Apogee Jam+ USB Instrument Interface Reviews

Super handy!
iOS or Windows -- works like a charm.

Anywhere you go, pro sound quality and crystal clear playback.
Can't beat this one for mobile 1/4" single-channel interfaces.

The jam+ is worth its weight in gold.

I play electric guitar at church and don't usually have time to rehearse music until late Saturday night or early Sunday morning, so I'll hook my guitar up to the jam+ and link both into my iPhone so I get a realistic tone to practice with while avoiding waking up the rest of the house.

I usually run the jam+ through BIAS FX 2. The default clean tone in BIAS FX 2 is great, and I can click the knob on on the jam+ to switch between clean and overdrive sounds.

I've also gotten some really cool tones running the jam+ through Apple's garage band software.

I've owned my jam+ since last year, but I wish I would've gotten it sooner.

I'm a bassist and was looking for something simple to get my bass sound into my iPhone for GarageBand (through the Audio Recorder function) and Acapella collaborations with my band mates, and this does a great job. I go from my bass through a Darkglass Hyper Luminal compression pedal and then the Aguilar Tone Hammer pre-amp straight into the Apogee Jam+, and then out to the iPhone. Very simple to use. I'm no audio engineer (nor do I want to be), but I think the sound is great. In addition to acting as an interface, you can use it for practice while wearing headphones, and you can also use it to capture ideas for basslines in GarageBand. I also connected my BeatBuddy Mini pedal to the Apogee Jam+ and into the iPhone to lay down a drum track. Finally, I really appreciate that this device powers off of the iPhone - I owned another interface that required me to buy a separate USB power hub and the iPhone camera kit device to get the sound into the iPhone or iPad - just too many wires. I did not find the Apogee Jam+ to be especially draining on the iPhone battery. I think this product is designed especially to be used with an iPhone or iPad, it is pretty seamless to connect up and start using. I hope my experience helps you figure out if this is the right interface for you!

I have a loaded pedal board and lots of effects on my amp but wanted an interface so I could use Tonebridge with the Ultimate Guitar app to get authentic sound without hours of trial and error. I practice alone and don't know too many songs but when using the Apogee Jam + I felt like I was playing with the original artists and every time I screwed up I could imagine them giving me what for. Peer pressure is a powerful motivator . I use it with my iPhone 11 and headphones or plugged into the auxiliary jack on my amp. Thanks to my sales engineer Cody for recommending this model. It's sturdy, compact and lightweight. I only wish I bought it before I spent a fortune on my rig.

Got this Apogee Jam+ to use guitar training apps with my electric guitar, iphone and headphones so as not to antagonize others in the house with my noise. It does the job. So far I've only used it with the iOS Uberchord app and Garageband, so I won't speak to the more sophisticated merits. It is very solid-feeling. I selected it partially because it's small. Though in retrospect, the small size doesn't seem to matter much for me, because in use, it's got 3 cables coming out of it connecting it to three other objects which dominate the space consumed. The small size would make it easy to stick in guitar case for travel. I use it while sitting down, but I guess if I were using it standing up, I'd want to find some way to secure it so that it doesn't inadvertently yanked off the desktop by a tug on the instrument cable. Or maybe I'd leave it on the carpet. Controls are simple... a gain knob that is also a push-button to activate/de-activate distortion and a separate button that activates the monitor port so that you can listen through headphones. Simple to use. Connect to iphone. Start the app and it should recognize the external device within a few seconds and ask if you want to use the device with the app. I'd buy it again.

I had to upgrade my Apogee due to the newer connectors on the iOS devices. I haven't used this extensively but it seems to work very seamlessly. I especially like that I can use it with Yousician and other popular guitar Apps.

I have been live streaming my shows and since adding the Apogee Jam as an interface I have eliminated all room noise and stepped up the quality of my live shows sound!

I have the previous incarnation of this device (gifted it to a friend), and this one is even better. Super clean signal, even when pushing it to red, and works for a myriad (yes I said "myriad") of applications. I use it for noodling late-night on the couch with GarageBand, but lately I've been using it as the front end for live-streaming shows on social media. I'm using a Mackie ProFX12v3 mixer (also purchased at Sweetwater), with keys, guitar and vocal going out to the Jam into the iPhone. I've had MANY compliments (mainly from musicians) since using this signal chain, and it sounds amazingly good for as simple as it is. I also own the Apogee Thunderbolt Ensemble for my desktop/Logic Pro X rig, and am amazed with that as well. Apogee simply delivers the best front end for ANY digital audio application, whether 24 bit/192khz pro recording or a lowly live stream on Facebook....they DELIVER. Shout out to Brian Loney, my sales engineer for the last 15 years or so...never steers me wrong, and always, ALWAYS takes care of me.

Worked first time - got a jam going on Zoom with it.

Sounds good with a pre-amp for bass.

Kudos to Sweetwater for getting it to me at the right time and the right price!

I've used this to connect my bass to my Mac and it is easy to setup and use. Enjoying it a lot and just learning how to do basic recording stuff.

I use my Jam+ with my Mac and iPad pro. I love the sound ....using Garage Band and headphones I feel like im in front of a twin.... I use the headphone out to listen to iTunes WOW!!

Love the Jam plus: Trivial to connect (plug and play), easy to use, great sound quality. I mainly use it to capture ideas (without turning on my entire studio…). It integrates seamlessly with your DAW and the BIAS FX Jam software is a nice little gift (albeit somewhat frustrating as numerous presets are listed, which are not included in the Jam version, resulting in a frequent messages reminding you to upgrade and purchase the full package…). Regardless, this is an awesome, compact and highly capable interface, which nicely complements my main setup (built around Apogee Ensemble).

The Jam+ has a bug built into the hardware - if you're plugged into an iOS device (let's say you've got an amp sim going in AUM), and are playing along to a song on, let's say, Spotify, the gain on the Jam+ will automatically reset back down to near-zero *every* *single* *time* you press Play/Pause in Spotify. Huh? Quick example - You've dialed in a distorted guitar sound - ok cool, sounds good - start playing along to a song and then, whoops, let's pause it to focus on a certain section, ok cool, let's start it up again... well here comes the BIG surprise - after pressing play, your lovely distorted guitar sound is now gone because the device has decided to *RESET THE GAIN*. So you are now required to manually turn the knob on the Jam+ up to get that sound back. Every... Single... Time... You... Start... And... Stop... A... Song... I couldn't believe this and emailed Apogee. Here is Apogee's smug and dismissive response:

"That's an astute observation! However, this behavior is not a bug. Jam Plus is designed so that whenever the audio application on iOS stops working (playing, recording, etc.), it will enter "power save mode" in which the gain level will reset itself.

Please let me know if you have more questions!"

I don't know on *what planet* this incessant "power save mode" is actually beneficial to someone, but not being one to complain, I just want to warn anyone on here to STAY AWAY FROM APOGEE's portable line of products. Just STAY AWAY. This is coming from someone who has purchased *many* Apogee products over the years (Duet, MiC, Jam, Groove, etc). They have always, in one way or another, given me problems, whether it be connectivity issues, random dropouts, random crackling. Oh and if you happen to be using a Windows computer, guess what? None of their stuff really works on Windows. So there goes your money. For the same price, there are much better options these days. Keep looking. I still can't believe the irony of a device called "Jam+" *resetting* every time you are trying to 'jam' - I mean 'saving power' every time you are trying to jam.