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Old 11-15-2019, 11:01 AM
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Default Spire Studio?

Anyone here use one of these things? I bought one and so far I am amazed at just how easy it is. I have a complete home studio in my man cave where I have an audio interface, speakers and all that. But I wanted something in my house for easy collaborations with other writers. Something where I could easily record something with fairly good quality and send it straight away straight from my phone or tablet. I sometimes write songs with a friend in Ireland (I am in Texas) and I can easily just send the track through texts. And if she asks for a change, I can literally record a new take in a few minutes and have it back to her. No fiddling with SD cards and the such.

Anyway, a pretty cool piece of equipment and it now works with both Android and IOS.
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Old 11-15-2019, 11:34 AM
benjamin1884 benjamin1884 is offline
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Default Spire

Welcome to the club. The Spire has been a wonderful tool for recording. My co-writer lives in Mt Alberta, Ontario Canada. We met in Warren Pa at a hotel over Labor Day weekend. Just using the Spire and my Ipad we recorded 10 songs, 7 of which are original and our album will be finished soon. The Spire really excelled for 2 mics, 2 guitars, 2-3 vocals depending on songs.
Really pleased with the whole set up
best of luck to you
Rick Benjamin
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Old 11-15-2019, 12:11 PM
jim1960 jim1960 is offline
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There's a long thread on it that's still active.

https://www.acousticguitarforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=502715
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Old 11-15-2019, 01:04 PM
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It's the first time since the 80's when I had a Fostex 4-track recorder that I've had something for multi-track recording that wasn't more difficult to use than it was worth to me. Various DAWs and interfaces have been more complicated than I wanted any part of dealing with. I've had the Spire Studio for about a year and I've been having more fun with recording than I ever had before.

If I could change anything about it, I'd make the mixing controls and the punch-in / punch-out feature more powerful and easier to use. Other than that, I don't think I'd change a thing... I haven't even bought a mic for it - the internal condenser mic is more than good enough for my purposes... It records my acoustics very well and my voice as well as I want it to (the more obscure the better with my vocals)...

-Ray
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Old 11-15-2019, 01:07 PM
Silly Moustache Silly Moustache is offline
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Hi, I haven't bought one of these yet but may I ask a couple of questions?
I'm an old guy with major technofear!

I would like to record elec bass, and acoustic guitar, then add mandolin, dobro, and vocals to play/show on my Youtube channel.

I'm guessing that this machine doesn't have speakers - just headphone outputs, so could it be linked up to some sort of speaker system? so I can play back the mixed channels whilst, say singing in front of my camera?

Also, I haven't got a current smart phone as yet - but I'm currently investigating - a budget Samsung - a20 or A40, Will this be sufficient to run the android App?

Thanks in advance.
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Old 11-15-2019, 03:39 PM
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BoneDigger BoneDigger is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Silly Moustache View Post
Hi, I haven't bought one of these yet but may I ask a couple of questions?
I'm an old guy with major technofear!

I would like to record elec bass, and acoustic guitar, then add mandolin, dobro, and vocals to play/show on my Youtube channel.

I'm guessing that this machine doesn't have speakers - just headphone outputs, so could it be linked up to some sort of speaker system? so I can play back the mixed channels whilst, say singing in front of my camera?

Also, I haven't got a current smart phone as yet - but I'm currently investigating - a budget Samsung - a20 or A40, Will this be sufficient to run the android App?

Thanks in advance.
As for playing it through a speaker, you should be able to either get a set of speakers that can be plugged in with a headphone jack, or buy an adaptor to go from a headphone jack to AV connections. Either would work fine.

Not sure on the phone, but as long it has the most recent version of Android it should work. Alternately, if you can afford it, get the entry level iPad for $300 bucks or so and that would give you a bigger interface to work with.
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Old 11-15-2019, 05:09 PM
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raysachs raysachs is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Silly Moustache View Post
Hi, I haven't bought one of these yet but may I ask a couple of questions?
I'm an old guy with major technofear!

I would like to record elec bass, and acoustic guitar, then add mandolin, dobro, and vocals to play/show on my Youtube channel.

I'm guessing that this machine doesn't have speakers - just headphone outputs, so could it be linked up to some sort of speaker system? so I can play back the mixed channels whilst, say singing in front of my camera?

Also, I haven't got a current smart phone as yet - but I'm currently investigating - a budget Samsung - a20 or A40, Will this be sufficient to run the android App?

Thanks in advance.
You could play the mixed tracks through speakers and record into the mic (or an external mic), but you'd also be recording the other tracks along with your vocals onto the new track. But, sure, you could do it. I know for a while these things had some issues with Android OS phones and tablets, although I'm not sure of the details. I'd just look into it and make sure whatever you're looking at is fully compatible. From experience I can tell you it works brilliantly with IOS...

-Ray
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Old 11-17-2019, 08:32 PM
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Can the Spire be used with Garage Band or does it require the use of the Spire app? I like the app, but it would be cool to use the drum tracks, etc. available in Garage Band.
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Old 11-18-2019, 09:16 AM
jjbigfly jjbigfly is offline
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It is dead simple to record with. Without a phone (or iPad)it is going to be difficult to mix.
You can literally set it on the car seat and sing on the way to work, come home and add guitar.
Turn it on and start playing and singing. Play it back. Add some percussion and harmony later. It is as simple to use as a tape deck. Really quite the tool.
Guessing from your pictures, you were around when portable tape recorders were the “thing.” Push the record button, make sounds, play it back. It Is that simple, and you can mix the recording as you wish.
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Old 11-18-2019, 11:19 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BoneDigger View Post
Can the Spire be used with Garage Band or does it require the use of the Spire app? I like the app, but it would be cool to use the drum tracks, etc. available in Garage Band.
I know you can export tracks to Garage Band or other DAWs for final processing. Although I've never done it, so I don't know quite how. But I'm not aware that you can bring stuff IN from Garage Band. And I'm quite sure it doesn't function with Garage Band as a front end. It's waaaaaaaaay simpler than Garage Band. I got the Spire specifically because I found Garage Band way too complex and difficult to just do simple things on. Garage Band also waaaaay more powerful than the Spire.

The Spire Studio is all about ease of use and any feature / capability that takes away from that ease of use they stay away from. I personally find the lack of dynamic "on the fly" mixing and the lack of some way of adding a foot controller or something for punch-in / punch-out to be really kind of limiting. But I can deal with it because the overall experience is something I can actually USE and end up with a recorded tune.
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Old 11-20-2019, 08:51 AM
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I have both a Spire and a Zoom H5. Both are great portable recording devices and after a lesson with my teacher Monday night where I got spanked for not working harder on my left hand articulations, I accepted I need to be recording portions of just about every practice/play session for my own critical analysis for making improvement and correcting mistakes.

I used the Spire with its onboard mic last night and it's just so easy. The practice recordings work for my purpose and sound pretty good but I plugged a pair of KM184's to the Spire this morning for a few runs and it just made me grin (reduction in noise and increase in clarity).

I think the onboard X-Y mic capsule is better on the H5 than the Spire onboard mic but the convenience in post recording processing and handling of a recording with the Spire makes it the choice I'll reach for. It's a brilliant piece of engineering for sure.
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