TASCAM iXZ Mic / Instrument input for iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch

by Tascam

Product Features

• Mic & Guitar Interface for iPad, iPhone and iPod
• XLR mic input with mic pre and phantom power
• Guitar input with FET

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 4.5 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches ; 2 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• Shipping Advisory: This item must be shipped separately from other items in your order. Additional shipping charges will not apply.
• ASIN: B005NZ05J8
• Item model number: iXZ
• Batteries 2 AA batteries required. (included)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (42 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #560 in Musical Instruments (See Top 100 in Musical Instruments)
  • #10 in Musical Instruments > Recording Equipment > Computer Recording > Audio Interfaces
• Date first available at Amazon.com: September 19, 2011

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

The ideal portable solution for iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch

TASCAM's iXZ is the ultimate portable interface for recording with your Apple iOS device. It provides the inputs you need to record nearly any acoustic or electric instrument to any of the thousands of recording apps on the app store, including Apple's own Garage Band or TASCAM's Portastudio.

Mic or Guitar-level Input

Unlike similar recording interfaces for iOS, the input of the TASCAM iXZ can be switched between microphone-level or guitar level in. When switched to guitar level, the iXZ doesn't require any power. That makes the iXZ ideal for practicing your guitar and bass as well as recording.

Switch to Microphone level to enable the microphone preamp. Phantom power is available for powering a condenser microphone for detailed instrument or voice recording. A pair of AA batteries (included) provide hours of microphone recording.

A hardware gain knob controls the level of the input to your recording app. This gives you a quicker way to adjust the level than software controls – if your app even has one.

Headphone out/thru jack

Since the iXZ simply plugs into the headset jack of your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch, an 1/8" headphone output jack is provided on the back of the iXZ.

Full Feature List

• Switchable mic/line input
• Phantom power
• Gain control
• 1/8" headphone output
• XLR mic input
• High-impedence guitar input
• Mic input powered by two AA batteries
• Non-powered guitar input

Product Description

Audio interface adaptor for ipad, iphone, ipod

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 29 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Almost great, but for the price it can't be beat November 2, 2011

By George Whittam

Amazon Verified Purchase

The Tascam iXZ just popped up on my radar. As a voice over home studio consultant, I look for products like these to improve the lives of my clients. I don't usually buy new gadgets for which I haven't read a review previously, but at $50 I couldn't resist. So I figured why not be the first to review this affordable audio interface and see how well it works?

It seems that recording professional audio into an iPhone was never part of Steve Job's master plan.

While we wait for the ultimate audio interface that connects to the iPhone via the dock connector with a digital signal, other products some to be coming along to fill the gap. The Tascam iXZ is the first one I've seen that really boils the features down to the basics in a very portable package, while still accepting a phantom powered studio condenser microphone.

The iXZ's multifunction XLR/phono combo jack will allow connection to a standard 3 pin XLR mic cable, or to a 1/4" guitar cable. It provides 48V phantom power at up to 5ma, enough for many modern mics. I metered the XLR connector and sure enough there's about 46V DC with a fresh pair of AA alkaline batteries. It's enough to power my Audio Technica AT3035 microphone with appearant ease. There's a variable input gain control dial, which isn't calibrated. It also has an 1/8" mini headphone jack for playback purposes. Sadly, it doesn't provide a "Zero latency monitoring" function to listen to the mic in your headphones while recording.

The iXZ does not come with any software, which is just fine with me. I'd much rather not waste time with some inappropriate for VO bundled application. Buy TwistedWave from the app store for $10, plug in the iZX into the headphone jack, plug in your mic, power it on, engage phantom power, hit record, set your levels, and you're recording. TwistedWave is incredibly feature reach for an iOS app, even providing the ability to process the audio through effects and FTP files. It can also deliver MP3's via their own server, a necessary workaround since Apple won't permit encoding to MP3 on an iOS device.

But does it work?

That depends on what you want to use it for. If your intention is to replace your Macbook or other laptop and audio interface with this unit for all of your work, I wouldn't go that far. It's defintely quite useable for making an audition happen while traveling. And with proper noise gate settings, you might even pull off a job here and there in a pinch.
I did test it with my T-Mobile MyTouch 4G phone, and it DOES work. However, my phone's recording quality was no where as good as the iPod Touch's. A good deal of the recording quality is thanks to the iPod itself.

