A news item that caught my attention and captured my imagination in 2017 was the new of iZotope, the developers of Ozone, Neutron and RX, were to be releasing a new type of digital 8 track recorder called the Spire Studio. I initially thought this is odd looking little hockey puck device but looking closer I realised that it could well be a smart little recording system that many songwriters could find extremely useful.

Spire Studio is currently only available in America so we reached out to our friends at iZotope to see if we could get a unit in for testing.

In the video above we show you everything you need to know about the iZotope Spire Studio. We get you up close and personal with the Spire Studio & Spire App and walk you through how to track your first song using the Spire.

Ditch The DAW - Get One Of These

Over the years I've come to know many musicians and songwriters who struggle to record demos of their songs. They generally don't like getting bogged down with technical DAW tasks when they are in their creative songwriting modes. When a songwriter is in the depths of their creativity they don't want plug-ins, preamps and microphone placement getting in the way of their writing flow, no, instead they want a simple point and squirt device that can capture their ideas quickly without hesitation.

This video from iZotope shows how Spire Studio works...

Songwriters Love To Plug & Play

For many years, some songwriters have been using their smartphones to track basic song ideas. This approach can be quite limiting and the results can also sound pretty poor because built-in phone microphones are not designed to capture high-quality audio. I feel that Spire Studio sits between the simplicity of using a phone to record song ideas and the complexity of using a DAW to produce a large session. Spire Studio has no learning curve at all, the App (currently only available on iOS) is incredibly intuitive to use and the built-in microphone sounds classy.

All in all, I feel that iZotope has gone to great lengths to reinvent the digital 8 track for the 21st Century songwriter.

If you are a songwriter who wants to record high-quality demos or song ideas but struggles to incorporate DAW workflows within your creative songwriting seasons then you've got to consider one of these, ditch the DAW, get a Spire Studio and focus fully on your song at hand.

Spire Studio Availablity Outside America

We have it on good authority that iZotope are planning to release Spire Studio in territories outside of America soon. Shipping date and price outside of America have yet to be announced but rest assured we'll inform the Production Expert Community as soon iZotope share the news.

iZotope Spire Studio Main Features

• $349 - Currently only available in America, worldwide availability coming soon

• 2-in/2-out, 24-bit/48kHz iOS interface

• Integrated Wi-Fi access between phone/tablet and Spire

• Record anywhere - 4 hour rechargeable battery

• Built-in omnidirectional microphone

• 2 Grace Design preamps with phantom power

• Soundcheck feature automatically sets input recording levels within seconds

• Records up to a maximum of 8 tracks

• Record 2 simultaneously

• Apply reverbs, delays, amp models and more (pre-recording)

• Control the project from the onboard LED touchscreen or remotely with the Spire app (iOS only at this time)

• Edit & mix your tracks with the app or export the multitrack stems to your DAW

• Collaboration made easy - Send tracks and projects to your bandmates and co-writers