Recording - December 2012 - 25

There are lots of cool MIDI-generating apps on iOS; you can generate control data for DAWs and audio hardware, run synthesizers with analog-style sequencer apps, and more. Moving in the opposite direction, MIDI input to an iOS device lets you play virtual instruments with familiar keyboards rather than using the touch screen. With all that in mind, a good MIDI interface would be a handy thing to have lying around, and IK Multimedia has a very good candidate in the iRig MIDI. The iRig MIDI is a tiny box, about the size of a matchbook, which attaches to the iOS device’s 30-pin dock connector. It has four ports: MIDI In, Out, and Thru, plus an external USB power port. This latter is critical, as most dock-connector accessories for iOS don’t provide a way to charge your device while you’re using them. More makers need to take IK’s cue in this! Two MIDI-activity LEDs complete the layout.

The iRig MIDI is especially handy if you’re using an iPhone or iPod touch for your MIDI work; these devices are incompatible with Apple’s Camera Connection Kit that allows the user to hook up conventional USB MIDI interfaces to the iPad, so a purpose-built MIDI interface like the iRig MIDI is your only option. Because it’s so small and light, it doesn’t overwhelm the iPhone in use and is easy to tuck in a pocket. It worked seamlessly in my tests and had no trouble communicating with any of my MIDI apps; it’s easy to recommend if you’re looking for a compact and simple way to combine your iOS devices with your MIDI gear.

Blue Mikey Digital
$99.99; www.bluemic.com

The iRig MIDI comes with two MIDI cables and a power cable. The former convert the 5-pin DIN connectors common on MIDI devices to TRS miniplugs. (You can do this because MIDI is only a 3pin standard; the other two pins were reserved for future development when the spec was finalized in the early 1980s, but never actually used for anything.) The latter is a tiny cable that has a conventional USB A connector (which attaches to a laptop or a power supply) and a micro-B connector (the only USB connector small enough to attach to the iRig MIDI!). The MIDI cables end in male plugs, and are about 5 feet long. As a Core MIDI compliant device, the iRig MIDI doesn’t need any drivers. One useful bit of software you’re going to want to get, however, is IK Multimedia’s free iRig MIDI Recorder. It’s a very basic recorder, with no editing and no realtime display of MIDI data as it comes in or goes out, and has no controls beyond very basic filtering of certain data types. However, it’s handy for capturing things like SysEx data dumps and sending them to other devices (via email, file sharing, or even wi-fi), and it’s how you update the firmware on the iRig MIDI should that ever be necessary.

Blue’s original Mikey was an addon mic for iPods and iOS devices, reviewed in our December 2009 Gift Guide. The new Mikey Digital is a familiar-looking device, but adds some worthwhile new features to a tried-and-true recording format. Like its predecessor, Mikey Digital is a clip-on stereo mic with dual cardioid capsules that attaches to the dock connector of an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, and is recognized instantly by most if not all iOS recording apps. The capsules click into position in one of seven different angles, suitable for everything from shirt-pocket interview recording to tabletop use. It has only one onboard control—a 3way switch that lets the user choose input level. The Loud and Quiet settings offer enough padding to handle a full rock concert without clipping, and enough sensitivity to easily record a solo acoustic instrument in a quiet environment; between the two is an Automatic gain setting that works very well for recording voice and general purpose audio. Three LEDs show green for selected gain level and flash red when the input clips. Mikey Digital has added two I/O ports to the original design; one is a stereo minijack for line-level or instrument-level sources (there’s even a 1/4"to-minijack adapter included for recording guitar), and the other is a USB MiniB jack for a charging cable. You can’t connect the iOS device to a computer through this port, it’s strictly to keep you from running out of juice as you record. As was the case with its predecessor, the Mikey Digital’s sound is a lovely surprise, clear and crisp without being shrieky, with good reproduction of low end (although its stated spec of 35 Hz–20 kHz matches what I heard in my test recordings... these capsules don’t capture super-low-end boom). Its internal converters deliver 16-bit/44.1 kHz sound to recording apps, and the resulting recordings sound very good. With judicious setting of the level switch and careful setup of the app, the minijack input gives good results for everything from guitars to full-on line-level stereo sources. Guitar purists might worry about the impedance of the minijack input, but in my tests it provided a good hot signal for effects plug-ins and sounded great. If your uses for iOS devices include field recordings, capturing guitar tones, and general recording duties that would benefit from a stereo mic that’s portable and sounds way better than the internal mic, the Mikey Digital has a feature set and a sound that should please you. Check it out!
RECORDING December 2012

http://www.bluemic.com

Recording - December 2012

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