If, like me, you're an Android-toting guitar player or musician, then the options for getting high-quality audio in or out of your smartphone or tablet have been rather limited. Class-compliant support for USB audio interfaces (essentially an external sound card) has long been baked into iOS (via the USB camera connection kit for iPad), meaning that a wide range of audio devices can be used with iOS' plethora of musical apps. There are limitations of course—needing an iPad being quite a large one—but multiple third-party vendors now built audio interfaces specifically for use with iPhones too.
Thankfully, IK Multimedia—a company known for its AmpliTube modelling software on the desktop and iOS—has stepped in to fill in the gap on Android. The iRig UA is a £80 ($99) audio interface and software solution for Android 4.2 and higher devices that lets you plug in a guitar and start bashing out riffs without the need for a hulking Marshall stack, or expensive dedicated modelling hardware like an Axe-Fx. It's the sort of thing that, when I first started playing guitar many moons ago, I'd have absolutely gone nuts over.
Child-like excitement aside though, I'm not entirely convinced by the sounds on offer. Guitar amplifier modelling has come a long way over the last few years, and unfortunately the iRig UA is still a few steps behind.
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