Episode 14: iRig Mic and Bossjock Studio

In Episode 14 I try something completely new to me, podcasting without a computer. A year ago I would never thought this possible, but everyday someone somewhere seems to come up with a way to push the envelope of what an iPad (or any iOS device for that matter) can do. So let's back up to April 2011. In Early 2011 The iPad 2 had been announced, and with it Garage band for iOS. At the time of that announcement I was saving to get a Macbook to replace my 2005 iBook (which was still running quite well and still is today!). Once I heard Garage band was coming to the iPad, I did a serious needs analysis and did something that at the time was considered quite radical....I replaced my Laptop with an iPad. I realized that what I really needed from a laptop device was something I could write from (blogging, articles, emails, etc...) and something I could basic web surfing and research with, plus something to work as a notepad for musical ideas since my iMac was my main recording machine. A little research showed my that there were plenty of good blogging apps and Apple had released the iWork suite for iOS, so I was ready. When i first got the iPad, I admit I could not do everything on it that I could have done on my laptop, but I did anticipate that going in from the needs analysis I had done. While I know that we have a marketplace that thrives on planned obsolescence, when I invest a lot of money in something I like to be sure it will serve my needs for many years. So I had worked into my plan a transition period of about a year to completely move from laptop to iPad. The really good news is that I was able to make that transition to completely retiring the laptop in about 8-9 months. The once thing I discovered about the iPad when I got it is that it was very much like the Wild West. Everyone was moving there to stake out a cliam and try to make some money. This completion meant app prices going up and down, but most importantly, it meant that App developers were trying to "out feature" one another. For Example, when I bought my iPad I had purchased an app called Blogsy to do all my blogging from. It is still the best blogging app out there in my opinion. When I bought the app, it was limited but worked better than other apps. I found my self starting a post with Blogsy and then finishing it at my iMac. In about 6-8 months, that stopped. Blogsy was furiously making updates (and they still are) to make their App the best. That drive has allowed me to write entire posts with embedded media from anywhere I have an iPad and a data connection. Now that I have had an iPad for two years, the only things I do on the iMac are the "Heavy Lifting" things like mixing and recording songs in logic and of course my podcast. A couple months agao a coworker who learned about my enjoyment of podcasting told me about an app called Bossjock Studio. Apparently one of the co-founders of Libsyn (One of the best Podcast hosting companies out there) developed an app that was designed to let you do a "Live" podcast. I bought the app, but had no time to really try it out until now. I did open it from time to time and look around and read their blog to get tips for when I did use it. One of those tips was that their app worked really well with the iRig mic. As luck would have it, I was on Hello Music one day and saw a great deal on the iRig Mic (which as of right now is still going on, but do not expect it to last long). I had seen the iRig Mic in magazines, and really did not see the value of it, but for the price I took a chance. I was impressed. What I was expecting was a cheap, plastic, low quality microphone with a fancy logo. What I got was a really nice, well built metal chassy microphone that I would put on par with the look and feel of a Sure SM58. I downloaded the free Vocal Live App by IK Multimedia and gave it a test. Again, very surprised and quite happy. The mic sounded very clear and had three level settings on it depending on t...