My brother bought a new iPad so he can use Garage Band to record his band practices. He asked me how to connect up some microphones for recording.
Rather than just respond with an email, I decided to post this article in case anyone else might find this information helpful. I don’t use GarageBand myself. He asked me because I use Apple products and I am familiar with microphones and recording.
He bought the most recent entry level iPad with 128GB of storage, this one.
Entry level, affordable, a good choice for him.
There are a few different ways you can connect microphones to an iPad or iPhone.
He already owns a bunch of Shure SM57 and Shure SM58 microphones. The microphones are legendary in the live music business. While they may not be the best choice for doing a live stereo recording, he wants to try using them.
I recommended that he buy an USB audio interface to connect his microphones to his iPad. Specifically, the new M-Audio M-Track Duo – USB Audio Interface. It has good reviews and its affordable.
This interface can be connected to a PC, Mac, iPad, or even an iPhone. It supports Apple’s “Core Audio” interface. This means you don’t need to install any special apps or drivers to make it work. You just need to plug it in.
You do need some additional accessories to make it work though. The audio interface is “bus powered”. This means it’s powered by the USB cable you plug into the back. While a PC or Mac can send it enough power over USB, and iPad or iPhone cannot. So you need to power it.
You can use this adapter from Apple
It ain’t cheap.
To use this adapter, you plug it into the lightning port on the bottom of the iPad. It has two jacks on it. The first is a lightning jack, you plug in the lightning cable than came with your iPad here and use this to charge your iPad and provide additional power to the USB interface. The other connector on the adapter is a USB A connection. You plug the USB cable from the audio interface into here to connect the audio interface to the iPad. With this adapter you’ll be able to power the iPad while recording.
You also need to power the M-Audio USB interface. The interface uses “bus power”, meaning it gets the power it needs to run the interface and provide phantom power for the microphones from the USB connection. For the M-Audio, you need a USB Y cable like this one.
One end of the cable, the one with the USB-B connector, plugs into the M-Audio. The other end, the “Y” end, has tow USB-A connectors. The black end connects to the Apple adapter, this is the “data” connection. The red connector, is for additional power, and needs to be plugged into a USB A charger.
Now the interface should have enough power.