Thanks to advances in digital technology, it has never been easier for guitarists to record at home and enjoy the quality of the studio-even for musicians with little experience in this field of sound. A good example of this type of tool that contributed to this DIY phenomenon is IK Multimedia's AX I/O, a two-in and five-out audio interface designed for electric and acoustic guitars.

In order to adapt AX I/O to its rhythm, I collected a Martin OM-28 with Fishman electronics, a Kala Waterman concert ukulele, and a Collings I-30LC with dual ThroBak P-90 pickups. And an Audio-Technica AT4050 large-diaphragm condenser microphone. I found that the relatively affordable AX I/O, with a market price of US$349.99, is excellent value for money.  

AX I/O is sturdy and durable with its compact metal chassis. It is equipped with an AC adapter (and four carefully prepared international travel plugs) and a USB 2.0 cable. I plugged the AT4050 into AX I/O and plugged the interface into the nearest iMac, set up a new project in GarageBand, used AX I/O’s convenient built-in tuner to check Martin’s pitch, and was ready to start instantly—not even needed Take out the manual.  

When I pressed a record in GarageBand for the first time, I listened to Martin's acoustics and improvised some fingerstyle and strumming standard tuning. During playback, the high-quality sound of AX I/O appears immediately. The interface is excellent at capturing details such as Martin's rich and balanced tone and the nuances of plucking strings. This may be due to the wide frequency response range of 3 Hz-32 kHz frequencies, which is much wider than most low-cost interfaces. In addition, AX I/O sounds no noise.

I next tried to track Waterman, which is a 40-dollar plastic musical instrument. It has its charm, but it's a bit small. The recording sounds good-in a blind listening test, I might be surprised to discover the identity of uke. It has a lively demonstration, with impressive marks on the playing mode, and clear on fingerstyle passages. Moreover, due to the 116/117 dB dynamic range of AX I/O, it is easy to make this relatively quiet instrument sound loud when recording.

A list of available tones

AX I/O provides a large number of inputs for most home recording applications. Guitarists without a suitable microphone or guitarists with poor acoustics will like to plug in one of the instrument inputs, just like I did with Martin. For guitars with pickups, AX I/O includes IK Multimedia’s Z-Tone, which is an impedance control designed to provide a range of usable tones. Z-Tone can be used to add clarity to flat single-note solos, or to thin the sound for dense chord work.

Undeniably, I am very old-fashioned about the sound of electric guitars. I only like axes and good tube amplifiers. So when I downloaded the AmpliTube 4 Deluxe software included in IK, I was a little skeptical. It has 140 analog amplifiers, effects and microphones. . But when I plugged in Collings and tried American Tube Clean 1 (the classic Fender combo amplifier), I was shocked by how real it sounds and feels. It's fun to play with effects like Opto Tremolo and Rotary Speaker.

My only complaint about AX I/O is that it is difficult to read the label on the control panel. However, this is easy to solve because you can download the AX I/O control panel software for free, which is very easy to read on my iMac screen and can be used to adjust inputs and outputs, etc.

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Today, there are many affordable recording interfaces on the market, but few can provide guitarists with so much sound quality and flexibility like IK Multimedia's AX I/O. Whether you are just starting to record, or are experienced in sound engineering but want an excellent and inexpensive device, AX I/O is worthy of serious consideration.

24-bit A/D, 24-bit D/A conversion; 44.1 kHz–196 kHz sampling rate; two instruments, two microphones/instruments, hi-Z and MIDI inputs; two TRS balanced, two TRS unbalanced, amplifier Output, ¼” headphones, two TRS external controls, USB and MIDI output; built-in tuner; AX I/O control panel, Ableton Live Lite and AmpliTube 4 Deluxe software. Street price of $349.99. ikmultimedia.com

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