( 12 reviews )
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Posted: Jul 30 2009
I use this thing to death... I'm a mobile DJ and use it record mixes and live sets. It's so convenient to record a night of mixing and remove the ipod and listen to it on the way home from your venue, to see how you really did... I've used it at functions for public address, parties, people singing and it works great. I wish it had some effects and maybe external controls for the ipod as the Alesis product does. All in all great and I recommend it...
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Posted: Apr 5 2009
I've been recording four-instrument live performances with my MacBook Pro and Logic Express for a couple of years, using an M-audio FastTrack Pro 4 and a Behringer 802 mixer. Great control, but it was a lot of stuff to set up and get cabled, and goofing with the trackpad and on-screen controls was always a little tedious. And then exporting tracks to get iPod or CD rips was an extra post-production task. The Belkin TuneStudio changes all that. A single box I can take to the gig, patch into the house audio or our own mics, and record everything without messing with a Powerbook perched precariously on a music stand putting out a ton of ghostly screen backlight. The TuneStudio is way more convenient, and although the recording quality drops from 24-bit 96 KHz to 16-bit 48 KHz, that's plenty good enough for cutting CDs or iPod listening. (In fact, I can't tell the difference, which makes me wonder if the M-Audio was really giving me 24-bit). The build-quality is pretty nice for a box this cheap -- a step up from the fit and finish of the Behringer and way cleaner audio than I was getting from the Behringer/M-audio combo. Pots are smooth but with minor fuzzing during motion -- common in low-end mixers. The compressor is just plain wonderful -- it's great at preventing distortion yet affects overall ambience very little. Separate headphone and monitor volumes are super convenient too for live work. I haven't tried this hooked to a Mac yet, but I don't intend to use it that way normally. It's just refreshing to pull this one box out of a gig bag, plug in the inputs, and hit Record at the start of each set. Capacity will never be an issue -- the 30GB 5G iPod I'm using holds 400 hours. Post gig I sync the thing with my Mac and it slurps the tracks into iTunes, where I can easily slice, dice, and burn to disk -- or push to a web site or whatever. Way more convenient than Logic. A few minor glitches: the "standby/recording" lights are three glaring white LEDs that I had to cover with black electrical tape (through which they shine with no problem but at least they're not so overpowering in subdued stage lighting). A couple of the knobs' center detents are off a notch. And as others have reported, the TuneStudio records only two tracks, despite having four inputs -- even when connecting to a Mac via USB. For studio work I'll still use Logic, but my Macbook and its cable snarling interface entourage stays home from now on!
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Posted: Mar 4 2009
The sound quality is terrific, as many other reviewers have noted. The unit is very simple to plug and play right out of the box. I have used this device to record myself mixing on my DJ equipment. The outcome has been very professional, studio-quality mixes. The compressor is very helpful for my application. The fact that I can use this as an extra stand-alone mixer if needed is a nice plus, too. All in all, a great product, especially at this fairly low price.
