CES 2012: IK Multimedia Announces Some New Accessories That Will Join Their iRig Lineup
January 10, 2012
The folks at IK Multimedia appear to have been hard at work coming up with a few great new iDevice accessories for music artists. Being demonstrated at this year's Consumer Electronics Show, the company announced a new microphone, a mobile mixer, and a stompbox interface.
Since CES is all about sharing new things to large groups, I'll begin with introducing the iRig Mic Cast. Designed to best capture voices and the like, iRig Mic Cast is an attachable microphone that's perfect for use in interviews, podcasting, lectures, and even capturing voice memos. The mic connects to your iDevice's headphone port and the package even includes a stand to conveniently position your iPhone or iPod touch at the proper capture and viewing angle. Additional features include a sensitivity switch to provide best results for either close or distant recording and a stereo mini-jack to output the audio to speakers, a broadcasting device, or headphones.
Similar to the company's other accessories, iRig Mic Cast is designed to be paired with IK Multimedia's associated iOS app, in this case, iRig Recorder. This simple but powerful app, which also works great with the iRig Mic, is a one touch recording tool that can also geotag, store, and modify recordings. The app features MPEG-4 audio or Wave export choices, eight automatic adjustment options, and non-destructive editing tools to cut, crop, or loop recordings. iRig Recorder is compatible with iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, 32GB and 64GB third generation iPod touch, fourth generation iPod touch and newer running iOS 4.0 or later, and available in the App Store for $4.99.
IK's next gadget jumps back into the music making realm. Mainly focused for use by disc jockeys, but is also a great tool for guitarists and vocalists, iRig Mix provides adjustments for volumes, crossfade, cues, and more. You can use the iRig Mix with a single iDevice, two iDevices, or two traditional sources. The iRig Mix features independent stereo channel input, RCA stereo output with additional headphone connectivity, and X-Sync to automatically match tempo and beat of the source.
If you hadn't anticipated it by now, the iRig Mix also has an iOS app: DJ Rig. Not yet available in the App Store, DJ Rig is a full-featured, double-deck DJ mixing app complete with access to your iPod library, a realtime sampler machine with nine pads, effects deck, crossfade and EQ controls, X-Sync, plus a CloneDeck™ technology scratching engine.
The final product to make a debut so far this year is iRig Stomp, a portable stompbox interface that allows musicians to connect their stompbox to any iOS instrument or amp app. The iRig Stomp features input gain control, an active battery-powered output circuit that improves headroom, and headphone output.
Both the iRig Mic Cast and iRig Stomp are "coming soon" and will be available at the manufacturer's suggested retail prices of $39.99 / €29.99 and $59.99 / €44.99, whereas, the iRig Mix is already available for pre-order in the IK Multimedia Online Store at a price of $99.99 / €74.99, and is set to become fully available later this month.
