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As a musician who loves the portability and ease of use of Apple’s Garageband app for IOS, I was blown away by the idea of IK Multimedia’s iRig.

 

“What’s that? It allows me to plug my Guitar directly into my iPad/iPhone AND record straight to the Garageband app using all of it’s built in amp models and effects??

 

SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY!!

 

And?

 

It IS great.

 

Mostly…..

 

See, while it’s true that the iRig makes practicing and recording guitar on the fly a cinch, it’s not all sunshine and lollypops…. there ARE a few issues….

Foremost of which is a fairly noticeable amount of background noise, hiss and feedback when you’re not playing, especially if you’re using some of the high  gain distortion  pedals and effects.

 

Thankfully, there’s an easy fix within Garageband itself – the built in Noise Gate  that you can access by tapping the jack plug icon on the Amp model select screen.

 

iRig Garageband

 

Simply drag the slider to the position that cuts out the ugly background noise while nothing is being played.

 

iRig Garageband 2

 

Be careful not to overdo it though, being too heavy handed with the noise gate can cut short any reverb you’ve got going on, resulting in unnatural and weird sounding audio……

 

So So Sound Quality

 

Another common complaint from users is that the sound quality when recording using iRig in Garageband isn’t 100% fantastic.

 

In fact, my good buddy Andy Combe recently mentioned this exact problem on The Garageband Guide Facebook Wall.

 

He wrote that his guitar tracks were sounding ‘muddy’ and ‘dirty’ when he let loose with some of the heavier, distorted amp/effect set ups. (Specifically the ‘Modern Metal’ preset.)

 

Andy was even kind enough to  provide an example. Here, have a listen:

 

 

The riff itself is grand, but it definitely gets buried in the muddy sounding recording.

 

Now, the Garageband app itself is partly to blame for this. The general consensus being that while there are lots of guitar amp models, sounds and guitar effects to choose from within the Garageband IOS app, they don’t all sound that great….

 

You also need to remember that the iRig inputs to your device via the headphone jack – this does no favours to the quality of audio produced – top end sounds lacks clarity (which is why you’ll find the ‘presence’ knob cranked on many of the default amp set ups) and the mid to low end sounds are a little thick and ‘muddy’.

 

  Rein In Your Gain

 

So – there are a couple of ways to remedy this, the first of which involves having a fiddle with the settings of your axe itself.

 

When recording through any Direct Input, whether it’s through your iPad using the iRig or in a professional recording studio, it’s important to roll the volume back a bit on your guitar itself.

 

Having it cranked all the way up might sound great live, but you’ll want to be a little more reserved when recording. Dialling it back even a little will give you so much more control over the amount of gain added after you’ve recorded your audio, which in turn makes everything a bit more flexible when it comes to mixing your track.

 

The same rules apply to your amp gain and effects – you may think having the gain or distortion cranked will fill out your sound.

 

It doesn’t.

 

You’ll end up with fizzy, unstructured and messy noise. It’s a far better idea to roll the gain/distortion right back.

 

Get a fatter and fuller sound by recording 2-3 lightly driven guitar tracks and pan them to different sides of the stereo spectrum. It’s how the pro’s do things and you’ll find it’ll fill out your sound nicely.

 

For example, in the first screenshot, the Modern Metal Amp  is at it’s default setting. In the second, it has the gain rolled back, the master volume increased (to make up for the lost gain), the treble increased and the bass reduced.

 

Garageband iRig 4

 

You can make good use of the Hi-Gain pedal too. It can help to make up for the loss in top end clarity that recordings with the iRig suffer from.

 

Again in the following pics, the first shows the Hi-Gain pedal in it’s default state, the second in the setup I’d recommend you start from.

 

Garageband iRig 5

 

[box type=”info”] If you’re a guitar player and you like idea of recording on the go with your iDevice, support The Garageband Guide by purchasing your iRig HERE at no extra cost! (What’s This?)[/box]

 

 

Don’t get me wrong….

 

..I LOVE IK Multimedia’s iRig. It allows me to play, practice and record at a moments notice.

 

While it isn’t perfect and there are a few alternative (and more expensive)! devices for guitarists who want to record on the go, for the price it can’t be beaten.

 

What do you think? Love your iRig? Hate it? Or could you recommend a good alternative?

 

As always, i’d love to hear your opinion – leave a comment below!

