OffsetGuitars.com

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYnWNp2PRK8

so a friend of mine told me about this JUST as i finished setting up my novice studio in my backyard shed (Reason 10 is my DAW).
granted Spire can't do everything Reason can, but i'm blown away by the sound quality & how expedient the process is.
It seems Izotope spent a lifetime thinking about the preamp/mic/etc.

it IS limiting when your projects get grander in scope, but this $350 gadget seems HUGE for putting out ideas quickly (and exchanging them among friends - which we might do). if we needed to move .wav files or whatever INTO Reason for developing a track further it seems we'd have no issue doing so.

$350 is a bit of a big deal for me to plunk down on music gear if it's not a guitar or amp, but i'm very tempted by this thing.


has anyone used one yet ?

Is this not basically what Zoom has been doing with the H5 and its predecessors for years?

I'm not seeing what's any better about this.

i don't doubt the H5 has a really nice sound quality, but the Spire interface works with the Spire app.
(the app is a lightning-fast multi-tracker & the interface has effects/ sort of a 3D track panner wherein you can put the
different tracks in different parts of the mix).
you can easily drag/drop/slice/edit your tracks in a way you can't with the H5.

plus the sound quality has me quite amazed. did NOT expect it to sound 1/2 that good.

it is shit. /end.

really ?

preservation wrote: ↑

Mon Dec 18, 2017 6:31 pm

really ?

I can't speak for Soggy Mittens, but to me it looks a bit silly because it takes the idea of the zoom - which is meant to be a portable option for quick recordings as-you-go, but then adds a less practical shape and a bunch of gimmicky multi-track stuff which seems a bit antithetical to the idea of a portable unit with built-in mic. I mean, as soon as you start multitracking with it, you're now in the realm where an iPhone or iPad with Gatageband and ANY half-decent dedicated outboard mic and interface is going to run circles around it.

I mean, at lease the Zoom has the right shape and connector to be able to mount on a mic stand for positioning, and you can multitrack with it as an interface running into Garageband if you really wanted to. This thing just sits on a tabletop? No way you're going to get any track that's worth multitracking with that.

I don't even own the zoom, but I've heard a bunch of decent demos from different forums I visit, and for the purposes it was designed for, it looks like a superior unit to this.

the point is that the module works WITH your iPhone or iPad, so you can throw out track after track
and really get busy when an idea hits you. i was using Voice Recorder on my phone - the best i'd do is
just record a decent riff and revisit later when i felt like sitting down in Reason.

the Spire block has these nice Grace preamps & w/ good effects in the app, so you can *quickly* move through
an idea without feeling "desk fatigue" which i so quickly get. i've really been blown away by how industrious i've
become via the Spire app w/ just my phone alone...

in my particular case i can always export .wav files (vox/guitars) into Reason and flesh out the rest of the track around it.
the way Spire is handling gain stages saves me a bit of time/effort and my co-songwriter is already using a module.
he's about to have his fourth kid so if we expect to get any work done we have to be smart with our time.

so far i'm not seeing a lot of "that sounds like shit" but more "it seems useless" or "it's a toy" on YouTube comments, etc
i don't really care if people think it's a gimmick or looks stupid; i'm actually kind of impressed that i know i could WANT to use
a device like that to get my ideas out post haste.

You do know that your iPhone can multitrack into garageband, apply effects, mix, etc? And can do so with any iPhone-compatible mic or interface as an audio source?

If you enjoy the Spire as a creative tool, that's great. But it is not at all the only way to easily record multitrack demos onto an iPhone.

For example, an iRig Mic Field is a similar microphone to the one in the spire, is way smaller, costs 1/4 the price, can be positioned more easily thanks to any iPhone holder you can put on a desk or mic stand, and you can multitrack easily on GarageBand for free, or any other DAW app for pennies relative to a Spire. It's hardly a case of "Voice Recorder and internal mic vs Spire". I agree that the Spire would be a dramatic upgrade to Voice Recorder and a phone mic. But so is "any iPhone compatible mic plus $0 GarageBand".

Again, I'm happy that you're happy with the workflow you've achieved with it, but I'm just pointing out that there are both more economical and more versatile ways to skin this particular cat.

I am more impressed that you use Reason. I love Reason but the fucking thing looks the same as it did when I had my first copy in 2002. On a 4k monitor it is either impossible to read or is pixelated like a Commodore 64.

I was hoping they would finally fix this in 10, but I think it is dying a slow death now with every version. The vst support in 9.5 is horrendous and as was recently revealed, was actually written years ago and never used then or updated for actual release.

Sorry about the digression. It is still the most unique of DAWs imo. For the Izotope -- don't waste your money. The folks above me are right -- you can achieve the same results at a fraction of the cost in many other ways.

^ i'm just so used to Reason at this point that i can get my work done in it even i'm not thrilled with the look.