Recording - August 2015 - 46

iConnectivity iConnectAUDIO4+

Change events filtered out. Then there are global filters screening out
Active Sensing, Reset, Tune Request, and MIDI Time Code events. And
that's just for one of the 29 available MIDI streams!
Figure 5 shows the MIDI Controller Remap tab. Here, Data from Device
Jack 2 to Device Jack 1 is having CC 2 (breath controller) turned into CC
1 (modulation wheel) data on MIDI Channels 1 and 2, and CC 10 (pan)
turned into CC 11 (expression) on all MIDI Channels, etc.
If your head is spinning by now, don't worry! What I've shown you here
is the outer reaches of what you can do with the iCA4+. Using the iConfig
tabs for Audio Info and MIDI Info (Figures 6 and 7), you can choose to simplify your routings and devices so that you're only seeing what you need
to see. Want to change your number of inputs or outputs from a particular
Device? Want to rename all those MIDI connections to something you can
remember easily? Want to reserve a particular MIDI port for a particular
controller (Figure 8)? Want to turn MIDI inputs and outputs on and off? It's
all easy to do. You can trim down what you're looking at very simply, and
make your network easy to understand and encompass.
User experiences
I've been working with the iCA4+ for a bit over a month now, and I am
only just scratching the surface with it. It allows so much control over so
many devices that I'm actually rather sorry I've moved so much of my MIDI
hardware out of my studio! But in terms of DAW and virtual instrument control from a variety of USB devices, it's an absolute peach.
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My tests in these early weeks have been relatively smooth going; when
the interface misbehaves, it's been because I hadn't configured it properly
for what I was trying to do, or was trying to get it to do things that made
it unhappy. For example, during long sessions in iConfig messing with this
and that setting and reuploading my new parameters to the interface again
and again, it wasn't uncommon for my iPad to get disconnected and not
be able to reconnect until I power cycled the interface.
The front panel controls are very simple but do their job well. Its build quality is
decently solid, with no flimsy plastic in evidence and good Amphenol jacks.
Overall audio quality has been exceptional, in that "nice and clean without being
sterile" way that a good audio interface's inputs and outputs should provide.
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RECORDING August 2015

You get a bit giddy after you start to wrap your head
around what this box can do. It's routine now for me to
route virtual instrument apps from my iPad into PreSonus
Studio One on my Mac, or loop track playback from
Auria into Ableton Live and process it with Max For Live
before sending it back to Auria again on a new record
track. USB controllers hooked up to the Host Jack just
work... on both computers at once. And so on!
One warning to iOS users: some apps have automatic buffer settings, and default to a very large
audio buffer size when hooked up to audio interfaces. If you suddenly hear a whole lot of latency
when using the iCA4+ with an iPad, check your app
before blaming the interface-that 93 ms latency
can probably be attributed to the fact that your zingy
piano app has set itself to a 4096 sample buffer!
Final musings
Do I have a wish list for the iCA4+? Yes, but it's a
fairly small one that I'm sure will be addressed or at
least considered in future software and firmware
updates, if not already being worked on.
First of all, I'm really looking forward to an iOS version of iConfig for the iCA4+. It would be a perfect
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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - August 2015