No way would I ever plug in my Gibson SG Les Paul Custom into my iPhone 3G. Just no way. Now that I have the iPhone 4 and its increased processor speed, crystal clear pictures, and hardcore stage presence, I’ll reconsider.

Seriously though, playing an instrument through an iDevice is more of just a hobby or gimmick if you’re going to try and use it for modeling amps and effect pedals. What really convinced me to hook up a quarter inch jack to my phone was the Moog Filtatron App. Synthesizers are most certainly perfect for and acceptable to use in your music even if they’re coming from you Macbook or iPad. If they have the Moog name attatched to it then you’re just that much more legit.

If you have a box full of cables tucked away somewhere, you may have all that you need to construct your very own iRig. Even if you purchased all the cables from The Shack, you’ll probably come away with a cheaper version, and you’ll feel like MacGyver.

Here’s how I put together my own audio interface:

Ingredients:

• Yellow Red and White RCA Cable to 1/8″ Jack

• RCA female to 1/4″ male connector

• Stereo RCA female jacks to 1/8″ female

• Headphones

Procedure:

I started with this guy

I have approximately four of these cables in my box-o-cables and putting one to use justifies me keeping the other three. This cable allows you to use the microphone input and left and right stereo outputs of your iPhone/iPad 1/8″ jack. The red and white RCA plugs will be the audio out to your headphones and the yellow RCA plug will be the audio input from your guitar.

I had to pick this adapter up from The Shack. $2.99 for this one:

This goes on the yellow RCA plug and hooks directly into your musical instrument of choice (with a 1/4″ jack).

I got lucky with this cable. It came with my record player:

This takes the left and right audio signal from the red and white RCA plugs and outputs it to your 1/8″ headphone jack.

The finished product looks like this:

﻿It’s like creating your own aural Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers Megazord. If you don’t want to go through all of the hassel you can pick up an iRig for $39.99, though it’s on sale on Amazon for $29.99.



