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iRig Mic Evaluation

March 14, 2011 By 16 Comments

Back in January, I blogged about the iRig Mic with anticipation.  I love the idea of being able to turn around a quality audition or sound-file from one of the popular mobile devices now available — like the iPad, iPhone, Android, or some of the newer tablets coming out.

The iRig Microphone is touted as being the first hand-held mic for the iPhone.  That’d be nice, ’cause Apple changed the wiring when they made the iPhone4, and my Blue Mikey no longer works.  The internal mic that comes with the iPhone is actually not too bad, but we geeks and gearheads are always searching for the promised land when it comes to this stuff…never content to sit with status-quo.

I ordered the iRig Mic back in January, even though they said it was not being distributed yet, and even though there were no believable reviews out.

Well, this weekend, FedEx brought me my new iRig Mic.

The packaging is simple… you get the mic, a leather pouch, a plastic mic holder (sleeve-style) and a simple User’s Guide. The quality of the workmanship on the mic is above average, and it has a fairly hefty feel to it.  The mic has a condenser-electret unidirectional capsule.  As the User’s Guide explains, the mic is designed to primarily pick up the sounds that are arriving at the front of the microphone, minimizing sound arriving from the sides or behind.

iRig recommends you download the free version of VocaLive and AmpliTube from the app store.  Both of those apps come with a pricier full-featured version, too.  The User’s  Guide also mentions the “iRig Recorder” app, but a lengthy search of the app store didn’t turn up anything by that name.

The iRig Mic works with other smartphone audio recording apps, though, and I tried it with Poddio and Twisted Wave, too, as you’ll see below.

The mic plugs into the earphone jack at the “top” of the iPhone, and that plug has an external stereo headphone jack itself.  The mic has a 3-position sensitivity switch on the side.

I’m posting two audio files using the iRig Mic.  One is recorded through the iRig-recommended VocaLive app, and the other is recorded through the Twisted Wave app.

Both apps enable emailing of the recording.  VocaLive sends it as an .m4a file, and Twisted Wave defaults to .wav.  I can’t honestly say I had the mic’s three-position switch in the same setting for both.  Indeed, the VocaLive recording seems over-modulated, so this is by no means a very concise comparison…just a quick test.  I converted the .m4a file to an .mp3 using the AVS audio converter software.

iRig Mic  Test from VocaLive by CourVO

iRig Mic  Test from Twisted Wave by CourVO

Let me know what you think by commenting below.

CourVO

Comments

Filed Under: Hardware, iPhone, Mics, Software Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Comments

  1. Steven says:
    March 14, 2011 at 7:30 am

    Pretty amazing stuff Dave!!!! Thank you for sharing this info!

    Steven
    Voice123

    Reply
  2. Tim Keenan says:
    March 14, 2011 at 9:41 am

    Hmmm – Thanks for doing this test Dave! We’ve bee curious to see how this mic would sound. We took a critical listen in the studio:

    Sample 1, while nice & quiet, sounds over-driven and slightly over modulated. it might take a few tries to find a good balance of placement & correct levels, etc. It sounded really “pushed” and “squashed” for lack of a better term.

    My question would be – is the software doing this compression to make it “quiet?”

    Sample 2: The first thing you notice is the “noise” (hiss) and a bit more high end, yet tinny sound. The frequency response was more natural and it did not sound compressed at all.

    I think it has some potential but you’re gonna have to play with it and find the ideal setting before using this for a real job. It looks like a great tool for auditions on the go, tho. Good luck!

    Tim Keenan
    CreativeMediaRecording.com

    Reply
    • CourVO says:
      March 14, 2011 at 4:10 pm

      Hey, Tim….thanks for the feedback and comment…

      I’m gonna take a little more time and be more careful with another test, which I will post later.

      I appreciate your visit!

      Dave C

      Reply
    • Starr says:
      March 15, 2011 at 11:56 am

      Hi Dave and Tim,

      VocaLive has a Noise Filter option in SETUP that help in reducing this noise. The best way to keep this noise as low as possible it to optimize the level that is sent to the iOS device by properly setting the sensitivity switch on the iRig Mic.

      Also- You have kept calling the iRig MIc the iRig (the iRig is a guitar plug adapter, used with AmpliTube). You may want to fix all references of this so you are not confusing your devoted fans in this review.

      Great review!

      Cheers,

      Starr

      Reply
      • CourVO says:
        March 15, 2011 at 2:14 pm

        Starr,

        Hey, thanks for stopping by my blog and commenting…

        I made the changes you suggested, and will be posting more comparison soundfiles very soon.

        Thanks again for your input!

        Dave C

        Reply
  3. George Whittam says:
    March 14, 2011 at 4:05 pm

    I venture to guess that the noise and fidelity from the built-in mic of the iPhone will be better than the iMic. It’s much worse than I would have hoped, even at $60. Try recording at all 3 gain settings and see if you get better results. Thanks for taking one for the team, Dave! Hope there’s a return policy…

    Reply
  4. Peter K. O'Connell says:
    March 14, 2011 at 7:15 pm

    I’m terrible at these tests. If George says they’re awful then I defer, ignore my following comments.

    Knowing how bad the iaudition files sounded using just the iphone mic, I thought the recording on Vocal Live sounded passable for an audition. I thought the hiss was crazy bad with Twisted Wave.

    I’m assuming you had both mics on the same setting for each test.

    Best always,
    - Peter

    Reply
    • CourVO says:
      March 15, 2011 at 2:15 pm

      Peter,

      Thanks for visiting and commenting….of course, since I ignored your comment, I can’t comment on your comment…but thanks anyway :)

      CourVO

      Reply
  5. Linda Ristig says:
    March 15, 2011 at 1:44 pm

    Thanks for the comparison test, Dave. I’ve been curious about the iRig, but just today found out about the “mike” from Apogee that’s coming out. Since I trust all the guys on this feedback for their tech advice, think I’ll hold out a while longer for a good mic that works well with the newest software versions of iPad.

    Stay well, all!
    Linda

    Reply
  6. Denise says:
    March 21, 2011 at 5:56 am

    Hi Dave,

    I have an iRIg Mic arriving in the mail today so I was very interested in your review. I like the sound of the iRig through VocalLive much better than TwistedWave. I’m a jazz singer and plan to try it for small gigs, along with making some recordings with GarageBand:)

    Will be checking back for your future comments!

    Cheers,
    Denise

    Reply
  7. Heather Henderson says:
    March 24, 2011 at 3:47 pm

    Thanks for these two samples, Dave. I agree that the Twisted Wave one has an unacceptable level of hiss, and that the VocaLive is a little too modulated. The Apogee Mike looks very promising, but I don’t want to have to buy an iPad (yet)!

    At this point, all I need is something acceptable for auditions. I don’t know your commenter named George Whittam, but perhaps he or you could expand on his comment that the built-in iPhone4 mic is pretty good all by itself –? I hope? Maybe even with the Voice Memo app??

    Best,
    Heather

    Reply
  8. Amy Snively says:
    January 26, 2012 at 10:51 am

    Looks like the Apogee “studio quality” mic will be available soon!
    http://www.apogeedigital.com/products/mic.php

    Reply

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