- In this review, I'm gonna
look at a great solution,
for recording your DJ
sets from IK Multimedia,
called the iRig Stream.
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Right, okay, so you wanna
record your DJ sets,
but for whatever reason,
you don't wanna use the record
button in your DJ software.
It could be because you're
DJing from a streaming service,
which won't let you hit the record button,
because of the licensing arrangements
that the DJ companies have
with that kind of service.
Or you could be DJing
and wanting to incorporate
an MC or crowd noise
or you could be wanting to incorporate
other stuff that just won't be recorded
when you hit record on your DJ software.
A lot of those record
buttons have limitations.
Or you might wanna record your DJ sets out
and about when you're not
even using your laptop
or on gear that doesn't have software
and a cable that you could
then hit record on your laptop
because it's just standard DJ gear, right?
You need to just get a normal output,
plug it into something, and record it.
For whatever reason, it's good to have
different ways of recording
your sets that aren't just
hitting record in your software,
and sometimes, as I say, that
won't be feasible for you,
so this is one such solution.
It's an audio interface.
It's a two-in audio interface,
well, a little bit more than that
as you're gonna find
out, from IK Multimedia.
It's about $99, 99 euros,
which is reasonable value for what it is,
but for what it does,
I think it's quite unique
in the marketplace,
so I wanna explain to you
how you would set this up to record
and some of the problems it solves.
So the first thing is
it doesn't have any recording stuff on it.
It's an audio interface.
You plug it into something else.
Normally, the phone in
your pocket works with iOS,
works with Android, works with tablets.
Also works with a laptop or a normal,
if you like, computer, a Mac or Windows.
That's actually how we use it.
So the first thing you're
gonna wanna do with this device
is plug it into what
you're gonna record with.
It comes with all sorts of cables.
These are for Lightning and USB-C.
What I'm gonna use is for a normal USB,
so we'll just get that plugged in there.
Always be careful with things
because you can easily bend the pins.
And I have here, feeding off
to our computer, the USB.
Lights come on on this now.
It's getting power from the computer.
You can have DC power in here as well
if you wanna power your iOS device.
For instance, at the same time,
you can plug a power cable in.
It doesn't come with it,
but generally, it will take power
from whatever you plug it into.
All right then, so this is now switched on
as far as plugging into the computer goes.
Next thing we need to do is
plug it into our DJ gear.
Now, one of the problems
this little box solves
is there's only one output
on a lot of DJ gear,
like one simple little
output and that's it.
That plugs off into your
speakers and that's done.
So if you wanna record your audio,
where do you plug that in?
There's no extra output.
High-end gear has it,
lower-end gear doesn't.
It's another problem that this solve.
So I'll show you how it works.
What we're gonna do
is we're gonna unplug from our speakers.
This is set up
and playing through the speakers now.
We're gonna unplug our speaker input
because we wanna put this
into the little RCA inputs
on this device here.
This is now set up now.
We've got audio coming
from our unit into here
and it's going off into the
computer in this instance
or your iOS device to record.
Hit record on any app in an iOS device
that accepts the recording.
They provide one with it,
but we can't hear what's going on,
so this is the next clever little thing.
This has, built into
it, a little mini jack,
actually it's this side,
a mini jack output.
It's also a mini jack input.
We'll get to that.
So by plugging in a cable
into the mini jack there,
I can now go to the back of my speakers
and these speakers have an
eighth-inch input there,
and I can hit play on here.
And now, this is audible
through my speakers again,
which is awesome.
I've now got an output to
my speakers which means
that I can hear what's going on
as if I hadn't unplugged anything.
But also, now we've got,
a record output heading
off to our iOS device,
our Android device, our tablet,
our smart phone, or our computer.
So that's cool.
That's all set up now and working.
And a little volume control,
as I say, down here,
will allow you to choose how loud this is.
Of course, you can still use
your volume controls on
whatever speakers you use.
You could also use an adapter,
which has got RCA to mini jack, right?
An adapter to achieve the same thing.
So now we've got our audio
coming out through our speakers once again
and heading off to our recording device,
whatever, to record,
which is pretty awesome.
Job done.
But there's more to this
little audio interface
than meets the eye.
So one thing that it's got
is on this headphones output,
it's also a microphone input.
So you remember on
phones and still on iPods
and so on, you have this
socket that you can plug in,
the kind of ear phones that
have got a microphone here,
the microphone where they join.
So when you get a phone call,
you can also talk, right?
So actually, this socket,
just like on phones
before they stopped having headphones,
microphone sockets, just like on phones,
it's got an input as well as an output.
So this has got a microphone volume
and a headphone volume here,
and with the correct adapter in there,
which is just a simple
TRRS to stereo-in mono,
or stereo-out mono-in adapter,
and we've linked to one beneath here.
With the right adapter,
you can plug in a microphone here as well,
and there's a microphone volume,
so you can actually mix over your music.
You can mix the microphone,
so you can have a mic for crowd noise,
or if you're doing a
podcast, a music podcast,
you can have a mic in order
to record over the top
of your music with you talking.
Now, it might be better to
plug into the DJ controller
depending on how good
the mic system is there
and whether it's got talk over or ducking,
so you can automatically
duck with the level
of the music when you're talking,
but the point is there's an
option there for that as well.
