Here’s the hardware that powered Jimmy Kimmel and Billy Joel’s iPad duet

The iPad took center stage during a recent airing of The Tonight Show with host Jimmy Fallon and musician Billy Joel joining together to sing a doo-wop duet. The audience was entertained by an a capella rendition of The Lion Sleeps Tonight, but what you see on the surface is only part of the story. @vmarks @gavinpurcell iPad with Loopy running into Apogee Quartet. Any mics will work after that. Props to engineering genius @LawManchester — John MacDonald (@jmacmusic) March 21, 2014 The behind-the-scenes technology that powered the performance is equally as interesting with details on the hardware behind the iPad revealed by Tonight Show staff John MacDonald on Twitter. On the surface, it appears that the two only used an iPad and the Loopy HD app to record their performance, but the mini actually was connected to an Apogee Quartet. The Quartet is a professional multi-channel audio interface for iPad with support for 4 inputs and 8 outputs. As note by Apogee, the Quarter is designed to work with the iPad and the Mac. Apogee Quartet for iPad and Mac features special circuitry that makes a direct digital connection to iPad and iOS devices and is certified by Apple’s MFi (Made for iOS) program. Apogee Quartet for iPad and Mac also charges your iPad while you record so your work will not be interrupted. This $1400 device made it possible for Joel and Fallon to use microphones to record their voices, which explains why the input sounded so clear, even with the audience’s background noise. Details on the microphones the pair used are not available, but they obviously were wireless and connected to the Quartet for recording purposes. The system was designed by Grammy winning producer Lawrence Manchester, who is the resident music mixer for The Tonight Show. Fallon and Joel’s duet was so good, the performance even got a special mention by Tim Cook on Twitter, who called the recording “Magical.” [Via AppleInsider] Continue reading →

from iPhone Hacks | #1 iPhone, iPad, iOS Blog » iPhone 4 Camera Beats HTC EVO 4G, Samsung Galaxy, Droid X In Showdown