IK Media Irig and free software

[olddawg]

So..... I got this stupid deal from MF for an Irig for my IPhone 5 for $19. I didn't expect much. And... I didn't get much. The interface is totally passive. All it does is provide a 1/4" jack for your guitar cord to plug into the mic input and an extension jack for the headphone out. It all just plugs into the headphone jack on the iPhone. You could make one for a couple of bucks with a plastic project box. But... The Free Amplitube Fender authorized amp ap is pretty damn impressive for what it is. It purports to be a digital approximation of a black face Deluxe Reverb. It has tremolo and reverb, also has some overdrive presets. It has a built in tuner, metronome, a rudimentary drum machine, and a recorder. Again all free. It will loop tracks. For $9.99 you can upgrade to a 4 track recorder and you can bounce tracks. I was surprised. I could finish out a night if I had to with my damn phone and you can virtually plug into anything with an amplifier and a speaker. Seriously. Check it out. For free what have you got to lose. Works for a bass DI too. There are other free amp models as well as Amplitube aps.

[Enzo]

Check out the Peavey iPhone thingie:

Peavey.com

Peavey.com


it comes with amp and effect pedal apps already in it.

[olddawg]

Yeah Enzo. That Peavey HD is an active device. The new IRig HD is active as well. The original Irig just relies on the software and the software (at least some of it) is free. The point I was making was with a couple of jacks and plugs you can use your iphone as a pretty decent amp simulator and 4 channel recorder for little or nothing. I was actually surprised that it was very usable. Usually stuff of this sort is total crap, lol.

[cyclone]

i have been utterly disappointed with the sound quality of the Irig and other Ipod/Ipad interfaces and software. I bought Irig and the full Amplitube suite etc all the pedals, hoping for a decent hotel room solution with my traveller guitar. What a crapfest! I recently purchased the Apogee Jam, its active and much better sound quality but won't work with my Ipad and their support is non-existent. i think Garage Band sounds like crap, totally plastic plinky transistor sounding and non inspiring. If that's all I had, I'd quit playing.

The pocket rockit headphone amp in my traveller guitar sounds like a big bag of ass as well. I'm designing a drop in board for it with a discrete fet amp that will achieve a more traditional organic sound without that transistor "plink" sound that all the virtual stuff has. I might put a cab simulator on the board to help it sound more realistic.

I'm generally not that picky about tube types or designer caps or wire types blah blah blah my playing still sounds the same to me and I have a substantial amp collection but imho there is no tone at all in any of this modern hardware or software. I'd much prefer the tone from the " hot watt" headphone amp I had in the 80's, far superior.

I'm sure the response other tonal qualities of the headphones I'm using have an effect on the tone, the hottwatt had bigger non earbud style headphones, probably with magic mojo alnico vintage speakers

[olddawg]

Like I said, "For what it is". Of course it doesn't sound like the amps I gig with. And through headphones they all sound weird and plastic. Decent headphones help a bit over earbuds. But..... plugged into a cheap SS amp with a 12" speaker it wasn't awful. I've played through worse sounding amps and it is, well, free for the basic amp. And you could play it through a battery powered amp as well.

[cyclone]

no, I'm saying that its most profoundly not good enough! all this tech sounds so bad it doesn't qualify even as being sucky. that's what I'm saying to people who might read this and be tempted, don't waste your money. an unamplified electric guitar sounds light years better than the best digital app, its a sad fact. I owned several analogue headphone amps in the 80's and they sounded "good enough" at the time, I'd be happy to have my old hott watt or rockman right now.

try before you buy, and if you want to revisit the "tubes vs transistor" debate, three seconds with a digital guitar interface like irig or apogee jam and amplitube or garageband will make one understand the difference. There are good sounding transistor amps and headphone amps out there, or there were at one time, the above digital examples are the worst sound quality and will flat discourage people from playing guitar.

The virtual pedals are pretty cool but you can't get anything other than a plinky transistor rubber chicken sound without them, and just like barbecue sauce doesn't fix rubber chicken, the pedals don't fix tasteless tone. Garageband is so beautiful, the gui, there's even nicks in the tolex on the amps, etc. I wanted to love it so bad, but it is just a turd taking up 387meg on my Ipad.

[Steve Conner]

At a recent band rehearsal I tried using IRig/Amplitube through the PA instead of my usual tube amp. It wasn't nearly as good, but it was kind of usable and maybe with some tweaking of headroom and levels it could have been better.

Disclaimer: I wouldn't ever have bought it myself, our bassist did