Belkin has been attracting a lot of attention on the show floor at the music section of the SXSW festival (full SXSW coverage) with its recently-announced TuneStudio four-track mini-mixer/recording desk that uses a 5G or later video iPod as its recording medium. You can plug up to four sources into the various inputs on the device, and they get mixed down to a stereo file on your iPod that's stored in the voice memo section.
I was impressed by the quality of the construction, the aesthetics of the design, and the inclusion of recording meters and variable compression to prevent digital clipping -- as well as the fact that it'll only cost $250 when it's released this August. (Belkin told me that some SXSW attendees have told them they should charge more for the device.)
I just shot some video of a Belkin representative demo-ing the BelkinTuneStage that I will post as soon as I can track down a USB cable, butfor now, here are the specs from Belkin:
- Records directly to iPod in 16-bit, 44kHz quality
- Streams audio through built-in USB interface to and from a PC or Mac computer
- Each channel is equipped with 3-band EQ, pan and level controls
- Phantom-power-enabled XLR inputs provide up to 60 dB of microphone gain
- High-quality stereo compressor with makeup gain enhances audiodynamics and keeps audio levels within recording limits of the iPod
- Features one-knob compression control
- LEDs indicate master audio level, power status, peak indication, compressor activity, and recording status