Show Comments (51)
  1. You can avoid all of the problems you mention by getting the Apogee Jam. It sounds so much better than the iRig.

    1. Colin, you’re absolutely right – when it comes to sound quality, the Jam is in a different class from the iRig.

      It’s also 3 times the price…….

      But I see what you’re saying – having never tried it out though, I’d be interested to hear something you’ve recorded using the Apogee Jam.

    2. heres the problem. I was sold on the Irig hd2 model to begin putting my guitar riffs/leads down over a beat on garageband. i didnt buy the whole studio pack like they had due to finances. so what can i do with what i have? ive been searching the net and just not getting the info i need. if i may, i have an EVH III 50w head w/ 2X12′ matching cab. Irig hd 2 and my iphonex with amplitude and garageband. i feel i need a good external mic to connect with my phone to achieve this circuit of recording. Could ya help a fellow musician out and tell me what is/isnt needed? i feel like my gear artillery is growing without the compatibility im searching for. plus im new to the recording engineering game so irig is my speed i believe. hope you can help enlighten me. thanks friend.

  2. Honestly, recording via garage band is so amateurish it’s almost a joke.
    GarageBand and irig is a total waste of anyone’s time. Yes, It’s completely possible to record professional quality audio on your ipad but the first thing to do is forget about garage band all together and get the right apps and hardware .

    Simple:
    Get Auria for recording (or Multitrack DAW), overloud/ jamup xt pro and or amplitube for guitar amp simulation and get a quality lighting/ 30 pin A/D converter for your I/O. ( I use a Roland duo EX for guitar/ mic/ midi and powered monitors). Also get the Audiobus app and I recommend the Apogee jam for a pocket I/O or maybe the HD irig ( if it ever come out). This ipad setup is just as good at top recording quality as my 20K DAW studio. Mostly i do 24 bit/48 but you can easily do 96 on your ipad but that’s overkill at this point. Mastering is a different matter at this point but I’m sure that will be addressed soon to.

    1. Hi Stewart – great comment,

      I can kind of understand where you’re coming from and while you’re right in saying that no-one is going to get the same audio quality recording through the Garageband IOS app with an iRig as they would with a professional set up, I really don’t think that:

      1. Anyone would really expect it to match a full studio set-up.

      2. The alternatives you suggest are appropriate.

      Personally, I use the Garageband app for practice or to sketch song ideas/riffs while on the road. The main pluses being that I can hook up the iRig and get recording in seconds then when i’m done I can transfer my GB IOS projects into Garageband ’11 on my Mac, and ether continue to work on them or build a full, properly recorded track around my ‘sketch’.

      Now, Using Audiobus to connect the Amplitube, JamUP or Ampkit apps as inputs to avoid using Garageband IOS’s sub-par amp models and effects is 100% a great idea (and something i’ll be covering here on The Garageband Guide very soon).

      BUT

      Spending £34.99/$59.99 on Wavemachine’s Auria App, (with it’s inability to process MIDI and , as you pointed out, no mastering option)? No thanks.

      Spending £169.99/$239.99 on Roland’s duo capture EX (which is a fantastic interface, but for recording via just iPad is most definitely overkill)? No thanks.

      That’s over £200/$300!

      There may come a day when we are able to produce top quality tracks on our iPads – from recording, right through to mastering – but until then I’d much rather spend the kind of money you’re talking about properly kitting out my home studio than on unnecessary hardware and apps.

      1. Hi Patrick,

        Good comments but alas , I think you missed my point. While i understand cost can be prohibitive to some thats not the point, the ipad can and does record full quality already and personally, i think allot more people want quality than you realize. I have recorded 17 internationally released albums/ CDs in my career to date and produced many bands in top studios and im just telling you the time is already here. The ipad can and does record full releasable quality already and with the right hardware and apps you can do most anything you need to do.