To summarize, here's a Pros and Cons list.

PROS:

Cheap, only slightly more than an XLR adapter cable to connect a dynamic mic
Very compact and light
15 hrs on a pair of AA batteries when using phantom powered mics
Works better than the price would imply
Will work with an Android phone, as well as most all Apple iOS devices

CONS:

A tad bit noisy (no worse than a Blue Snowball)
No "zero latency monitoring" for headphones while recording
Connects to analog line input instead of digital dock connector
Very short cable to connect to device, making it hard to read a script from your phone while holding it

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Adequate for some demo work - maybe January 5, 2012

By David J. Finnamore

Amazon Verified Purchase

Like other devices that rely on the dual-purpose analog I/O jack on iOS devices, the Tascam iXZ succeeds in delivering a signal, but fails for overdubbing. When headphones are plugged into the the iXZ, some of the headphone output signal is mixed with the microphone signal and returned to the iOS device input, making it practically useless for recording overdubs. Even for non-overdub situations, users should avoid having headphones plugged into the iXZ, as it will mix extra noise into the recorded signal. I suspect that this is behind the noise complaints of other users. Even though the problem seems to be with Apple's design, as it has been noted by users of all competing products, manufacturers should alert potential customers to this caveat. I believe they are ethically obligated to do so, and I'm deeply disappointed with Tascam for not mentioning it.

It is possible, in some circumstances, to work around this problem by carefully pulling the headphone partway out of the headphone jack on the iXZ. The range over which bleed disappears altogether is tiny, so it takes some patience to find it. At that point, the headphones will receive a mono signal (probably either the right or left channel delivered to both sides of the headphones). I used the metronome in Garageband, watching the record meter carefully as I worked the jack in and out until the click was no longer deflecting the meter at all but the headphones were still receiving it. It took a great deal of trial and error - too much to be practical, but I was stuck with that solution and had to get the recording made, so I did it just that once. Never again. In the future, I may try using a device that has its own DAC and connects via the camera kit or something. But I'm through recording into the jack until Apple redesigns it to isolate the I/O signals from each other (not holding my breath).

The mic pre in the iXZ sounds about like what you'd expect to get for ~$40 - not too pretty, not too solid, but adequate if all you need is to get some semblance of the sound recorded. It compares favorably with, say, an ART Tube MP. But if you're used to something even as humble as mBox or Presonus pres, the iXZ will decidedly disappoint. Weak, hollow, and harsh would be almost appropriate descriptors. (By the way, the microphone I used was an sE X1, which sounds lovely in all other uses I've put it to.)

All thing considered, including the price, I'm actually happy I made the purchase. I mean, you can easily spend twice that going out to eat, right? It's a lot cheaper than 2 hours in a pro recording studio. For a few bucks and several minutes of frustration, I was able to capture vocals that will provide a demo-quality reference for advancement of the project. It's better than recording to a 4-track cassette or something. At least the vocals popped right back into Pro Tools with sample accuracy. So, hey, for all the criticism, I have to admit, it wasn't completely awful. I wouldn't recommend it for anything other than capturing sounds "wild" (without reference to other audio). But ultimately, it got the job done.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Somewhat disappointing. August 9, 2012

By bjshourt

Amazon Verified Purchase

I knew about the shortcomings, like not being able to monitor the input (solution; use a headphone amplifier that has mike loop-through), and the too-short connecting cable. But in testing, even with the level control at maximum, the output is much lower than using the built-in mike on both the New iPad and the iPhone 4S. There is a more expensive ($60) long XLR cable adapter that has a small preamp in the connector and I suspect it has a higher output, especially when using a dynamic mike. It is the VeriCorder brand but not the one you will find searching with that term in Amazon. That one has a right-angle plug that won't work with i devices in a case and it doesn't appear to have a preamp. The real one is at[...]. I learned about this from searching via Google videos, not YouTube. A guy posted a good demo at his site: [...]. The Tascam unit might be appropriate for very high sound level situations since its level control seems more like an attenuator. But for times when you're trying to get better audio like with a shotgun mike, maybe not. Since the Amazon price was pretty reasonable I'll keep mine.