Where's my iRig acoustic news?

Jim Hanks

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Booli? DownUpDave? photoshooter? Any news or reviews? I'm dying over here! :p
 
I haven't had much time to play with it yet. The Amplitube Acoustic app allows you to calibrate the mic to each ukulele or guitar. I thought that was a nice touch. I calibrated one of my ukes but didn't get much further than that. I'll be sure to post as soon as I get to spend some time with it.
 
Jim.........no Amplitube Acoustic app for android, only mac. So I am sitting here with it kinda dead in the water.
 
I've used my irig pro duo but I am a novice at recording and DAWS so I don't know how to pan it yet so the uke comes out of one side of gone head phones and the vocals out of the other side. It is a cool toy though once I learn how to use it properly.
 
Booli? DownUpDave? photoshooter? Any news or reviews? I'm dying over here! :p

Jim,

Sorry for the delay. I promised a full review but sadly have been bogged down with other things.

While not quite the review I had intended to write, here are my impressions, in no particular order, stream of consciousness, after spending about 20 hours to play with and testing it.

This will be in lieu of a full review because I'm short on time right now, but wanted to share my findings.

FYI: I bought this with my own money, for my own use, and am not compensated by ANYONE, in ANY way for these opinions.

What you read here is based upon nearly 32 years of using audio/recording gear both professionally and as a hobby. By no means is my opinion the only perception, and I welcome intelligent discussion if your experience differs from mine. That's only one way that we can all learn more and get better at what we are trying to do.

1. Overall sound quality is quite good. The frequency response appears to be flat, and can pick up down to the low E on my acoustic Rondo uke bass without sounding muddy. The highs are articulate and the mids are not harsh or muddy. I tested on 4 different ukes, 2 classical guitars, and my Rondo uke bass. A video will be forthcoming.

2. Device is very sensitive and can even be used as a mic without being clipped to the sound-hole.

3. The #1 best feature to me is nearly complete isolation of the uke sound when clipped on the sound-hole as designed, with near zero background environmental noise, almost like being inside of a sound-proof box or vocal booth. This is ciritical for clean recordings.

4. It does pick up some body noise, but MUCH LESS than a surface transducer like in your Ohana travel tenor, and as long as you are not jumping up and down while playing with it rubbing on your chest/stomach it is easy to manage.

5. Dynamic range is quite good once you set the input gain to prevent clipping. It picks up very soft, whisper-quiet playing and can handle rubato flamenco-style hard strumming without clipping.

6. Using an adapter that splits out the TRRS plug to separate mic and headphone plugs, does 'work' on my Mac mini and on my Linux desktop tower when plugging in to the respective ports, but there is a lot of EM/RF noise, which is typical of internal sound card circuits.

7. Using a Griffin iMic USB sound card with said adapter above, also 'works', but there is some ground noise (electronic buzzing) that I cannot fix, which may be that my Griffin is either damaged or does not offer the specific required voltage to drive the mic circuit.

8. The NRG TRRS-to-USB adapter that I linked to on Amazon in the other thread works VERY well (yes I bought it for $20) both via the Camera Connection Kit to my iPad3, as well as on the Linux desktop. I have not yet tested it on the Mac Mini with OSX. This is planned for a follow up.

9. On the iPad3, there is still SIGNIFICANT crosstalk when using the headphone port. IKMM has acknowledged this in their FAQ and on their Forums, and blames Apple for the flaw.

10. When using the NRG adapter mentioned above, on the iPad3, there is crosstalk, but it is barely enough to register on the input meter and to hear it you have to set the device's hardware volume controls to 100%. This is definitely usable since monitoring audio from previous tracks should not be perceptible when recording new tracks and it is a HUGE improvement over the headphone port.

My guess is that inside this tiny NRG adapter, which is about the size of a US quarter coin and easily fits in the nice case that comes with the iRig Acoustic, that there are filter capacitors from each channel to the ground connection which serves better to prevent this crosstalk. The use of such 'filter' capacitors is typical for better audio circuit design.

