pushover Posted December 30, 2011 Posted December 30, 2011 Here are some of my initial impressions of the iRIG. You can find a number of reviews and comparisons of iRIG and the Peavey AmpKit interface elsewhere online, but here is my own. I'll try and cover stuff not mentioned in other reviews. Hopefully this may be useful if you're interested in investing in one of these. INTERFACE The iRIG itself is the interface that allows you to connect up a guitar to your iPhone, iPodTouch, or iPad. It's not just a socket and cable, supposedly it's also got a self contained preamp to help boost the signal. Ampkit also sells an i-link interface cable that allows you to connect your guitar to your i-device. The main difference between it and the iRIG is that it requires batteries. Supposedly this improves performance, feedback resistance, and boosts the signal if you plug into external speakers, but since I don't have one of these I don't know this is really the case. From reading other reviews, however, any difference between the two is supposedly not particularly substantial, and what is most important is that you can use both interfaces with either app. Street prices for these interfaces for x-mas 2011 were $30 for the iRIG, and $40 for the i-link, so being the cheap bastard that I am, I went with the iRIG. APPS You get the iRIG cable itself, and then you can download an app that uses it from the app-store. The iRIG specific app is called Amplitube (version 2.0), which (if you didn't know) turns your i-device into a modeling amp. Amplitube comes in a free version, and in pay versions. The free version comes with just one amp, one cab simulation and 3 pedals (you get a free one for registering) and two mic options. There is an LE version ($3) that comes with 3 pedals and a few more cabs and mics, and then there is a $20 version that comes with a much larger selection of amps, cabs, pedals and mics. Alternatively you can buy amps, cabs, pedals, etc. peice meal and add them to the free version to get only exactly what effects you want for somewhere between $2-7 each add-on. Amplitube also comes in a "Fender" version, which allows you to download a version that models Fender Amps. My conjecture, is that this is Amplitube's attempt to compete more with Ampkit by branding with Fender, since Ampkit is clearly branded with Peavey. This Fender app also has a free version (which is separate from the main Amplitube app) and a $7 version that contains more Fender (only) amp, cab options. You can also add items to this app peice meal. Although I don't know this is for certain yet, one thing worth knowing about, is that Amplitube licenses its products per device. What this means, is that if you have a iPhone and an iPAD and buy the "add-ons" you'll need to buy them separately for each device. This also holds for the Fender app, versus the main Amplitube app. Supposedly you can buy an add-on for the fender app, which may also be available for the main app but you'd have to buy it all over again if you want to use it in the other app. I think that's kinda mean spirited of IK, and is not the way i-apps are usually licensed. Just in itself, this is a major reason that makes me more interested in the Ampkit app than in the Alplitube app. So as you have heard me refer to several times, there is a competing app-store product called AmpKit (version 1.2). It also comes in a free (1 amp, cab, and 2 mic, 2 pedal) version, and in a bundle ($10) version that comes with 5 amps and cabs, and 10 pedals. Although Ampkit sells it's own interface to connect your guitar up to the i-device, my experience so far is that the iRIG works just fine for AmpKit. So for absolutely "free" (as in beer..) you can download Amplitube Free, Amplitube Fender Free, and Ampkit Free and have 3 sets of different sounds to choose from on your i-device. There are also other modelling apps (some free) out there for i-devices but I don't have experience with them. Just like with Amplitube, with Ampkit you can buy the bundled release or add items (amps, cabs, mics, pedals) peicemeal. Prices again are between $3-7 for different components, and depending on what you add, you can easily spend $100's on adding gear to either of these apps. Which is really what the vendors want you to do FEATURES The basic core function of these apps is to turn your i-device into a modelling amplifier. You select the amp, cab and mic you want from your set of available options (i.e. whatever you bought), and then can add pedals to the set up in whatever order you want. Each amp has on-screen knobs that allow you to change the sounds, just like you would if you were playing with and tweaking an actual amp. Each pedal has a set of knobs and settings that are as you would expect for each pedal type. The biggest problem here is that these are virtual pedals, and hence they don't have any real buttons to press, so to adjust anything you need to take your hands off the guitar and fiddle with the i-device screen. So.. it's not practical to change settings while you play. I guess you could try and STOMP on your i-device, but I haven't tried that personally and I don't really expect it to work other than turning the sound off -- permanently! Both Amplitube and Ampkit support presets, and come with built-in presets which can get you started with a variety of sounds from clean, to crunchy, to insanely driven. In addition to the built-in presets you can tweak the presets to your liking or define your own for instant recall when you want them. The user interfaces for each application are slightly different, and I just won't go there to describe them. I'm sure it's a matter of personal taste which interface you'll prefer, but both require some twiddling with them to figure out how to do things. The important thing, however, is that you can pretty much do what you need to do with either piece of software. In addition to the sound modelling, you also get a metronome, a tuner, and a 1-channel recorder all for free. You can pay to upgrade to a multi-channel recorder in Amplitube, but not (as far as I know) in AmpKit. Both apps also allow you to import music from various sources (your iTunes library, sound clips from email, over wifi) that you can then jam over them. Importing a song from my itunes library in Ampkit seemed seamless. Importing in Amplitube seemed a bit more of an actual "import" process, but maybe it's because my inputs are from a wave files and these have to be converted to mp3 or something? In the jamming along over imported clips dept., I'd give the definate edge to Amplitube since you can also slowdown the track tempo to make learning it easier, as well as to select subsections of the track and loop over it repeatedly. I have already found this really helpful to figure out and then burn-in a lead that I don't know. Although it's not as versatile, Ampkit does come built-in with some simple backing tracks that you can jam over. I haven't (yet?) found these particularly useful, but it's certainly a nice thought. Though then again, it's also it's easy enough