These are exciting times for electronic musicians and performers. From the overwhelming options offered by Eurorack modules and DIY modular synthesizer systems to the mobile wonders of the iOS ecosystem and desktop DAWs and plugins, there’s literally something for everyone.
Actually, hybrid setups that integrate iPads, computers and other hardware devices are pretty common nowadays. Many of these setups wouldn’t have been possible without a company like iConnectivity and its groundbreaking audio/MIDI routing technology.
In 2011 the Canadian company released its first product, the iConnectMIDI, “the first professional grade, high-speed MIDI interface designed specifically to have plug and play capability between any MIDI controller type device while connected to iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch iOS devices using CoreMIDI”. The rest is history, as they say (make sure to check out our previous article about iOS music production, iOS9 and iConnectivity devices).
In the last few years, other companies have found ways to achieve somehow similar results, purely via software (like the brilliant Audiomux), but the flexibility of iConnectivity’s interfaces is still a winning factor for many users.
Some months ago iConnectivity unveiled the iConnectAUDIO2+, the smaller brother (or sister?) of their flagship model, the iConnectAUDIO4+.
ANR friend and iConnectivity experienced user Derek Jones put it through its paces for his own blog, and we’re glad to feature his in-depth review in the following pages (tip: click on the images to zoom them up).
I tried an iconnectaudio2+ in Ableton. It slowed Ableton down, there were annoying waiting times during recording sessions. Iconfig on the pc didn’t start up sometimes. After a few recordings inbetween crashes the interface itself crashed and the controls stopped working.
There were times that an ipad air 2 didn’t connect to the ipad inconfig software. With the highly priced power supply this problem was solved.
I also tried the iconnectmidi2+, warning! Asio4all is unstable! It worked better in Cubase but Ableton was very unstable. I had signal in both programs but no sound. the iconne t and my Focusrite were selected. If i only selected my Focusrite in Asio4all i had sound from my audio clips and vst instruments but then the iconnect didn’t work. So the choice was signal from the iconnect but no vst sound. Or sound from my vst’s but no iconnect sound from my ipad.
Both products were a major dissapointment.
Robin, let me see if I can get the iConnectivity people or the author to chime in…
Hi, I work with iConnectivity. This is a support issue that requires further details to track down. Obviously something’s wrong, whether it’s corrupted software, an incompatibility, or who knows.
Please file a support ticket. They’re used to troubleshooting this kind of issue, and they’ll sort this out.
https://www.iconnectivity.com/support/
Email me if you have any problems, but they’re very responsive.