IK Multimedia AmpliTube iRig

by IK Multimedia

Product Features

• Instrument interface adapter + guitar and bass tone mobile software
• Works on iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad
• Includes AmpliTube for iPhone FREE App (free download on iTunes app store)
• Connect electric guitar and bass
• Headphone/Amp/Powered Speaker OUT
• It is compatible to iPod touch 32 GB 3rd generation

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Product Description

AmpliTube iRig is a combination of an easy-to-use instrument interface adapter for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad mobile devices, and the new AmpliTube for iPhone software for guitar & bass. Simply plug the iRig interface into your iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad, plug your instrument into the appropriate input jack, plug in your headphones, amp or powered speakers, download AmpliTube FREE for iPhone, and start rocking! You'll have at your fingertips the sound and control of three simultaneous stompbox effects + amplifier + cabinet + microphone just like a traditional guitar or bass stage rig! Add amps and effects as you need them you can expand your rig with up to 10 stomps, 5 amps, 5 cabinets and 2 microphones in the AmpliTube iRig app custom shop!

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

53 of 55 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Nice hardware, not so great free app August 22, 2010

By Daniel G. Lebryk TOP 50 REVIEWER

Amazon Verified Purchase

The iRig is a compact well-constructed piece of music gear. Incredibly simple, plug your guitar in the 1/4 inch jack opening, the short pigtail into the headphone jack on your iPhone, iTouch, or iPad, and then plug in a pair of headphones into the 3mm jack hole. Just couldn't be much easier than this. I tore down the jack, and can report that the innards are solid - gold plated jacks, beefy 1/4 inch jack housing, and a small circuit board of surface mounted resistors.

There's something kind of cool about such a small portable device that can do these good things. With a nice pair of cans (I'm using V-Moda V-MODA Cross-fade LP Over-Ear Headphones (Gunmetal Black), the volume can get pretty loud. It's fun to play without a huge amp.

The downside to this device, the AmpliTube free App is kind of sad. The free version includes very few controls, reverb and overdrive. There are 6 presets each is distinctive and different. They can be tweaked, but not by that much. On an iPhone or iTouch, it isn't very easy to "turn" the knobs; and only one channel at a time can be adjusted. It's moderately painful. On an iPad, things are radically different, knob "turning" is easy, all the controls are displayed at once. It acts a lot more like a digital effects box.

Sadly, I think the only way to get a really useful app is to purchase the twenty dollar full boat version. So that kind of brings the total to a fairly steep price. If you compare this to the price of a single pedal, I guess this is a bargain.

The good news, you can take a dual ended 3mm plug, use a 3mm to 1/4 inch adapter, and plug this whole thing into your amp or a mixing board for recording. The sound is plenty clean enough that recording or an amp is doable.

The killer combo, an iPad, the full version of the AmpliTub app, and jacked into a nice amplifier or cans. This is a good deal and works exactly as advertised.

34 of 37 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Small, sweet, full of tone when coupled with the great app July 18, 2010

By Audio Nut

This is a very compact unit that is simple to connect and yields great sound when used with AmpliTube For iPhone (the app it was built for).

I got lost for hours the first time I plugged my guitar into iRig and iRig into my iPhone. The presets are good but you'll likely make your own. I started with altering almost every one that was included (there was mucho delay and/or reverb on some that I had to cut down for my taste, for example) and then moved on to making mine from scratch.

For its intended purpose and on the devices it supports, it is an amazing feat. I really get lost using this, and I don't have to go through the hassle of hooking up something more bulky (or loud!) to jam and practice.

I would love to see recording, slowing down songs, and a compressor though. I've heard all three are in the works and will hope that's true.

As far as things it was not intended to do, I may try to bypass everything (it seems you get a dry/direct signal when the tuner is engaged for example) and do some input to my PC for a small guitar-based audio interface. If that doesn't work, though, I'd just pick up their StealthPlug since it is pretty cheap too.

40 of 46 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Low volume! September 21, 2010

By Harald Nowak

Appealing as the idea of using the iPhone (or iPod) for playing guitar through it may seem, I have to say the iRig adapter is not quite up to it in its current form. The main reason for that is the low volume output it produces (especially when used with IK Multimedias Amplitube; not so bad with AmpKit that allows to further boost the volume). You can get around that by switching a booster of some sort upfront (for example I used a tube pedal with very nice results) - however this is not the way it was meant to be used or how it is advertised. What's especially disturbing with the low output-volume is the fact that you can of course boost it a little by maximising the earphone output volume (and switching the No Feedback option to off), but then you get lots of noise (presumably noise from the iPods input ADC) - the signal/noise ratio at the iPods input is just too low (this kind of noise beeing especially disturbing, since you can not reduce it by dialing the guitars volume to zero - it remains constant). Having said this, I must stress again, that with AmpKit the device is much better usable, since AmpKit both offers a decent noise gate (Amplitube iRig does currently only offer a noise filter that removes too much heights from the signal) and a way to push the input and output signal level; anyways I do recommend using a booster in front of the iRig for usable results.
What this boils down to is: it is portable, it is usable, using the iPod for playing guitar IS a lot of fun, however I'm not happy with the hardware which needs some workarounds to sound fine.