Interface to use with an iPad.

[mcnach]

On 22/02/2021 at 09:52, Reggaebass said:

I’ve only just started playing around with GarageBand on my iPad Pro with an irig2, which is fine but I’m thinking of something a bit better, is the Scarlett solo a good upgrade and is it easy to use dave , for a novice like me 🙂

 

NOt an iPad but an Android tablet user here, and having both iRig2 and the Solo, I'd say go for it. Nicer in every respect and if I can use it anybody can  In addition, you can power the Solo directly from the iPad/tablet which comes handy sometimes.

[Reggaebass]

1 minute ago, mcnach said:

you can power the Solo directly from the iPad/tablet which comes handy sometimes.

Thanks mcnach, yeah I like the idea that you can power it off the iPad and it looks like a nice bit of kit 

[dave_bass5]

7 hours ago, Reggaebass said:

Thanks mcnach, yeah I like the idea that you can power it off the iPad and it looks like a nice bit of kit 

Just to be clear, only the USB-C model’s can do this. Which is fine for both of us, but thought I’d point it out. 
Also worth mentioning Cubasis as an alternative to GB. It’s much more DAW like, but for messing around GB has it all.  

Edited February 23, 2021 by dave_bass5
Typo

[Reggaebass]

Quick question, would my amp plug into the Line output on the back, as there’s a left and right option 

[dave_bass5]

21 minutes ago, Reggaebass said:

Quick question, would my amp plug into the Line output on the back, as there’s a left and right option 

Yeah, just watch the levels. Might be better to go in to the amp via the FX return if you have one.

[Reggaebass]

5 minutes ago, dave_bass5 said:

Yeah, just watch the levels. Might be better to go in to the amp via the FX return if you have one.

Thanks Dave, the RM500 does have a FX return 

[adamg67]

On 23/02/2021 at 12:15, mcnach said:

 

NOt an iPad but an Android tablet user here, and having both iRig2 and the Solo, I'd say go for it. Nicer in every respect and if I can use it anybody can  In addition, you can power the Solo directly from the iPad/tablet which comes handy sometimes.

My iRig HD 2 is powered from my iPad, then there's an extra thingy that will power it all and charge the iPad for longer stints. 

[Reggaebass]

41 minutes ago, adamg67 said:

My iRig HD 2 is powered from my iPad, then there's an extra thingy that will power it all and charge the iPad for longer stints. 

What do you use to power it all Adam 

[Reggaebass]

On 23/02/2021 at 12:15, mcnach said:

 

NOt an iPad but an Android tablet user here, and having both iRig2 and the Solo, I'd say go for it. Nicer in every respect and if I can use it anybody can  In addition, you can power the Solo directly from the iPad/tablet which comes handy sometimes.

Hi mcnach, I did get a solo and your right it is a nicer bit of kit, I’m still experimenting with the track/bass recording levels, once I’ve sussed that out it will be better, I’ve been recording using headphones as suggested in another thread, can I ask, when you play back your recording do you play it through your rig or do you use powered monitors from your solo 🙂

[Cuzzie]

1 minute ago, Reggaebass said:

Hi mcnach, I did get a solo and your right it is a nicer bit of kit, I’m still experimenting with the track/bass recording levels, once I’ve sussed that out it will be better, I’ve been recording using headphones as suggested in another thread, can I ask, when you play back your recording do you play it through your rig or do you use powered monitors from your solo 🙂

When i play back after doing levels i try to do a mix of headphones vs some form of speaker to get a flavour. Remember what the bias is on your headphones when you are setting levels or you could be setting your levels not quite right.

I think ultimately speakers should be the final listen and say so on how it sounds

[dave_bass5]

1 hour ago, Cuzzie said:

When i play back after doing levels i try to do a mix of headphones vs some form of speaker to get a flavour. Remember what the bias is on your headphones when you are setting levels or you could be setting your levels not quite right.

