https://www.insta360.com/blog/insta360-announces-new-mic-pro.html
The question is, is 130db max SPL enough for our uses?
To get a stereo recording from wireless mics inconspicuously, I attach them inside a baseball cap so the come next to my ears, and that way I get a good image in a pseudo binaural size. But these Insta360 mics look too big for that. As for levels, the Zoom M2 MicTrak 32 bit float dual ADC device handles 135dB which is threshold of pain - so the 130dB rating for these wireless mics is pretty good. Do they have dual ADCs? I might research that.
Edited to add that while the device claims to be able to record internal stereo audio, none of the reviews have actually tested that so what kind of stereo image it produces is unknown. Some time ago Insta360 released yet another small video camera and claimed it recorded stereo sound from its single internal mic. And none of the reviews spotted the inherent problem. When I challenged Insta360 about this, they said it was a mistake, and conceded that it was mono only. And they then had to update the firmware to remove the menu option for turning on the non-existent feature. So - I'd be suspicious until someone actually posts test samples.
Just to be clear, this is not Instamic or Zoom. That in no way says anything about the product, but at first glance it looks like a (now Zoom) Instamic product which it is not.
Finally - after hours of checking YouTube reviews - me obsessive?? - I have found one which tests the stereo audio, standing on bridge across a waterfall. Ok, nothing to do with music but at least this shows it does work and the stereo image is satisfactorily wide.
/>
The link should take you to 8:45 in the video where the stereo test begins (albeit initially in mono).
As for comparison with the Zoom Instamic device, I am not in a position to compare them, apart from noting that the price of the Insta360 device seems to be half the price of the Zoom device. Maybe it's half the quality - I don't know. One thing that seems obvious is that the three mics on the Insta360 device appear to have the potential to act as a mid/side mic, and I wonder whether down the track they might add M/S options in the menu. But of course M/S processing of an A/B file can be done in post-production anyway.
I received the following info from Insta360 about functionality of their "Mic Pro" transmitter, when used without a receiver -
"32-bit Float Stereo Recording Configuration: The Mic Pro does offer compelling features for audio-only users, such as high-quality 32-bit float stereo internal recording that can be managed via the Insta360 app for configuration.
If there is only a single transmitter and no receiver, you can complete the setup via your phone. Simply connect the transmitter to the Insta360 App, and you can adjust TX settings in the App, such as:
Audio Capture Settings: Adjust TX Gain, Tone Mode, Sound Direction, etc.;
Internal Recording Settings: 32-bit, Stereo, Loop, etc.;
Hardware Settings: Power Button Functions, Button Lock Mode, Vibration Feedback, Indicator Lights, etc.
2）Remote Start/Stop of Recording in app: I'm sorry that this feature is currently not available. "
So, setting aside the rather important question of actual sound quality, this device when used on its own is pretty basic in the context of live music recording - configure it to record in 32 bit float stereo with no loop function, using your phone, then press the record button on the device and place it where required. At least it isn't complicated, and personally I don't have much of an issue with starting the recording before the performance - easy to chop off afterwards. Placement would appear to include mounting the little thing to the peak of your baseball cap using its mounting clip - just don't turn your head during the show. Magnetic mounting is probably another option, to a rail of some sort for instance.
I recall reading someone's comment that it splits files every half hour. Of course then comes the question, is it a seamless split?
I'm tempted to get one just out of curiosity, but even though it is small, my cupboard is getting a bit full of seriously underused recording devices...
There's more - I just noticed in my emails a further message from Insta360, and they state that in fact the internal recording on the mic CAN be started from the phone app, along with setting the other configuration options. And to acknowledge my suggestions and interest they have offered me a voucher which is sufficient to prompt me to place an order. And having received it I will post my opinions about it here, and make my own YouTube review purely about using the device just for audio, rather than in relation to video. It will be handy to have such a pocketable recording device in my, well, pocket, ready for use in short order. As far as I am aware the only other device that small which can record 32 bit float stereo internally is the Instamic device, and I believe that may be slightly larger. And twice the price. And having just checked, the Instamic doesn't do 32 bit float stereo. Hmmm.
Extract from the transmitter specs -
Fully charged in approximately 1 hour, 80% in about 24 minutes. A 5-minute charge gives 1.5 hours of use. Operating Time 10 hours but when transmitting rather than recording. Memory 32 GB, giving 22 hours of stereo 32 bit float (twice the memory of the Instamic). Weight almost 19.7g, about a gram heavier than the Instamic.
Watch this space.... :)
Another video review:
https://youtu.be/8H-OHAzS5xY
The device looks neat, but it's just another audio recorder with built in batteries on 2.4 GHz. I've lost count of companies that make these kinds of recorders. Seems like it was Rode who first started it, but I could be way off.
Now content creators have the best gear available to them (cameras, lights, microphones) but will they make original and interesting content, or will this neat gear get used by politicians and companies trying to peddle their message and products noticed by the masses.
Quote from: rastasean on May 27, 2026, 04:21:08 PM
Another video review:
https://youtu.be/8H-OHAzS5xY
The device looks neat, but it's just another audio recorder with built in batteries on 2.4 GHz. I've lost count of companies that make these kinds of recorders. Seems like it was Rode who first started it, but I could be way off....
This is the problem that I'm highlighting - it's being promoted as a wireless mic system, but it also seems to be the only 32 bit float stereo recording device of this size with built in mics. The Instamic, I believe, doesn't do stereo in 32 bit float although its size is similar (and it costs double). And no other wireless mic does, simply because they don't have multiple capsules. But the reviewers, apart from one, are just passing over this. Like the review you mentioned. And I've watched a couple of dozen. Well, mine is on order now and I will then discover, and report, whether it is amazing or dreadful. Or somewhere in between.
[Edited to add that as the 'lid' of the device is a customisable e-ink display, it might be possible to put the logo of some pill company onto it, so when it is checked at venues, it looks more like a little pill box than a recorder. Well, at a quick glance...]
Quote from: Ozpeter on May 28, 2026, 08:35:56 AM
This is the problem that I'm highlighting - it's being promoted as a wireless mic system, but it also seems to be the only 32 bit float stereo recording device of this size with built in mics. The Instamic, I believe, doesn't do stereo in 32 bit float although its size is similar (and it costs double).
If you're speaking of the zoom recorder, it does do 32 bit recording but it doesn't have wireless recording. It has bluetooth functionality to control the device and it's yet another device with built in batteries.
https://zoomcorp.com/en/us/instamic/instamic-pro-plus-c/instamic/
Instamic is an ultra-compact recorder that captures flawless 32‑bit float audio anywhere, even in the harshest conditions.
Unfortunately that device only records 32 bit mono. If you want stereo it records in 24
OH, now I see what ozpeter was saying about the insta360 mic pro; thanks for pointing that out!
I hadn't closely followed the zoom product to know that difference. Sadly they don't make it obvious stereo recording is only in mono.
And with all that said, it'll be interesting to see what ozpeter discovers with the ista360 product.
