The iRig® Mic Studio starts with a large 1-inch diameter electret condenser capsule, a built-in low-noise analog preamp with a gain control knob, LED level indicator and a 24-bit/44.1/48 kHz audiophile-grade A/D converter. The “studio” component of the iRig Mic Studio is its built-in audio interface with an onboard mini stereo headphone output jack and a level control for monitoring.
The iRig Mic Studio comes with all the cables for “plug-and-play” with your iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, Android, Mac and PC for recording in studio-quality or using as the ultimate desktop mic for blogging, podcast and Skype VOIP calls.
I tried out iRig Mic Studio using my iPhone 6 running Sonoma Wireworks FourTrack and IK’s iRig Recorder software. I also recorded into my Mac desktop computer using Audacity. In both trials I found the headphone level sufficient to drive any of my studio headphones to full level and the sound of the microphone first rate. The tri-color LED on the front of the mic let me know when I was going to peak levels over 133dB SPL max spec. This worked well when recording an interview; the iRig Mic Studio has plenty of gain to pick up everyone’s voice in the room.
iRig Mic Studio sells for $179.99 MSRP and comes with a sturdy and portable tabletop tripod stand, travel pouch and an assortment of cables.
Barry Rudolph is a recording engineer/mixer who has worked on over 30 gold and platinum records. He has recorded and/or mixed Lynyrd Skynyrd, Hall & Oates, Pat Benatar, Rod Stewart, the Corrs and more. Barry has his own futuristic music mixing facility and loves teaching audio engineering at Musician’s Institute, Hollywood, CA. He is a lifetime Grammy-voting member of NARAS and a contributing editor for Mix Magazine. barryrudolph.com
