How To Use Irig Midi With Garageband Ipad
In this feature I ditch the recording studio and take a look at the best portable interfaces for GarageBand musicians who want the freedom to record anytime, anywhere.
The beauty of an app like GarageBand for iOS is that you no longer need to spend ludicrous amounts of money renting studio time or wait until your ‘big break’ to write, record and release your own music.
There are also MIDI connectors such as the iRig MIDI, which hook up MIDI keyboards, drum machines, drum pads, pedal boards and more to an iOS device. Connect your guitar to your iOS device (we’re using an iRig), get your headphones on and turn up the volume on your headphones and guitar. Open GarageBand. You can connect a compatible Bluetooth® MIDI device to your iPad, and use it to play and control Touch Instruments in GarageBand. Tap the Settings button in the control bar. Tap Advanced, then tap Bluetooth MIDI Devices. Tap the name of the device you want to connect, then tap the Connect switch on.
If you want your DIY music to sound its best however, you’ll need to ditch that inbuilt mic on your iOS device and invest in an audio interface of some kind.
There’s tons of choice out there and it can be hard to work out what interface is right for you. I’ve brought together 3 of the best portable recording interfaces on the planet to help you narrow down your options.
Let’s take a look.
£74.99/$99.99
Compact, portable, and easy to use, the Roland GO:MIXER makes it simple to record high-quality audio with your iDevice.
With multiple inputs available, you can connect a mic, musical instruments, and media players and mix them all together at the same time.
The unit features the ability to combine five sources at once via inputs for a ¼” jack vocal mic (no XLR input or +48 V Phantom Power here), guitar, stereo keyboard, and two stereo line-level devices (such as music players, drum machines, etc.).
The quality is great, assuming you don’t clip/peak the audio. There is a dial for each main instrument input as well as a master volume dial to adjust as appropriate. The GO:MIXER also has a peaking LED which is useful to have.
All in all this little box is incredibly versatile, though the lack of XLR input or 48v Phantom Power would definitely prove limiting for some.
Tech Specs
- Inputs: 8 channels
- Outputs 2 channels
- Connectors INSTRUMENT (L/MONO, R) jacks: 1/4-inch phone type
- LINE IN 1 jack: Stereo miniature phone type
- LINE IN 2 jack: Stereo miniature phone type
- MIC jack: 1/4-inch phone type (no plug-in power)
- GUITAR/BASS jack: 1/4-inch phone type (high impedance)
- MONITOR OUT jack: Stereo miniature phone type
- USB port: USB Micro-B type USB Bus PowerCurrent Draw40 mA
- Accessories: Lightning to USB Micro-B type cable (50 cm, 1 ft 7 inches)
- USB OTG Micro-B type to USB Micro-B type cable (50 cm, 1 ft 7 inches)
£81.99/$119.99
Focusrite has a great track record for producing extraordinarily high quality USB and Thunderbolt audio interfaces for Mac and PC. With the iTrack Solo Lightning, they’ve packed most all of the killer features from their range into this little box.
While it is smaller and lacking a few of the features of some of Focusrite’s more expensive units , the iTrack Solo packs enough of a sonic punch to hold its own against most other interfaces at this price range.
The mic preamp used here series are nothing short of phenomenal, giving you clean and clear recordings every time. There’s also +48 V Phantom Power available, so you can use a studio quality condenser microphone to really push the quality of your recordings to the next level.
Super-low latency brings confidence to your performance, letting you record and monitor with software effects in real time.
New gain controls and a sleek metal chassis underscore its industrial design – this thing can take one hell of a beating!
Tech Specs
- 1 microphone input – XLR, 1 Instrument input ¼’ unbalanced, 2 Gain knobs,
- 48V Phantom power switch, Direct monitor switch
- 2 unbalanced monitor outputs – RCA Phone, DEVICE LINK port (to connect iTrack Solo to iPad)
- USB 2.0 Port, Kensington Lock slot
- Supported sample rates 44.1 KHz, 48 KHz, 88.2 KHz, 96 KHz – Mac and PC 44.1 KHz, 48 KHz – iPad
- In the box: iTrack Solo, 1.2m USB cable, 1.2m “DEVICE LINK” cable (to connect to a Lightning iPad), Getting started guide, Registration card, USB power supply (US only)
- Compatible with: iTrack Solo Lightning: Any iPad with Lightning connector, Standard iTrack Solo: iPad (1st gen), iPad (2nd gen) and iPad (3rd gen)
£127.99/$149.99
iRig Pro I/O is a pocket-sized full-featured audio and MIDI interface that gives you 24-bit/96kHz recording studio quality sound everywhere you go with a few additional essential features for mobile recording.