I think ultimately speakers should be the final listen and say so on how it sounds

Thats what i do. My set up is in the living room so most of the time i record with headphones. You just have to get used to how the different devices sound. I know now that i need to boost the bass a bit more than I’d like when using my AKG headphones, and this seems to give a better level through normal speakers. I also have a pair of small JBL 104’s on my deck so go back and forth between those. 

Also a good idea to try the mix at low volume to make sure the vocals stand out. 

Since the thread started ive move up to a Steinberg UR22C interface. I really missed the headphone volume knob when doing the above. Sometimes I’d forget to turn the speakers down and get told off by the Family lol. It also has its own DSP, so you get a channel strip with EQ and Comp,  decent reverb and amp sims with zero latency on the input. This is on ipad and computer which is cool for just jamming around without loading a DAW etc.

Edited March 21, 2021 by dave_bass5
Typo.

[dave_bass5]

Blimey, Sunday morning typos lol. 

[mcnach]

3 hours ago, Reggaebass said:

Hi mcnach, I did get a solo and your right it is a nicer bit of kit, I’m still experimenting with the track/bass recording levels, once I’ve sussed that out it will be better, I’ve been recording using headphones as suggested in another thread, can I ask, when you play back your recording do you play it through your rig or do you use powered monitors from your solo 🙂

 

I use some very basic powered monitors whose primary function was simply play music from my PC, nothing special. I only use headphones if using a microphone (I'm using a cheap nylon string guitar a lot these days, it sounds nicer with a microphone than using its built-in preamp).  

[mcnach]

4 hours ago, adamg67 said:

My iRig HD 2 is powered from my iPad, then there's an extra thingy that will power it all and charge the iPad for longer stints. 

 

Is that the cable with the splitter that allows you to hook it up to a charger while still being connected to the iPad? I use something like that and connect it to a stand alone power pack sometimes if I'm concerned about running out of juice.

[mcnach]

3 hours ago, Cuzzie said:

When i play back after doing levels i try to do a mix of headphones vs some form of speaker to get a flavour. Remember what the bias is on your headphones when you are setting levels or you could be setting your levels not quite right.

I think ultimately speakers should be the final listen and say so on how it sounds

 

+1

My recordings are very basic demos to share with the band, so I'm not terribly concerned about sound quality, but I still try to make it sound balanced. The most important thing is to be familiar with how your speakers/headphones sound, I think. They all have their biases unless proper reference monitors (and even then, reference monitors are very useful to set a mix but you still want 'real life' speakers to check how it all translates in practice), but if you know how they sound when applied to music that sounds like the way you want to sound, you'll get close. I tend to have a few songs that I like how they sound and compare roughly what I record to them. When my mix doesn't sound too far off my 'reference songs' I call it a day. Also I find that generally if it sounds ok in the car, it sounds ok anywhere. But I'm not going for polished mixes, I have to say, although the rule is the same... just the amount of work you want to put on it.

 

[adamg67]

1 minute ago, mcnach said:

 

Is that the cable with the splitter that allows you to hook it up to a charger while still being connected to the iPad? I use something like that and connect it to a stand alone power pack sometimes if I'm concerned about running out of juice.

Yes, that's the thing. It gives me two setups, one with just the iRig, lightning cable and some ear bud headphones which is good for practice or taking with me if I'm away ( remember when that was possible ). The other adds mains power, an iPad holder and a blue board and is good enough to rehearse and jam all day if I need to.

It's my rig for guitar (or baritone guitar or bass-vi), I don't bother with a guitar amp any more and can use my my mb multiamp and barefaced cab as a power amp if I need it loud. It works really well and I've used it for practice quite a few times, but as these things go I've moved away from guitar a bit so I've hardly ever used the full rig in anger. I keep thinking it should go in the for sale section.

[mcnach]

2 hours ago, dave_bass5 said:

Thats what i do. My set up is in the living room so most of the time i record with headphones. You just have to get used to how the different devices sound. I know now that i need to boost the bass a bit more than I’d like when using my AKG headphones, and this seems to give a better level through normal speakers. I also have a pair of small JBL 104’s on my deck so go back and forth between those. 

