Line-in Recording for iPad?

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Level 3

919 points

Line-in Recording for iPad?

I use a 17 inch MacBook Pro for recording special songs and sermons at our church but would like to switch to using my iPad. It sure would be nice not to have to lug the MBP to every service.

I'm not a sound guru. I just plug a cable into the line-in on my MBP and record using QuickTime, convert it to MP3 using iTunes, then podcast it using another software.

All the mics come into a box (mixer?) and then there's this small cable that has a line in for my MBP at one end and it plugs into the "box" with RCA jacks at the other.

What would it take, hardware and sofware-wise, to do the same thing using my iPad that I'm doing with the MBP? (I mean just the capturing of the sound--I can transfer to the MBP at home for converting to MP3 and podcasting.)

MacBook Pro 17" 3GB RAM/Mac Pro 2.66 13GB RAM, Mac OS X (10.6.4), 24" iMac, MacBook, 32GB iPod Touch, Apple TV, iPad

Posted on Nov 10, 2010 7:06 AM

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Answer 1

Nov 10, 2010 7:50 AM in response to Alan Cook2

Well, sometimes you can use the headphone jack with an adaptor, but I personally think you'd be better off doing the USB part of the camera connection kit with some kind of interface like the griffin imic. I myself use the Blue Yeti directly into the CCK, but for your purposes I think that would probably be insufficient, especially since you already have the other hardware.

Definitely figure out your recording app first (I use DAW) and then see what they recommend. Different apps are designed to work with different hardware connections. Most recording apps on the ipad will do the conversion to MP3 and some will even do the podcast upload for you.

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Answer 2

Alan Cook2 Author

Level 3

919 points

Nov 10, 2010 8:27 AM in response to Barbara Brundage

Thanks Barbara. That is very helpful. When you say "I use DAW" do you mean "MultiTrack DAW" by Hamilton Feltman? It comes up first in the App Store when I do a search for DAW.

I'll try to do some searching to see if I can find an app that will do the podcast upload as well. That would be really cool.

Thanks again.

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Answer 3

Alan Cook2 Author

Level 3

919 points

Nov 10, 2010 1:00 PM in response to Alan Cook2

OK I've gone ahead and ordered the Griffin iMic and the Camera Connection Kit. I've also downloaded and tried out a couple of apps that record & podcast, but am not impressed with either of them. So I'll just record the audio on the iPad with something like DAW and then pass it off to the laptop for uploading the podcast. Until something better comes along...

Thanks again for the help.

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Answer 4

Nov 10, 2010 6:11 PM in response to Alan Cook2

This isn't the program I use, but they have a very comprehensive list of ways to connect stuff:

http://www.fantastocrats.com/StudioMini/How-To1___Recording_Studio_App_for_iPhone_iPad_iPodtouch.html

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Answer 5

Nov 11, 2010 11:55 AM in response to The MacGreg

Yes, apple can change how it works if they want, but I haven't heard anything to suggest that this (unlike the rotation switch) is likely to behave differently in iOS 4. But all we can do is wait and see. As for the apps themselves, you can be sure that popular apps will be updated quickly, since the developers want to continue making money from them. 🙂

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Answer 6

Alan Cook2 Author

Level 3

919 points

Nov 11, 2010 12:14 PM in response to Alan Cook2

I purchased Multitrack DAW and StudioMiniXL, but both seem to be overkill for what I'm trying to do. I'm now looking at FiRe and iProRecorder. I need something fairly simple. I'm not the one sitting at the sound box and doing the recording. I could run a cord to my iPad from the soundbox and do the recording in my pew I guess--it's about 20 feet.

I really wish Apple would do the same with the app store as Google does with the Market--allow you to get a refund within a 24 hour period if you don't like the app.

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Answer 7

Nov 11, 2010 12:22 PM in response to Alan Cook2

I have used iprorecorder. It's fine if all you want is the sermon, but if there's any music it's quite likely to clip. It's only optimized for voice recording. If you are just recording the sermon, why the mixing board, etc? I had assumed this was fairly complex recording, given that you need that.

If you just need plain old spoken voice and quality isn't that big an issue, also look at iTalk Lite. The easiest recording app, and free, although very limited.