So this little audio interface,
deceptively simple though it is,
has got music in, it's got microphone in,
it's got direct output monitoring
that's there all the
time for your speakers,
and then, it feeds off to any device,
that you can hit recording on
any app in order to record,
like on a Mac, you could use QuickTime.
That's what we use or use
Audacity, which is free.
As I say, they provide an app
for iOS and Android as well.
So on anything, even the ones,
that provided with your system will work
as well for recording.
Record level is handled
by this level knob here.
You just set it so that the blue here
goes into the green, but not into the red.
There's really these blue, green,
and red there, which is
gonna be pretty fine,
as long as your levels here
are set to where you always
have them on your controller
and you're not pushing it too hard.
Other features it's
got, it has a loop back.
This just allows it to mix the audio
that's coming out of whatever
you're running on your computer.
Too hard to go into here,
but you might want that in
some instances in the future.
It's good to know it's there,
and it's also got a mono off and on.
Now, this is actually quite
useful because some apps,
especially if you're streaming,
'cause you could use this with streaming,
if you can get around copyright issues,
some apps expect a mono input
and will only use the
output from one of these.
So therefore, it means that all your audio
is being fed to the app,
even if it wants a mono
input, and that's it.
And as I say, it comes with other cables,
so that you can plug it into
all those kinds of devices as well.
That little set up
there is so damn useful,
that here at Digital DJ Tips,
it normally lives under the desk.
We've been using it for a long while now
to record everything we do.
We just have it permanently
set up to our RCA cables
that we plug into any controller,
any DJ system that we're testing,
teaching on, or whatever.
Then we know we can hit record
over on our production Mac
and it'll just have a really
clean recording coming out
of that unit, while at the same
time powering our speakers,
which again, are normally
hidden under here.
We use tiny speakers by the way
because we don't want the speakers
to bleed into my microphone,
so we have very low volume in here.
People think, "Ah, it must be great there,
"pumping the music up all the time."
That's not how it works.
Anyway, so this little auto interface,
we found really useful
here at Digital DJ Tips
and we think that if you
want to record your DJ sets
for podcast, music podcasts,
or just for practice,
if you're using a streaming service,
or you want something in your bag
that you can just have with you at venues
and very quickly plug in to the record out
or whatever on their set up,
this little iRig Stream
is a great solution.
So, what are the alternatives?
Well, the one I wanna
draw your attention to
is the Evermix system.
Evermix comes in a nice little bag.
This doesn't by the way.
For 99 euros, I'd quite like
to see a little bag with it,
but anyway, Evermix comes with,
well, it's very similar looking device.
It's a box, it's got RCAs on it.
It's got the same DIN plug on it actually.
Although, Evermix only
comes with leads for iOS
and Android, not for laptop.
We haven't tried the iRig
lead to see if it works
with a big computer, if you like.
I bet it would.
But anyway, this is made
of metal, not plastic.
That's a nice rubberized plastic,
but this is made of metal as well.
And you plug this in,
it has got a socket
for a microphone on it,
so you can plug microphone in
and get crowd noises from this as well.
No record level on here.
This is a little bit different.
Evermix, it's got
and it's got the usual cables and stuff.
Evermix is designed for
DJs who want something
in their bag that they can
just take with them to gigs
and plug in
and record without having
to worry about anything,
even the recording level.
It records in to an app
that runs on your iOS or Android device.
And you can record and share from that app
and there's a few
settings in there as well.
Very, very simple.
This is more like a fully
fledged audio interface
that happens to be very,
very simple to use.
This is a lot more flexible,
so they're kinda going
to different audiences,
slightly different audiences.
This is gonna be more useful to you
for various other things.
For instance, switching into mono means
you could actually plug two
instruments in here and record.
You could plug a mixer in here
and record all kinds of stuff with it,
and it's just got a bit
more flexibility there,
but it's up to you to decide
what you're gonna record on
and what you're gonna
do with that recording.
Whereas Evermix is more
like a one-stop solution.
Plug it in, hit record on the app,
and you've got it there
finished, ready to save,
ready to share, and all that stuff.
This doesn't have the ability
to plug in speakers as
I've just done there.
So if you're using it on a DJ controller
that's only got one output,
the iRig is a bit more flexible.
It is possible to do it with the iRig
in a way isn't with Evermix.
So that is our review of
the iRig audio interface,
a deceptively simple
little audio interface.
The best I can say about
this is it sounds great.
It's got all the right specs for sounds,
so you're gonna get good
sound quality out of this,
but the best I can say with it
is we've been using it at Digital DJ Tips
for quite long time now, under
the desk, out of the way,
because it's a really reliable,
simple way of recording anything
that we plug from here into there,
while keeping our speakers running
into whatever device we wanna record into.
We've been looking for something like this
for a while because, generally,
to get this kind of thing set up,
you have to buy an audio interface.
It's more aimed at musicians
and so, it might have balanced inputs
or it might have more
inputs than you need,
and it's just got stuff
that is you're paying for
that you're not using
or it's that you pretty
much use everything on it
and it's small, it throws in your bag.
It just works.
It's a good little device.
So the iRig Stream is one
of our top recommendations
if you want to record your DJ sets,
but you don't wanna hit your record button
in your software to do
it for whatever reason.
So if you've enjoyed this review,
please do like, follow, and share.
There's a link underneath
to the full written review.
Meanwhile, get good, get
out there, make the moments,
and I'll see you again very soon.
(upbeat electronic music)
