9 best iPad gears for musicians

Wired magazine just choose 9 best iPad gears for musicians (link to original article).

1. iPad camera connection kit

With camera connection kit you can use midi hardware and USB sound cards with you iPad. There are a lot of iPad apps that support midi inputs including GarageBand.

And here you can find lists of compatible and non-compatible midi hardware.

Price: $30

2. iConnect midi

This device allows you to connect any midi device (it has 2 midi inputs, 2 midi outputs and 2 USB ports). It has powered USB ports so it can be used instead of powered USB hub for devices that require more power.

With iConnect midi you can merge two or more MIDI input ports to a single output port and send a MIDI input port to one or more output port - it is fully configurable.

Price: $180

3. Avid M-Audio Keystation Mini 32

This is the very compact, "small enough to fit in a backpack" midi keyboard that you can easily connect to your iPad (with Camera Connection Kit).

Price: $80

4. Korg nanoPad2

With nano pad controller you can trigger drums or samples on iPad apps that support midi inputs. You will still need Camera Connection Kit to connect this device.

Price: $60

5. Alesis iO Dock

iO Dock is a powerful music hub for your iPad. It has XLR, midi (5pin) , USB interfaces and stereo outputs.

There are a lot of different ways to connect music instruments to your ipad: we have microphone gadgets, like IK Multimedia's iRig Mic, and Apogee's Mic, as well as guitar products such as iRig and Jam from the same companies. There are also MIDI input/output devices, including IK's iRig MIDI, Line 6's MIDI Mobilizer, and the very interesting iConnect MIDI. The trouble with all this wanton pluggery is that iOS devices have only two connectors—the headphone jack and the dock connector—which means that you run out of connection alternatives pretty fast. However, the Alesis IO Dock gives iPad users a new way, because it's a stand/case/audio/MIDI/video interface, all in one. (link on review)

Price: $200

6. CEntrance AxePort Pro

The CEntrance AxePort Pro is the smallest professional USB preamp and recording interface for guitar and bass. Using AxePort Pro is quite simply the easiest way to lay down a high quality guitar or bass track using (USB Camera Connection Kit required)

Price: $150

7. Apogee Jam

Pure digital compact interface to connect guitar to ipad. Compatible with GarageBand (uncompatible with AmpliTube apps).

Price: $100

Nice device that provides you good sound and compatibility with Garage Band but a bit expensive. Can be used to connect guitar not only to iPad but to Mac as well.

8. AmpliTube iRig

AmpliTube iRig is an analog guitar interface for iPad. It doesn't provide you good sound like digital interfaces and doesn't play nice with iPad. But AmpliTube made nice apps with guitar effects. Also it is definitely chipper than any digital interface.

Price: $40

Good device if you want to play guitar with headphones.

9. DigiTech iPB-10

The iPB-10 allows you to create your ultimate pedalboard, all on your iPad. Design a pedalboard by simply dragging and dropping up to 10 different pedals, in any order, to each pedalboard.

It comes with free app with guitar effects.

Price: $480

It is a great device by Harman, definitely the future of guitar processing, but the price is very high.

MainStage for iPad (Rumors)

Last week Apple moved Logic pro and Main Stage 2 to the MacAppStore. The next big thing in music apps Apple will do is to introduce MainStage for iPad. May be they'll do it already in March/April with the presentation of iPad 3. This is how it may look like:

Let's have a look:

MainStage is the live playing tool. When you are playing it's pretty hard to change settings or instruments with the mouse or keyboard. Of course you can connect some midi controllers but it is not the simplest way.

The ideal solution is to put Main Stage on the iPad. Actually when I see MainStage on my Mac it is clear that it is perfect for such device as iPad. With touch screen it is much easier to navigate during a live show. Ideally Apple will make possible to preset all the settings on a mac and upload it to the iPad.

What we can use before MainStage for iPad will arrive?

Well, of course we can use GarageBand. But it is not very good for live concerts.

For keyboard there's a good professional application called SampleTank. It works nice with USB Keyboards (with Apple Camera Connection Kit) and with midi keyboards without USB (you will need iRig then). SampleTank has only iPhone version but works fine with the iPad.

For guitar there's no good replacement yet. There's a nice app - Amplitube but it doesn't work with apogee jam or other USB interfaces. It works only with iRig which has pretty bad sound (it is fine to play at home with headphones but not in the studio or in a live concert).