iRig vs iRig HD

kmac66

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I bought a regular iRig this weekend to plug my uke into my iPad and record some stuff in GarageBand. It's very cool, but I'm getting a large amount of background hiss. I read that the iRig HD is much better at reducing (or even eliminating ) the hiss.

Has anyone here tried the iRig HD with their ukulele?
 
I would exchange it for the Jam from Apogee their products are excellent and well worth the money no static whatsoever!
 
The regular iRig goes through the headphone socket but is subject to noise as well as some "crosstalk" from the outgoing signal. I have not used the HD but it is an entirely different design. There are several competing products including the Jam and iRig HD (other units be Line6, Sonoma, others I'm sure) that all cost about $100 and interface to the 30-pin or Lightning connector. Any of these that have the right connector (or adapter) for your ipad should be fine.

FWIW, I can also vouch for the Jam. I have used it to record all 3 of my ukes with pickups (all passive) and it works great.

Another thought if you think you might want to also record vocals (or anything with a mic) later is something like the FocusRite iTrack solo or iTrack Dock. I have the Solo and it also works great and is not much more than the guitar-only interfaces.
 
Thanks for you help guys. I did return the irig and got the HD version. I'm not having much luck with it on my iPad.

Maybe it because I'm tired or maybe I just can find the right settings.

I'm coming out of a koaloha with a MISI pickup and it's not recording very loud at all. If I adjust the gain at all to increase the volume I get that background noise. Is it because I'm playing an acoustic instrument with a pickup?

Pretty frustrated with it. Maybe I'll try again tomorrow and the return it if I don't have much luck.

Do you have any tips on setting up my uke to the irig and into GarageBand? Other than getting and Apogee jam? Ha!

Thanks again.
 
I found when I use a passive pickup, I have to raise the amp volume a lot and get hiss. I now only have built in preamps in all my ukes.
 
Hmm, that does seem odd. Do you get the noise playing through an amp? Could be a grounding issue with the pickup?

More likely a shielding issue somewhere before the I-Rig acting like an antenna broadcasting the 60hz hum in the power lines of your home. 50hz in the UK. This can be from a bad solder joint, poorly shielded wires and electronics or even a bad guitar cable can cause this as well.

When I first plugged my Risa stick into my effects pedal there was so much hum it was sickening just switching through the preprogrammed effects. After properly shielding the jack area with foil tape it is silent while plugged in. I did have to return one 6' cable that went bad after a week.

Is this what you hear?

http://mynoise.net/NoiseMachines/60HzHumNoiseGenerator.php
 
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The mic and jam from apogee are a great combo although they can only be used one at a time. I never had any static from either one. ANd they are very very simple to use.
 
I spent some more time with my iRig HD set up and I did get it sounding better. I used a different cable, but forgot to switch back to the old cable and see if that made much difference.

It might not make any sense, but it seemed better on my iPhone with the lightning connector than my iPad2 with the 30 pin connector.

Maybe its just the newer hardware or the newer version of GarageBand.

Regardless I’m not as stoked about the whole thing as I thought I would be. Its probably better working on a laptop or desktop computer. But running from the uke to the iPad or iPhone to headphones (or an external speaker) is kind of cumbersome.

I’ll work with it a little more to see if I can get it close to right.

Thanks for all your responses.
 
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