I highly recommend the NRG adapter to isolate the crosstalk. the fact that I tested it as working on both iOS and Linux without drivers, and says Mac/PC on the box tells me that it is a 'Class Compliant' audio device, and as such needs no drivers. YAY!

11. Works fine with ANY iOS software that has audio input but you have to adjust the input gain and/or use a compressor with something like 2.5:1 ratio to prevent clipping.

12. Is it worth the $50? If you want isolated, clean audio and not fuss with a mic that is going to pick up 'room noise', then yes.

13. On electronic parts-tinkerer sites like SparkFun and Adafruit you can buy a MEMS mic module on a breakout board for $4-8, and supporting parts to power it, and connect it, and an enclosure, and have something that does NOT require a TRRS port to work, all in for like ~$25. For most folks, unless you are handy with a soldering iron, this is not practical, but I'd like to have a mic like this that is not tied to a TRRS port or directly to USB for output, so if time allows, I may build one and will share all the gory details if I do. Wish I had a 3D Printer to make a perfect enclosure. It will be difficult to replicate the guitar-pick shaped attachment if that is your thing. I would actually be making a binaural or holophonic microphone (with 2 identical units), so mounting ON the instrument is not required.

14. Does it capture good sound? Yes.

15. Can it be used a few ft away and NOT attached to the instrument? YES, it is a VERY sensitive mic. Doing so you should not have any clipping at 18" away from the instrument with the input gain setting at 100%

16. Would I recommend it? Yes. It's going to go with me whenever I take both my uke and my iOS/Android device with me in case I want to record something when I am not home.

17. Why not get a Samson GoMic, Meteor Mic or Blue SnowBall instead for similar money? All of them with require the Camera Connection Kit to use on an iOS device. All of them will pickup undesirable background noise and/or ambient room noise in your recordings unless you are in a VERY quiet room or can lock yourself in a closed room, like a closet. This iRig Acoustic when attached to your instrument is like a super-focused shotgun mic or ultra-cardioid mic and unless you yell into it, when it's in the sound-hole, your outside sounds will not easily be picked up.

Bonus points that you can set it on the desk in front of you, 18-24" away and use it like a normal acoustic mic for vocals or whatever, but at that point it will pick up your computer's cooling fan noise and the humidifier in your room 10 ft away, but all that can be mitigated with either a noise gate or low-pass filter.

19. The only two things that I do NOT like are the fact that the cord is REALLY thin, and seems fragile, but I guess at $50 IKMM considers this device nearly disposable. I'd replace it if I could not repair it, or hack it into a mic that does not use the TRRS plug. The other issue that kills me is the crosstalk. It's not IKMM's fault, and if you are not multi-tracking via the headphone port, this is not an issue.

20. This device would be perfect for making recordings of your playing progress, for Youtube videos, or even for the Seasons contests. Barrier to entry is low, and it works with over a dozen audio and video apps on iOS that I tested. With the NRG adapter it works on a desktop computer without drivers.