My Mic Pro has arrived, and all I can say is - wow. BUT - I'm actually not at home for a few days, and so I am only able to test it with items that are to hand - not my best headphones, and no access to analysis tools on my PC (although it may be possible to do that remotely...). Still, I know the sound of those headphones well, and the playback really was impressive.
Note that I bought only the mic, not the wireless receiver.
First, it is somehow smaller than I expected. Given that its buttons, mics, and LEDs are around the edge, there is only just enough room for them. It comes with a soft carrying bag with space for accessories. As an extra, I bought the full size wind muff which wraps round all three mics.
Setting it up was very straightforward using the app, which includes a remote record button and a slew of optional settings (which I have yet to explore). So within a few minutes I was testing it out by speaking a nursery rhyme into it (as one does).
But then came the challenge of how to hear the result. I don't have a PC here to connect it to. It has no playback ability at all. The only way to hear the recording is to access the file via the USB-C port, which they also manage to cram into the periphery. Luckily I had brought from home one of those thingys which plugs into my phone and which has a number of USB sockets on it, and connecting that to my phone and to the Mic Pro enabled easy access to the file on the device, which I then copied onto the phone. The phone saw the Mic Pro like an SSD or the like. Then I unplugged everything, plugged my headphones into the phone via a USB adapter, and replayed the file. The phone seemed perfectly happy playing a 32 bit float stereo file.
Frankly I wasn't too impressed. The stereo image was slightly odd and the sound of my voice was indifferent - but then again, most of us don't like the sound of our own voice! However what probably didn't help was that I had the mic in my hand, which could well have been occluding the mics a bit.
So then I tried recording the replay of a short track featuring a young lady singing with a jazz band. And this time I put the mic on the table in front of the speakers (again, not the world's best speakers, just small bookshelf ones). When I replayed that, my jaw dropped, as the frequency response was great at the top and bottom ends, and the stereo image was spot on. It simply sounded like what I'd just been listening to. At the end of the track I detected no audible noise, and I'd had the music playing pretty loud.
At the point I had to attend to domestic matters, but of course I will be doing further tests as the evening progresses, and reporting back here. But my initial feeling is that this is a device to be taken seriously. OK, the lack of monitoring and easy playback might rule it out for some, but the plus points, coupled with the USA price of just $99, seems to me to make it worth considering by anyone wanting to record 32 bit float stereo with a device that is barely there at all. And all you do is press one button. OK, two if you count the power button as well.
And despite hours of reading reviews and watching the slew of them on YouTube, I seem to be the first person to spot its potential as a tool for field / location recording etc. I think Insta360 may not realise what they have created.
I will also be considering mounting options. Just holding it in your hand can be problematic as it's hard not to end up with your fingers on, or too close to, the mics. But it can be clipped to something like a bent piece of cardboard held in the hand with the mics unobstructed. Or clipped to a baseball cap so long as you don't move your head. Many possiblities.
Oooo, I'm going to have fun with this...
Well, I have now managed to transfer a recording of some rock music replayed on those same bookshelf speakers, which I made using the Zoom H2e and the Insta360 Mic Pro at the same time, into my phone, then from my phone to Google Drive, and then logged into my PC 50km away using a Chromebook, opened Audition there, normalised the files, and scanned their frequency response (end to end).
The green lines are the H2e and the red lines are the Mic Pro. The chart dosn't go to the lowest frequencies but you can see the Mic Pro was heading in a better direction down there. I'm not sure how much can be gleaned from the mid and high frequency lines, but when replayed, the H2e had a significantly more "edgy" and bright HF sound while the Mic Pro was more "rounded" and generally more pleasant to hear, with a more beefy bottom end.
Purely on the basis of this test, I'd prefer the Mic Pro, but I admit it's not the most scientific comparison. Maybe I will try recording a gliding test tone, if the other residents here could stand the sound of it coming from the hifi...
Some more experiences today -
- Being able to pop a one-piece field recording system routinely into a pocket, ready for the unexpected, without the slightest problem is a game changer for me (much as I hate that phrase)
- I recorded a couple of minutes' suburban traffic noise - passing cars - stereo image is fine. 120 degrees maybe?
- I popped it on my diesel car's front passenger seat when I was on a 10 minute drive. The result - lots of low frequency stuff, but the car radio music (1930's stuff) was perfectly clear and well placed in the stereo image. Generally, my feeling is that this device is more bass heavy than top heavy, but given that it's easy to EQ high frequencies higher, I'm not that concerned. When I can hear it with my best headphones and compare with other devices, I'll be more certain.
- I finally managed to slide off the mounting clip from under the recorder and then tried the magnetic clip. Attaching that to the fridge lead to some difficulty getting it off again... given the tiny weight of the device, mounting it on a suitable metal surface should not lead to any concern about it dropping off.
- An elderly friend was convinced he could hear a wasp in his lounge, flying around. I suspected it was imaginary, so I whipped the Mic Pro out of my pocket and recorded a minute of room silence. Then in the phone, normalised it. No wasp, but I could hear a clock ticking that I was unaware was in the house - quite likely from a different room. As discussed in another thread, separating environmental noise from system noise in normalised 'silence' can be tricky, but I'm confident that the chances of noise being an issue with this device is minimal.
- I wish the two LED indicators could be turned off. They could be covered with tiny bits of insulation tape but that would be a delicate operation! The device does vibrate to indicate functionality, however.
- I will try to remember to leave it recording overnight to check battery life.
- According to AI search, this device uses MEMS mics and associated techniques to obtain stereo recording from closely spaced omni mics. I can't find where AI might be getting that info from, but the features of the mic do strongly suggest that it is indeed a MEMS device.
- If the device is set to record 32 bit float stereo internally, then you can't record it with any of the built in 'effects'. It's just the pure stereo thing, which is fine. If you set it to mono, and ask it to record that with processing, then you can set the mic array to record internally as if it was omni, cardioid, fig of 8, or narrow. I've tried cardioid so far, and it certainly rejects the sides and back. Now whether these settings would allow a pair of these to be used as a pair of cardioids or omnis instead of just one for single point stereo I'm not sure, in terms of how good the result would be. But it's possible on the face of it. Maybe one could even create an MS pair with one set to cardioid and the other to fig of 8.
OK, enough for one day...
I left the device recording overnight - which will reveal whether I snore when asleep - and I stopped it after about 8 hours as the battery display on the phone app was down to zero percent, although it was still recording. I have since had it connected to an external battery (which has a magnet to attach it to a phone, and the Mic Pro attached to that like a limpet) and in the time it has taken to make my morning cup of tea, it charged to 15% already. So in terms of battery life it seems to radically exceed that of the Instamic. And it remained connected to my phone wirelessly with the app running throughout. And it's cold to the touch.
While doing a test recording, I accidentally dropped an aluminium ladder flat onto a concrete floor in the garage, quite close to the device. I nearly jumped to the garage ceiling. Obviously the waveform at that point was seriously clipped-looking, but lowering the level by 15dB in Audition reduced it to a nice rounded transient peak. It looks like it should handle most real-world levels.
