Can Belkin's compact four channel iPod mixer realise your dreams of podcast stardom. Bringing the out moded cassette multitrack recorder concept bang up to date, the T uneStudio records CD quality audio directly to your iPod, and even packs in a few studio tricks to give your productions a bit of professional style sparkle. Messers Brand, Moyles and Fry can expect some competition ..

That might look like a bewildering array of knobs, but even a recording novice will the hang of them in no time. Each of the four channels has controls for volume level, high, mid and low frequency cut and boost. plus stereo panning. A built-in compressor is on hand to even out overall volume levels an especially useful tool when producing spoken word podcasts.

There are various ways to hook up the TuneStudio. A typical set up would see it recording a pod cast via two microphones (balanced or unbalanced), backed up by two line-level channels for music, jingles and the like. There's also a stereo output for monitoring (along with headphone monitoring) and a USB output (which doubles as an input) for recording to a PC or Mac.

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Unless you're using the USB output. this is where your audio ends up on your iPod. But make sure your 'Pod is one of those supported: Classic, Nano (2G or 3G Video) or SG Video. That means no Touch or i Phone, but they will be catered for by the TuneStudio's little brother the Pod cast Studio which is due in the autumn. For best results, keep the quality setting on 'High', which stores the audio in CD quality stereo.