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- Mic & Guitar Interface for iPad, iPhone and iPod
- XLR mic input with mic pre and phantom power
- Guitar input with FET
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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
Buy TASCAM iXZ Mic / Instrument input for iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch Now
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.
Read Best Reviews of TASCAM iXZ Mic / Instrument input for iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch Here
I bought this to record on my iPad. The quality is fantastic with the exception of some noise bleed from other tracks. The best way around this is to either refrain from using headphones or keep the headphone volume very low. In any case the sound bleed is hardly noticeable and this interface does what it needs to which is to record good quality sound at an affordable price.Want TASCAM iXZ Mic / Instrument input for iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch Discount?
I record audio and wanted this little box so I could do it on my iPad Mini (Lightning connector) and my iPod & original iPad (30-pin connectors), but didn't want to suffer compatibility issues. This is precisely the right tool to get audio into all my iOS devices, including my large diaphragm condenser mic. Solid name brand and another product that delivers exactly what I need.
I'm running an HTC Evo View/Flyer tablet with Android 3.2, mainly with Jaytronix' J4T 4-track, and Single Cell's LoopStack app. Your milage may vary elsewhere.
There's nothing overly fancy here. Just a simple way to get any kind of mono signal you want into your device, including phantom powered condensor mics. As this is currently thirty dollars, which is only about ten more than simple cable adapters, I found that added xlr & phantom option was worth it.
And it works as advertised. Actually beyond that since they say nothing about Android support :)
The downside is the lack of live monitoring. From what I understand, there's a latency issue with Android at this point at the root of the issue. So you plug in your guitar start your app recording and you don't hear what you're playing via the headphones. When you play it back, you can hear it. When you go to overdub a second track, you can hear the recorded track(s) playback, but again, not your live signal. This can make it tricky for electric instrument (egsolid body guitar) tracking, and impossible for purely electronic instruments (egsynths). But if you're in a quiet space, with a guitar and/or your voice, it's doable. And with my setup, I had no issues with any syncing of overdubs with other tracks, especially if I slid one side of my headphones off.
That may be a deal breaker for you. And it'd make sense if it was honestly.
I had thoughts of splitting off my signal from the guitar to the iXZ & a pocket sized amp to better hear what I'm playing. With the right setup, it could still easily fit in your guitars case without trouble.
As for the sound quality, it's decent. Nothing special. I found that having the input level dimed overloaded my mic input extremely quickly. So dialing it back a few notches was necessary. Taking it back half way if I wanted to really hit it hard. Is it better than the internal microphone? It depends. Using a decent mic on voice was a definite improvement. Giving my voice more focus and clarity on the track. With electric guitar, obviously it was an improvement. Acoustic instruments vary from the same to better, never worse. So there's that :)
Overall the usefullness of the iXz is dependant on your needs. If the onboard mics of your device are decent, and you only do acoustic work, then maybe it's unecessary. But if you play something electric, you need an interface. And as no interface out there will allow live signal monitoring at this point, it's something you'll have to live/work with if you need that interface. And as I said before, the flexability:cost ratio of this makes it the one to buy as far as I'm concerned. So it's 4 stars in the context of what's possible, and what it offers for the price (current sale, not MSRP). But as technology advances, this could quickly become obsolete.
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