I reviewed the iConnectAudio+4 last year in Guitar Moderne. The possibilities it seemed to offer were intriguing. I could connect my iPad to it and it would allow me run iPad apps in an effects return of Ableton Live, while acting as a high quality audio interface for my laptop. Once up and running (read the review for the trials therein and to see videos) the iConnectAudio+4 fully delivered on its promise.
Unfortunately, when I took it to a studio session I once again encountered the difficulties that can come with such a complex system. The interface worked great and sounded terrific but I couldn’t get the send to the iPad to work. When I got it home, iConnect help me figure out the issue.
I left the rig behind to pursue more traditional playing for a while, but eventually the lure of the amazing sound manipulation available in apps brought back to try again. I set up the system, adding some new effects to the mix. Much as I loved the Electro-Harmonix Pog 2 I had been using in my laptop performances, I found the Electro-Harmonix Pitch Fork gave me the octaves up and down I needed, plus Jon Hassell-esque fourths and fifths—all in a significantly smaller package. The David Torn-approved Antichthon (though I had mine first) adds musical mayhem controllable (sort of) from my guitar’s volume and tone controls, as well as its pickup switch.
A quick time out for an RIP to Catalinbread’s founder Nicholas Harris.
A couple of new apps came into my sights courtesy of Knox Chandler. The AUM mixer and iDensity granular processor, combined with Samplr, add immeasurable to the cool soundscapes I can make with this setup. His rig made me briefly consider dropping the laptop portion of mine, but I have too much invested in the effects I can create with my Ableton Live aggregation of loopers and plugins.
Setting up the iConnectAudio+4 once again resulted in some weirdness. Apparently, I was using the wrong routing template. Once I sussed that out, I found myself improvising for hours with such an amazing palette of sounds that I vowed to make this system work.
Feel free to post any questions you have in the comments. It is an amazing new world of sound we live in.
^^^ Let’s see/hear it in action, maestro!
Partially based on the review of the iConnectivity Audio4+ here, I bought it and am using it in my live set (Guitar with analog pedals&loopers / Microphone / MacBook with Ableton & s-gear as amp sim / iPad). It is an incredible powerful interface and very very easy to configure and use.
Using it in the studio and live has been a great experience so far. This is probably the one component I wouldn’t give away for any price at the moment.
Thanks for the review. You and readers may note (or may already know) that it’s possible to send audio between ableton and an ipad using Zerodebug’s AudioMux too. A nifty little plugin sits inside ableton and routes audio over the Lighting connector to the ipad and back.
This setup had me considering just using just the ipad as well…but I, too, have too much time and effort invested in a pretty complex Live effects setup. Besides, there is some stuff you just can’t do (or can only do a little bit of) on the ipad right now (spectral processing and convolution, for example). I absolutely agree that the ipad UI makes a great enhancement to a guitar processing rig.
PS. Personally I adore Borderlands for real-time grainulation of guitar….
I love Borderlands and tried to include it as a channel in AUM but it was the straw that broke the CPU’s back, and I find iDensity more versatile.
I looked into AudioMux but I don’t recall being able to put it into an Ableton Return. Is that possible?
Interesting – I Density uses up 2-4x the processing that Borderlands does for me. I wonder why the difference.
Sorry, I responded to your replies in reverse order. I’m sure you’ll figure out which I am responding to! Yes, indeed I just put AudioMux in a return channel in Live (or insert it into a standard channel) and it works just great.
Perhaps a video demonstration of said iPad/Laptop magic…? It all sounds intriguing…