Also a good idea to try the mix at low volume to make sure the vocals stand out. 

Since the thread started ive move up to a Steinberg UR22C interface. I really missed the headphone volume knob when doing the above. Sometimes I’d forget to turn the speakers down and get told off by the Family lol. It also has its own DSP, so you get a channel strip with EQ and Comp,  decent reverb and amp sims with zero latency on the input. This is on ipad and computer which is cool for just jamming around without loading a DAW etc.

 

The UR22C interface looks cool, I have considered getting one as it looks like it *might* be able to work with two condenser microphones, for stereo recording: can it do that?

Also, I see there's a switch in the back to choose whether the power comes via USB-C or microUSB. Can that be used so that it's powered via say microUSB and use USB-C for data transfer between the interface and laptop/tablet?

 

[dave_bass5]

1 minute ago, mcnach said:

 

The UR22C interface looks cool, I have considered getting one as it looks like it *might* be able to work with two condenser microphones, for stereo recording: can it do that?

Also, I see there's a switch in the back to choose whether the power comes via USB-C or microUSB. Can that be used so that it's powered via say microUSB and use USB-C for data transfer between the interface and laptop/tablet?

 

Yes. Stereo was one of the things I really missed with the Solo. At first it was fine, but when I needed to record my Keyboard it became a problem unless I used USB, and it’s a bit of a faff changing over each time. Even my Focusrite 2i4 can do it, but my son uses it now. I had never bothered looking at the UR series until a mate got one and I had to set it up for him. 
It’s down to the DAW to set the configuration to stereo, but it works well. With CB it’s a lot more integrated, but any DAW should allow you to set up a stereo input from this. 
I’ve just recorded my GF singing in to my iPad, and the control panel that you can download to the iPad is great. Really useful as you get proper input metering at hardware level, and you can apply the effects so they are only there for monitoring, or get recorded. You can’t with the reverb though, but you wouldn’t want to. This is all before it gets to the DAW (Cunasis in my case). 
I’ve not tried the power switch, but I believe it will work like that. I can give it a try later if it helps. 

[mcnach]

1 hour ago, dave_bass5 said:

Yes. Stereo was one of the things I really missed with the Solo. At first it was fine, but when I needed to record my Keyboard it became a problem unless I used USB, and it’s a bit of a faff changing over each time. Even my Focusrite 2i4 can do it, but my son uses it now. I had never bothered looking at the UR series until a mate got one and I had to set it up for him. 
It’s down to the DAW to set the configuration to stereo, but it works well. With CB it’s a lot more integrated, but any DAW should allow you to set up a stereo input from this. 
I’ve just recorded my GF singing in to my iPad, and the control panel that you can download to the iPad is great. Really useful as you get proper input metering at hardware level, and you can apply the effects so they are only there for monitoring, or get recorded. You can’t with the reverb though, but you wouldn’t want to. This is all before it gets to the DAW (Cunasis in my case). 
I’ve not tried the power switch, but I believe it will work like that. I can give it a try later if it helps. 

 

Thank you, that sounds just right. It's not a big issue normally (stereo) but sometimes I do wish I could. If you get a chance to verify whether the switch means one USB can be used for powering it and another for data that would very really useful, thank you  again not a big deal, but it would streamline my connections somewhat.

[dave_bass5]

No problem. I guess its something i should know in case i need to use it like this.

It does work as expected, at least with my ipad. Connected the UR22C to the ipad via USB-C as i normaly would, all working fine,  and when I changed the power over to the micro USB it went dead. Plugged in a phone charger to the Micro USB and it all came back to life. 

[adamlunt]

I really enjoy the Roland GoMixer Pro. 

I use it for general playalong stuff and demos, and it has a nice little cradle for your phone so you can video yourself with brilliant audio quality. Plus, enough ins and outs for additional instruments, a mic (with phantom power), mp3 player, mixer input for live gig/rehearsal recording.