There’s no shortage of accessories that serve as interface for recording you playing an instrument on an iPad or Android tablet. Except, of course, if your instrument of choice is a ukulele or an acoustic guitar. That changes with the iRig Acoustic, a guitar pickup that claims to record your acoustic playing with the same quality as a studio mic.
When paired with the AmpliTube Acoustic app, the ensemble simulates playing the instrument at a perfect angle in front of a condenser mic, enabling unprecedented sound reproduction on a mobile device. Creator IK Multimedia claims it can “accurately capture the full frequency range, tonal character and complex harmonics” of an acoustic guitar, providing what’s arguably the easiest way to properly record acoustic playing outside of an actual studio.
The iRig Acoustic is a small device that clips on to the bottom of a guitar’s sound hole, arming it with a MEMS-type omnidirectional microphone inside a custom enclosure. It puts the actual mic just inside the hole, allowing it to capture the most detailed and focused sound, allowing the app to record “every vibration and sonic interaction” for a full representation of the instrument’s sound. Installation is as simple as clipping the device onto the rim of the hole and plugging it onto your tablet, although you will have to perform some calibration in order to get the best sound once you launch with the app. It’s designed to work with any stringed instrument that has a circular sound hole, too, so you can use it for recording any guitar or ukulele in the market.
Available now for iOS and Android, the iRig Acoustic is priced at $49.99.