Comments on: New iPhone Multi-track Recording, iPod Mic, More, but No Love for Original iPod touch?

By: Lindsay

Lindsay — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 03:41:05 +0000

I just got a Blue Mikey (terrible, terrible name) and connected it to my 2nd gen touch. Seems to work great, records in stereo, sounds pretty clean. I got it for recording random sounds when I’m walking down the street. The advantage of this rig is I always will have it with me. I have heard that on an iPhone in airplane mode the Blue mic works well too, but haven’t played with it yet.

By: Renard DellaFave

Renard DellaFave — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 21:15:10 +0000

roger, have you put the iPhone in airplane mode? Cellular radio could be interfering with the mic.

I sure would love a basic 1/8″ stereo input-to-dock-connector adapter. Logitec’s mic has one, but it’s way too expensive if you don’t want the mic. Ditto the Alesis device. I have an ECM-MS957 that is plenty good enough.

By: robblackwell80

robblackwell80 — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 02:28:50 +0000

can an external mic be plugged into the iPod touch 8GB? $199 now, and i can download 4-track. but will it work? seems too good to be true. help please!

By: roger

roger — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 11:32:46 +0000

Dug,

Thanks for your comments on this. Does anyone know if there is an external mic solution for the iphone 3GS? I’m shooting video/audio for a music festival next week and will be doing interviews as well as on-site shots of concerts. So as to be as portable and unencumbered as possible, I’m going to try to do all the video and audio work on the iphone 3gs.

If I pick up a good mic and plug it into the iphone via a coupler to the A/V 4-conductor mini-plug, will this record ok? Or will I need to put something (a line attenuator?) in between mic and iphone to modify the input signal such that it will record. problem of course is that ill be on location and so wont really have ability to have extra equipment along with me – was hoping to do this with just the iphone and an external mic.

I went down to J&R Music World in New York this morning to test out some mic options with my iphone. I tried out the the Audio-Technica ATR50 and made an interesting discovery. The mic plugged into the iphone via the A/V four-conductor miniplug did actually record sound at a decent level, *but* the recording was accompanied by a strange regular metronomic clicking sound. This sounded like some sort of power loop. I’ve uploaded a copy of the recording here:

http://www.norums.com/memo.m4a

Does anyone have any idea what this is and/or if there is any way to get rid of it? Or do you think I am fighting a losing battle?

Cheers in advance,
Roger

By: dug from sonoma wire works

dug from sonoma wire works — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 00:55:36 +0000

mari-
Yes, you can use any mic that you can plug into the mic jack on the iPhone. There are several that are available from Griffin, Shure, etc, that allow you to use your headphones instead of the ones that come with the phone. You can also get a special 1/8″ three contact to three rca cable that you can use to connect a guitar, microphone or mixer to the input.

Chris-
The 1/8″ jack is only mono on the iPhone. However, there are dock connector solutions that will allow you to connect a stereo input. We are working on adding support for recording stereo in 4 track. But the dock devices to work in mono for now.

cheers,
dug

By: Chris

Chris — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 10:24:45 +0000

Can I record to the iPhone in stereo, through the 1/8″ headphone jack? l

Let’s say using a L/R RCA from the mixer to 1/8″ jack to the iPhone.

I know some MP3 players allow you to record stereo to the 1/8″ headphone/mic jack. I just wasn’t sure if the iPhone was down for the job.

By: mari

mari — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 16:57:20 +0000

hey can some one tell me if a simple mic can be used for “fourtrack” to record my music?

By: Halvard Halvorsen’s tumblelog » Create Digital Music Â» New iPhone Multi-track Recording, iPod Mic, More, but No Love for Original iPod touch?

Sun, 07 Dec 2008 23:49:48 +0000

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By: Ryan

Ryan — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 16:37:53 +0000

So if you used a video mini adapter, which I have one, are you guys saying I could run the adapter into my piece of crap beringer 4 track mixer’s tape out (mono only) and record onto my phone? Would that solve the whole issue of controlling input levels? I have been recording on a super old tascam 4 track tape recorder as of late just to have rehearsal stuff but this would be infinitely more practical.

By: MK

MK — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 16:00:57 +0000

Finally got to try out FourTrack at a band rehearsal session last Thursday and it was a little disappointing.

To be fair to the developers I think the limitation is in the iPod Touch as it doesn’t support adjustable input levels. We’re a 4-piece band on guitar/bass/drums/keys/vocals and we were overloading it completely. When an individal instrument is playing, or a person is speaking even, the sound is clear enough, but once you get us all playing at once it becomes a bit of a mush.

I even tried wrapping it in cloths and moving it to the far end of the rehearsal room so as to dampen the sound slightly, but it didn’t help much.

We’ve previously used an IBM Thinkpad T21 with a very cheap mic running into the onboard soundcard and Ableton Live with much better results.

Of course, the Monster iSoniTalk mic may be part of the problem as mid range was better than the low and high ends.

Other problems enocuntered though did point to the software itself. I found I had problems with responsiveness, and there were a couple of times when I hit the play button and it refused to play back what had just been recorded, instead playing the first track in my iPod music library!

Will keep an eye out here for other opinions though.

Cheers.
Maurice