One of the biggest issues I had with the original iRig guitar connector itself was its non-standard design. It works really well when playing a guitar through it to the iPhone or iPad and then listening with headphones, but there was no easy way to connect it to an amp without adapters and such. Adding the pedal setups in Amplitube Fender, for example, seems like a great way to expand the sounds available for my guitar, but if I can’t use it on stage easily, it’s not going to get used.

Enter the iRig Stomp, an actual stomp-box-sized peripheral that allows a standard guitar connect via a standard cable through to an amplifier in a standard guitarist’s stage setup. The iRig Stomp looks and acts a lot like any other standard guitar pedal, and thus has more of a chance to be included at gigs.

The solidity of the box is commendable, from the sturdy metal construction of the box itself to the solid-feeling clicker button and large input gain level knob. The device looks and feels as indestructible as my other guitar pedals, and doesn’t look out of place on my pedalboard.

To connect the iRig Stomp, it’s a simple matter of plugging in a guitar via a cable to the right side of the stomp box, and then out from the left side to an amp via the L/Mono jack, or to a stereo mixer via the R and L jacks. There’s a 1/8 inch headphone jack on the top, for private practice sessions, and a second, similar sized jack to connect the iRig Stomp to the iPhone or iPad with a compatible app, like Amplitube. The clicker button on the bottom of the pedal is a bypass switch which will let your guitar play through to the amp without the app guitar sounds. I sort of wish the button was configurable to a pedal “on/off” setting like most standard guitar pedals, but that functionality is contained within the app itself.

Overall, the iRig Stomp is a fantastic piece of guitar gear, ready to integrate with any professional or hobbyist guitar pedal setup. It’s comparatively priced to other boxes at $59.99, and allows players to control a ton of guitar-centric apps available on the App Store today.

It’s been an exceptionally busy first day at CES for music focused experts IK Multimedia with the announcement of 4 different products to come from their stable very soon. It’s of particular interest for DJs of all skill levels with a number of products specifically aimed at that market.

The iRig Mix is one such product. It’s the first mobile mixer for an iOS device, promising to offer the same controls that would be expected from a professional DJ mixer. Including a crossfader, cues, EQ and volume controls all in an impressively compact format, the hardware can be used with a number of different DJ mixing tools.

One of the more clever features behind the iRig Mix is that it can be used for mixing any type of audio source including but not limited to MP3 players or CD players, all supplemented with automatic tempo matching and beat-syncing. Other features within the hardware ensures that musicians as well as DJs can gain benefits from it thanks to the extra guitar/microphone input that can be processed by other aps such as AmpliTube and VocaLive.

The iRig Mix is powered easily via a regular phone charger as well as through a laptop’s USB port for maxiumum convenience.

It’s set for release in February and is priced at $99.99.

What better way of using the iRig Mix than by using IK Multimedia’s DJ Rig app? Set for release soon, it’s a feature rich, double-deck DJ mixing app for iOS devices. Professional functionality oozes throughout the app such as visual cue points, crossfader curves and an on-the-fly sampler with 4 banks of 9 pads. Most originally is the ability to automatically synchronize the app audio with any external audio source thanks to DJ Rig‘s ability to listen to the device’s audio input and determine its BPM tempo.

DJ Rig is set to be available in two formats: a free version offering a reduced set of 6 effects and 1 pad sound bank and the full version priced at $9.99.

Other musicians haven’t been forgotten about with the iRig Mic Cast aiding those in need of a great means to record audio. It’s a pocket-sized piece of hardware that can be attached to the audio port of the iOS device in order to provide crystal-clear audio quality. It’s ideal for recording podcasts, interviews, lectures, speeches or just regular voice memos. Two different sensitivity settings ensure that the sound quality is always strong regardless of if the source is near or distant.

The iRig Mic Cast will be released this quarter, priced at $39.99.

Finally, in this plethora of announcements, is the iRig STOMP, the first stompbox guitar interface for iOS. Guitar and bass players can now integrate signal processing apps into their existing pedalboard setup for enhanced tone shaping and effects processing.

The device is compatible with any guitar/amp/instrument app for maximum flexibility and promises precise adjustments for guitar players who prefer to have ultimate control over the sound they produce.

Set for release in Q2 of this year, the iRig STOMP will cost $59.99.

We’ll be sure to keep track of the developments of all these apps that are bound to revolutionize how musicians create music.