iZotope is a company known for its powerful audio software. If you mix audio, master songs, or clean up dialogue for films and television, you’re probably familiar with the algorithms of Ozone, RX, or Neutron. Now, however, iZotope is releasing a new piece of hardware—and we at B&H are proud to stock it.
Called the Spire Studio, it might look like your standard digital assistant. But instead of answering to “Alexa,” the Spire Studio records up to eight tracks of audio and beams them wirelessly to a corresponding iPhone app.
Recording in the Spire ecosystem is as simple as hitting the New Song button, calibrating your levels automatically with the Soundcheck button, and hitting Record. But where’s the microphone? Built right in! What about connections for DIs or external mics? Fret not: there are combination jacks on the rear handle XLR and 1/4" connections, so you can record your electric guitar or favorite condenser microphone (yes, with phantom power) right to your phone. As for the preamps, they were designed by Grace Design and, thus, by design, give you that transparent sound for which Grace Design is known.
As pro audio denizens might tell you, audio quality over Bluetooth isn’t quite “there” yet, so you might be suspicious of any home-recorder sporting wireless capabilities. Again, fret not! No Bluetooth here—it’s Wi-Fi for Hi-Fi: the device shows up in the Wi-Fi settings of your iPhone, and transmits 48 kHz/24-bit audio right to the app when you’re hooked up. Record up to eight separate tracks, all while navigating through options by using Spire’s onboard LED touchscreen and corresponding, intuitive app. Then, you can mix these tracks right on your phone, or alternatively, dump the multitrack into a DAW and mix your audio in the studio.
As previously mentioned, the Spire itself sports the spherical, elegant look of digital assistants, so it’s quite handy for casual recording about the house or mobile, on-the-road song sketches. If you’ve ever opined for a mobile recording solution—one whose resulting audio could very well make it to the finished product—you might have found your solution in Spire. It’s not available yet, but again, remain fretless: You’ll be able to pick up your own Spire Studio from B&H soon.