Today's shortish (phew) report on this device -
- I was wrong about the LED lights being on all the time. There's a switch in the phone app to turn them off (remotely of course). That actually makes a significant difference to using it low profile, of course.
- I am now using a simple and cheap USB to USB OTG adapter to access the files on the device. You don't have to turn on the device to read its content. You can replay the audio with a phone that way using a suitable file management app to access the files via the OTG, and listen on bluetooth phones or earplugs. [Edited - I have now discovered that the short USB-C to USB-C lead supplied with the device is an OTG lead in itself, so that's all that needs to be used. So I wasted $7AU on that adapter. Huh. So really, playback is not that hard a task.]
- It's pretty easy to conceal the device - especially with the LEDs off! - underneath a magnet-friendly can or the like, or using the magnet clip to attach it beneath a paper carrying bag or similar. Or under the peak of a baseball cap, again especially with the LEDs off!
- I'm still not back at home with my normal gear but I do get the impression that the device has a bass-heavy sound, but I used an eq app on my phone and that brought back plenty of the HF content - it's not missing, just a bit rounded off. But in a day or two I should be able to do some slightly more objective testing of that aspect.
I am almost certain that the mic array is actually the same as that on the Instamic. The front facing mic aperture is quite wide, allowing space for more than one of those little MEMS devices. The supplied windshield covers those mics and not the side ones, probably because if the side mics supply the stereo content, those using the mic just for transmitting audio to the receiver do not need to use those side mics. They only come into place for recording 32 bit float stereo. But the front mic, or mics, is used for creating various polar patterns, which I believe is what you can do with (say) 4 MEMS capsules. So it really is a direct competitor with the Instamic.
I bet Insta360 would have called it the Instamic if Zoom/Instamic hadn't already bagged that name...
At last I am back at base and able to be a bit more scientific about this device. Well, slightly.
First, here is a frequency plot of a eight minute or so recording made with the device attached beneath the peak of my baseball cap. I simply recorded some location sound when I walked into a local chicken takeaway place, ordered my chicken, stood around for a bit with some people talking in the space and background music playing, and then walked home along a suburban road with traffic passing. To me, the plot looks quite even, with all those random frequencies I recorded not resulting in major peaks, and a good extension at the top and bottom of the frequency range. Tomorrow I'll do some indoor tests using maybe white noise from hifi speakers - which won't reproduce the noise particularly flat - but I will compare what this device captures vs maybe the Zoom M2 and perhaps even the Sony A10 which many people seem to like.
I tried recording a jazz big band with vocal track played on my hifi, using the Mic Pro, the Zoom M2, the Zoom H2e, and the Sony A10. Below is the frequency analysis of the normalised files, with green = Mic Pro, red = M2, purple = H2e, and the A10 in yellow. But I'm not sure it really shows much, compared with playback listening. That seems to show that the Mic Pro has a wide stereo image, more than 120 degrees I'd say, and that it does benefit from a bit of added eq in a gradual slope up and back down from about 1kHz to 6kHz, and maybe a slight reduction in low frequencies below say 400Hz. In other words, it lacks a little brightness and it's a bit bass heavy, but both are correctable. And the stereo width might need a bit of narrowing depending on its placement in relation to the source. But each of these 4 devices has its own sound, without any of them being horrible IMHO, just... different.
But once again, given the tiny size and long battery life, together with extreme simplicity of use, the Mic Pro remains in my opinion a remarkable little field / location recording device. And it's cheap.
Thanks for these reports Peter. These little devices and others like them are quite interesting and promising. Especially interesting to me at a fundamental level is how they enable modification of pickup pattern and stereo recording. I'm interested in finding out how well they are able to do those things such as how accurate the shape of the derived sensitivity patterns across a wide frequency range.
Quote from: Ozpeter on June 05, 2026, 07:49:25 AM
- According to AI search, this device uses MEMS mics and associated techniques to obtain stereo recording from closely spaced omni mics. I can't find where AI might be getting that info from, but the features of the mic do strongly suggest that it is indeed a MEMS device.
- If the device is set to record 32 bit float stereo internally, then you can't record it with any of the built in 'effects'. It's just the pure stereo thing, which is fine. If you set it to mono, and ask it to record that with processing, then you can set the mic array to record internally as if it was omni, cardioid, fig of 8, or narrow. I've tried cardioid so far, and it certainly rejects the sides and back. Now whether these settings would allow a pair of these to be used as a pair of cardioids or omnis instead of just one for single point stereo I'm not sure, in terms of how good the result would be. But it's possible on the face of it. Maybe one could even create an MS pair with one set to cardioid and the other to fig of 8.
Quote from: Ozpeter on June 07, 2026, 09:40:28 AM
I am almost certain that the mic array is actually the same as that on the Instamic. The front facing mic aperture is quite wide, allowing space for more than one of those little MEMS devices. The supplied windshield covers those mics and not the side ones, probably because if the side mics supply the stereo content, those using the mic just for transmitting audio to the receiver do not need to use those side mics. They only come into place for recording 32 bit float stereo. But the front mic, or mics, is used for creating various polar patterns, which I believe is what you can do with (say) 4 MEMS capsules. So it really is a direct competitor with the Instamic.
As far as I'm aware, all individual MEMS elements are omnidirectional monophonic devices, and it's the combination of more than one of them in a single device along with sum/difference/phase-processing provides potential for lower noise and/or control of polar pattern. That implies that our discussion about using a pair of miniature omnis to produce a fig-8 sensitivity pattern (for use as a Side channel) or other patterns as speculated about a year ago in the Omnis to figure of eight (https://taperssection.com/index.php?topic=207169.msg2426801#msg2426801) thread may have somewhat more merit than originally received. I've put off the experiments I intended to do with two closely spaced / somewhat baffled omnis in combination with phase-rotation processing afterward, but am now thinking of returning it it.
Quote from: Ozpeter on June 08, 2026, 09:23:31 AM
But once again, given the tiny size and long battery life, together with extreme simplicity of use, the Mic Pro remains in my opinion a remarkable little field / location recording device. And it's cheap.
Your results make me wonder if this mic has surveillance applications in mind.
Here, at last, is my YouTube review, which includes a range of audio samples. My YouTube channel is not monetized so including this link doesn't make me any money - sadly!
https://youtu.be/QpTtksHt0gg
As for audio surveillance - it is actually large compared with most wireless mics. But for discreet recording of music events, it's indeed the smallest 32 bit float stereo multi-mic recording device. In the video I did include some ambient recordings in a takeaway cafe and in a supermarket, but nothing the mic heard would not be heard by anyone else there.
Obviously there are many factors involved but in the video I did comment that compared to the Instamic, the Mic Pro does record 32 bit float stereo, has twice the memory, and twice the battery - and costs half the price. But I don't think it's waterproof!
Quote from: Gutbucket on June 08, 2026, 11:17:28 AM
.... Especially interesting to me at a fundamental level is how they enable modification of pickup pattern and stereo recording. I'm interested in finding out how well they are able to do those things such as how accurate the shape of the derived sensitivity patterns across a wide frequency range.