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Answer 8

Alan Cook2 Author

Level 3

919 points

Nov 11, 2010 12:29 PM in response to Alan Cook2

Thanks for the tip. Yes, we record the special singing too, so it sounds like iProRecorder is out. I'm assuming the mixing board is there because we have several mics (piano, four mics for singers, wireless lapel mic, wireless hand mic, etc.). Like I said, I'm not a "sound" person, just a computer person.

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Answer 9

Nov 11, 2010 12:32 PM in response to Alan Cook2

Yah, then you do want a full range app, for sure. Unfortunately, most of the simplest recording apps are designed more as stand-ins for the memos app that comes with the ipod/iphone but not the ipad. The music-geared ones are almost all multitrack, and actually DAW and studiomini are relatively simple as these go, since most of them are geared to adding/creating loops and tracks in addition to straight recording.

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Answer 10

Alan Cook2 Author

Level 3

919 points

Nov 11, 2010 12:37 PM in response to Alan Cook2

I'm still not sure why I need "multitrack" when there is only going to be one audio source (line-in) coming into the iPad. It seems all the other stuff in those apps is major overkill. I'm evidently missing something fairly fundamental about the whole process. Thanks for helping me out here!

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Answer 11

Nov 11, 2010 12:47 PM in response to Alan Cook2

Just forget about the multitrack part. You're going to record one stereo track for the podcast.( If you were going to make a CD of the Christmas service or something, it would be different.) In Daw, for example, just tap to start one track, record it, save it, upload it to your computer or wherever, and you're done. They do have a bunch of tutorials on their website that are very helpful:

http://forum.harmonicdog.com/viewforum.php?f=2

You don't need all of it (punching in and so on). Just start at the bottom of the top part with First Recording Tutorial and work your way up through the next couple. It's confusing at first, but it's not hard at all.

Yes, it would be nice if there were a professional quality recording app without all the extra features, but most people doing this kind of recording do want them, so you get them thrown in if you want the ability to control the input levels and like that.

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Answer 12

Alan Cook2 Author

Level 3

919 points

Nov 11, 2010 4:16 PM in response to Alan Cook2

I posted a request in the Multitrack DAW forum for someone to give me a step by step on how I would record a song and then a sermon using DAW. I got the following response from pwnified, who I presume is one of the developers or one of their support people:

Actually, we don't recommend using MultiTrack for field recording, where the recordings are long and you're not going to overdub (or multitrack) any other parts. This is because there is a cache track which spans the entire length of the song and is fairly wide (more than twice as wide as a single stereo track in wav format). This extra track is very costly in terms of filespace, but the cost is amortized much lower when you have many tracks in parallel. So MultiTrack is intended for shorter song lengths, with many tracks in parallel.

Personally, if I'm going to record an impromptu jam session where I know I'm not going to do any overdubs, I always just use "FiRe" as a field recorder. It's a great little stereo recorder and has many exporting features.

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Answer 13

Nov 11, 2010 5:13 PM in response to Alan Cook2

I think you would need to ask them about that, since they don't really specify anything specific about using it with the ipad. My guess is it would.

EDIT There's a thread around here somewhere from someone who had figured out how to do CD quality recording without ever using a computer, and it involved using both an ipod and ipad and both FIRe and DAW, but that was before the release of the CCK, so I don't know how having the CCK would have changed his procedure (which was extremely complicated, IIRC).

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Answer 14

Alan Cook2 Author

Level 3

919 points

Nov 12, 2010 10:18 AM in response to Alan Cook2

I contacted Bias support (iProRecorder) and mentioned that someone said it "clips" when recording music. This is what their rep said in reply:

The definition of "Clipping" is that to strong a signal is entering your recording device. If someone says that the iProRecorder "clips" when you record they simply do not understand the fundamentals of audio or the terminology they are using. There is no input gain on the iProRecorder, when using it with the built in microp but since you are using an external mic and mixer, this should not be a problem as there should be at least one gain control stage in that signal chain.

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Answer 15

Nov 14, 2010 1:21 PM in response to Alan Cook2

This is very interesting. Since reading your post I've done more testing, but I'm still seeing the same thing, with the exact same setup that works fine with some of the other programs. If I reduce the input to the point where clipping is infrequent, the resulting track volume is so low and needs so much boosting in post that it sounds fake, but then again I have one of the trickiest instruments to record, so hopefully this is working fine for you. Perhaps it's just more sensitive to input levels. Let us know your results, please.

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