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IPAD 2 and Apogee One for IOS device ???


sjl200

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fellow Formites..... just came across this setup Ipad 2 and Apogee One. With garage band and was wondering about how to best set it up and what experiences good or bad and short cuts you might have learned you think are good to pass along . Thanks

 

Ps. I have never used garage band or any Apple stuff I'm lost [scared]

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I've only had my iPad a couple of months so I can't really give you any tips or shortcuts. As you say you've never used Garage Band I'd have to ask, you do know that you can record with the iPad/GB with just the interior mic, don't you? It's not going to give pro sounding results but it will give you a feel for what you can do with it before you lay out a load of cash.

One thing to note is, when you start a new song the length of the song defaults to 8 bars, which is pretty much useless unless you're going to record everything in 8 bar sections. You have to choose 'Audio Recorder' (or a virtual instrument) then press the + button at the top of the screen just below the help button (?) to set the length you want to record. I've found turning on 'Automatic' is the best option as then you can bang away for as long as you like and GB will set the length of the project to the length of your song. That's pretty much the default setting on all the DAW's I've used, and I really don't see why Apple didn't make it the default.

As a fairly long time DAW user on PC, the biggest drawback with GB (for me anyhow) is that there is no virtual mixer for when you've finished tracking.

 

That Apogee looks like a nice piece of equipment, but it seems like a lot of money (£299.00 in the UK) for what it is. For £120.00 less I could buy a Focusrite iTrack Studio pack, which comes with an interface, mic, cables and headphones, and have enough left over for for an extra Rode NT1a mic. As GB only records at 16 bit 44.1Khz as far as I can see, the Apogee going up to 24 bit 48Khz (or higher) is pretty pointless unless it comes with its own recording app. Also, the Apple web site describes the Apogee mic as Omnidirectional. Unless you have a great sounding, really quiet recording space I don't think Omnidirectional would be the best way to go. If you're only going to have one mic, a Cardioid pattern mic would be better IMO.

 

I'm currently considering the Focusrite iTrack or the Alesis IO Dock 2 (when they finally release it) and a better DAW app like Cubasis or (more likely) Auria. That would still save £100.00.

 

Good luck with it anyhow. Come back and say what you decided and how it's going.

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Thanks for the info, I have been using a tascam 2488neo,to track on my plan is to use the ipad/ apogee for on the fly stuff just starting to play with GB the apogee has an app called maestro we shall see how all this goes...

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  • 5 months later...

I did a quick Google search of IPad Apogee One and found a lot of helpful articles.

They did say you need to restart the i-Pad to get the device to recognize the Apogee.

The Apogee One is a nice unit, although pricey, IMO, for what it does.

I would think the built in mic is not a good way to record, but you can use an external mic.

You can plug in a mic and guitar together, but Garage Band sees those as one mixed source.

 

I use garage band, and it's easy to learn if you just play with it. Easier on a Home computer first.

Just start a new project, then play around until you see your level. Learn to adjust the inputs and levels.

Somewhere it will ask if you want to use the built in mic or the Apogee One, and then if you want to send it to L,R, or both.

Then record.

 

One thing to keep in mind, since the Apogee uses the 30 pin (or lightning) connector, you cannot use the AC charger at the same time.

The positive side of this is you'll still have the headphone jack for monitoring.

The battery on the I-Pad lasts a long time so this shouldn't be a problem with a little planning.

I have the I-rig HD, instead of the Apogee, and I was hoping I could use the bluetooth as a monitor into my TV sound bar,

but the techs said there is s much delay (latency) that they blocked the bluetooth. So it's speakers only.

 

I'm old school, so for $350 I'd get a small USB mixer with pan pots and gain controls, along with a SM 58 mic.

But today, portability is #1 so a small interface and an I-pad will do a lot.

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