€169.99, ikmultimedia.com

A clear trend in audio gear in the 2020s is consumers wanting equipment that’s more compact and powerful. IK Multimedia has been one company leading the way in all-in-one recording devices, with its iRig and Stream families of audio interfaces and mics delivering portable performance across desktop, iOS and, more unusually, Android platforms. It pairs these with its formidable line-up of audio processing apps and plugins to cater to a wide range of musicians and creators, regardless of whether you’re a podcaster, guitarist or DJ.

• READ MORE: Is EastWest’s Fantasy Orchestra the one sample library to rule them all?

The company’s latest creation, the iRig Stream Mic Pro, is a multi-functional microphone that also serves as an audio interface, among other things. Creators who are looking for a simple, fuss-free setup for light recording duties, such as a singer-songwriter setup or a podcast, will want to check this out.

The iRig Stream Mic Pro can be mounted on its desk stand or on a mic boom via the included thread adapter and it powers from your device, also allowing pass-through charging to iOS if you add the optional power supply. It’s class-compliant across your Mac, PC, iPhone or iPad — requiring no drivers — so it just becomes available as an audio I/O device when connected. To facilitate extra bandwidth it has a mini-DIN connector and comes with two cables: one Lightning and one USB-C.

You’ll find the body robust, with no real moving parts except for the central jog wheel to control all its functions. Before getting to that though, you may want to connect headphones to the 3.5 mm jack on the bottom edge, which allows direct monitoring of your voice or playing, and possibly also a second 3.5 mm stereo input to the Aux jack, which might host a keyboard, mixer or drum machine via a compatible cable.

Happily, the mic can function as a simple stereo device, sending the output from both its capsules or that output plus the two additional channels to your recording device. Or, in multichannel mode, it can send all four channels separately — more useful for DAW recording where you’ll probably want to keep the various channels apart for editing and mixing.

The stereo option is useful for sending a pre-mixed signal for example to a streaming app, like Instagram, YouTube or TikTok. Then there’s IK’s Loopback feature, which lets you add background music from your device into the signal stream or even route the mic signal to a separate app for adding EQ, reverb or other processing, all in real-time. If this sounds complex, don’t worry — in practice, it’s simple enough for all users to pick up quickly.

In fact, IK has done a stellar job of keeping the iRig Stream Mic workable. The jog wheel controls multiple functions and its ring of lights adapts to show you various different levels. So you get mic, streaming and headphone levels, monitor mix, plus buttons for mic mute and activating an adjustable high-pass filter (handy for removing noise at higher levels). The icons and lights help everything make sense.

The other trick the mic has up its sleeve is switchable polar patterns. Controlled again via the main knob, it’s possible to select between four different patterns, starting with the regular cardioid front pickup used mainly for vocals, voiceovers or instruments. Then there’s an omnidirectional pattern, handy for multi-person podcasts, field recording or conference calls, and a bi-directional (figure-8) pattern that’s handy for two-person interviews, picking up from front and back equally. Finally comes a left/right stereo pattern, useful again for music, instruments and ambient recordings.

The capsules are dual 0.55-inch gold sputtered electrets with a frequency response of 20 Hz to 20 kHz, which is pretty standard for a mic of this type, as is the maximum SPL of 115 dB. The electronics inside convert analogue to digital (and back) at 24-bit, and can operate at up to 96 kHz — impressive in such a portable, bus-powered unit even if many users may never stray further than 48 kHz.

Recording quality is excellent across a range of uses. For podcasting or voiceovers, placed on a desk you’ll be driving the input a little harder but the filter can take off any small amount of noise that may result. Recording acoustic guitar close-up, the results are warm and crystal clear. It’s the extra polar patterns that really make this a versatile mic though, especially the figure-8 which we found so useful for across-the-table interview recording. Other features like loopback and splitting all four channels separately for DAW recording also help to round out what is an abundantly capable, portable piece of kit.

IK’s companion app is a bonus, with downloads available upon registering your hardware. In this case, it’s iRig Recorder 3 LE for mobile, MixBox CS for iPad and the entry-level SE edition of MixBox for desktops, which are suites of effects you can use for the aforementioned voice or instrument processing prior to recording.

Note also that there’s a simpler version available — the Stream Mic USB, priced at £100. The key difference is it has only a single cardioid polar pattern and is a stereo rather than a 4-channel interface, with a standard USB onboard rather than the mini-DIN. As such, it’s arguably better suited to people who only need a more conventional mic to record a voice or instrument without the expanded features of the Pro.

It’s called the Stream Mic but streaming is only one of its many talents. In truth, it’s just as adept at regular voice or instrument recording and thanks to its switchable polar patterns, all manner of interview or ambient and field recording too. All this in crisp and clean high quality, and should you need it, a clever loopback facility to add another virtual signal to the four channels already available.

The Stream Mic Pro is a serious all-rounder for your podcast or music studio that’ll make your life easier.

Key features

• 1 in, 4 out audio interface
• 2 capsules
• 4 polar patterns
• 24-bit, 96 kHz recording
• Direct monitoring
• Stereo aux input
• Bus power over USB or Lightning
• Integrated desk stand
• Suite of apps included
• Switchable high-pass filter

The post IK Multimedia’s iRig Stream Mic Pro is a hassle-free solution for all recording artists appeared first on MusicTech.