21. Be aware that this iRig Acoustic is NOT an 'electret condenser mic' or ECM like SO MANY other recording mics, this is also NOT any kind of piezo, PVDF film or PZT pickup, this is a MEMS mic, which is quite different and NEW technology. ECM transducers have been around since the 1950's. This MEMS technology was not created until about 2002 from my reading.

~~~

So those are my takeaways for the iRig Acoustic.

I plan to do a video to compare the audio between the iPad's built-in mic, the Apogee MiC, a piezo surface transducer pickup, the MiSi under-saddle pickup and the iRig Acoustic, but it's going to take some time to put it all together.

Hope this helps. If I left anything out or you have questions, dont be shy.

Maybe later we can talk about the Korg ClipHit? LOL :)

Shaka,

Booli
 
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Jim.........no Amplitube Acoustic app for android, only mac. So I am sitting here with it kinda dead in the water.

DownUpDave,

Oh dear...

Dead in the water? Possibly you have characterized this incorrectly. Maybe you are unaware how these things work?

I will try to offer some suggestions here to help you.

I'd hope you can be intrepid and move forward despite being unsure.

On iOS, i.e., my iPad3, the ONLY difference I can tell from the Amplitube 'Acoustic' app and other guitar apps (ToneStack, JamUp Pro, Amplitube (not acoustic), AmpKit is that ALL of these apps have MORE effects than the Amplitube 'Acoustic', most of which are in-app purchases, for extra $, and that the Amplitube 'Acoustic' app has a calibration feature, which seems to be some kind of minimal soft-knee compressor effect to reduce clipping (distortion) of the iRig Acoustic since it is very sensitive (i.e. a 'hot' mic).

None of the other guitar effect or recording apps I tested with have this 'calibration' feature and it works fine with them. Also 2 different video recording apps that I've tested with are MoviePro and FilMic Pro, and they have no effects but you can prevent clipping via adjusting the 'mic input gain' on these apps, AS WELL as all the other apps, which is standard normal practice for using any recording hardware or software.

The built-in Apple Camera app also records with it for video, but there is no gain adjustment setting.

When looking at the Android Google Play store, I count 75 apps when searching for 'amplitube', and while not ALL of them are guitar effect apps, if half of them are, you can try any ONE of them. I posted about this in the other thread, maybe you missed that information. I have included a direct link for your evaluation.

see here:

https://play.google.com/store/searc...woJYW1wbGl0dWJlegUYAMABAooBAggB:S:ANO1ljIoOqA

I dont see why you cannot use any other guitar effect app on Android unless you just have little experience with these types of things and are timid or too shy to try?

If the iRig Acoustic works via it's physical/electrical connections as an input source, there should be zero limitation in using it with other audio apps for recording or effects.

The main thing with the Amplitube Acoustic app is there there are no distortion type effects at all, so if you use another app, and you want a 'clean' sound, just remove or dont use the distortion or fuzz effects, it will in fact actually give you MORE of the other effects (chorus, flanger, delay, reverb, tremelo, pitch shifting, octavers, etc) than the Amplitube Acoustic effects app.

I've used all of these guitar effect apps with uke and classical guitar for a few years now and I just dont use any distortion or high-gain effects, and it works fine and sounds great with acoustic instruments. There's no obstacle. The Amplitube 'Acoustic' is just more of a marketing label. The app has no distortion effects available.

My take is that the whole idea of the iRig Acoustic and the companion software Amplitube Acoustic is to simplify the process as much as possible, and the app is limited in features, but due to it's limitations, it is EASIER to use for beginners.

The free version of Amplitube for Android is something you can download and test and you might be satisfied with what is in the free version.

Since Android development lags behind iOS for audio apps, why dont you try the regular Amplitube app for Android and see as opposed to waiting for an 'acoustic' version that may not come for some time?

I have not yet tested the iRig Acoustic on my Nexus 7 (2013 HD), but plan to, and will post a followup with the results.

-Booli
 
Whoa ho ho, if that's not a full review, it's close enough for most purposes! Very helpful! :shaka:

Thanks for confirming my suspicions about the crosstalk. That's almost a deal breaker for me. "Multitracking through the headphone port" totally killed the original iRig for me so I'd have to find a way around that. Probably I would have to use two devices - one for playback and one just for recording - which is obviously clunky but might be worth it.

It would be a lot nicer if they came out with a "pro" version that essentially does what you did with the iRig-to-NRG-to-CCK setup just in a single device.
 
