An electric guitar, its a truism to say, needs to be connected to be heard and recorded. The art of mating the instrument with various other FX devices and amps can be said to comprise much of the creative act. Hendrix famously searched out the wah-wah pedal to get his ‘underwater’ sound. Andy Summers is strongly associated with his signature chorus/delay combo. A musician needs to be both something up a technical wizard as well as a creative expert in order to create the sounds required. It used to require row upon row of little battery-powered boxes connected by patch cables. Not today. Your phone can do it all. But you still need to connect your guitar to you phone. IK Multimedia's iRig devices have long set the standard in reliability, portability and quality generally in this market category.
The ability to connect a guitar to an amplifier or even to various effects of the time has become easier and easier with the advent of plug-in devices that enable it. What is perhaps a little more difficult is throughput. Simply put, this is getting the signal to amplify directly without having to go through the phone based effects. The iRig2 have solved this problem by providing two separate circuits: one for the guitar signal alone, and one that goes into the IOS device or Android. A new FX/THRU switch allows iRig 2 to send either a wet or dry signal through the device. This means that guitarists can play live with an amplifier and use their mobile device with a tuner app, such as IK's UltraTuner, or a recording app, such as IK's iRig Recorder, to record a dry signal for further processing.This dual path system removes the necessity for the player to disconnect everything in order to have what's called a dry signal one which enables the play just to listen to the guitar without effects. IK Multimedia have listened to its customer base who comprise a great number of guitar players out there and have in addition to this ‘direct line’ feature, also added wisely a gain control in order to have another level of oversight over the signal strength getting to the app. iRig 2 now also offers compatibility with Android 5 devices. As the most convenient way to bring a guitar signal into a mobile device, it lets musicians use the hundreds of available tuning and recording apps available, such as the forthcoming UltraTuner for Android.
iRig 2 now comes with gain control, which lets users precisely adjust the input gain of their instrument to match their mobile device. This means that it can be customized to always provide the best sound, no matter what type of guitar, bass or line-level instrument or device is used. In other words, iRig 2 sounds just as good connecting a wailing humbucker electric guitar to an iPhone 6 as it does a jazzy archtop or mellow electric piano to a Samsung Galaxy Note 4. The new 1/4" amplifier output, in addition to its traditional 1/8" headphone output, allows iRig 2 to be plugged directly into a guitar amplifier or powered speakers without an adapter which is very convenient for cable management.
iRig 2 now not only works with iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and Mac, but that it also supports the complete line of new Samsung Professional Audio devices. Using the Android version of AmpliTube, iRig 2 is fully compatible with Note 3, Note 4, Galaxy Edge, Galaxy S5 and also the forthcoming S6. iRig 2 works fine with free versions of AmpliTube for iOS, Mac and Android Samsung Pro Audio. Galaxy Note 4, Galaxy Note Edge owners will receive AmpliTube LE for Samsung Pro Audio as a complementary download courtesy of the included Galaxy Gifts app bundle that comes with their mobile device. iRig 2 is made to pair with AmpliTube it works also with Apple's GarageBand, Samsung's Soundcamp and many others.
Having a dry signal be available for recording while I'm playing live or even recording to another device is very useful and one that I'm grateful for. My iPhone can serve as a record of a guitar performance irrespective of how that performance is picked up by people or devices on the day. The iRig2 just made portable guitar interface technology a whole lot better.
Price $39.99 (excl. taxes).
For more information:
www.irig2.com
www.amplitube.com
To watch official videos of iRig 2 in action, go to:
www.irig2.com/video
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