This is the one iPhone accessory every musician should own
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As a musician, few things are as frustrating as having a lyric or guitar lick come out of nowhere without having a chance to jot it down somewhere. That's why so many of my iPhone's voice memos are mumbled words sung to a half-concocted melody.
While I have a pretty solid recording setup at home, it requires a few extra steps between me and the music, which is why I invested in IK Multimedia's iRig Pro.
It's a one-plug solution that works not only with my Mac, but my iPhone and iPad too, and can turn aimless noodling into a quick recording. The size of an extra-thick candy bar, the iRig Pro fits easily into a pants pocket, but there's a of power in that small box.
The biggest exterior feature is the huge gain knob. It feels nice to turn, offering just enough resistance that you won't adjust it by accident. The smartest part is the small LED that shows whether or not the sound is too hot, and clipping. On the side there's a headphone jack, and, more importantly, a volume dial so you can monitor the sound and not blow out your ear drums. The headphone jack is also convenient because you don't have to worry about whether your headphones can reach the device you're recording on.
Using the iRig Pro is pretty straightforward: On the top of the device is a wire that connects it to an iOS device, and on the bottom is a universal audio input that can take any 1/4 inch or XLR cable. You can record using any software you'd like; I defaulted to Apple's GarageBand because it was the most easily accessible iOS music app I could find.
The results were pretty good for such a plug-and-play device. Most importantly, the sound was clean, and free of hum and distortion. Having a hardware gain knob came in handy, because trying to judge how much to turn a software gain knob can get frustrating, quickly. Performance was uniform between my iPhone, iPad, and MacBook Pro, although a firmware update released last year lets the iRig Pro record at up to 96Hz/24bit resolutions, which is limited to recording on the Mac.
AmazonWhile I use it for song sketches, solo artists could easily "get away with" using the iRig Pro for entire multi-layered productions. Its ability to capture sound is very good, but ease of use and iOS compatibility are what puts this device over the top for me. If you've been looking for an easy way to record high-quality music on-the-go then, the iRig Pro may be the solution you've been looking for.
iRig Pro, $124.79, available at Amazon
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