Its designed to be “plug and play” and easy to use with all of your gear — studio mics, vocal performance mics, guitars, basses, keyboards — whatever it is, iRig Pro I/O can probably handle it.
It features a new 1/8″ stereo headphone out with preamp and level control, making it compatible with even the most recent iOS devices. Plus, when used with the optional DC power supply, the unit will charge your iPhone or iPad while in use for unlimited playing and recording time – super handy!
The Pro I/O also features a new MIDI Out jack that gives you even more flexibility and control over your outboard MIDI gear.
Despite it’s small size the iRig Pro I/O has it where it counts, packing the features you’d expect from a full scale audio interface into it’s sleek form factor.
Tech Specs
- High definition 24-bit/96kHz audio plus MIDI interface for iPhone, iPad, Mac, PC and Android devices
- Connects to everything, yet easily fits in your laptop bag, gig bag or pocket
- Neutrik™ combo input for guitar, microphone or other instruments with a professional quality preamp, phantom power and gain control
- iPhone 7 ready with integrated headphone output with volume control
- Powered via USB bus, two AA batteries or the optional iRig PSU 3A (PSU simultaneously charges iOS device)
- Detachable Lightning and USB cables included for connection to iPhone, iPad, Mac and PC (MFi certified)
- Comes with a Velcro strip to secure iRig Pro I/O to a mic stand
- Comes with over $/€550 worth of full version Software & Apps
There you have it, that’s my top 3 favourite portable audio interfaces for use with GarageBand for iOS.
Is your favourite on the list? What did I miss out? Leave a comment and let me know, or come and join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter.
So You Want To Record Authentic-Sounding Guitar In Your DAW
In this article, I’ll show you exactly how to plug your guitar into GarageBand. The way that I find works best is the most convenient and sounds pretty good as well while minimizing latency and other problems.
How to Plug Your Guitar Into GarageBand
There are a few different ways of doing this, and some are significantly better than others. I’m just going to show you the way that I do it.
I have a couple of pieces of necessary gear:
- Obviously, your guitar.
- A Firewire to USB Cable
- an Audio Interface (I use the Focusrite Saffire 6USB. The Scarlett 2i2 is good too.)
- A USB-C to USB cable (The only reason this adapter is necessary is I’m using the latest edition of the MacBook Pro. The older generation MacBook Pro doesn’t need this adapter).
- Regular Guitar Cable.
If you’re new to music production, understand that a lot of this equipment will come in handy for years to come.
If you’re serious about recording and producing, much of this equipment and more are a necessity, so just grab some of it off Amazon and be done with it.
Without further ado,
The actual steps:
1) Connect your Firewire cable to your MacBook Pro. In most cases, this cable will come with your purchase of an audio interface, or a MIDI keyboard. However, if you don’t have one for whatever reason, I’m sure you can pick one up from Amazon for cheap.
2) Usually, the port for the firewire cable is on the back of the Audio Interface. Plug the other part of the firewire cable into the back of the Audio Interface.
In my case, the Firewire to USB has to go into the USB-C adapter that I mentioned earlier.
3) Now, assuming you have the Focusrite Saffire 6USB, it should be powered by your computer. You don’t have to plug it in or anything like that, so all of its lights will turn on which you can see on the front of the unit.
4) Open GarageBand.
5) Click “Open Project,” or one of your old existing files. It doesn’t matter.
6) Once it brings up the “Choose A Track Type Page,” Click on where it says: “Built-in Input.”
7) This should be all that’s needed for this part of the process. However, assuming this is the first time that you’ve ever done this, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to click on where it says, “Built-in Output.”
8) That should bring up your “Output” and “Input” Devices under the Audio-MIDI region preferences.
9) Make sure you’ve selected “Built-in Output,” if you’re using your computer as your speaker, or the speakers that are hooked up to your laptop.
10) Select your Audio Interface for the “Input Device.”
11) Now, once you’re back at the “Choose A Track Type Page,” then click on one of the two subheadings below, either the “Guitar option,” or the “Microphone option.” This should bring up your MIDI Region and all of your controls.
12) In the “Smart Controls Area,” make sure that you’ve selected your audio-interface where it says, “Input.”
13) Now, plug your guitar into the front of your Audio Interface.
