TAPS Audio Flow Control: Cunning utilities you didn't know you needed

19 Apr 2022 by Robin Vincent | Approximate reading time: 3 Minutes

myVolts TAPS Beat Splitter · Source: myVolts

Previous Next

TAPS is a ridiculously simple pair of audio accessories that can take the pain out of minjack sockets and give you more control over the audio flow.

TAPS

I know, you’re never going to need anything quite so obviously simple and useful as this. There’s no way that no one has thought this up before now and why on earth would you want one? Except, damn that’s brilliant, you could almost say it’s a bit of genius. Although do I have anything that would benefit from such a stupid utility? Yeah, all right, I can count at least seven things. Of course, there’s my laptop, my wife’s phone, any little box by Korg, my MP3 player (yes, I still have one of those), and numerous other boxes that make noise. These TAPS from myVolts are fabulous.

There are two slightly different TAPS on offer here.

Beat Splitter

The first one is called the Beat Splitter. At first glance, it looks like it just splits the headphone socket on your device into two so you can share the aural experience with a friend. But myVolts decided to go a bit further. Via the switches at the side, you can change either output to be regular stereo, mono, or left/right over both sides.

Why would you want that? myVolts suggest that you could use it for multitracking audio while syncing Pocket Operators, or using it to sync Volcas or convert a mono output into a stereo one. I’m sure I’ll come up with some others if I think about it long enough. Suffice to say there are enough reasons to make it interesting past watching a movie on a laptop with a friend quietly.

myVolts TAPS

Pots and Pans

Great name for this alternative version that offers a volume knob, panning control and mute switch. I don’t think it’s quite as innovative as the Beat Splitter but it does give you a knob to control the output volume rather than having to find a button, keyboard shortcut or mousing about the place. Panning seems less useful but a mute switch is always very welcome.

myVolts TAPS Pots and Pans

Ricky Tinez has done a great video on these little guys.

You are currently viewing a placeholder content from Youtube. To access the actual content, click the button below. Please note that doing so will share data with third-party providers.

More Information

Unblock content Accept required service and unblock content

Pricey

The best thing though is that these little gems are only €9 each. You can get a 6-pack for €49 and put them all over the place.

Of course, these are perfect with myVolts own mickXer 5-way passive mixer. It’s a little slug of a box that’s designed to splice together Volcas and Pocket Operators and have bugger all controls. Again, ridiculously simple and fabulously effective which is what myVolts is all about. My only concern would be that perhaps these adapters are not going to fit everything you’ve got with a minijack output.

The Kickstarter is already fully funded so it’s just a matter of buying one or two if you’re interested. Delivery should be by the end of May. I’m pretty taken with the €299 Ultimate Mixing Kit that has 6 of each of the TAPS, some Candycord cables, three mickXers, four ripcord power cables and some cable kits for the PO, Volca and pedals. It could transform my desktop of neglected devices into a maze of properly wired creative machinery.