The Mic Pro can do different patterns for mono internal recording. In the app, if you set it to mono you can also choose "Rich" or "Bright", use auto gain setting ("Prevent audio clipping" or "Auto Gain Control") and choose "Sound direction" options including Omni, Voice Focus, Cardioid, Figure of 8. And there's a Low Cut setting. As these don't apply to stereo recordings, I haven't tried them, but I suppose I should. However, most of the YouTube reviews of the device (video-centric ones) do show how those settings sound, eg by someone walking around the device while talking. Polar patterns were well defined but they may be geared towards voice recording rather than music.
I hadn't planned this but I have now done a quick YouTube presentation testing the mono polar patterns of the Mic Pro, which might interest "Gutbucket" if not anyone else.
https://youtu.be/PmB5LEH2Cc4
I am frankly a bit suspicious of how these polar patterns are created, in respect of this device anyway. Maybe the Instamic goes about it differently, but it seems to me with the Mic Pro that it is chiefly concerned with voice recording in mono. It is very good at behaving like "real" mics for voice, but the polar patterns have much less effect on music. For instance, the most tightly focused setting (narrow pattern, shotgun imitation) discriminates against voice sounds other than right in front of the mic, but discriminates against music much less - and when the voice is heard from the front, music being played to one side starts sounding on axis, then further away if the voice stops. Hmm. This stuff might be very useful in certain voice recording situations but it may preclude use of a pair of these devices other than perhaps as spaced omnis, where it seems no actual processing of the signal is happening.
Thanks Peter. I'll watch/listen when I can with headphones. Was just typing this up when you posted the message above..
Before searching out the website I assumed the Mic Pro incorporated four MEMS arrayed symmetrically around the puck-shaped device facing the four cardinal directions, thus providing the capability for simple beam forming in any horizontal direction. Turns out it uses an array of 3 MEMS oriented Center / Left / Right without a fourth in back, opposite the center position. Hmmm. I can see how they might derive forward-facing cardioid and "voice focus" patterns (the latter presumably supercardioid like), by using the side MEMS as virtual "rear vents". However the lack of complete front/back symmetry of the array makes me wonder how they derive a symmetrical forward facing fig-8.
Presumably stereo mode is Mid/Side and derives a decently symmetrical fig-8 Side channel pattern via the two MEMS placed symmetrically on opposite sides. But how might it derive a forward-facing fig-8 without a MEMS in back opposite the center microphone? Perhaps in the same way they derive the cardioid and "vocal focus" patterns, only using a still higher ratio from the two Side MEMS, but I would not expect a fig-8 pattern derived in that way to be particularly symmetrical. Maybe it isn't.
I looked at the website and manual but was unable to find any info about the orientation of the mono directional patterns.. It's not made clear whether on-axis is indeed inline with the center microphone position or one of the side microphones. Because of that I presume on-axis is in-line with the center microphone, otherwise I'd expect a mention somewhere that in order to use the directional patterns the device must be oriented sideways and include indication of which side is the "front".
Quote from: Gutbucket on June 09, 2026, 11:13:39 AM
Turns out it uses an array of 3 MEMS oriented Center / Left / Right without a fourth in back, opposite the center position.
Noting that this is essentially the same MEMS array geometry as used in the Instamic, but I presume the spacing between elements in the Mic Pro is greater since the device is physically larger.
The centre mic aperture of the Mic Pro is much wider than the apertures of the side mics. And the wind muff that normally comes with the Mic Pro does not cover the side mics, which implies they are not used when the device is fulfilling its main role of a mono wireless mic. The muff that does cover the sides is an optional extra (fortunately very cheap). So, not that I know much about MEMS, but I strongly suspect that there is more than one MEMS capsule in the front facing mic aperture, which is a kind of grille rather than a series of holes. If there was just one in there, and assuming I'm right that the side mics don't usually get used, then the variable polar patterns wouldn't be possible. As I understand it, the Instamic has four capsules on top which are used in mono mode, and the capsules at the sides support stereo. Perhaps the Mic Pro has kind of ripped off their design! In terms of size, the Mic Pro seems to be a round version of the Instamic size, if that makes sense...
Yes, the center position in the Instamic also uses multiple MEMS. I think that's done to improve noise performance over what would be available from a single sensor that is physically small and thus inherently noisy. Also means improved noise performance from sensors run in parallel applies only to mono mode, not stereo mode. Since the unit does allow for 32bit float recording in stereo mode, post analysis should be able to show the actual dynamic range of the mono modes verses the stereo mode.
Do you know if it uses dual channel switching ADCs? If it is, it might be operating like the Deity PR2 does, using the two ADCs in dual switching mode when recording in mono, while reverting to using them in single non-switching mode for stereo. Can store output as 32bit float either way of course.
Anyone recorded any amplified music with it yet?
I kinda want something like this, or the Zoom version, or an Audigo (which does remarkably well syncing up the mic and recording phone video in their app).
Quote from: goodcooker on June 09, 2026, 04:01:36 PM
Anyone recorded any amplified music with it yet?
I kinda want something like this, or the Zoom version, or an Audigo (which does remarkably well syncing up the mic and recording phone video in their app).
Not 'real' amplified music yet. The nearest thing are the recordings in my YouTube video above which I simply made with the home hifi as the source, fwiw. I would love to record some amplified music with it and some acoustic music with it, but my attendance at such events are as very rare these days. However, I suspect the Mic Pro will motivate me to try to get to something soon...
Quote from: Gutbucket on June 09, 2026, 12:29:45 PM
Yes, the center position in the Instamic also uses multiple MEMS. I think that's done to improve noise performance over what would be available from a single sensor that is physically small and thus inherently noisy. Also means improved noise performance from sensors run in parallel applies only to mono mode, not stereo mode. Since the unit does allow for 32bit float recording in stereo mode, post analysis should be able to show the actual dynamic range of the mono modes verses the stereo mode.
Do you know if it uses dual channel switching ADCs? If it is, it might be operating like the Deity PR2 does, using the two ADCs in dual switching mode when recording in mono, while reverting to using them in single non-switching mode for stereo. Can store output as 32bit float either way of course.
I hope that simply quoting what AI told me about multiple MEMS mics the other day won't get me expelled from the forum, but I asked it "How do they get stereo audio from closely spaced MEMS mics? Aren't they omnidirectional?" The answer was as follows -
"You've hit on exactly why MEMS (Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems) microphones seem like they shouldn't be able to do stereo or directional audio well.
You are entirely right: the individual MEMS capsules themselves are almost always omnidirectional. Because they are incredibly tiny and sealed into surface-mount chips on a circuit board, they naturally pick up sound equally from all directions.
To get stereo or directional audio out of them—like the distinct left/right separation or beamforming you get in modern smartphones, laptops, and smart speakers—engineers don't rely on the physical shape of the microphone capsule. Instead, they use a combination of acoustic porting and digital signal processing (DSP) algorithms.
