With mobile gaming poised to play a more serious role down the road in gaming culture as a whole, I’d expect video – both YouTubers and streamers – to play a bigger role. And while you could just use whatever headset you want, what if you want to do some more complicated audio things? What if you wanted to bring in remote people to your videos, or play outside sounds easily? Or would you rather adjust your volume precisely on the fly with a hardware switch, instead of software solutions? Or what if you had high-end audio equipment you’d love to use on your iOS? Yamaha has introduced a pair of audio mixing consoles – the AG03 and AG06, designed for consumers and gamers, featuring easy support for 3.5mm audio headsets, digital support for iOS devices, and more, all at a reasonable price for a quality audio mixer: $149.99 street price for the AG03, and $199 for the AG06.
If you’ve seen some of my Mobcrush streams in the past where I’ve brought in remote guests, or had people commenting while I play, I was using the AG03 Yamaha loaned me to do so. While the primary way to interface an iOS device with the Yamaha AG03 is through the Lightning to USB adapter, I went with a more circuitous route. I stream directly from a jailbroken iPad to Mobcrush. In order to loop in someone via Skype, I found it easiest to hook the AG03 via USB to my computer, output the Skype call through USB to the mixer, plug my microphone into the mixer and output through USB as part of the mix. I used an iRig adapter on my iPad – using the monitoring output to transmit the audio to the mixer’s stereo analog input. I then output the monitoring feed, which had my voice, the Skype call, and the iPad audio, through the iRig’s mono input, which supports line level signals. I also made sure to mute game audio in Mobcrush and just use the mic audio, which is mixed down to mono but fine for a stream.
Alternately, it would be possible to hook the iPad up via USB, output from my computer via analog audio, but getting the microphone to the computer and mixer can be a problem. Getting one microphone to output to two inputs is not easy, though 3.5mm splitters, or just using two different microphones, is a possibility. If you’re streaming from a PC or Mac, this should all be a lot easier, just giving you a lot more options as to what you want to do with the audio from the mixing console. You could bring in outside music, play sound effects outputting to the analog input, or do anything you really want to audio-wise, just with ease. Want to play Vainglory (Free) and have communications with friends via Discord on your PC or other iOS device mixed in with your stream of it? That’s possible with the AG03 (or AG06, which I didn’t get to test, but features additional audio inputs and outputs).
So why should you consider the Yamaha AG03 over other mixers if you decide that a mixer is for you? Well, first off, the fact that it supports 3.5mm headsets with ease is a great first step. You can far more easily use an analog gaming headset, or other quality headphones with microphone, with the AG03. I wish that it had a TRRS input (the combo headphone+mic jack that iPhone-compatible headsets use) along with its separate 3.5mm mic input and headphone output. You can use readily available 3.5mm headphone and mic splitters to use a 3.5mm TRRS headset of your choice – and many higher-end models are starting to use TRRS connections for headset compatibility, particularly as computers start to use TRRS jacks in increasing numbers. But this is far easier than having to deal with adapters for 6.3" connections or XLR.
The other reason to buy a mixer is for future-proofing. Right now, streaming directly from an iOS device is only really possible through a jailbroken iOS device and Mobcrush. I’d venture that a huge bulk of mobile streaming is still happening from “computers." But long-term, I think that Apple will allow you to stream to various endpoints direct from games, or maybe from the device level itself. And if you want to do anything remotely advanced as far as audio goes, you’ll need external hardware to do so. And especially considering that you can do things like bring remote audio in from a computer or another iOS device with the AG03, you have real potential here. This is a powerful device, and you can do a lot with it.
Do note that this is very sensitive electronic equipment, so you want to have all the volume and gain switches turned to their minimum when you turn this on, and then control your levels from there. You don’t want to deafen yourself or your viewers! Also, you will quickly learn that this mixer is very sensitive to things like electric interference and poor-quality cables. You might need to invest not a whole lot of money, but maybe not just use the cheap cables you might otherwise use for connecting audio equipment, because this device will expose all the flaws that exist. I’ve also run into issues with noisy USB power, and I’m reasonably convinced that the electricity where I live is noisy and I’ve thought about getting a line conditioner to smooth it out. Also, at some point this turned me into an audiophile looking for higher-quality headphones. I think I mostly just lost the plot on why I wanted higher-end audio equipment, thanks to finding the iPad Air 2’s headphone output to be very noisy, but this converted me.
Between the AG03 and the AG06, while I got the AG03 for testing, if I had to choose which one to buy, it’d be the AG06, easily. The additional $50 you pay is small for the benefits you get from the AG06. I’m sure at some point, I will be picking up the AG06 for myself. You get two microphone inputs, so if you wanted to stream with someone else, and have them use their own headphones, you could do that. Both headphone outputs should work, or you could use an amplifier/splitter. But also, if you want to do crazy audio stuff, the 2-channel analog output on the AG06 is killer, as it allows you to route your mixed audio to two different locations. More options are what the AG06 provides, and it’s probably the one you should check out.
There are a few issues with running digitally into iOS, neither of which is the AG03’s fault, but are byproducts of Apple limitations. First, if you use the AG03 with the Lightning-to-USB adapter, you must also power it from an external USB power source. This either means a powered USB hub, or plugging a micro-USB cable into a portable battery or wall power supply. It’s not really ideal, but iOS devices only output a limited amount of power to devices through the Lightning port, so you have to live with it. Also, the Lightning-to-USB adapter doesn’t allow for charging at the same time as using a device, which is annoying if you’re planning on using this for hours on end. Also, if you want to use this with something like the HDMI adapter, then know that the Lightning port on that is only for power, not data as well, from my tests. It’s absurdly annoying, and I hope someday Apple does like what Google did on the Chromebook Pixel, to include 2 USB-C ports. Especially on the iPad Pro, people could make great use of two Lightning ports. Or even just USB-C ports, I hope Apple makes the transition to that someday. But none of these issues are Yamaha’s fault – they just are annoyances that you don’t get with running through a computer.
One complaint I have about the AG03 in particular is that the main line-level audio input uses uncommon 6.3mm mono audio inputs instead of RCA inputs. These seem to be pretty common on mixers, but still, you’ll likely have to pick up cables for these if you want to plug in most sources you’re probably using with this. The AG06 has a stereo RCA input, though. Also, on the AG03, you have to mix to the digital output, you can output to multiple monitors but otherwise your number one option is to output digitally, or to output your monitor mix via analog. The mixdown output on the AG06 is an option. The raw 1-2G output to go to the PC would be nice if it put the mic on both channels, as I use that sometimes when outputting to PC with that selected, if someone’s listening on the other end, they have to listen to you on one channel. Also, while you can configure the microphone EQ through Yamaha software – a download code is provided for the desktop version – you can’t do so for the iOS version without buying software for iOS. Consider it an investment, I suppose.
But really, the AG03 does exactly what it says it will do. It will let you use your headset, communicate digitally with your iOS device or computer, and then mix in some kind of external audio source, along with your iOS device audio, and send it all through the device, or to a completely different source altogether. It gives you options on your video creation and broadcasting that you otherwise didn’t have with just your iOS device. And while you could use software mixers to get things done on the PC side, this will ultimately make your life easier with anything complex that you want to do, audio-wise.
It’s quite possible that audio mixers for iOS gamers might be a niche product, at least early on, it’s something that you want to keep in mind down the road as video sharing becomes a bigger deal on iOS – and this is the sort of hardware that gives you a lot of bang for the buck, and will be good well down the road, too. If you think about being serious with gameplay videos on iOS at some point, keep an eye on the Yamaha AG03 and AG06.
