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I want to know if there is a way to connect my guitar (or any other kind of audio source) to my Android phone. As far as I know, the only input socket is the "mini-usb" input on the phone. So I guess I'm looking for a way to convert audio signals to usb, then make it an input to an Android app.

The app should take the signal, and deliver it to the sound output. The reason is to process the sound.

Any clues for doing such a thing? Thanks for any help :)

Michael Hansen Buur
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1 Answers1

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It depends on your device. Some Android phones support a headset input through the headphone jack (such as through this device [Traveler Guitar MI-10]). In that case, a simple adapter can allow you to feed an audio line in.

Other devices allow what is called host support for USB. If this is the case, then you may be able to use a USB audio interface if it has driver support for Android (not sure if there are any such products yet) (Update: There appears to have been some success here. [USB Audio Recorder Pro App] )

A third option that should be more universal would be to look for a bluetooth device that can take a line input and feed it in to whatever software you are using in Android. Exact support would depend on the profiles your device supports, but something like this [Britelink Bluetooth Audio Transmitter] could possibly work.

It would also be important to check the documentation of whatever software you want to use on Android since the devices supported by a particular application may not include all options.

AJ Henderson
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  • Hi AJ, thanks for your helpful answer.

    I actually want to create a software by myself, and I was looking for a way to handle the audio input and output programmatically.

    I know that many Android devices have USB sockets, so I think the best way should be to get the audio from USB. I somehow guess that a wireless connection will cause more latency between input and output. Am I right ?

     –  Oct 10 '13 at 19:39
  • @CengizFrostclaw - the problem is not all (perhaps not even most) Android devices have USB host support. They can act as a client on the USB port, but not all can attach peripherals from it. If you are specifically looking to write an application to make use of Audio input on Android, you may be best to try the Android SE or StackOverflow as they would know more about the programmatic side. Chances are pretty good that there would be more latency with a Bluetooth interface, but probably more latency with the USB interface than the analog line input on devices that support it. – AJ Henderson Oct 10 '13 at 19:45
  • I'm asking the right question in SO now. Thanks again for your help. One final question, does any android device has an line-in input ? or any other input than USB? I have never seen one. And my aim is, of course, to make a software that [as many as possible] users can utilize. And for the latency case. Which one would you prefer; USB, or line input? –  Oct 10 '13 at 19:50
  • Historically, most phones have had an analog line input. It's typically a specialized pinout that works with the "headphone" jack which is actually generally a headset jack supporting both input and output. It can vary from device to device though. In general, the direct line input won't have to go through a USB bus, so it should have lower latency, but it also depends how good the USB support is. USB3 will also do better than 2.0, but I'm not sure what, if any, phones support USB 3 hosting. – AJ Henderson Oct 10 '13 at 19:56