Music Notes Gear Review: Tascam’s iXZ recording interface for iPad

For my birthday, I received the Tascam iXZ recording interface for iPad, and after having it to play with for a couple months, I would like to share my thoughts.

This is a nifty little device!

I am using it with the GarageBand app on my iPad2, and am very pleased with the results. Since I began recording my music and seriously pursuing my musical career, I have been less than satisfied with my recording equipment. However, being on a limited budget, I was relegated to merely drooling and fantasizing about the innovative equipment I wanted, i.e. I “made do” with what I had available to me.

This little piece of equipment changed all that.

It is simple and easy to use, with a switch for changing between a 1/4″ instrument cable connection and a 3-pin mic connection, which includes an option (another switch) for phantom power if you like using a condenser mic (I believe that runs off the two AA batteries it takes). You can also adjust the input volume on the device, which is nice if your instrument electronics don’t have volume controls or are just a weak preamp. The iXZ is also a simple plug-n-play type device: it merely connects to your headphone jack on your iPad, without having to purchase any other types of connection methods. And no worries for those of you who like to use headphones for monitoring: the iXZ has a standard 3.5mm audio jack on the back so you don’t have to unplug anything to listen in.

I am pleasantly surprised at the quality of sound it (working with the GarageBand app) can pump out. Very clear, very clean with minimal “ambient noise” (an irritating peeve I had with my previous system). Another bonus I’ve found is the portability. I can take the iXZ (and the associated necessities) and record anywhere — no small thing since acoustically appropriate spaces within the cord range of my old system were minimal at best.

My only peeve is that the input connection for the 1/4″ cable jack is really snug. It was quite worrisome the first time I went to use it; I had to exert considerable force to get it to snap in, and again when I wanted to unplug it. It is slowly loosening up a little, but it is still quite a grippy little connection. (There is no such issue with the 3-pin mic connection. It slides in smoothly and firmly.)

So far I’ve used the little iXZ to record some audition pieces as well as my “singles” for my webstore. I am much happier with the results of these than I ever was with my previous recordings. Now that I am not fighting so much in terms of recording environment, I can focus better on getting a better sound. Setup time is a snap since there’s just a few things to connect. Recording has almost become easy!

At a fifty dollar retail, I will definitely recommend this piece of equipment to anyone (with an iPad) looking for an affordable recording solution that will deliver a clean sound right out of the box.