        I also see your point about ideas so if your just jamming out an idea then garage band and irig can work just fine until you overdub. As a professional musician the first time I plugged in the irig and made an overdub, was the last time I used the irig. It was terrible and the noise / cross talk was just plane unacceptable. Then i researched and purchased quality gear and apps and that has changed everything. Regardless of price, nothing compares to Auria. Period. I recorded some drum tracks the other day, slapped on the drumagog plugin trigger to change the kick n snares ( keeping live room as cymbals n hats etc) and viola the beds were totally ready and waiting for over dubs in 5 minutes. The sound at this point was releasable top quality and it sounded like a few months were spent on the drum sounds. In the ol days it would have literally taken months to get to this point! This was a total jaw dropping moment of realization that im doing this all on an ipad! And as far as the Roland ex goes that’s so cheap for what it does its truly amazing. I still have one comparable piece of gear ( UA-101) from ten years ago that cost five times as much and did much less. There are many brands of DA I/O boxs today that can do amazing quality with an ipad so I’m not saying that the Roland is the one for everyone I’m just saying go get a quality one and reap the rewards.

        Mastering is an entirely different matter of course and this can and does make or break your recording so at this point in time I would still leave this to the Bob and Howie’s of the world. Side story: I mixed an album once that was kinda lame and just sitting there sound and energy wise and after Bob did his magic it sounded killer and like a completely different record. Mastering does so much more than most musicians realize and from that day forward I remain in awe of the mastering profession.

        To sum up, I haven’t recorded an album since getting all this ipad stuff a few months ago to experiment with but on the next album I produce or play on I will definetly be recording some vocals and guitar / bass parts in the back of a tour bus or hotel room somewhere to add to the studio recordings. I used to do this with the old bulky VS series machines and it worked fine and this ipad and apps is far better. I doubt if I would record a full album and risk it all to chance on an ipad ( until apple lets backing up to HD much easier by plugging in directly and bypassing a computer ) but as far as one song or overdubs, I’m already there.

        Another bonus is as a musician / producer you can write off all costs as this is all work related so purchase and splurge accordingly!

        1. Hmmm.

          I’d be interested to hear some of your studio quality iPad recordings – any chance you’re able to link to any?

  3. I started out with the iRig for mobile practice. I see now that IKM offers
    an iRig HD that connects via dock (rather than headphone input) but the
    price is the same as the Apogee Jam. So, anyone care to give a comparison
    review?

    1. I’ll be giving the iRig HD a full in depth review in the next few weeks Mike, but i’d love to hear anyone else’s thoughts on it?

      1. CCan I ask something patrck? what is apoogee jam ? n what is its diffrent from I rig? is it they play the same function? How its look like? what about its quality?

        1. Hey Rudy,

          The Apogee Jam allows you to connect your guitar to your iPhone/iPda/iPod using the 30 pin socket on the bottom instead of the headphone jack.

          Because it uses the 30 pin socket, sound quality is noticeably better when using the Apogee Jam, though IK Multimedia have just released the iRig HD, which works the same way as the Apogee Jam.

          Check them both out:

          http://www.ikmultimedia.com/products/irighd/

          http://www.apogeedigital.com/products/jam.php

          Hope that helps!

  4. This may be a silly question, but I was thinking of buying one of these things to record some analogue synth tracks onto my ipad. It’ll be one of the new Korg Volca synths, which are dirt cheap and should be good fun. Would it mess up my ipad to use anything other than a guitar?

    1. Hey JoJo – as long as the Korg has a 1/4″ jack output you’ll be fine:

      “Plus, you can also use the iRig with line level signal sources such as synthesizers, keyboards or mixers.”

      (From IK Multimedia’s site.)

  5. Ok. I went ahead and got the iRig STOMP. I plugged into my pedal board, and these are my conclusions, so please advise should I be doing something stupid.

    1) I think it makes the sound muddy. It sucks the tone, however in not being through bypass, when it is out of the pedal chain I am impressed with the box.
    2) I bypassed the modelling amp as it is always saturating. Do I need to purchase the full Amplitude version? I am skeptical about it. I turned down the gain, and the guitar knob and everything I could in my pedal chain, and then when the saturation goes away, the background hiss starts kicking in.
    3) I built myself a nice Si Fuzz face, which has a very organic distortion. I just love it. So, I wanted to compare it with the Amplitube *distortion*. Switching on and off each one, I basically can *feel* the difference in my fingers, but chances are, it is a subtle difference in sound. But I can tell the digitally reconstructed distortion sounds artificial, and moreover, starts to chop and cut as the level drops. All in all, I would not trade my Fuzz face I personally built and picked the right transistors (a dime each) with the correct gain for the distortion and the overall Stomp thing.

