Killer Cans -
Some tools are worth your hard earned money, and headphones are tools of the Bossjock trade. So keep saving up for those Beats, Bose, Grados or Sennheisers. In the meantime we’ve found a pair that’ll get the job done for five bucks.

If you are a user of our podcasting App bossjock studio we recommend against using the Apple Earbuds, Earpods or any set of headphones with a built in microphone. The reason is simple; the microphone built into iPhones and iPads sounds much better than the inline mic built into headphones. Inline mics override the iOS device’s mic resulting in tinny, hissy audio and that’s on a good day. Upgrade your sound with mic-free headphones that have good isolation to reduce any chance of feedback letting you monitor in confidence.

We keep our eyes peeled for good headphones at a variety of budgets, so we just couldn’t resist doing a shootout of Five Below’s ultra low priced offerings. There are many reasons to be interested in $5 cans. Maybe you are looking for a pair you don’t mind stuffing in a bag in the event that podcast inspiration strikes. bossjock studio’s own Ed Filowat admits that he loses his headphones every couple of months; that’s par for the course for audio road warriors so it’s always nice to have a backup. At 5 bucks you can get two pairs for you and a guest, and with a headphone splitter like this one you are good to go.

Storefront posters boasting of DJ headphones for $5 at the Pittsburgh area Five Below… I couldn’t resist.

First up we’ve got the Stereo Cube Headphones:

These puppies looked too good to be true… they were. The box was Apple Store worthy, with a cool retro look and coming in a variety of colors. Take them out of the box and you’ll be even more amazed. The cord is wrapped in braided nylon threading as is the headband. The chrome is shiny, the mechanisms are solid and the padding is comfy. I was pretty blown away till I took a listen. You gotta cut costs somewhere. There was no budget left for treble apparently. Mud city. Crunch sounds from the cable. Avoid these dogs even if someone offers you five bucks to take them.

One down and two to go.

Next up we’ve got the NEONZ DJ Style headphones.

They look the part and the phones swivel for flat packing. They smell like the inside of a room filed with beach balls. The aroma is frightening. They are sitting next to me right now and my nostrils are burning. It can’t be good for you. The sound is spooky. Most of the frequencies sound like they are there, yet there’s a hollow quality that makes me depressed. It’s probably a combination of the smell and the sound. Also, something is shaking around loose in one of the phones. Skip these creepy cans.

Two down. I was feeling a little disheartened at this point. It’s easy to find decent headphones in the $20+ range. This goose chase cost $15 so far putting me within range of these beauties. Is it impossible to find decent headphones for the price of a foot long?

NEONZ FOLDABLE SLIMZ STYLE

They are cute. They are small. They don’t smell like a beach ball. The sound is pleasant and focused and the little pleather cups block outside noise. I happily listened to AC/DC, Britney Spears, MGMT and the Beach Boys. Most importantly they did a good job not feeding back on me when monitoring in bossjock. I did an A/B with some Bose Quiet Comfort 3′s and the Bose’s sounded better. No shock there. But going back and forth I wasn’t disappointed returning to these $5 puppies. No chest thumping lows or crisp air on the top end, but there is a very pleasing punch and warm mid range focus to these headphones. You also don’t have to turn them up very loud to hear what’s going on with your mix. If there’s a weakness it’s the cables; they seem cheap and feel like they could be compromised by a strong sneeze, but after a month of road testing they are still holding strong. Plus, the size is really great as two pairs fit easily in my tiny bag or jacket pocket.

These Atomic Egg Yolk Headphones will get the Job Done for $5. You will probably be happy you bought them. You will definitely look silly wearing them.

Bossjock Approved!

We are very honored to be AppSafari’s App of the Day. They gave bossjock studio a shakedown and we came away with a 4.5 out of 5 star rating. It is always so great to hear that people sincerely appreciate our app. We know it’s not your normal recorder.

Here are some highlights of the review:

“If you have even and inkling of what the app can do then you shouldn’t really need an manual – everything is intuitively laid out for you to simply jump in. It’s easy to loop pads, record cues and trigger samples – all without ever looking at an instruction manual. That’s great design.”

And this quote, which although there are ways to edit bossjock recordings in other apps, we’d have to agree with this:

“The only downside is editing – recordings are just one solid chunk of audio so if you want to edit out something ridiculous you’ve said you’ll have to jump into GarageBand or Reaper and do it there. Other than that, if you podcast on the go, you should adore this app.”

Gives us something to think about

Please check out the review, and we’re sure you’ll discover all sorts of other fun apps to put on your wish list.

Big thanks to the AppSafari Team!

AppleVis is a community powered site dedicated to empowering visually impaired users with Apple, OS X and iOS apps and technology. This is a fabulous resource rich with reviews, active forums and podcasts. Apple takes accessibility very seriously, and from a developer’s standpoint it’s been tremendously easy to implement support for their VoiceOver features in iOS.

In the article AppleVis notes:
“Although there are still far too many app developers who have no clue about VoiceOver and why it matters, it’s clear that the efforts of blind users from right across the community to raise awareness of accessibility on the iOS platform is working.”

It was our buddy Paul Hopkins from VIPodcasting that reached out to us basically saying that he loved the idea of bossjock studio, but our VoiceOver support was non existent. Having never experienced the functionality of VoiceOver I fired it up and took a listen: “button, button, button, button…” for every widget in our interface “button” was the only VoiceOver feedback we were providing. There was work to do to implement support for VO, but thanks to Paul’s crash course in the basics and ongoing help with our betas we were able to provide decent VoiceOver functionality in the 1.3 version of bossjock studio pushed out in the fall.

