As I travel a lot and cannot always take an amp, it made sense to me to use an interface for my iPad or Mac. This way it cannot only record myself, but also use a multitude of amps, pedals and so forth instead of having to buy and take them around.
I found this one here, seems a reasonable price to me for getting into to this stuff.
I was wondering, if anybody has experience using the iRig or any kind of other interfaceā¦ would you recommend it? Is it easy to use, or do I need other equipment?
At this stage I would recommend the NUX MP3. I just tested it with my new ipad. With garageband was able to record my guitar as well as use garagebandās effects pedals. The big benefit of the NUX MP3 is that it works as a standalone plug amp. It has plenty of amp models and effects pedals to play with. It can be used as an audio interface with your PC as well as the ipad. It connects via bluetooth so you can play along to lessons and backing tracks wirelessly. Its relatively cheap.
Recording is not really my thing and I havenāt fully come to grips with recording (input/output level adjustment etc) but the MP3 definitely works. There are some USB settings that I donāt fully understand yet.
AFAIK, with the irig, I think it will be necessary to plug into your ipad whenever you want to use it. Itās not a standalone amp unlike the mustang and the NUX.
I also have an old irig 2 which works with the ipad.
Which version ipad do you have? I have a new one with a single USB port and no headphone jack which is a pain. This could be a problem if you use the mustang micro because, afaik, the micro doesnāt send the ipad audio back through the usb connector. And since it doesnāt have a headphone jack you have to listen to it through the ipad speakers. A bluetooth speaker wonāt work because of the lag, which makes playing impossible. The micro might be fine with headphone speakers if your ipad has a headphone jack.
I second the Nux MP3 mighty plug. Earphones for quiet practice (I use the wired buds that came with my phone). Amazing range of amps/cabs and effects. Can use without phone or pc, just plug and play. Even has backing tracks, drums, tuners etc built in. Unbeatable for the price. Oh and did I mention you can record and or livestreamš
I would have a look at the amps, FX, and IRs that come with the MP-3 and then match that up against what comes with Amplitube, Iām assuming youāre going to use Amplitube as your software suite.
I was browsing Gearpage forum re mp3 and one of the members provided link to a collection of custom presets for the Nux mp3 pro. You can scan individual presets or download the lot in one file. I picked a few that I found sounded really nice on my guitar setup and thought Iād share the link here for other Nux users. https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1OPwNKdEB3I-RfjvSO__kkp4Qgiy7fwiK
Cheers
Dave
You need to go to nuxefx.com and download the updater (either for Mac or Windows), connect the MP-3 to the computer with a USB cable, and update it.
Thereās also a firmware update instruction PDF on the same website which explains how to do this, including how to put the device into āDFU modeā so it can be updated.
Here is a good overview of the NUX MP3. It should get you up and running. The new firmware has added a tuner which is great. Youāll find it under the settings options.
Hi Kevin, the NUX site also has a pdf describing how to update the firmware of your MP3. Make sure you read it carefully.
It is worth doing the update as there are some additional features available, such as a built in tuner. Give us a shout if you need any help working it out.
Also works with ipad, iphone and android; the only beef I have with it is the micro-usb interface, which brings in weird combinations (micro-usb - lightning/usb-c). But otherwise I like it more than iRig, itās sturdy and cool.
I just plugged it into mac/ipad and iphone with Bias FX and it was great. The wires go back and forth all over the place, but overall itās a great thing to have, you can interface guitar into anything w/o desktop interface.
Hi guys,
It worked well! Thank you so much.
Still, it appears that I am too stupid to connect it to my Macā¦ I wanted to record into garage band, but it does not work. Can anybody help? :S
Hi Kevin, Iām using mine with an iPad and havenāt done recording yet but a quick play revealed it connected via my usb/camera connector (my old iPad doesnāt have built in usb). In GarageBand I selected audio/instrument and added a track. I needed to connect the mp3 via Bluetooth to iPad before GarageBand would connect to it. You will need to connect to Mac Bluetooth. Just tapping the exposed plug on the mp3, I see the waveform jump so itās seeing the input. Some pics taken during connection are below. Last pic you can see tapping input recorded on guitar track.
So playing around with mp3 and GarageBand and slowly getting there. The recorded guitar sounds really good (not the playing of it lol). I needed to go into mp3 settings, usb output and turn up the level to 10+ db so that I could keep the mp3 earplugs from blowing my eardrums. In hindsight I could probably set mp3 to loopback and listen that way. Still the first approach seems to be working well.
In summary, connect mp3 to mightieramp app first if you want to adjust output levels. You can leave it connected and run side by side with GarageBand to adjust levels and settings on the fly. Next connect mp3 to Bluetooth on iPad. Open GarageBand and check settings to make sure mp3 shows connected. If not just tap the setting to connect.
Add a track, hit record and play Should be similar on Mac.
Should be similar on Mac.