Here is how they turn closely spaced omni mics into a high-functioning stereo or directional array:
1. The Math of Micro-Delays (Phase Differential)
Sound travels at roughly 343 meters per second. When a sound wave approaches two MEMS microphones spaced even just a few centimeters (or millimeters) apart, it will arrive at one mic fractionally sooner than the other.
This creates a tiny Time of Arrival (ToA) difference and a corresponding phase shift between the two audio signals.
For Spatial Stereo: The DSP calculates these minute phase and volume differences to recreate a stereo image for your headphones or speakers, mimicking how our two ears perceive spatial direction.
For Beamforming (Directionality): If the system wants to focus on your voice and block out background noise, it can intentionally delay the signal of one mic so it perfectly aligns with the other. When added together, your voice gets louder (constructive interference), while sounds coming from the sides end up out of phase and cancel each other out (destructive interference).
2. Dual-Port Acoustic Design
Sometimes, directionality is built right into the physical design of the device before the software even touches it. This mimics how classic studio directional microphones work.
A phone or smart device might use a MEMS mic with two acoustic ports (holes)—one on the front of the device and one on the back. Sound from the rear has to travel slightly farther to enter the internal cavity of the mic. By the time it hits the tiny silicon diaphragm inside, the sound waves from the front and back meet and partially cancel each other out, physically creating a cardioid (directional) pickup pattern out of an omni sensor.
3. Smart Software Overcoming Physical Limitations
Because MEMS mics are so close together in modern gadgets, the natural acoustic separation (the "stereo width") is technically very narrow. If you just routed Mic A to the left channel and Mic B to the right, it would sound almost like mono.
To fix this, the DSP applies spatial extraction algorithms:
Frequency-Domain Processing: The software splits the audio into numerous frequency bands. It analyzes which frequencies are dominant in the phase-lead of Mic A versus Mic B.
Stereo Expansion: The algorithm artificially exaggerates these differences, digitally widening the stereo field so that a sound originating from the far left actually sounds like it's coming from the far left when played back.
The Big Advantage
While this sounds like a lot of digital trickery, MEMS microphones have one massive advantage over traditional electret studio mics that makes this possible: consistency.
Because they are etched out of silicon wafers in semiconductor factories, millions of MEMS mics can be produced with nearly identical frequency and phase responses. This extreme uniformity allows DSP chipsets to perform precise mathematical calculations on the signals without having to worry about one microphone capsule sounding naturally brighter or darker than its neighbor."
You may respond by telling me that you were completely aware of all that...
As for whether it used dual ADCs - well, I tend to think that Zoom's policy on that may extend to other companies, namely that if they don't claim it, it's just a single ADC. I occasionally have email interchanges with Insta360 about technical matters - eg when they claimed a new camera had stereo audio when it obviously didn't, and they had to change their advertising, and a fake option in firmware! - and I might see if they cared to divulge anything about the exact implementation of MEMS and the whether it has a dual ADCs.
I went to a country nature reserve park near my home today and recorded sounds of birds, waterfalls, and a very noisy gate. And my diesel car arriving and departing. This if course has nothing whatever to do with live music recording, but it does show more of what the tiny Mic Pro is capable of. I had it mounted magnetically to the top of a shortish pole fitted with tripod feet. I didn't notice any handling noise issues when I held the pole and recorded while walking. I did notice how the device emits a single short vibration when recording starts and a double vibration when it stops. I could feel that in the handle but I don't think it's audible. Here's the result -
/>
One last thing I need to check is how well it handles file splitting, which it does every half hour (roughly). When it first starts recording, it does a tiny fade in at the start, which actually is handy if you don't want to have the sound of the button push in the recording. But I hope that it doesn't do that when a recording is split!
A tiny update - file splitting is fine, both when replaying the audio and when examining the waveform in detail at the joins.
I put some suggestions to Insta360, and asked some questions - here is the relevant part of their reply -
"Regarding the technical questions you raised about the Mic Pro, our product engineering team has now provided the following verified answers:
Does the Mic Pro use MEMS microphone capsules?
Yes, it does.
Is there more than one MEMS capsule behind the front microphone aperture?
There is exactly one MEMS capsule behind the front aperture. In total, the Mic Pro is equipped with three MEMS capsules: one on the top (front), one on the left side, and one on the right side.
Does it use dual analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) or just one?
We regret that this specific design detail is not publicly disclosed at this time."
I think we can take it that the answer to my question about dual ADCs is "no, it uses one" - which seems to be the norm now for low cost devices. But I have yet to identify a single clipped sample in my recordings.
I was clearly wrong about the side mics only being used for stereo. I guessed there were 6 MEMS capsules laid out like the Zoom Instamic. But the supplied wind muff doesn't cover the side mics. Why just cover the centre mic? Maybe that is related to appearance when the device is being worn for a video. Anyway, the bigger muff which covers all the mics only costs $4.99 US. And it seems to be quite effective.
Thanks for doing the legwork on this one Peter! Looks like a great device
Gonna pick up one of these soon just as another tool in the kit to have. Has anyone tried this at fully amplified show yet? Hoping to bring this to a festival to see how it holds out and as a first test run.
Quote from: gambra on June 15, 2026, 06:48:18 PM
Gonna pick up one of these soon just as another tool in the kit to have. Has anyone tried this at fully amplified show yet? Hoping to bring this to a festival to see how it holds out and as a first test run.
Sadly the last fully amplified show I attended was the Rolling Stones - in Hyde Park, July 5th 1969.... You probably wonder what I'm doing in this forum!
Got my Mic Pro in the mail today, nice little unit! Gonna be trying it out straight away tomorrow at a show, its Knocked Loose so probably one of the more extreme tests I can do! Will be taping DPA 4061 normally which can be compared against etc.
Great! I really look forward to hearing how it goes. I have not seen any reports online of anyone actually recording live music with it, so I think you will be the first! I'm attending an outdoor festival at the weekend, three minutes walk from my house, which includes a drumming group, so perhaps I will be second.
Key settings to check with the app are 32 bit float - first set to mono, which reveals the option to set it to "original" rather than "processed" - then set to stereo, and that's it!
Quote from: Ozpeter on June 04, 2026, 08:15:38 AM
The chart dosn't go to the lowest frequencies but...
Hi Peter, thanks for sharing your experiences with this interesting device. I have no direct intention to get one of these myself at the moment, still it's very nice that you're taking the time to test and share, much appreciated!
Just a FYI: If you'd increase the FFT-size (see attached pic), you will get more 'frequency bins' in the chart, hence some more detail at the lower end. I'll spare you de math details of Fourier transformation, but e.g. double the FFT-size means twice as many points on the graph.
Thanks, keep up the good work!
Quote from: gambra on June 22, 2026, 05:00:27 PM
Got my Mic Pro in the mail today, nice little unit! Gonna be trying it out straight away tomorrow at a show, its Knocked Loose so probably one of the more extreme tests I can do! Will be taping DPA 4061 normally which can be compared against etc.