We just released the VoiceOver compatible 1.4 update of bossjock studio with iPhone 5 and iPad formatting. Now when we design we take into account how the experience is for VoiceOver users. It helps us to keep interface ideas grounded and simplified. We are thrilled to be working with wonderful users who are passionate about technology and seem to dig our app! Developers, If you haven’t looked into supporting VoiceOver in your apps you are truly missing out.

Thanks AppleVis for the awesome honor of being your pick of the month!

Now we are a few weeks away from launching our bossjock studio 1.4 iPad update, but this setup works just as well using the current 1.3 version of iPads in 2x mode.

Feast your eyes on this monstrosity:

But the proof is in the pudding and this pudding sounds pretty good:

Here’s the Recipe:

1 iPad
1 iPhone
1 iRig MIX
1 Mophie Juice Pack (To Power the Mixer)
1 Griffin iMic
1 Dynamic Microphone (like a beat up SM57)
1 XLR to 1/4 Inch Cable
1 Stereo TRS 1/8 Inch to 1/8 Inch Cable
1 1/8 Inch to Stereo RCA Cable (comes with iRig MIX)
1 Camera Connector Kit
1 Pair of Nice Cans (over the ear headphones with no built in microphone)

Plug the Dynamic Microphone into the Mic In of the iRig MIX with the XLR to 1/4 Inch cable. Plug your Skype running iPhone in to the iRig MIX’s second channel with a standard TRS stereo 1/8 Inch to 1/8 Inch cable. Important: DO NOT USE the 1/8 Inch TRSS cable that comes with the MIX which would override the iPhone’s built in mic which needs to remain active so your Skype guest can hear you. Plug the Mophie Juice Pack into the iRig MIX via the MIX’s mini USB port and power on the MIX. Make sure the iRig MIX is setup like the picture above. Note the position of all the fader’s and routing switches. The one thing you can’t see is the mic gain on the front of the unit, which you pretty much want to crank all the way up clockwise.

Using the MIX supplied 1/8 to Stereo RCA cable connect the left and right audio outs of the iRig MIX to the cable, and the other side which is an 1/8 inch plug should be inserted in the Griffin iMic’s In Jack. Make sure the Griffin iMic is set to “Line” with the slider on the side of the unit. Plug the iMic’s USB plug into the Camera Connector Kit and plug that into the iPad’s dock.

Finally plug your headphones into the Out of the Griffin iMic, the normal iPad headphone jack will be disabled. Make sure your Skype running iPhone has its volume turned up to the max. Now fire up bossjock studio. Lock the Mic Trigger to test that both the audio from your mic is working, and the audio from Skype is coming through. You’ll probably want to have your guest on the line to check their levels.

Once everything is coming through your headphones and sounding good you should be good to go. Hit record and you are off!

Substitutions:
Rather than using a Camera Connector Kit and a USB audio interface you could use one of several Dock solutions like the new Blue Mikey that support stereo line-in to both iPads and iPhones.

If you are interested in purchasing the iRig MIX to build your own FrankenSkype please consider going through our affiliate program by clicking on the image below:

The iRig MIC Cast is a slick mic from IK Multimedia. The MIC Cast is tiny, requires no power and is fantastic at capturing audio from a close source while reducing ambient noise. It’s size is perfect for keeping in your mobile kit, ready to grab whenever you need to improve your audio. The mics on the iPhone and especially the iPad have a distant quality that can lack presence. MIC Cast sounds focused and has two mic sensitivity settings that allow you to dial in based on how close you are from the microphone. This is a great solution for Podcasting from trade shows, noisy pubs or sporting events.

For use with bossjock studio we recommend using the low gain setting. We also recommend a slight boost of the Mic Gain using bossjock studio’s Mic Fader.

There are limitations with all mics that connect to the iOS device’s headphone jack. For example all audio is processed via a “High Pass Filter” which essentially removes much of the bass frequencies. This can result in audio that sounds thin. However the iRig MIC Cast’s tight frequency response is a good aural fit for the limitations that the headphone jack imposes.

Another limitation of the headphone jack is that there can be some “crosstalk” between the headphones and the mic if you have the headphone volume set too high on your iOS device. This can result in feedback . The trick to avoid this is to lower the volume of the headphone output using the volume rocker on the side of the device. It’s always good practice to do a test recording before you record your main content to ensure that there are no issues. So in the case of the iRig Mic Cast if you increase the volume to audition the test recording be sure to take note of the setting so you can return the headphone output to this same volume prior to your real recording.

At $40 the iRig MIC Cast is a no brainer for any serious iOS audio buff. Used correctly it can provide a major boost to your audio quality and could be the fix that comes to your rescue under noisy conditions. You want this in your mobile production kit.

Here’s some pretty well dialed in audio using an iPad and bossjock 1.4 beta:

Here’s a vid of the unit (note, I didn’t quite have it dialed in…it’s not set to low and I’m loud):

If you are ready to make the plunge on the iRig MIC Cast considering purchasing it through our affiliate link. Just click on the image below:

Here’s a video Brad did showing how he uses bossjock studio and the Audioboo service to podcast on WordPress and iTunes without touching a PC. Thanks Teach!