Mic and software recommendations for recording with iPad

Trader Todd

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I'm looking for some budget options to record multi tracks on my iPad. Nothing fancy, I'd like to have some sketches of things that come up when I'm noodling or I'd like to put a lead track on top of a rhythm track.

In the past I had used Audacity on my desktop, not sure if it is available for iPad. I've never had much luck with Garage Band. Audacity was great as it was intuitive.

As far as a mic, I'd be willing to spend up to $100.

Again, I'm not looking for a Grammy, just a little more boost than the on-board mic of iPad.
 
Full Disclosure....I'm a Shure Rep. in Florida, so if you were to buy any Shure product, from an authorized dealer in Florida, I would benefit!

The Shure Motiv MV5 is a, MFI (Apple Approved), made for iOS product that works great. The MV5, MVI and MV51 have DSP with presets built into the mic, so you're getting a good sounding mic, compression, EQ and and audio engineering chops that stretch back decades (Via. the knowledge of the engineers that programmed the presets). The MV5, MVI and MV51 all come with Lightning and USB cables, so you can use them with iOS or Mac and Windows computers. FWIW, all three units also work with Android OS, as long as it's running Lollipop OS or newer. You just need to supply your own cable.

Although it's not multi-track, the free Shure Motiv App. is a very straightforward audio recording app. Personally, I've had good luck with Garageband. It's a little corky, but covers most bases.

To be even handed, I've gotten good results from the Samson Meteor Mic, on the Mac using Studio One. I've never tried it on the iPad. You'd need the Apple Camera Kit. I do think it's a good sounding mic.

Good luck!
Tim
 
the blue yeti is your best bet. Sorry Timmit65. They have software that is built for the Apple OS, and the mic is awesome
 
the blue yeti is your best bet. Sorry Timmit65. They have software that is built for the Apple OS, and the mic is awesome

This is what I use. With the camera kit. I think they are $110 at Amazon.
with a camera kit you are at 115. Only 15 over your budget. Not bad.
 
For software, Multitrack DAW is cheap and fairly intuitive.

For mics, just about anything in the $100 range (and there are a lot now) will meet your purpose. Just make sure it has the proper connector for your device - 30-pin or Lightning. I'd recommend avoiding something with the CCK (since it's just another piece to fiddle with--just my opinion) and also highly recommend avoiding anything that goes into the headphone jack as they noisier and subject to "crosstalk" issues.
 
Hands down - Apogee MiC - It's what I have and love it (as do libranian and harry122 here on UU)- works on iOS with 30-pin or lightning connector, and Windows,Mac & Linux via USB. Only thing, is that it's about double your budget, but it's only a little bigger than a 'D' sized battery.

They have them on sale (refurbs) for $25 off right now:

see: http://www.apogeedigital.com/shop


The Blue YETI is a great mic, but it's just HUGE.

There are also the Samson Go Mic and Samson Meteor Mic, but both are USB and you will need the CCK to connect to iPad.

While Shure is highly respected for there other mics, they are VERY late to the game for computer and iOS audio. I have not tried their newer interfaces or mics, but you can drive a nail using an SM58 or SM57 as a hammer and it will still work perfectly as a mic afterwards....

If you want bare-bones and simple, there is an iOS app called FourTrack that is as basic as you can get and has a very easy interface.

that's all I can think of right now (need sleep) :music:
 
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Hands down - Apogee MiC - It's what I have and love it (as do libranian and harry122 here on UU)- works on iOS with 30-pin or lightning connector, and Windows,Mac & Linux via USB. Only thing, is that it's about double your budget, but it's only a little bigger than a 'D' sized battery.

They have them on sale (refurbs) for $25 off right now:

see: http://www.apogeedigital.com/shop


The Blue YETI is a great mic, but it's just HUGE.

There are also the Samson Go Mic and Samson Meteor Mic, but both are USB and you will need the CCK to connect to iPad.

While Shure is highly respected for there other mics, they are VERY late to the game for computer and iOS audio. I have not tried their newer interfaces or mics, but you can drive a nail using an SM58 or SM57 as a hammer and it will still work perfectly as a mic afterwards....