    Long story short: Cannot get a clean tone, and when I do it gets noise. Cannot get an organic distortion, and when the volume fades starts to cut.

    I would appreciate comments where I am screwing up, if in fact I am.

    1. First off thanks to the guy who gave the brill advice on how to lessen the noise.
      I do have something to add though

      To kill the noise Even Further.

      Get an multi effects board,mixer, anything that’s powered

      Plug guitar into effects board
      Dial the effects board to a setting that does as little to the signal as possible
      Plug the output of the effects board into the irig
      Then dial the volume of the ipad/iPhone down.

      I find that kills the noise to a bear minimum

      For my test I used

      Squire start single coils
      Old zoom ps04 palmtop studio
      iPad 2

      Hope this helps

  6. First off, love the site, next, I was curious if you have found any apps that can be used with the iRig other than garageband and amplitube. I am a bass player and have found that these apps cater primarily to guitar players (story of a bass player’s life). Guide me sensei…

  7. When I lay down tracks then plug the irig in to record an additional track I can’t hear the music. What am I missing (other than the band). It’s not easy playing to a sliding ruler. How do I hear something?

    1. Sounds like you have the iRig set as your input AND your output – you can change this by diving into Smart Controls and hitting the ‘i’ icon to open the inspector window.

  8. Hello would you mind sharing which blog platform you’re working with?
    I’m planning to start my own blog soon but I’m having a hard time choosing between BlogEngine/Wordpress/B2evolution and Drupal.

    The reason I ask is because your design seems different then most blogs and I’m looking
    for something completely unique. P.S My apologies
    for being off-topic but I had to ask!

  9. One quick comment on the noise… I found most of it was having bluetooth and/or Wifi turned on. turn them off, or set it to airplane mode. solved my noise problems.

  10. Hi, very good information.
    I use the Irig with amplitube and the headphone of my Iphone 5.
    I get a little distortion with the headphones. Do you know how can I get rid of that?
    Thanks.

  11. See here in lines the problem in it’s self.. The IRIG works JUST fine …. Apogee JAM maybe has a slightly,slightly improved sound BUT who cares really. Save the money IF you use GB right you can make a sound that can be played on the radio. And Again isn’t it what’s going in the input that matters anyway? Crap going in crap coming out(but clean sounding crap) . Rock is raw , has pops , dirty reverb that’s what gives it the edge it needs. I swear if Led Zep had the tech of today they most likely would have sucked.. Mistakes can become folk law!!!

      1. Hi all,
        I record sketches onto a Zoom R8 instead of GB, using Amplitube for iPhone for its superior sounds. My setup is like Sergio’s above. The R8 is great if you like touching faders like the old analog engineer I was. 🙂

        However, the noise of the iRig is really annoying. After having read thru this thread I’ll try some of the suggestions offered, but my question is – will the noise floor improve if I step up to an iRig HD, Apogee Jam or the like? They’re more than I wanted to spend (welcome to the world of recording), so before pulling the trigger I wanted to sound you all out.

  12. I’ve been using the iRig Stomp with headphones for jamming because I’m renting for a few months while relocating and I don’t want to drive the landlord nuts. It worked just fine but having to connect it to mains to avoid buying 9V batteries every second day is a pain so I got the iRig you reviewed above. It is MUCH softer (in volume) than the Stomp and is too close to the phone so I keep getting cellular interference (which I could avoid with the Stomp by placing it farther away from the phone). The plug and play convenience is the only positive I’ve found so far. Does anyone have advice for improving the volume (other than simply turning up the output on the GB amp) and for getting rid of the iPhone’s cellular interference?
    It would be greatly appreciated. I was so looking forward to a more convenient solution to jamming on the couch.

  13. So I’ve had this for a few years, but now, on my u Ipod5, no sounds will come through the connector. When I plug my main chord into my amp it works, but when I plug my chord into the irig, into my iPod5, nothing happens. All settings are set fr sond, but nothing… Help!

  14. Hi

    I just bought irig 2 and I’m having issues with using it. It should be so simple but no, I connect my guitar with a normal instrument cable to the guitar jack on the irig, and of course connect my irig to the headphone jack on my iphone 4s. And the my headphones in the headphone jack on the irig. Then I open up garageband or amplitube on my iphone and it should work right? But no, it somehow catshes all the sounds in my surroundings, I even here my breathing, like som mic is on, I here everything and a little bit guitar.. So what could this issue be, I have searched the whole internet for answers but found nothing, can someone please help me??

