Alesis, a manufacturer of professional audio equipment and electronic drums, says the iO Dock, a pro-audio dock for Apple’s iPad and iPad 2 is now shipping to pro-audio and instrument retailers.
The iO Dock is designed to be the “missing link” between the Apple tablet, its associated App Store’s catalog of audio and video apps, and the world of professional audio equipment. With the iO Dock and an iPad or iPad 2, musicians and producers can record, perform, create and craft music.
Built to accommodate current app-development standards including Core MIDI and Akai Pro’s AkaiConnect SDK, the iO Dock is a universal iPad audio-recording, playback, and MIDI device that bridges the user’s choice of music-creation and performance apps with most professional input and output instruments and devices.
The iO Dock provides microphone and instrument users with two combination XLR and 1/4-inch inputs, each with its own gain control and switchable phantom power for condenser microphones. The guitar-direct switch enables guitarists to play, perform and record right into amplifier and effects-modeling apps.
Bands can connect outputs from their mixer to record their performances and rehearsals or use the iO Dock as a metronome or loop-playback device on stage. Producers can use the iO Dock for iPad music production, using its MIDI and USB-MIDI jacks to sequence external keyboards, samplers, drum machines and synthesizers, or perform using the iO Dock as the sound module connected to their favorite MIDI keyboard, drum pad or other controller.
An assignable 1/4-inch footswitch input enables remote control of any app-defined function such as stop/start or record. Users can also connect the iO Dock to their Mac or PC using the USB port to remote-control software with faders, transport controls or any other MIDI-compliant control app.
Musicians can connect the iO Dock’s stereo pair of 1/4-inch main outputs to studio monitors for critical listening, or to PA systems for use in performance settings. They can monitor on headphones, and independently control the levels of the main and headphone outputs, each on its own knob. The iO Dock’s direct-monitor switch enables users to toggle between the incoming and playback signal on their headphones. Rounding out the iO Dock’s output section is a composite video connector, enabling users to employ the iO Dock as a source for video projection behind bands on stage, or for connection to most televisions and computer monitors.
The Alesis iO Dock is now available with a retail price of US$399.00 and an estimated street price of $199.00. For more info go to http://www.alesis.com/iodock .