If you want bare-bones and simple, there is an iOS app called FourTrack that is as basic as you can get and has a very easy interface.

that's all I can think of right now (need sleep) :music:

Great advise! I use a Blue Yeti which sounds incredible and allows you to change your cardiod profiles and that is fantastic. Every time my wife walked behind me playing I always heard her say "it's so huge". And all this time, I thought she was taking about....never mind.
 
Hands down - Apogee MiC - It's what I have and love it (as do libranian and harry122 here on UU)- works on iOS with 30-pin or lightning connector, and Windows,Mac & Linux via USB. Only thing, is that it's about double your budget, but it's only a little bigger than a 'D' sized battery.

They have them on sale (refurbs) for $25 off right now:

see: http://www.apogeedigital.com/shop


The Blue YETI is a great mic, but it's just HUGE.

There are also the Samson Go Mic and Samson Meteor Mic, but both are USB and you will need the CCK to connect to iPad.

While Shure is highly respected for there other mics, they are VERY late to the game for computer and iOS audio. I have not tried their newer interfaces or mics, but you can drive a nail using an SM58 or SM57 as a hammer and it will still work perfectly as a mic afterwards....

If you want bare-bones and simple, there is an iOS app called FourTrack that is as basic as you can get and has a very easy interface.

that's all I can think of right now (need sleep) :music:

Do you have a latency problem monitoring with headphones with the Apogee since it doesn't have a headphone port?
 
Do you have a latency problem monitoring with headphones with the Apogee since it doesn't have a headphone port?

I thought it would be a problem and held off on the Apogee MiC for a long time because of that, and almost bought a Line6 VX-port interface/mic instead. However, I am very happy with the Apogee MiC.

Latency on the iPad3 is about 14ms, and on the Mac or Linux (Xubuntu) about 8ms, so it's there, but it's not bad, and small enough that you can sort of 'get used to it' rather quickly.

At the very worst it sounds like you have a hint of reverb with a very short pre-delay and fast decay (but is much more pleasing than a 'slap-back' echo), which most folks might add something like that after that fact any way when using a DAW to thicken the sound ever so slightly.

It does not bother me, and I consider myself pretty sensitive to this kind of thing, but others may have a different experience.

Keep in mind that even if a device DOES have a headphone port, UNLESS the device offers LIVE or 'zero-latency' monitoring, the audio signal has to go round-trip from the device, to the computer, and then back out to the headphone port, and typically THAT latency on USB 2.0 is about 100ms, which I find to be completely unusable for multi-tracking.

N.B. the 30-pin or 'Lightning' connector on the iOS devices is in fact using a USB chip inside to connect to external devices like a mic or audio interface, despite not having the same plug as on a laptop or desktop computer.
 
I thought it would be a problem and held off on the Apogee MiC for a long time because of that, and almost bought a Line6 VX-port interface/mic instead.

An advice, do not go on Line6 Sonicport VX, it works good, has direct monitoring, plenty of ins n outs, but mics are noisy!!!
I've made some tests awhile back like this one (listen with good headphones):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pTBqJXM7O4
 
I have bought and returned so many mic in a month time . The price range was Canadian $120 to $300 ( including apogee mentioned above)
The winner is the Shure MV88!
It cut out unwanted sound !
I bought a iPhone 7 plus shortly after that so now I can't monitor through the Shure 88 because iPhone no longer have the head phone jack. I should have kept the Shure MV5. It has its own headphone jack and it is right in your price range!
 
braguesa and SoloRule - do you realise that there's been no activity on this thread for 9 months since the LAST post which was mine and these issues were resolved long ago?

I bought the Apogee MiC back in 2014, and I am not replacing it with any other product, not Shure, not Line6 nor 'magic angel fairy dust' LOL.

Apogee is literally TOP OF THE LINE, unless you want Neumann, and for that your will spend over $1200
 
braguesa and SoloRule - do you realise that there's been no activity on this thread for 9 months since the LAST post which was mine and these issues were resolved long ago?

I bought the Apogee MiC back in 2014, and I am not replacing it with any other product, not Shure, not Line6 nor 'magic angel fairy dust' LOL.

Apogee is literally TOP OF THE LINE, unless you want Neumann, and for that your will spend over $1200

Ha ha I m 9 months too late?
 
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