Used at a recent Black Crowes show. The recording is pretty much complete distortion
Quote from: farve4 on June 23, 2026, 12:42:54 PM
Quote from: gambra on June 22, 2026, 05:00:27 PM
Got my Mic Pro in the mail today, nice little unit! Gonna be trying it out straight away tomorrow at a show, its Knocked Loose so probably one of the more extreme tests I can do! Will be taping DPA 4061 normally which can be compared against etc.
Used at a recent Black Crowes show. The recording is pretty much complete distortion
You can set levels and bit rate before you record. If you used 24Bit, you will be unable to fix it, but if you recorded at 32 Bit, all you need to do is open the file in any editing app and bring the levels down and you will be fine.
Taped Knocked Loose tonight and have to say this little thing held its own surprisingly well! Taped it in 32bit stereo and in Omni config which is the default. It ended up sounding a little roomy so next test will probably be in Cardioid config to see the difference. Mic Pro was mounted to a shoulder strap bag around shoulder/chin height with the top main mic pointed toward the stage. Had clear line of sight but was hard stage left so right side may be slightly overpowered.
The only edit I did on this is lowering the gain by about 20db to account for the 32bit headroom. No EQ. Exported in 16bit/48hz WAV and a 320kpbs MP3 since they're just samples.
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/153UPlA4sM9oG_RRWw2z1RikIOO7GdkfE
Here's the same track taped using DPA 4061, again no EQ applied to this just for comparison sake just gain. Also exported in 16bit/48hz WAV and a 320kpbs MP3.
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1EAvJSISPiGSeufcgxQ7Qs4zQilhlvqQA
Will try embedding the MP3 as well in case there's any issues with the Google Drive links, had to trim it slightly to fit the attachment sizing
Quote from: farve4 on June 23, 2026, 12:42:54 PM
Used at a recent Black Crowes show. The recording is pretty much complete distortion
If you recorded in 32bit then open it in an audio editor and bring it down by about 20db to be useable.
Quote from: gambra on June 23, 2026, 06:56:02 PM
Taped Knocked Loose tonight and have to say this little thing held its own surprisingly well! Taped it in 32bit stereo and in Omni config which is the default. It ended up sounding a little roomy so next test will probably be in Cardioid config to see the difference.
Sadly at the moment I am away from home without the means to play your samples, but I will certainly do so as soon as I can - thanks for uploading them!
The different polar patterns, eg Omni and Cardioid, only apply when recording in mono. I'm assuming you recorded with the device configured with the "original" setting turned on as that would over-ride any other settings. Indeed it has a wide stereo field, which I'm inclined to think is about 150 degrees, but that can be narrowed in post using a VST like "Voxengo MSED". It seems that the way it works is basically a form of M/S recording, but "MSED" will happily reduce the width of any stereo recording regardless of how the mics were arranged.
Quote from: farve4 on June 23, 2026, 12:42:54 PM
Used at a recent Black Crowes show. The recording is pretty much complete distortion
Was that after the essential step of normalising the recording? Off the top of my head it should be able to handle 130dB, which is close to the threshold of pain. The Zoom M2 MicTrak can handle a little more at 135dB but anything louder than that is best avoided!
It's 130 dB at 10% THD. Much lower at, say, 1% THD.
Quote from: aaronji on June 23, 2026, 08:18:22 PM
It's 130 dB at 10% THD. Much lower at, say, 1% THD.
That's a very good point. Well, so far when examining transients on my Mic Pro recordings, I've not seen any clipping, but I admit I've not used it for rock concert recordings, which is of course what this forum is largely about! My recorded transients include door slamming and dropping a 3m aluminium ladder accidentally onto a concrete floor close to the mic pro. On Saturday I hope to record, out of doors, a group of taiko drummers, where there should be plenty of transients, and I'm hoping to get stupidly close (despite giving myself hopefully temporary hearing problems when testing the Mic Pro inside headphones using gliding test tones...). I will of course report the outcome.
Quote from: TheJez on June 23, 2026, 09:32:25 AM
Just a FYI: If you'd increase the FFT-size (see attached pic), you will get more 'frequency bins' in the chart, hence some more detail at the lower end.
True. I did some tests using a large FFT size using a gliding test tones played into my headphones when wearing them with the Mic Pro inside one of them - as one does - and the 20Hz start of the glide was very clearly present on the graph. (Somehow the concept of a tiny mic capsule capturing very low frequencies surprises me, but I'm easily surprised). The downside of large FFT sizes for me is that the line gets rather spiky which can make comparisons harder, compared to a less detailed but smoother line from small values.
Quote from: Ozpeter on June 23, 2026, 08:04:54 PM
Quote from: gambra on June 23, 2026, 06:56:02 PM
Taped Knocked Loose tonight and have to say this little thing held its own surprisingly well! Taped it in 32bit stereo and in Omni config which is the default. It ended up sounding a little roomy so next test will probably be in Cardioid config to see the difference.
Sadly at the moment I am away from home without the means to play your samples, but I will certainly do so as soon as I can - thanks for uploading them!
The different polar patterns, eg Omni and Cardioid, only apply when recording in mono. I'm assuming you recorded with the device configured with the "original" setting turned on as that would over-ride any other settings. Indeed it has a wide stereo field, which I'm inclined to think is about 150 degrees, but that can be narrowed in post using a VST like "Voxengo MSED". It seems that the way it works is basically a form of M/S recording, but "MSED" will happily reduce the width of any stereo recording regardless of how the mics were arranged.
Interesting! This kind of mic setup and 32bit audio is beyond my usual wheelhouse such as using VST plugins like this but will fiddle with it a bit tomorrow. By "reduce the width" its essentially just reducing the level on the side channel correct?
Also as a possible warning Knocked Loose are a hardcore/metal band so might be a harder listen depending on your musical taste!
Quote from: Ozpeter on June 23, 2026, 08:08:44 PM
Quote from: farve4 on June 23, 2026, 12:42:54 PM
Used at a recent Black Crowes show. The recording is pretty much complete distortion
Was that after the essential step of normalising the recording? Off the top of my head it should be able to handle 130dB, which is close to the threshold of pain. The Zoom M2 MicTrak can handle a little more at 135dB but anything louder than that is best avoided!
honestly I just gave a quick listen on my laptop and havent played with it yet
Going to try out my Insta360 Mic Pro tonight. Is there a recommended gain setting for a rock show? Or is the gain setting irrelevant if recording in 32bit?
Quote from: hardrain62 on June 24, 2026, 03:42:32 PM
Going to try out my Insta360 Mic Pro tonight. Is there a recommended gain setting for a rock show? Or is the gain setting irrelevant if recording in 32bit?
No gain level needed on 32bit, can leave the "TX Gain" to 0db setting. Pretty sure anything like that or the noise reduction is software based too so will be really rough sounding for a show. Main thing is just make sure it's set to 32bit and Stereo. Turn off Stereo for a second to check the "Original" File Type too before turning it back on.
Quote from: gambra on June 23, 2026, 09:56:38 PM
Interesting! This kind of mic setup and 32bit audio is beyond my usual wheelhouse such as using VST plugins like this but will fiddle with it a bit tomorrow. By "reduce the width" its essentially just reducing the level on the side channel correct?