14) Click on the “Monitoring Button,” which looks like an upside down Wi-Fi symbol. This part is important, otherwise, you won’t be able to hear what you’re even playing.
15) You can now select whatever kind of amp you want, whether it’s a “clean guitar,” “crunch guitar,” “acoustic guitar,” “distorted guitar,” “experimental guitar,” “clean bass,” “crunch bass,” and “experimental bass.”
16) You want to hit the “Monitoring” button beside your track-header as well. I’ve highlighted the upside down Wi-Fi-looking symbol with a black circle. It’ll turn orange once it’s been selected.
Under each heading, there are quite a few options that all sound pretty good, especially after you tweak them to your preferences.
And it’s pretty much as simple as that.
There are some problems that you can run into when doing all of this for the very first time. For that reason, I’ll explain some of the problems that I’ve had when I first started out.
Common Problems and Annoyances As A Beginner
1) Make sure that the gain on your Audio-Interface isn’t turned up too much, otherwise, you’re going to be feeding GarageBand too hot of a signal, which will make it sound distorted and bad.
2) Make sure the “Pad,” and “Inst,” buttons are turned off on your audio interface, assuming you own a Focusrite Saffire 6USB. I imagine there are similar controls on other audio interface models.
I find that these buttons make the signal too powerful as well, and thus, create distortion.
3) Latency. I’ve never actually had latency problems when using an Audio Interface, but some people do have this problem. I have an entire article on Latency which you can read more about here.
Essentially, if you’re having latency issues, there could be a number of different causes, however, most of them will be a result of your set-up and incorrect settings for your gear.
For instance, you want to make sure that – if you’re running more than one track – you have the monitoring button turned on for only one of them, rather than every single track.
Other Ways Of Recording Your Guitar In GarageBand
1) You can also use your MacBook’s microphone. This is for very rough demos, obviously, because this way of doing it is going to make a very low-quality recording. However, if you’re desperate, and want to record something, this method will work.
- To do this, you just open a new “Audio” track in your workspace.
- And then click on the “Record” button.
- Start playing the guitar with your amplifier close to it, and that should be enough for a very rough demo.
2) You can also purchase a Guitar to USB cable and hook your guitar directly up to GarageBand. This is an inferior way of recording guitar tracks as well, but it works if you’re running on a string budget.
(This is what a guitar-jack to USB looks like. I don’t own one so I couldn’t take a picture. I had to piece these two images together, but this is what it looks like).
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GarageBand will immediately recognize this as an input, so you don’t have to worry about there being compatibility issues.
However, like the method above, you’ll likely run into latency.
3) Use a small portable audio interface if you plan on only running one instrument through your DAW. This is pretty much the same as the main method which I described in detail above.
The only difference is that you’ll be using a much smaller, and likely, limited audio interface. The good thing about this is that it’s relatively inexpensive. Small interfaces are becoming exceedingly popular, like the iRig for example.
I haven’t picked one of these up yet, but once I start traveling around Europe, I imagine I’ll eventually purchase one. I’ll make sure to write a review on it once I do.
How To Use Irig Midi With Garageband Ipad 2
Update: You have to use the iRig HD if you want it to work with a PC computer or Mac. The iRig 2 is only good for mobile.
4) Another popular way would be to mic your guitar amplifier up to your audio interface and then through GarageBand.
This is a decent option, but I prefer just to run my guitar directly through GarageBand, rather than doing this. Amplifiers are too big and cumbersome, and I would much rather limit the amount of gear I own.
Before playing your guitar in GarageBand, know that there’s an actually fairly useful tuning mechanism set up in the DAW. It’s not as good as a good old fashioned Korg tuner, but it still works pretty well. I usually use it if I’m too lazy to go over and grab my tuner.
How To Use Irig Midi With Garageband Ipad Pro
How To Tune Your Guitar Using GarageBand
1) Your guitar is plugged into your audio interface in the computer, so it’s as simple as clicking on the tuning fork beside the center of the DAW where it shows the time signature, tempo, and key signature.
2) When you click on the tuning fork icon, it’ll bring up the meter where you can tune your guitar.
Other Features
One of the great things about using a DAW for your guitar is all of the great VST plug-ins that you can use for your guitar.
For example, you can download amplifier simulators and cabs for your set up, and while it may not sound good as the original which the plug-ins are modeled after, they still sound good enough to use, and they’re good enough for the vast majority of people who aren’t tone-purists.
I’ll show you how to download plug-ins into your DAW in a later article.
That’s all for now. If this helped you out, do me a favor and share it on social media.