Whoa ho ho, if that's not a full review, it's close enough for most purposes! Very helpful! :shaka:

Thanks for confirming my suspicions about the crosstalk. That's almost a deal breaker for me. "Multitracking through the headphone port" totally killed the original iRig for me so I'd have to find a way around that. Probably I would have to use two devices - one for playback and one just for recording - which is obviously clunky but might be worth it.

It would be a lot nicer if they came out with a "pro" version that essentially does what you did with the iRig-to-NRG-to-CCK setup just in a single device.

Rumors are that Apple is killing off the headphone port for the iPhone 7 and thus forcing audio via the Lightning port or via BlueTooth on subsequent devices. This would eliminate the crosstalk issue going forward.

I have mixed feelings about this, but Apple is usually the pioneer in obsoleting legacy hardware connections, and others will follow suit.

As per several somewhat critical youtube demos of the iRig Acoustic, some folks like you suspect that a 'Pro' version with be forthcoming if the analog device gains enough traction. This would basically replicate what I've done with the NRG/CCK, but life is to short for me to wait.

I got the iRig Acoustic from B&H Photo for $41, with free shipping, and Amazon's price has been fluctuating around that by +/- $2-3, so with the NRG adapter, you are looking at a total of ~$60-70 total cost for a device that can do the analog connection, as well as USB, AND required no drivers. On Windows you might need to add the ASIO4ALL if you're not using it already.

One thing I did not delve into in detail is the iRig Acoustic software, which is perfectly fine for what it does and sounds very nice and musical, but I wanted to focus more on the hardware, since the software can be easily replaced by any other audio app. Fellow UU brother photoshooter has mentioned to me that we live in a great time for musicians with all the choices (and some good inexpensive ones at that) for making music using our technology.

I agree.

For example, on iOS, I can have hundreds of different guitar effects, with all in-app purchases for around $200, whereas single guitar pedals with patch cords & power supply and/or a few multi-effect pedals will cost closer to $1500, nevermind take up a huge amount of space and is a mess(to me), even with a pedalboard.

My typical signal chain for uke is in the following order:

1. Noise gate
2. Compressor
3. EQ
4. Reverb
5. Notch Filter or other EQ (for feedback suppression if playing live)

Sometimes I will add a light chorus after the reverb.

The above can be done easily in iOS via any of more than a dozen apps, and also with a single pedal such as the Zoom I mention below.

I still have pedals that I would use for playing live, such as the Zoom MS-100BT, that is the size of a single stomp box and lets you chain up to 6 effects at once in a single preset, and as such is compact and has a sturdy metal case, more robust I think than taking an iOS device with a bunch of thin cables to a gig, all hanging off either the headphone port or off the 30-pin/Lightning port.

Were I to really consider taking iOS on a live gig, I'd use an iPad Mini and a Focusrite iTrack Dock (both of which I'd have to buy $$$$ and would duplicate existing devices). This hardware combo would give a very solid hardware setup that is designed to use standard plugs and should hold up to road abuse.

For what it is, I think the iRig Acoustic fills a niche, and does so well, but out of the box, would not be suitable to pro-level multi-track recording (on iOS, out of the box) due to the crosstalk on the headphone port, thus the need for the NRG adapter.

:)
 
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For anyone using a Mac with 10.11.x and iOS 9.x, you can actually record audio of the iOS device directly via USB/lightning even though the device you want to record is attached to the headphone port.

How to do this:
1.) Attach you iOS device to the Mac via the USB cable, and go to Audio Midi Setup (it's in Utilities).
2.) Choose Window Show iOS browser.
3.) You should then have you iOS device there with an enable button.
Enable it, and the audio of the device will go to the Mac via USB.

I've tried it with my Ukulele attached to an original iRig to my iPhone and my Icon iPlug-M iOS Microphone attached to my iPad (also attached to the headphone port).

I could then record both at the same time in Garageband by making an aggregate device in Audio Midi Setup, and using the Enable Multitracking Recording there. It seems to create a lot cleaner sound then when you go to an analog interface again.
 
For anyone using a Mac with 10.11.x and iOS 9.x, you can actually record audio of the iOS device directly via USB/lightning even though the device you want to record is attached to the headphone port.

How to do this:
1.) Attach you iOS device to the Mac via the USB cable, and go to Audio Midi Setup (it's in Utilities).
2.) Choose Window Show iOS browser.
3.) You should then have you iOS device there with an enable button.
Enable it, and the audio of the device will go to the Mac via USB.