Also as a possible warning Knocked Loose are a hardcore/metal band so might be a harder listen depending on your musical taste!
What MSED (and others like it) does is to convert the recorded file back into M/S format (in essence reversing the formula used to create an X/Y file from mid and side mics), then as you say, the side component is reduced. Or in fact you can increase the mid component - it's just a matter of the proportions of the signals. If processing in 32 bit float, I don't think it matters whether you increase mid or decrease side because any resulting clipping can then be fixed, but in any other format, decreasing the side is safer. Then, the MSED VST re-encodes the rebalanced audio back into X/Y format for normal playback. MSED doesn't care whether or not the audio was recorded in MS in the first place - it works just the same on audio from any other stereo mic technique.
Actually it would be useful if Insta360 provided a width control in the app, but I suspect they just don't see this device as a field / location recorder, so they may not update the firmware to provide that. I forget now whether I suggested it to them.
As for the hardcore / metal band - well, I'm a retired classical music recording engineer / producer / editor. And some of it was very contemporary, and probably more confronting than Knocked Loose! What a great band name!
Being impatient I tried the Knocked Loose sample - but using the only thing I have to hand, namely a VR headset! It didn't provide much volume, and really I can't comment much, apart from in respect of the stereo image. From that I deduced that you were not right at the front, so the band were not very spread out, but the audience interventions sounded great - almost a binaural experience as they seemed all round me! Anyway, I should be able to listen properly at the weekend.
Last night I taped Jimmy Eat World with both the Instamic Pro Plus C Stereo and the Insta360 Mic Pro in "cardioid" mode. Being that I had them mounted on different areas of my person, I can't offer a true A/B comparison, but my initial observation is that the Instamic Pro Plus C sounds significantly mid-scooped compared to the Insta360. The Instamic has mega high and low end, while the Insta360 sounds pretty neutral to me, but bass-heavy. I may actually try the bass roll-off feature next time, but all-in-all, the Insta360 sounds far more accurate to what I heard in the room. Both setups will require EQ for a more pleasing final result, but I think the Insta360 is a far easier jumping off point than the Instamic. My hunch is that the Instamic has some built-in V-shape coloring for content creators so that audio sounds "sweeter" right out of the box.
The Insta360's 32-bit stereo does seem to be legit; all peaks were recovered after normalizing in Audition. Also, the included windscreen with the Insta360 seems to do the trick; the venue I was in last night, a covered outdoor amphitheater, has huge fans on the ceiling to keep the crowd cool, and I have not yet detected any wind noise from those.
Do note that the Insta360's app does the same thing that the Instamic's app sometimes does, which is that the app/your phone disconnects from the device while recording. This does not stop your recording, it just unpairs your phone and the device to use the controls via your phone. When I noticed this after the show was over, I simply turned off the Insta360 manually with the power button, and all was well; the entire show was still there. I'm not certain what would happen if you tried to re-pair the device to your phone. Ironically, the Instamic app kept ticking the whole show!
I'm very keen to continue experimenting with the Insta360. At $99, only time will tell how the unit holds up, but there's serious potential for our uses here.
Quote from: Ozpeter on June 25, 2026, 07:52:11 AM
Being impatient I tried the Knocked Loose sample - but using the only thing I have to hand, namely a VR headset! It didn't provide much volume, and really I can't comment much, apart from in respect of the stereo image. From that I deduced that you were not right at the front, so the band were not very spread out, but the audience interventions sounded great - almost a binaural experience as they seemed all round me! Anyway, I should be able to listen properly at the weekend.
I was hard stage left at the show, if I'd been right at the front I'd probably have died in the pit. Not just with the heat at the show but also the crowd shoving pretty hard and crowd surfers! Tapers can talk about a venue sweet spot all they want until they run up against a hardcore punk crowd :lol:
fyi these are $85 on amazon right now. not sure if it's a prime day deal or not, but thought I'd mention it
Quote from: hardrain62 on June 25, 2026, 11:38:57 AM
Last night I taped Jimmy Eat World with both the Instamic Pro Plus C Stereo and the Insta360 Mic Pro in "cardioid" mode. [...] At $99, only time will tell how the unit holds up, but there's serious potential for our uses here.
I feel a powerful sense of relief that the Mic Pro seems to be living up to my expectations when used for TapersSection purposes - as the last rock concert I recall attending was a few minutes of the Stones in Hyde Park in the 60's, I really should not be posting here!
I do agree that a bit of eq to boost the lower end of the high frequency 'band', maybe centered around 5kHz, seems warranted. My hearing being that of one in his late 70's, I have to be a bit cautious in this area, but just comparing original sound and recorded sound, and sound from other devices, it does make a worthwhile difference. The sound is there, but just needs a bit of help to bring it forward in the overall spectrum. Easily done. Indeed, low frequencies are all there - in test tone tests, the response at 20Hz is plentiful.
I don't think it's worth messing with the polar pattern settings, especially if you are recording with internal sound set to "original" which I strongly recommend. Most of the settings for built in eq and polar patterns, noise reduction and the rest, are intended for when the device is used as a mono wireless mic. Some, if not all, of the processing of the audio is intended for speech recording. For instance the narrow polar setting seems to indeed focus on someone speaking right in front of the mic vs other voices around the sides and back, but other ambient sounds are not much affected. When I briefly tested the settings related to emphasising low or high frequencies, with recording set to processed rather than original, I noticed one setting seemed to affect the stereo balance. And I couldn't hear any significant difference in the frequency balance. So, IMHO, I'd just set the device to record "original" 32 bit float stereo, which should cause it to ignore all the other settings, but even so I would set them to normal values just in case. And that would include setting the polar pattern to Omni (again, just to be sure). When it comes down to it, the capsules are natively Omni anyway, and the stereo image is constructed by the clever stuff that is done with MEMS capsules to detect the direction of sound from the time of arrival at the capsules, I believe - if one tried to use three conventional Omni mics only a centimeter apart to capture wide stereo, it simply wouldn't work.
So far I've not encountered a bluetooth disconnection, but I believe that these rock events take place in a sea of competing Bluetooth activity. Given the very long running time of the device, and its substantial memory capacity, I think in a live sound situation I would simply turn it on and start recording while in the queue to get in, and hack away the unwanted stuff later. I would love to use one of these at a classical concert on a stand, but I don't think that's going to happen now that I'm retired, but that scheme of turning on and starting recording in advance is what I'd do in that context (before the audience arrived). Hmmm... I might contact the classical music radio station I used to record for to see if they would let me add the Mic Pro to their conventional rig at a concert, as using such a device (where appropriate) would be such a doddle compared to all the hassle of heaving normal stuff into the venue, running cables in trip-free routes, setting levels, and monitoring carefully.
When my wife suggested a few minutes ago that we might visit her mother on Saturday I reminded her that I will be attending a local festival with all sorts of musical performances that day, armed with the Mic Pro. Hopefully by Sunday night I will have uploaded lots of samples of Mic Pro audio from that event to YouTube. And hopefully it will be good and not an embarassment!
