
I have an ipad2 so will I have to get a lightning pin adapter for it to be able to work with the apogee?
I'm only using his for jamming on guitar
I think the apogee jam (older original model) comes with a 30-pin cable that plugs direct into older iPads. I’m not sure about the jam 96k or jam+
I just discovered the behringer is202 and it looks pretty cool....what do you think of it?
To be honest, Bias struggles on an iPad2. I had all kinds of trouble.
That may be connected to your problems. While an iRig 2 is a mediocre device for getting a guitar signal into a device, it sounds crappy the way a cheap pre-amp does.
Have you recorded the signal into the iPad without an amp sim just to get a point of comparison ?
Adding to what I just said. The iRig / can be noisy and have some crosstalk, but wouldn't be distorted crappy.
Irig 2 is horrible. Get a proper audio interface. No amp sim is going to sound exactly like a real tube amp. Axe fx2 comes very close, but thats on another ballpark.
I wouldnt trust any irig products, they are overpriced and not as good as competition, because its just a niche product(ios) and they spend so much on marketing.
Steinberg, roland and focusrite make good interfaces.
I would go for apogee jam. I have the old one with 30 pin but have the lightning cable to fit in my air2. However, for the same price i bought a second hand focusrite itrack docking station which had a built in interface and input for midi controller. This has the advantage of chargng your ipad at the same time.
A used 1st generation Alesis ioDock (starting at $50) is worth considering for the iPad-2.
(got the 30pin connector and audio quality is surprisingly high)
@ToMess : I disagree about all iRig products being overpriced and inferior quality. I say this not to quarrel but for anyone who happens upon this topic in search of an interface.
Some iRig products offer very good quality at a reasonable price. There are also good interfaces from other manufacturers.
I have zero experience with their gear... but iRig may be over-hyped. For the price, yes there are lots of options, some better some worse.
The one IK product I love the design of (in theory) is the iRig HD 2. It has 1/4" in and 1/4" out. I would love to strap that plus an old iPhone on my guitar and have "on-board" effects literally right on my guitar. No other external gear needed, just the usual 1/4" guitar cable going out to my DI box.
Let me know which product is superior to others in the same price range
I'm trying to stay at $100 budget. The behringer is202 looks like a good posibility
I’m using the irig hd 2 and it is great. Small and easy to use. If you don’t need stereo inputs, midi input or stereo line out, then go for it.
I paid 100€ for used focusrite 6i6. Just saying..
FWIW, the headphone out can serve as a line out of reasonable quality, but @Jdolecek48 needs an interface with a 30-pin connector.
@jdolecek70 : one thing to consider is whether you are going to end up upgrading that iPad 2. If so, there is a downside to the Behringer dock. If I were you, I would recommend seeing if you can try out a better interface than your iRig2 with your iPad 2 before buying to make sure that the performance is acceptable to you. Otherwise, you might invest $100 in some kit and find that you really need a better iPad to do what you want to do.
I will not upgrade as I use my line 6 podxt as also so I need you guys to suggest the best option please and is it worth spending $100 I mean will I get the quality using an iPad 2.? Also can I even use bias? Or amplitude or what?
In my opinion, the iPad 2 struggles with amp simulators. I purchased Bias when my iPad was an iPad 2. It was hit-and-miss.
Perhaps others have had better results. It might be worth finding out if anyone has been a happy camper with amp sims on an iPad 2.
When I got an iPhone 5c, which is still a pretty lowly processor but better, things worked much better. And when we got my son a refurbished or used iPad Air for about $100, it worked even better and could handle playing some synths or backing tracks at the same time which convinced me to save my pennies to upgrade to a more capable iPad.
It has been a while, but I think that I had better luck with JampUp on the iPad 2 than BIAS Amp. ToneStack has a freemium version of their amp sim (which is my generally preferred one).
I currently had the irig2( not the he) and bias plays the sound quality just sucks.....my deal with interface is finding one that has an output for my monitor
I found a griffin studio connect. I used to have one and it worked perfect but that was when I had an iPad Air and I had to use some kind of pin adapter.....will the griffin work with my ipad2.?