I've tried it with my Ukulele attached to an original iRig to my iPhone and my Icon iPlug-M iOS Microphone attached to my iPad (also attached to the headphone port).

I could then record both at the same time in Garageband by making an aggregate device in Audio Midi Setup, and using the Enable Multitracking Recording there. It seems to create a lot cleaner sound then when you go to an analog interface again.


I did not know about this iOS device function, so thanks for sharing the info. I've used Aggregate Audio devices before with great success.

So to confirm...(please indulge me :))

1. You have the iPhone acting as 'input #1' with the iRig, and the iPlug-M acting as 'input #2' on the iPad.

2. Each iOS device is connected to your Mac via USB to the dock connector on the device.

3. You have created and enabled an Aggregate Audio device that combines both iOS audio paths so they are exposed to Garageband as a single device with 2 input channels.

Is this right?

How are you monitoring the audio? via the standard audio-out jack on your Mac?

How is the latency, if any?

Thanks in advance for clarifying. I may have to try this too. :)
 
Booli

Thanks very much for your help and detailed info. You are correct about me being timid or shy with regards to this kind of stuff. I have ZERO knowledge or experience with recording. Not exactely true, I have recorded exactely one piece on my phone. I am not versed in computers or computer techologies, apps etc. etc. So this is all overwhelming as I have no clue about any of this type of thing

I did plug the mic into the phone jack and recorded in the Voice Recorder app that came with the phone and it works so that is a start. I will look at the other apps you mentioned. I just wanted to say thank you for taking the time to help me.
 
Booli

Thanks very much for your help and detailed info. You are correct about me being timid or shy with regards to this kind of stuff. I have ZERO knowledge or experience with recording. Not exactely true, I have recorded exactely one piece on my phone. I am not versed in computers or computer techologies, apps etc. etc. So this is all overwhelming as I have no clue about any of this type of thing

I did plug the mic into the phone jack and recorded in the Voice Recorder app that came with the phone and it works so that is a start. I will look at the other apps you mentioned. I just wanted to say thank you for taking the time to help me.

You are very welcome.

If there is anything I can do to help, please ask and I will do my best.

We all had to start somewhere, so please dont feel intimidated. Just by taking steps with the Voice Recorder app, you are on your way and have proven that at least the device works physically/electrically with your Android phone. You are very close taking the next step with a music-related app.

I am sorry if the extreme detail that I sometimes go into in my explanations has caused you to be afraid to approach this kind of technology. I live and breath this kind of stuff, and anything less than all-in is not meaningful for me. Sometimes I have to remind myself that others are not so inclined and try to walk in their shoes.

Having said that, if others can benefit from my experience, then I am very happy. :)
 
Wow, this turned into a great thread with lots of useful info. Thanks to Jim for starting it.

It's hard to add to Booli's thoughts but as he alluded to, Amplitube Acoustic is basically a simplified version of Amplitube. It appears to be aimed at people who want to capture and create acoustic sound so it's light on the effects. It has 3 built-in amps which also seem to be geared toward "clean" sound. That being said there doesn't seem to be much you can do with Amplitube Acoustic that you can't do with Amplitube. I only mention this because the iRig Acoustic mic isn't at all dependent on the Acoustic software. The only thing the Acoustic software does have is the "calibration" tool which is essentially a wizard to automate the settings for compression and clipping.
 
Wow, this turned into a great thread with lots of useful info. Thanks to Jim for starting it.

It's hard to add to Booli's thoughts but as he alluded to, Amplitube Acoustic is basically a simplified version of Amplitube. It appears to be aimed at people who want to capture and create acoustic sound so it's light on the effects. It has 3 built-in amps which also seem to be geared toward "clean" sound. That being said there doesn't seem to be much you can do with Amplitube Acoustic that you can't do with Amplitube. I only mention this because the iRig Acoustic mic isn't at all dependent on the Acoustic software. The only thing the Acoustic software does have is the "calibration" tool which is essentially a wizard to automate the settings for compression and clipping.

Thanks photoshooter :), and yes also thanks to Jim Hanks for the gentle prodding to get some info out by making this thread. I am happy to share.

I agree with everything that photoshooter said about the software.

So photoshooter, for the record...

