Recording - June 2015 - 49

or iOS, in any combination. They
talk to each computer simultaneously, exchanging MIDI data,
and they isolate the computers in
such a way that they don't come
into conflict and crash the network. Read that again: these devices let you network multiple computers and exchange MIDI between them seamlessly and reliably.
If that's not enough, there's a free Mac/Windows/iOS configuration program called iConfig that lets you set up these networks graphically, with incredible depth of features. You can route and split and
merge, sort and filter channels and various data types, remap controller data... about the only thing that's missing is the ability to create
and store new data response curves so that one input signal range
maps to a different output signal range. True, that's mainly of interest
to very picky users of badly thought out MIDI synths from the 1980s...
But wait, there's more! As if being able to hook up three computers
via USB, a powered hub on the Host port with up to eight USB controllers attached to it, four old-school MIDI devices on DIN cables, and
an Ethernet network of four more computers sharing MIDI, wasn't
enough... both interfaces also offer a little trick called Audio passThru.
And this, dear readers, is where you pull out your wallets.
I'll skip the technical jargon. Basically, if you hook two (on the 2+)
or three (on the 4+) computers into the USB Device jacks, each computer thinks it's in charge, and sees the other two computers as new

audio interfaces available to it. You decide how many
channels of audio you want to move, at what resolution
and sample rate, and the interface does the trickery. Up
to eight channels of audio are available at 16/44.1 or
16/48; you can get four channels at 24/44.1, 24/48,
or 16/96. Once you've done that, digital audio flies
between all the computers with practically zero latency
and no conversion artifacts. An iOS app becomes an
audio source for a DAW on a laptop; a Mac uses a
Windows-only plug-in running on a PC as an effects
send/return; a Mac routes a guitar signal from its
attached audio interface through to an iOS effects processor, then back to the Mac for recording... or to a third
computer!
Is your mind blown yet? Mine was within the first couple of days of working with these beasts. They worked
flawlessly on two Macs, one PC, and four iOS devices,
routing MIDI and audio effortlessly. I ended up asking for
another of the special USB Device Lightning cables so I
could network three iOS devices together! It's exhilarating
to see formerly impossible MIDI and audio hookups
become not only possible but easy.
Sure, you could argue that what something like this really
needs to make it perfect is actual physical audio I/O, preamps, and a built-in digital mixer... but the new
iConnectAUDIO4+ only arrived just before we went to press,
and there was no time to add it to this review. But we'll get
to it... and in the meantime, as networking and problemsolving devices par excellence, the iConnectMIDI2+ and
iConnectMIDI4+ have few if any peers.

http://www.isoacoustics.com http://www.isoacoustics.com

Recording - June 2015

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