in both apps to add-in your own backing tracks if you have them. Ampkit runs only in the foreground. Amplitube allows you to run it in background mode, which supposedly reduces the battery drain. But I'm not sure I've seen a great benefit to this as of yet. Maybe I'm missing something? SOUNDS I will have to admit that I am a little disappointed with the sounds. Some effects work better than others, but my experience so far is that the gain effects are at best adequate, with some of them sounding more like noise. But.. if you're willing to play with the settings enough you can just about get some usable sounds you might like. I tend to have the same problem any time I get a new pedal to play with, so I think it's reasonable to expect to have to fiddle with knobs to find tone. An important issue to be aware of is feedback. Depending on the pedals you have, their order, and the amount of gain I found it far too easy to get feedback on the higher gain settings. It's controllable via the volume setting, but since hearing feedback is something you don't want to do to your ears on a regular basis I quickly found myself in a mode where I would always turn the i-device volume down before I changed any amp settings, and would then have to turn it up again once in the new setting to get to a decent playing volume. Specifically on clean settings, unless the device volume is maxed out, I couldn't hardly hear the amplified guitar over the un-amplified acoustic twang coming to my ears though the ear-buds. Overall the feedback management steps just add another level of annoyance in changing settings. The trick seems to be to leverage the presets and get to know which volumes work with each. I have access to a iPhone 3G, a 2nd generation iPod touch, and my wife's iPAD. When connected to the iPhone and the iTouch I hear noticable noise floor, and intermittent glitches and noise from the connected instrument. I get this from both apps. I suspected that this might be because these are older devices and are underpowered compared to newer devices so I tried it out also with the iPAD and found the noise floor was still there but the other glitchy noises went away. I suspect that using a newer generation iPhone or iTouch would produce better results than my older devices. Specifically, when jamming along with a backing track, especially when using the "slow-down" feature. I found the amount of background noise issues would vary intermittently and can be quite significant on the iPhone and iTouch. But it was not a problem when I tried the iPAD, so I recommend having a newer generation faster i-device if you want to use this product. Using the Iphone I once got some pretty nasty sounds emanating from the device which were immediately followed by the chime of "you have mail", so I presume the noises were being introduced because the device itself was being taxed from multi-tasking the different apps. I'm thinking that going into airplane mode might be a good way to stop that from happening. To get a useful output signal I usually had to turn the i-device volume all of the way up. In doing so I can really notice a noise floor on the signal which can be annoying. The Amplitube software has slightly better controls to adjust both input and output signal levels. Ampkit just has a volume control. So in Amplitube I was able to get a lower noise floor and what I considered to be a better sound for the clean amp settings. When it comes to the gain and distortion sounds, I found Ampkit to give me a sound that is more of what I expect from a real amp, and more to my liking. In general, while I don't think there is a clear winner between Amplitube and Ampkit, I found Amplitube much better for cleaner sounds, and Ampkit a winner for dirtier sounds. I actually have problems getting Ampkit to give me a good clean sound. I played these apps through headphones, some computer speakers, and also I have the ability play through a mixer into PA speakers. Given these experiences I think you can expect to do reasonably well playing through headphones. I think you can potentially entertain yourself playing through computer speakers. But given my set up I am not comfortable playing through the PA speakers with the iPhone 3G. I'm not sure I can trust the random noises not to appear, and stopping the feedback when it occurs is something that basically involves pulling the plug out to stop it instantly. Maybe I'd have a different view if I had more access to my wife's iPAD. WRAPUP Overall I'd have to say I'm a little disappointed that the iRIG and i-app combination isn't an "in a pinch" replacement for not having a proper amp. But maybe my expectations were too high. This isn't "yet" professional quality hardware/software that would replace real gig gear. By comparison, I have POD and Digitech devices that might just about get me through a performance if I needed them too. As a practice device through your earphones, or perhaps through your computer speakers I think this is a fine product, and I think that this is primarily the usage that these apps are targeting. For the $40-50 or so you'd sink into this product, I think you'd be hard pressed to find a practice product that can do as much (assuming you already have headphones, or computer speakers to plug into). The built-in tuner is handy, and seems pretty accurate, and while I don't really see the point in paying extra for the multi-track recording option (I'm sure it is going to be pretty limited as a multi-tracker), being able to save a record of a riff that is going through your head so you don't lose it is a handy thing to always have in your pocket with you when you're messing around. All in all the product does what it says it's going to do for you, and is a worthwhile investment so long as your expectations for it are not unrealistic. -- Hope this is of interest/help to some of you. Please let me know if you have any particular questions. Also if you have experience or knowledge that contradicts anything I've written, please share. I have only just recently received my iRIG so there is probably still a lot I need to know.
schundog Posted December 30, 2011 Posted December 30, 2011 WOW!! Thanks for that comprehensive review! I bought the AmpKit on a whim a couple months ago, downloaded the free apps you mentioned, both from Fender and Amplitube, and used it 2 or 3 times. Shame on me. Too many toys, including a POD HD500 I got after the AmpKit that kinda grabbed more of my attention. I fully intend to spend some more time playing around with the AmpKit, though. Thanks again for the good tips, like airplane mode.
mars_hall Posted December 31, 2011 Posted December 31, 2011 While I can't say I have ever used the Amplitube version reviewed here, I did record a short clip using the PC based version back in 2007. I was using a hot-rodded Marshall voicing for the guitar and another clean voice for the bass. I thought the voicing was very useful and realistic for what I was doing. http://www.soundclic...songID=11327887
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