Input options and microphones

[Anorton]

Can the Blue Yeti be used with a 3rd generation, 32 gig, iPod touch? I've been googling it, but all the articles only seem to talk about the Yeti and the iPad.

[Anorton]

Just in case anyone else is interested, I found the following in a review of the Blue Yeti:

"[...] the iPhone and iPod touch display a message saying that the accessory is not supported. So it’s a no go for anything other than the iPad for now."

Has anyone tried the Blue Mikey 2 yet?

[beyond]

OK, got it, and initial tests are VERY GOOD. Did a guitar going straight in through the 1/4" jack, and it seems to sound *really* good, and there appears to be NO notable latency, at least none that I could detect. 16/44.1, AND IT HAS REALTIME MONITORING!!!!!!!

With this and the Blue Yeti and the camera connection kit, you've got Mic in, and line in. Add that to audio copy/paste, and you've got a full arsenal.

Let the creating begin.

So you can monitor through the Yeti, but what happens to the headphone output on the iPad? Does it still work, or is it disabled? -M

The unit has a headphone jack of its own, you get the playback through the device. As pwnified said earlier, the camera connection kit shuts off external speakers/headphones, so those can't be used with any device. This one has the headphones jack, just like the Yeti! Here it is at Guitar Center, where it's in stock, and there's magnified photos so you can see the multiple input/output jacks:

http://www.guitarcenter.com/Cakewalk-UA ... 1448466.gc

Very nice, and reasonably priced ($99) given what it enables for an iPad/Multitrack setup!

[M57]

The UA-1G looks interesting, and I would be tempted pick it up if I needed to use one of my other mics, but it looks like I'd have to have a mic pre-amp/phantompower etc. to get things going, which is not turn-key enough.

The UA looks good for playback to speakers, although at that point I can just use the headphone output.

I'm going to pick up a Yeti today and give it and the camera connection kit a try..

Thanks..

[jorgren]

If you are looking for a stereo mic, analog line-in, and not disabling earbud monitoring, you can use the Belkin TuneTalk. I use it as a mic, or to connect devices such as my Kaossilator. I can plug in my earbuds and monitoring works fine. The catch is, you have to use a jack extender to make the earbud port physically accessible. See my earlier post in this thread for the best docking port extender to use.

[beyond]

The UA-1G looks interesting, and I would be tempted pick it up if I needed to use one of my other mics, but it looks like I'd have to have a mic pre-amp/phantompower etc. to get things going, which is not turn-key enough.

The UA looks good for playback to speakers, although at that point I can just use the headphone output.

I'm going to pick up a Yeti today and give it and the camera connection kit a try..

Thanks..

Agreed, the Yeti is definitely the Mic component. For me, the UA-1G is for creating a line in for instruments via the 1/4" jack it has.

And yes, you definitely need the cam conn kit for both the Yeti and the UA-1G, so pick that up pronto.

If you already have another XLR mic, shure makes what is purportedly a pretty good XLR to USB adapter that would also connect an xlr mic if you already have one, so you wouldn't have to buy a Yeti:

http://www.guitarcenter.com/Shure-X2U-X ... 1435759.gc

And from the description on sweetwater.com , it looks like this Shure x2u adapter also has monitoring via the headphone jack built into the adapter: "Playback is handled through the X2u, as well, with zero-latency monitoring and Monitor Mix Control blends mic signal and audio playback." So if you already own a mic, that adapter could be good as well.

If you don't currently have a mic, though, the Yeti is great, I've been very impressed.

[Keith]

I haven't made an entry in far too long. What is going on with the new iPod? What are our interface options? Microphone input, doc options - USB, analog in or out?

[pwnified]

I haven't heard much about the new iPod but I would guess that it's going to be compatible with iPhone 4 input options. So far the iPhone 4 only gets headphone jack input and built in mic.

I've ordered a bunch of products for testing, including the new blue mikey, line 6 midi mobilizer, the iRig, and the peavy ampkit (I was thoroughly impressed with the ampkit app), and a bunch of USB devices. I've also built jorgren's cable using the schematic posted on page 6, and it sounds great. I think our input options for iPhone 4 and iPod 4 are going to be headphone jack connector types for a while, so we better get used to it.

[jorgren]

Hey, I'm glad the cable sounds good for you too!

Can somebody pplease explain to me why USB accessories no longer work on the iPhone 4? Did Apple disable the USB part of the dock port? I gather they did delete the audio pins from it. Is the dock port strictly for charging now? How do you sync the phone?

I found this at http://www.macworld.com/article/152382/ ... ories.html and it just confuses me. So audio input will only work on the earbud mic port, or through USB, but audio through USB is disabled too? WTF does that mean? I'm concerned that it looks like Apple is trying to kill the mobile audio production marketplace.

"Microphones: As I just noted, the inline microphone on any iPhone- or iPod-compatible headphones or headset works as a mono microphone for recording audio (from within an app that supports recording, of course). These microphones also work in Skype and similar apps.

On the other hand, dock-connector microphones, such as Blue’s Mikey, don’t work at all. According to a post on the Audiofile Engineering forums—the company makes the Fire field-recording app—Apple has changed the audio-input circuitry on the iPad and iPhone 4; microphones and other audio-input accessories must now convert audio to a USB-audio signal before sending that signal to the iPhone’s dock-connector port. (Older iPhones and iPods accepted analog audio input, but that circuitry has been removed.)

Unfortunately, unlike with the iPad, you can’t connect a USB microphone or headset to the iPhone using the iPad Camera Connection Kit. The Camera Connection Kit doesn’t work at all with the iPhone. Similarly, as with previous iPhones and the iPad, the microphone on Bluetooth headphones or headsets, which can be used for phone calls, doesn’t work for general audio recording."

[pwnified]

So far I gather that the Camera Connector Kit, which was intended for the iPad (competes with laptop market space), does not work on the iPhone 4 or iPod 4. Also, there are no analog inputs on the doc connector on the iPhone4/iPod4. There are USB digital inputs on the doc connector, it's just that nobody has made a connector for it.

Companies could make a "usb adapter" (if approved by apple), similar to the Camera Connection Kits hidden audio functionality, or they could make a doc connector microphone but it needs to send USB data to the doc, which is more complicated than just sending an analog signal.

BTW jorgren, thanks for the offer to check out the reverb you wrote. I have a simple algorithm I've been using for testing, the issue currently is processor usage (mostly on older devices) but I'd like to check out your algorithm at some point in the early future, provided it's not too processor intensive.