Tonefiend Forum

Quote from joe on October 11, 2012, 10:41

Quote from bear on August 21, 2012, 18:38
Joe, what had you been running as the I/O for your Macbook/Mainstage setup before?

Oh crap, sorry, didn't see this before. Sorry, Bear!

I have a tone of cheapo interfaces, and I don't love any of them. I've used the Apogee GIO and One, a CEntrace Axeport, and (right now) a Focusrite Scarlett. They all sound perfectly fine, but the workmanship is so sketchy. (The Focusrite is built better, but it's bigger than I need, and I don't perceive a difference in sound quality relative to some of the less expensive I/Os.) I've used lots of other tbings over the years too.

Clearly, all this stuff is designed for the desktop musician on a budget, which is fine. It's amazing and awesome that you can get pretty good sounding I/O so cheaplyI. But I wish SOMEONE would make an I/O with truly stage-worthy construction and the right ergonomics for live use.

I've been using my Alesis IO dock on live gigs (tho' there are pathetically few of them and the are basically hobbyist level). It clamps the iPad in place so there is as little wear and tear on the 30 pin connector as possible. It has all the inputs and outputs I need (midi, audio I/O XLR and 1/4", USB, comp video). Best of all it has AC power so no worrying about battery power. You can even get a padded gig bag.It is pretty well made tho' largely plastic. That is as close to Pro as I have seen so far. The thing is with the next generation of iPads all this will change since they are switching to a Thunderbolt based connector that replaces the current 30 pin connector. So everything will be new and all the 30 pin based stuff will be replaced. I am not sure if mfrs will ever embrace the iPad as a pro device (but IMHO it should be). The iPad is a device that is brilliant, I've never been an Apple fanboy but in this case the strict control they exert has been very good for and developed a good stable marketplace for developers. As such the hardware and software has been flowing the way it should as compared to Android devices which are so fragmented that software and hardware compatibility are a crap shoot.