Bluetooth Interface

[Skip Ellis]

It's a real pain in the butt to get guitar straps on over headphone cables when recording. Does anyone know of a USB audio interface with bluetooth capability. I want to listen to playback from the interface using wireless headphones. Is there any such gizmo or do I live with untangling cables?

[sgosnell]

I don't know about interfaces, but there are bluetooth transmitters available. You could plug the transmitter into the interface headphone jack and transmit to bluetooth earphones. Relatively inexpensive, and available almost everywhere - Amazon, ebay, almost any place that sells consumer electronics.

[Skip Ellis]

I don't know about interfaces, but there are bluetooth transmitters available. You could plug the transmitter into the interface headphone jack and transmit to bluetooth earphones. Relatively inexpensive, and available almost everywhere - Amazon, ebay, almost any place that sells consumer electronics.

Now that you mention it, I think I have one of those - it's a Blackstar that I got from Sweetwater a couple years back. I'll give it a try.

[sgosnell]

Latency can be an issue, depending on the bluetooth version. I tried one years ago - close to 20 IIRC - and it was unusable because of the latency. But newer models seem to be much better.

[ronjazz]

I put the headphones on after the guitar is strapped on. Clip the headphone cable to the guitar strap.

[lukmanohnz]

I just ordered the Boss WAZA Air headphone/wireless transmitter rig which eliminates both the guitar cable and headphone cable. Streams both the guitar signal and backing tracks wirelessly over Bluetooth, and has an integrated, fully programmable digital modeling amplifier/effects processor. Not cheap ($399) and most online dealers are awaiting shipments. I have not received mine yet so can’t offer a review yet, but there is a really excellent demo by Anderton’s here. If you are considering these, I strongly recommend checking out the lengthy demo video at the Anderton’s link - wearing headphones. They put the WAZA-AIR phones over a high end binaural microphone rig to demo the spatial realism enabled by the gyro sensor built into the headphones. It’s pretty amazing - can’t wait to experience it on the actual unit. The guys at Anderton’s described this as the best headphone-based amp modeling experience yet developed.

CAVEAT - the OP is looking for a wireless headphone setup for recording. Unfortunately the WAZA-AIR is a closed system dedicated for practice and play-along. There is no way to get the audio signal in the headphones out to a recording unit. That said, it *is* possible to put the transmitter on the output of a foot pedal or effects unit instead of the guitar, and bypass the WAZA’s onboard effects. So if you have a recording rig that has multiple outputs (for example a 1/4” phono output for an amp plus a line level output for recording) you *should* be able to plug the transmitter into the 1/4” output to monitor in the WAZA while you are recording. BUT (and this is a huge but) as sgosnell pointed out already, I would be concerned about latency. You might wind up having to shift your guitar tracks a bit to compensate for whatever latency exists in the Bluetooth signal. I suspect that might be an issue with any setup where you are using Bluetooth headphones for recording, which is perhaps why it’s not generally done.

[TedBPhx]

Little too special purpose for me. It’s a Katana built in to the headphones. Don’t think it’s for generic headphone use.

[lukmanohnz]

Little too special purpose for me. It’s a Katana built in to the headphones. Don’t think it’s for generic headphone use.

That’s exactly right. In fact the reviewers at Anderton’s described it as exactly that. I agree that these are unlikely to be optimal as general purpose wireless headphones for listening to music. For me they are (hopefully) an ideal practice rig. I tend to do a lot of my practicing in the early morning before anyone in my household is awake, which means I can’t use my amp or sound system to practice with backing tracks. I am perpetually seeking a better headphone experience for my guitar tone. Modeling has come such a long way. My current ‘best’ headphone practice rig is the Yamaha AG06 USB interface, which has onboard amp modeling and some limited effects on the high Z guitar input channel (basically an embedded THR-10C). It’s pretty good, actually. But the cables drive me crazy. I have never tried wireless guitar systems before, so this will be interesting. The transmitter that’s bundled with the WAZA-AIR can be used with any Boss wireless guitar receiver so depending on how satisfied I am with the signal integrity, I might consider getting a receiver to use with my amps at some point.

[Joeontheguitar]

I have the Waza Air for three weeks now and I think it's brilliant. It sounds very good, latency is a non-issue. I can't hear it. There are enough clean jazz sounds and you can tweak a lot (which is fun). The best part is the wireless thing of course. I plug in the transmitter, start my favorite Truefire lesson and play along.

The gyro thing is a bit of a gimmick. I use it in the surround mode and there it works good. The other options are a bit artificial.

I haven't touched any of my amps the last weeks, except for a band rehearsal. I feel like I'm practicing more effectively. It's no effort at all to set up for a 15 minutes practice, whereas normally I wouldn't bother to bring a laptop, plug in two cables, sit down and play. Also, I walk around more now.

Highly recommended. If you can find one.

[lukmanohnz]

Very glad to see the positive review - thanks for your post. That was a rather big chunk of change to throw at something I haven’t been able to demo for myself, so it’s good to know others are favorably impressed.

[pcjazz]

I have the Waza-Air and like it very much for quiet practicing, with or without external audio, but it is not the answer to the OP’s question, which was about recording?.

[Joeontheguitar]

True, you can't use it for recording. Maybe with a firmware update in the future.

[lukmanohnz]

My WAZA Air headphones arrived today. By far the best “I’m playing my guitar through an amp” headphone experience by a long shot (short of monitoring a mic’d amp through ‘phones, but that’s not really the idea here... ;-). The amp modeling is the best I’ve heard. The Bluetooth audio streaming works great - I was able to stream audio from Transcribe! using my laptop and play along. This is now my morning practice rig.

Sorry to hijack the thread....

[pingu]

What is the latency of LE Audio?

it appears BT
has got or is about to get a new protocolcalled BT 5.2 LE Audio

this could get latency down
to about 10ms apparently

anyone know any products that
use this already ?

[sgosnell]

There should be lots of them by now. 5.2 was introduced in 2019, but it takes some time for manufacturers to catch up. My Google Pixel phone from 2022 has Bluetooth 5.2, and the latest Pixel has Bluetooth 5.3.

[pingu]

1300066[/URL]]There should be lots of them by now. 5.2 was introduced in 2019, but it takes some time for manufacturers to catch up. My Google Pixel phone from 2022 has Bluetooth 5.2, and the latest Pixel has Bluetooth 5.3.

thanks ….
I’m interested in the
’LE Audio’ implementation part

thats the part that has the ability
to get the low latency (approx 10ms)

anyone have ‘LE audio’ implemented on a device ?

[RJVB]

I put the headphones on after the guitar is strapped on. Clip the headphone cable to the guitar strap.

Or run the headphone cable under your clothes?