THE MUSICIAN
IK MULTIMEDIA IRIG KEYS I/O 25
€230 / bit.ly/iRigKeys25
W hatever music software and platform you use, it’s not very rock’n’roll to paw at a glass screen or click a mouse. But when starting out, the sheer range of kit available for live play can be intimidating. IK Multimedia’s iRig Keys I/O 25 does a good job of packaging everything you need into a compact gadget that won’t take over your house.
Plug it into a computer or tablet – irritatingly short proprietary USB-C, USB-A and Lightning cables are bundled – and you can smash out a chart-topper on the 25 full-size keys and eight pads. There are knobs to twiddle, two sliders, and buttons to trigger secondary functions and (in theory) play/record in software.
Around the back, there’s a 3.5mm headphone port, stereo jack outputs and a pedal input. But the best bit is the combo input jack (with 48V phantom power), which lets you connect a guitar or mic – so you don’t even need to have a separate audio interface.