    1. Simple, there is a mic on by default.
      You have to select the irig as input in whatever app your using.

  15. I’m using an iPad mini, audiobus, jamup input, and GarageBand output. My problem is this massive feedback when I’ve got everything up and running and I’m in GarageBand getting set to record. Additionally when I’m in GarageBand the little audiobus tab won’t respond when I try to tap into jamup. What am I doing wrong?

  16. Hey, can anyone help me out with this, i have a question. i have a delay on my vocals when I’m using the rig mic through garage band. its about a 1 second delay and i can hear it though my head phones thats plugged in the back of the mic. thanks!

  17. I have an irig and i got a record on garageband. When i listen just a guitar record i hear a little bit drum voice . (I used drumloop ) It supposed to be a just clear guitar sound . I actually got clean tone (no distortion). Does anyone get this?

  18. Confused, when I plug in my IRig I get no guitar sound. Only when I switch to the “monitor” setting do I hear any audio. But the issue is that I pick up via the iPad microphone audio in the room and only a faint amount of processed guitar… What am I doing wrong here?. I’m pretty savvy but GB is new for me…. Help!

  19. Hi Guys looking for advice please

    I bought irig to help with my playing
    I have Garage Band and downloaded Amplitube . every time i go to play or record i get terrible feedback and cant seem to resolve it
    Any ideas its driving me nuts

  20. hey can anyone help me? im plugging a loud hot akg condenser mic into my irig into garageband on my iphone 6+ and the vocals are just about as quiet as when i used a cheap radio shack mic. i know this mic is hot because its an overhead mic but this thing is quiet as hell plugged into the irig into the iphone.

    i can’t figure out how to get the mic to react like it does when its plugged into other stuff….like its a loud mic i unplugged it and plugged it into my amp and it picked up everything
    i guess its the irig. does the irig not work well with battery-powered mics? how come it works fine with my active electronics guitar thats batter powered ????

  21. Hi there,

    Just want to ask if IRIG2 shows the same issues ( crosstalk, hiss, etc) noises as the ( sorry to say) unusable irig 1.
    Fortunately iri1 was cheap, but is like a kind of fraud, as many purchased units go to waste directly.
    Digital models are a complete different story, but I purchased a IRIG1 because of your review, and now is my cat’s favorite toy.
    I see that a new unit identical to IRIg2 is coming soon, is Guitar Go from TC Helicon ( quite a reputated brand) and very cheap.
    So, does any analog cheap interface worth the money? or also is a waste of money?
    My app to use it is IK Amplitube Acoustic.

    greets

  22. I have electro-acoustic guitar and i am using irig 2 but not able to configure it right. After plugging the the whole thing, it seems my phone is picking the tone from its mic not from the irig 2.

    What should i do?

  23. Hi i have an irig hd a im trying to run it through my android to record my guitar. All it seems to do is record sound through my phones mic so hence i get lots of background noise. And seems pointless. Am i missing something?
    I just want to record clean guitar tracks with no background noise cheers 🙂

  24. heres the problem. I was sold on the Irig hd2 model to begin putting my guitar riffs/leads down over a beat on garageband. i didnt buy the whole studio pack like they had due to finances. so what can i do with what i have? ive been searching the net and just not getting the info i need. if i may, i have an EVH III 50w head w/ 2X12′ matching cab. Irig hd 2 and my iphonex with amplitude and garageband. i feel i need a good external mic to connect with my phone to achieve this circuit of recording. Could ya help a fellow musician out and tell me what is/isnt needed? i feel like my gear artillery is growing without the compatibility im searching for. plus im new to the recording engineering game so irig is my speed i believe. hope you can help enlighten me. thanks friend.

  25. I have an irig 2 that im going into my 2gen ipad pro through a 3.5mm > lightning connector

    I have mixed feelings about the experience, Im using garageband amp simulation and also the free amplitude. Im skeptical that im getting the best sound and there is a lot of tweaking everytime I switch apps,

    some of the amp models are just unusable, being muddy and having a humm static noise undertone that I have to noise gate the hell out of and it just leaves the whole process clunky

    any thoughts or advice? Id like to record and release as Im coming close to dialing in some songs but wonder if this is worth my time or if I should spend some money?

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