Hi all, I need some help in figuring what I need to get this to work.
I have a celestion creamback and an empty cab coming soon (1 1/4 jack input) which I will use instead on my Katana 50.
Before I can use this I also want have the audio signal from the Ipad (9th gen) to also come from that speaker. I’m going to say that it would be better to use the headphone out from the IPad (as its used to the katana).
I will use the Scarlet 8i6 with my Guitar and I’ve tried a direct connection of the ipad but the sound is pretty dire.
What hardware is the easiest way to achieve and where in the chain would it go if its possible, when I loose the Aux input on the Katana.
Apple do sell a Lightning to USB dongle which gives the iPad a USB-A port (it’s described as being for camera connection)…
BUT
I’d strongly suggest you do some googling to find out if anyone has connected an iPad to an audio interface using this method because it might not work… it is called a camera connection after all… and it’s about £40 which is a lot if doesn’t work or is no better than the headphone jack
Maybe I’m missing something, but I don’t see a guitar amp mentioned in your new setup. You cannot use a cab and a speaker without an amplifier.
Typically, for a setup like that you would need an amp head unit, plugged into the cab, with line out from the iPad (maybe headphone out) going into the line input of the amp.
No, you’re not missing anything , I have not chosen an amp yet. I’ve seen amps with a single line like the baby bomb 30. thats ok to take the signal from the AI, but I still have to find a way to get the Ipad signal in somewhere.
The signal degradation is very bad as a line into the AI, I get music, but very poor vocals from it.
Have you tried changing the input on the Scarlett to make sure it’s set to “Line” and not “Instrument”?
Also, try playing with the input gain on the channel you are connecting to.
Also, you don’t say which model Scarlett, but the inputs are normally mono, and output from your iPad will be stereo. You will need a Stereo to Mono adapter cable and then plug into two channels on the Scarlett. Something like this:
I used the adapter they call a camera kit to attach my iPad to my Helix, the iPad uses that small connector sorry not sure what usb version they call that
Don’t get ripped off with the apple made one. You can get 3rd party ones on Amazon like mine which works perfectly, and even has power adapter plug so it can charge while using
If you are connecting the stereo output of your iPad into a single mono input of an audio interface using a 3.5mm TRS to 6.35mm TRS cable like this:
That will not work.
The jack inputs on the Scarlett AIs are usually mono and will normally take the TRS jack input and try to interpret the signal as a mono balanced signal. If you are providing a stereo signal, then it’s going to sound bad.
You need to split the stereo output from the iPad into two mono TS connectors using a cable like the one I indicated before.
Alternatively, you need to convert the stereo signal to a mono signal and connect into a single input on the Scarlett using something like this:
(“TRS” means “Tip, Ring Sleeve” and indicates that the plug has 3 separate contacts on it, “TS” means “Tip, Sleeve” and has two contacts)
Just an idea… what about bluetooth reciever and line-in on your amp.
I have so called headphone amp Fender Mustang Micro… beside classic (battery powered) amp it has the ability to recieve audio through bluetooth and play it to the headphones. And you connect headphones through classical connector… Instead of headhones I can also connect speakers … or I can use it to connect to line-in on my amp. And I actually do this quite often to stream JG video sound from my tablet PC to my Blackstar amplifier.
I am pretty sure you can use any bluetooth reciever. There are a lot of them on amazon… I also own 1Mii B06 Plus Bluetooth HiFi Receiver and it works nice.
Joining just to add some two cents from my own setup:
I use my iPhone as backing track, metronome, etc., so I mix it’s audio with the guitar, just like you do with the iPad and the Katana (before).
In my setup I have a Boss GT-1 effects box, so I use the “aux in” input from the GT-1 and the iPhone sounds very good. If you want to plug to an amp you’ll probably need one which also has an “aux in” (sometimes labeled “phone in” or “mp3 in”) input. That is because these are all “line level”, which is a higher voltage (and lower impedance) than an instrument input. If you plug a phone or tablet into an instrument input it will clip and distort, and just sound horrible.
Finally, something that works well for me: instead of plugging the phone (or iPad) directly to the effects box or amp, I connected a little Bluetooth receiver dongle and they way I just send BT audio from my phone to the GT-1. I found that better than using the lightning-to-audio adapter because the phone is not tethered, I can have it anywhere (including charging if needed). For Bluetooth I used this little gadget here.
The only thing to keep in mind is that BT audio has a little bit of lag, so if you are looking at the screen (think something like Justin’s guitar app in karaoke mode) the audio will be a few milliseconds behind and it’s just enough to throw you off. Because I use the phone primarily for backing track, I’m not looking at the screen when playing, and this is not at all an issue.
A cab and speaker is designed for a guitar amp head and the amp head is designed to plug the guitar into directly.
You can do it indirectly via the aux port but you then aren’t really using the amp head as a guitar amp. You are using it as a sort of PA or FRFR amp, except it won’t be FRFR.
If your main aim is to use software plugins and don’t intend to plug directly into the amp, connecting through monitor speakers or an FRFR cab (which is really just a monitor speaker in a different package) is probably best.
