Mikme Is A Portable, Multitrack Recording Rig For Your Cool Band

If you got your first real six string at the Five and Dime and you and you and some guys from school got together to record some songs primarily during and around the summer of 1969, you probably could have used the Mikme. The Mikme is a box-shaped microphone that can sit anywhere in the room and record, the creator claims, audiophile-quality sound wirelessly. It connects to a phone or tablet and streams the audio to a recording app live.

The creator, Philipp Sonnleitner, is an electric engineer with six years experience at AKG. He is building the Mikme in Munich and will be shipping in May.

“I am a musician,” said Sonnleitner. “I was frustrated by how long it took me to get something recorded. I wanted to have fun while making music and not time wasting setup stuff up. And all microphones looked boring and old fashioned. I wanted something which looks nice beneath my stuff.”

The microphone itself has a 1-inch gold-plated condensor that converts 96kHz at 24 bits. It has a cardioid polar pattern and is good for recording voice or instruments – even a whole band, if aimed correctly.

“Microphones are pretty old fashioned. They look, feel and behave like the ones 30 years ago. We are concentrating and focusing on the creative workflow, meaning artists should be able to focus on writing songs and being creative. Right now setting up a microphone takes too long. Even if it is a USB microphone you still need a cable, setting up a software, making updates, setting gains manually, selecting inputs and drivers… and then your inspiration has gone,” said Sonnleitner.

He is looking to raise $217,000 – a pretty hard-core amount – and he’s selling the units for $179 for early birds. The device has 8GB on board and can record directly to the on-board memory or an 8 track recorder. Who knows? Maybe you can stand with it on your momma’s porch and sing about how the summer feels like it could last forever (the summer of ’69, that is).