Belkin's $180 iPod-powered four track mixer

Palm Sounds report on Belkin's great-looking TuneStudio iPod ~~portastudio, which can record 4 tracks~~ mixer - which can mix four tracks into a two channel recording on a 5G ipod. You can nearly do the same thing with a Behringer mixer and a Tune Talk (although there will be a level problem as the Tune Talk only has a mic input). But this thing is cute and knobby, and $180 isn't a terrible price. Alternatively, for $99 you can stay strictly old-school on cassette with the Tascam MFP01 which is actually sold with the line "Records one track at a time with classic warm analog sound"... (More coverage of the TuneStudio at iLounge, Engadget and Gizmodo.) (Thanks to everyone in the comments for explaining this story back to me...)

Posted by Tom Whitwell.

Comments:

Looks dead cool, unfortunately it doesn't appear to be a four-track in that it only records a stereo mix of the four channels.

# posted by

Anonymous : 1:35 pm

Just what I was thinking, aj. Belkin's TuneTalk stereo + a cheap behringer mixer would probably be a cheaper/less cool equivalent.

# posted by

Anonymous : 3:05 pm

I have the Tunetalk and it has issues with data corruption if you try to record an audio file longer than 10 mins.

I wonder if they've fixed this for the mixer version? The end result is crapy, unuseable data. I'm sorely disappointed.

# posted by

Anonymous : 9:54 pm

FWIW, you get a lot more bang for your buck with the Boss Micro BR. I bought one recently, and I'm just totally blown away with its ability and specs.

Sure you can only record two tracks at a time (through stereo line in), but can also record through the guitar input and internal mic.

Worth taking a look at if you're looking for a cheap portable 4 track to carry around with you.

# posted by

Anonymous : 8:48 am

I have the Tunetalk Stereo (works with a 5g iPod). I regularly use it to record live sets (16bit 44khz stereo wav files, each one usually about 10-15 mins) straight from the output of my laptop soundcard.

It doesn't seem to have a problem with line level signals either (with the autogain switch in the off position).

That Boss Micro BR does look cool though.

# posted by

Anonymous : 9:41 am

it doesn't seem much more to me than a mixer + recorder.

Multi tracks would have been great: most folks already have shiny black 30gb hard drives, and it would be great to integrate those into multi track recording.

As it stands: it is a big piece of pseudo-nickelodeon-style (remember their cameras?) stuff that doesn't do much.

I'd get a fostex mr8 (or mr8hd) instead. The boss does look cool, though.

Geoff

# posted by

Anonymous : 9:48 pm

I didn't understand where the Tunestudio gets the power. I see just a usb plug... if so, it works only with a usb power source (like a laptop or something...), or does it get power directly from the Ipod?

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