iRig Acoustic Stage - my initial assessment

[raqcoon]

'Just want to give a quick assessment of the iRig Acoustic Stage & Mic after doing some tests, and while the info is fresh in my mind. I ordered it Tuesday the day it was announced and it arrived today, Friday.

If you have no pickup in your acoustic guitar then Stage is a good choice, if not your only choice, for quick & easy amplification. Just clip the Mic onto the rim of the soundhole and connect it to the box. No adhesives or other precarious mounting issues. It sounds OK. I don't know what the Calibrate mode does, maybe somebody more technical can describe its effect. The difference between steel and nylon modes is the latter is somewhat brighter. After all, the Stage box is a preamp with tone options.

The included Mic has a 2.5mm TS connector, and the Stage box is likely the only unit the Mic can interface with. The original Mic released a year ago is a 3.5mm TRRS, so it's not for Stage, it's for your device. Conversely, I don't think Stage is, at this juncture, compatible with IK's Amplitube Acoustic app. There's a micro USB connector for audio out to recording software, but it might not route into and out of a mobile app to send to a guitar amp.

On my Martin OM, the Mic sounds a bit boomy & shallow to my ears, even has some ringing. I'm sure on other guitars it'll have different sonic qualities, for better or worse, and it also depends on the amp and any pedals. I have an M80 on that OM, the mix (blend) control works nicely, the phase switch is effective, and conveniently I can quickly compare the M80 to the Mic. I'll stay with the M80, but will continue experimenting with Stage & Mic. Thus, if your guitar has no pup in it, then you'll have nothing to compare it to and Stage might sound great if not stellar.

I'm going to use Stage mostly for world instruments that don't have pickups, are too weird or delicate to drill holes into for an internal configuration. Stage sounds great on my small-hole barely-accommodates-the-Mic charango, ditto on my laud and banduria. Stage is good enough in that regard, can't be too meticulous with pupless instruments. So iRig already saved me a lot of pondering and finances about having a luthier install pups and its cumbersome jack.

My ukuleles have pickups in them. Most ukes don't. Stage is a good choice. I recommend it for ukes. With nothing to compare it with, you will love that you can amplify your uke and move around. Again, I prefer the sound of the pups that are already in my ukes.

The mandolin community will probably hate Stage. Not only is the mando crowd kinda fussy, but to my ears on both my mandos Stage and its Mic sound terrible, hands down. Not just boomy and shallow, but lifeless, plus it amplifies the attack. The mic barely fits in the f-hole but fits in my oval-hole mandolin, nevertheless the sonic quality is horrendous. Both my mandos have pickups, a Schatten and the highly-praised K&K Twin. I predict Stage will not be popular with mandolin players.

So that's my initial synopsis. Good enough for world instruments, ukes, and guitars without internal pickups.

[Cuki79]

thanks a lot raqcoon

Cuki

[raqcoon]

I'm going to add more info for a while as I go along. Calibrate simply selects the tone settings according to what it thinks you're playing. It's not always correct.

The ringing I mentioned is feedback. Half the Mic is exposed and thus is prone to feedback, especially with steel strings. Not so much with nylon. Eventually somebody will gig and report how effective, or not, the Cancel Feedback button works. My prediction is feedback in a hard room will be an issue, so you'll still need to somehow notch the offending frequency range.

I still can't get a good sound on a mandolin, but working diligently on it. Conversely, the charango (nylon) sounds beautiful. I think Stage sounds best with pedals, or some way to go beyond Stage's basic tone shaping. That's why I'd like to see routing thru Amplitube Acoustic.

USB can power the unit, e.g. just jammin' at home and don't want to burn AAs. Overall, I like Stage. It's a solution I've been seeking for a year. I think it's an effective tool for acoustic players to be amplified, but likely it'll take some tweaking for each instrument.

[Cuki79]

Can you please also comment on the dynamic and noise of the pickup, with respect to mic, piezo, magnetic pickups...

Cuki

[raqcoon]

Cancel Feedback is effective. At each tap of the button when feedback occurs the offending frequency is notched. Up to 10 notches can be applied. All notches are cleared with a button hold.

There continues to be some ringing on the high e steel string open and around f#. This transpires on three of my instruments, especially in Bright mode. Apparently the Mic is sensitive to these frequencies, mostly quelled in Warm mode.

I find the USB output is fairly low for recording, so I opt for recording analog through an LRB Para Acoustic DI. The mic seems to lack bite and is somewhat boomy in my tests. I'd prefer bright mode if not for the ringing, so further tone shaping and bass attentuation must be done outboard.

Overall the entire rig is quiet, or at least deep s:n that any possible sonic anamolies are undetectable. Cancel Feedback, and there will be feedback, adds some type of background phase noise like it's scanning and intercepting those offending frequencies to hush them, and chances are high you will need all 10 taps to trump feedback. It might not be the most pristine sonic performance, but good enough for your local pub. If you play Carnigie or a duet with Lamar, iRig probably won't cut it.

The box is responsive with the Mic as well as my OM's M80 magnetic and a piezo on my cheap Cordoba. I don't know what to say about dynamics. iRig doesn't dazzle on peaks or bottom out, although my preference is transparent outboard compression to a significant degree to limit dynamics. IK advocates blending the Mic with a pickup, and that could be wise; warm mode to stop the ringing with a blend of nasty piezo for definition, 0° phase in my tests, and some treble on the amp. Sounds great at home, but out in the beer selling world the gig could be a bust. The box has a lot of modes, you'll need to fathom its effect to the fullest for successful emplacement.

[Cuki79]

Thanks a lot raqcoon! Nice review, will you bring your irig to the beer selling world? Please tell us if it does well

Cuki

[Mr Cook]

Good luck in the beer selling world, I'm still testing and to be honest im quite impressed with it, like you said it does need a good preamp Zoom A3 is my choice, without the A3 its kind of weak........