Price paid: $ 99.99
Purchased from: http://www.ikmultimedia.com/products/irigmix/
Features: Before going into a list of all the features of the iRig Mix, I'm going to try to cover the features and uses relevant to guitarists or vocalists to the first paragraph, and then in the second paragraph I will get into a full list. The iRig Mix is a very compact piece of equipment, which would easily fit in a backpack, iPad case or messenger bag. There is a 1/4 inch jack for a guitar cable (for guitar or bass) or you can hook up an XLR to 1/4 cable (more microphones), and then having your iOS device hooked up to a separate connection you can run AmpliTube, VocaLive or whichever app you use for effects processing – then you can run the signal to your PA system or active speakers. There are two audio inputs (1/8 inch) for iOS devices, but you can also connect any audio source such as an mp3 player or CD player. If you are playing solo then you can run your backing track from your mp3 player into one input, then your vocals or guitar through the ¼ inch plug, then have your iOS device hooked up to the other audio input to provide the effects processing for your vocals or guitar. The signal travels from your instrument or mic, through the gain control, to the iOS device in input 1 and the signal processing app, then back to the iRig Mix through the EQ controls, then the fader, then to the main outs. There is a headphone out so you can monitor in real time, with a separate volume control. There is also a volume control for the guitar/mic input before it gets to the gain stage. For the outbound signal there are right and left RCA outputs, and also an adapter cable included to convert the RCA down to 1/8 inch if you want to run the outbound signal to computer speakers if working in front of your computer. A power supply is also included.
In addition to the features listed above, the iRig Mix comes with some features targeted to DJs. The iRig Mix can take two separate audio sources, or two iOS devices or one of each. With the free apps available for DJing, DJ Rig Free and GrooveMaker Free you are provided tools for creating your own techno and dance music with your iOS alone. With the addition of the iRig Mix it gives you the control to create your music in real time in a performance environment with features like faders, cross-fade, cue, separate EQs and gain, a master out volume and most importantly a feature called X-Sync. X-Sync allows you to automatically beat-sync whichever audio sources you are running to the iRig Mix. With a single iOS device (I was personally using an iPhone 4s), you can run DJ Rig with two audio sources and split the output when it hits the iRig Mix. Overall, this is a feature rich device that is predominantly designed for DJs, but still has some very practical uses for the performing solo artist, vocalist or small musical group. // 8
Sound: Not much to say on the sound – it is honest – what you put in is what you get out. The provided EQ (Bass and Treble) for each channel is very responsive. If you push a signal to the point of clipping there are LED indicators to let you know it is happening. If there is any problem with the sound the iRig Mix gives you instant live control to make changes, so that is really the point of the device (from a guitarist or vocalists point of view). // 10
Ease of use: The iRIg Mix is built tough, with a thick plastic housing, not overly heavy and very flat and thin. Since you can just plug this straight into the wall socket you don't have to worry about issues with batteries. None of the knobs feel loose or wobbly, everything is put together tight. All the knobs turn smoothly and the faders and cross fade move smoothly. I haven't owned this long enough to say it will last forever, but from my experience in the past with IK Multimedia I am not especially worried about a quality issue with the iRig Mix. // 9
Impression: I like the idea of this product, and I think it is well executed but I'm not sure how often I'm going to use it. I would use the iRig Stomp from my guitar to get to the PA system for simplicity's sake, but if I ever decided to get brave about doing some vocals in a live setting of any kind it would absolutely be with the aid of a lot of corrective magic from VocaLive and in that situation I would be using the iRig Mix for sure. If you were in a situation where you are playing small solo gigs as a guitarist, then I could see using the iRig Mix mainly for mixing your guitar signal with your backing track before injecting it into the PA system so you would have control that it was mixed right. If I could change anything it would be to add an additional instrument/mic input and maybe even an entire extra “channel” to mix. What I would like to be able to do is run my guitar in and process the signal with AmpliTube, and run my vocals in to be processed with VocaLive and at the same time have the drums as a backing track playing from a separate audio source and being able to mix the levels for each source. From the DJ side of things, I think I'll have a lot of fun with the iRig Mix as I'm really just learning from scratch how to make noise and call it techno right now. This is definitely going to solve some problems for some people, and it is the first of its kind so you have to give it credit for that. // 7
- Brandon East (c) 2013
