At the 2015 NAMM Show, IK Multimedia announced iRig UA, a digital effects processor and interface that they say allows near-zero latency processing with AmpliTube UA on all devices with Android 4.0 or higher and that support USB host mode/USB OTG.
IK’s Android solution addresses the Android platform fragmentation and OS latency problems by moving the DSP (Digital Signal Processing) of the device to the iRig UA. A digital signal processing chip directly inside iRig UA handles the effects processing, while the AmpliTube UA control app provides the graphic interface that lets users edit their guitar rig and save or recall presets.
According to IK, iRig UA is able to produce rock solid performances, high-quality sound and near-zero latency on virtually any Android device running Android 4.0 OS or later and supporting USB host mode/USB OTG.
Here’s the official intro video:
Pricing and Availability
iRig UA will be available Q2, 2015 from music and electronics retailers worldwide, and from the IK online store, for $99.99/€79.99 (excluding taxes). The AmpliTube UA app will be available at iRig UA release for free from the Google Play store. See the iRig UA site for details.
It was an interesting idea but I think developers will not have alot of incentive to develop software for android if the only people that can use it properly at low latency have to own a $99 add on and an android device that supports USB host mode.
Small market penetration of supported hardware means small market share for software sales. I’m sure IK will support it but they aren’t even the best guitar app out there for mobile (Positive Grid Bias) and a $99 add on makes the attractiveness of a cheap android tablet a bit less attractive.
It was a nice idea but latency is something that will need to be fixed from Google and Samsung’s end before Android can really take off as a mobile platform.
Doesn’t this just make device fragmentation worse?
Lol I think people will just get an old iPhone rather than pay extra for a device.
& who need Android itself in this case? Lol 🙂
If there was midi interface as well as Audio Bus, I would buy this kind of device for iOS too.
I would be ready to pay 250€, or even more, if the DSP was powerful enough for handful of simultaneous effects.
This might be one way to accelerate the multi synth ipad workstation evolution, that will inevitably happen sooner or later.
Hats off to IK Multimedia for trying to give android users some hope of music apps that don’t suck. As for Google, they should be ashamed of there performance so far, it’s nothing short of embarrassing.
Well they should be ashamed if their phones don’t function as reliable comm devices, but they do. They weren’t designed to be music production studios in your pocket, it is a bonus if you can ever get it. I have a number of Android devices and my desire to ever have an opportunity to create music on it is non-existent, and the same goes for iOS – I have better technology and options for this. Why would I choose to masturbate if I can choose to have sex when I want? Next people will be getting down on chocolate teapots.
Some of us don’t have a PC with enough horsepower to be a music workstation, so we’ll choose to masturbate for the time being 🙂 As long as I have an iPad around, why not put it to good use. Korg Module sounds great on it, esp with the Ivory add-on.
I bought it, test it one day and sent it back. Breaks in music, cheap hardware, usb contact problems, I bought an additional amplifier and it was away one day later.
No, for me not usable