do you LIKE the iRig Acoustic? Do you like the sound it captures? Are you happy with it? Would you recommend it to others? Would you buy it again if it got lost/stolen?

Or

do you HATE it and think it's a waste of time and money? Is it just a small triangle of crapola hanging from a wire, ready for target practice with a BB gun? LOL.

:music: :shaka:
 
I feel like I might be slightly biased for two reasons;
I'm somewhat invested in the iRig system
I'm a total newb to all of this and iRig makes it easy to jump in the water.


For this reason I can't compare it to other systems. But for the record I like the Acoustic very much so far. I have pickups on all my ukes so I was able to play plugged in and to record but I found that it took a lot of fiddling with amp settings to get sounds I like. Not really a big deal but if you're putting forth a certain effort to try different strings in order to find "the ones" that sing to you, playing plugged in to a piezo sort of negates that.

I like the fact that I now have a way to record "acoustic" sound. The icing on the cake is the fact that it's cheap and doesn't require a deep knowledge of audio engineering. So yes, I'm very happy with my purchase…especially for $40! At that price point I would definitely buy it again if it broke or was lost/stolen.


I don't have a deep knowledge of available hardware but it seems to me that you'd be hard pressed to get the same functionality from another product at this price point. Especially when you factor in that it's not tied to a specific instrument. So the small investment in my case is spread over three ukes. I have MiSi pickups in two of my ukes and an Artec in another uke. I look at all of these things as tools for different specific purposes.


I currently own the iRig HD which I'm very happy with so this may also bias my opinion of the iRig Acoustic. I have my sights set on the iRig Pro Duo as well which performs a function I currently do not have; to record two inputs. This could be configured so that the iRig Acoustic is one of the inputs and a vocal mic the other input. Now as I said I'm a newb to all of this so there may be other options that are better. We talked a little about hardware in this thread and in the "free software for recording" thread and I'm picking up a lot of great tips which may affect my future purchases (want: Focusrite iTrack Dock, damn you Booli!).

Mike
 
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I did not know about this iOS device function, so thanks for sharing the info. I've used Aggregate Audio devices before with great success.

So to confirm...(please indulge me :))

1. You have the iPhone acting as 'input #1' with the iRig, and the iPlug-M acting as 'input #2' on the iPad.

2. Each iOS device is connected to your Mac via USB to the dock connector on the device.

3. You have created and enabled an Aggregate Audio device that combines both iOS audio paths so they are exposed to Garageband as a single device with 2 input channels.

Is this right?

How are you monitoring the audio? via the standard audio-out jack on your Mac?

How is the latency, if any?

Thanks in advance for clarifying. I may have to try this too. :)

Yes to 1 and 2. As to 3, you get two extra stereo inputs, so if they are your only extra inputs and you have a macbook you would 6 mono input en 3 stereo inputs. One stereo for the builtin mic (normally input 1 and 2), one stereo for iOS device 1 and one stereo for iOS device 2.

Latency is "normal" or even better then when using an iRig directly to the mac, or using the microphone input if you have that.

You can then indeed monitor via the mac, hope that clarifies it.
 
Can someone please tell me how you get the vocals and uke to pan so it's not left ear right ear, thanks.
 
Can someone please tell me how you get the vocals and uke to pan so it's not left ear right ear, thanks.

Is there a switch on the iRig Pro DUO labeled 'STEREO/MONO' if so, try setting it to the mono position, if not then you have to look at whatever program you are using and see if there is a setting for making the program's audio output mono or 'dual mono'.

[edit] You can also change the PAN settings in your recording software on each track to the middle instead of hard-left and hard-right.[/edit]

Just to clarify, you are asking about the iRig Pro DUO:
irigproduo_34.jpg


and this thread is actually about the iRig Acoustic:
irigacoustic_0U6A5103.jpg


[edit 2] The reason I mention the iRig Pro DUO is because I recall a post from Ukulelerick9255 regarding this interface, but I don't see it in the thread any more, maybe it was deleted?[/edit 2]
 
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What about the iRig Acoustic Stage that will be available in April? Worth waiting for? What additional does it offer? I am REALLY a nerd on this stuff. I know other posters have said they're newbies concerning this electronic world but I'll put my lack of knowledge up against anyone's.

OOPS never mind. Found it here: http://forum.ukuleleunderground.com...oustic-Stage-99&highlight=iRig+Acoustic+stage

Gotta remember to "search" first.
 
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