Quote from: al w. on June 25, 2026, 02:29:15 PM
fyi these are $85 on amazon right now. not sure if it's a prime day deal or not, but thought I'd mention it
Thanks for the tip!
I've just got back from the local festival where there was lots of high-quality amplified music (for on-stage dancers etc), and some actual musical performances - and I am extremely pleased with the recordings on the Mic Pro. A lot of it was as loud as I would care to expose my ears to, but no distortion visible on the waveforms. The result will be on YouTube in the next 24 hours, link to follow.
Luckily when I accidentally knocked my Mic Pro from the magnetic mount I was using, while fiddling with my video camera, I realised at once, and managed to spot it in the night-time grass.... No harm done.
And - just before I left the house, there was a firmware update for the Mic Pro - and it seems they may have changed how the "processed" internal recordings are created. In my early tests some of the settings such as EQ didn't seem to do anything, and I think that's something they have fixed - I will test it shortly. But my festival recordings were captured using the "original" setting, and there's no change in the audio that I can hear.
https://youtu.be/AYckdDIFqnQ
My channel is not monetized.
Here is my 40 minute recording at a local outdoor festival, which I think demonstrates the qualities of this tiny device very well. There are various amateur music and dance acts performing live or to recorded backing tracks, and I've included some ambient audio captured while walking round the festival site. There are chapter markings so you don't have to listen to the whole thing... just skip from section to section if you don't have 40 minutes to spare!
The fact that it's in the open air of course helps avoid colouration of the audio by a building's internal resonance, but on the other hand the sound quality of the amplification used by some of the acts has a significant effect on the outcome. Fortunately the guys operating the PA really knew what they were doing in my opinion, with the sound being presented in stereo and with a good undistorted wide frequency response. Wind was light but I used the optional wider wind muff to be sure.
At no point did I hear, or see in the waveforms when zoomed right in, any clipping at all. I stood close to the stages, and the sound level was as much as my elderly ears could handle, frankly. And today I don't seem to be hearing much... For each recorded file, I reversed the channels (as the recorder was mounted upside down beneath the camera), added some HF boost to brighten the sound which does seem to be needed, to my taste, and then I normalised the result. During a couple of recordings, there was an "untypical transient" which dictated the normalised level to be a bit low, so I used a limiter to trim just those peaks by about 3dB - the value was chosen so that only the single transient peak was actually affected.
While getting the audio and video tracks lined up in sync, I switched between hearing the camera audio and the Mic Pro audio, and although I have always thought the particular camera has good audio, I could tell that it was very compressed in dynamic range compared to the Mic Pro uncompressed dynamics. Quite an eye opener. Or ear opener.
All in all, this experience makes me feel that the Mic Pro really is a ground breaking device, in terms of its size and audio quality, and its ease of use - all you can do is to turn it on and press record! I am forming a plan to use it to record some kind of classical music performance, on a well-placed stand - I really do think it would do a perfectly good job for capturing archive or radio broadcast audio very, very simply and very, very unobtrusively.
For those curious about battery life, recording for 1hr and 40mins brought the battery from 100% to 85%. Pretty dang good.
Quote from: hardrain62 on June 28, 2026, 08:12:01 PM
For those curious about battery life, recording for 1hr and 40mins brought the battery from 100% to 85%. Pretty dang good.
I left mine running all night and got 8 hours. Ideal for 8 hour shows... Charging always seems fast, too.
"Mic Pro Maintenance Update 1
1. Optimized Timecode Usage:
- Timecode will continue to run for 5 hours after the receiver is powered off.
- Internal recording on the transmitter now only retains elementary timecode.
2. Optimized LED Off Performance: Improved the behavior and performance when LED lights are turned off.
3. Adjusted Internal Recording File Type: Files are now saved as default algorithm-processed files.
4. Other Known Issues and Experience Optimizations: Fixed various known bugs and improved overall user experience."
---------------------------------------
I've now done some tests of settings using the app, with the firmware updated.
I first recorded some baseline white noise using the "original" and "stereo" settings, to compare the "processed" sound later.
When "processed" and "stereo" is set for internal recording, I am unable to detect any significant change when setting the tonal characteristics or the polar pickup characteristics. That's using what is left of my hearing (!), and also checking frequency analysis of 30 second recordings of white noise. I have to say that the while noise plots look pretty good to my amateur eyes - a very even response down to 20Hz or less, with a quite sharp cutoff at 20kHz which probably reflects the type of white noise I was using (through quite good bookshelf speakers, but the source being YouTube on the TV!). I also tested the auto level setting and that too made no difference. Likewise low cut did nothing.
However, when set to "processed" and "mono", the various polar pattern settings do work when recording internally. But it's not the real thing - it's simply AI detecting where you are speaking from, and then processing the sound to fit the set polar pattern description. When checking polar patterns with music, there is little or no effect when rotating the mic relative to the music source. So, if you want to just record your voice, then those polar pattern settings might be useful, but they won't help with music recordings which is what this forum is about, in general.
So - overall my advice is still to simply set the device to "stereo" and "original", but to be quite sure, set the other settings to default values. And then never change the settings again. And do not buy two of these in order to use them as a stereo pair (with each set to mono) unless you want to replicate a pair of spaced omnis. I suspect the device is inherently an omni device unless AI is brought into play using the settings. And then the polar patterns are only good for voice.
It could be handy if they updated the firmware so that the settings relating to frequency response made a difference to stereo recordings, but given that it's not hard to tweak the response to taste in post, maybe that's not a big deal. I do find myself brightening the sound in post, but the outcome is fine - it's not as if the HF isn't there, it just seems to need a little lifting.
I just can't leave this subject alone!
I just did some comparative listening to music and to white noise, recording with the Zoom M2 MicTrak and with the Insta360 Mic Pro.
The M2 is supposed to have "F" series preamps and untypically large mic capsules. As it has no inputs and can only record from those capsules, it seems reasonable to assume that Zoom chose capsules which would merit having a good preamp downstream. And it's popular with those who have purchased it. And mine was to hand for easy use in this comparison.
I am attaching the frequency analysis plots. I used different scales, one of which shows low frequencies better, and the other plot shows a smoother line for possibly easier comparison. The recordings were made just using good bookshelf speakers, with the devices about half a metre away from one of the stereo pair. And I was careful that the mic capsules of the two devices were in the same location. Each file was separately normalised.
In both plots the green lines are from the Mic Pro and the red lines from the M2.
My take on these plots is that the Mic Pro has a flatter response than the M2, particularly in the upper frequencies. You can only use the plots for comparison, not for absolute measurement, because of the less than ideal way the recording was made. But none the less, the Mic Pro does seem to have a greater HF extension than the M2. Both the mics show a sharp cut off at around 20kHz but that relates to the source.
Just listening to the playback of these files, the Mic Pro sounds less 'coloured' than the M2. Overall, these plots seem to me to support my view that the Mic Pro is a device which should be taken seriously.
How to make the Mic Pro less interesting to security at event checks...
Quote from: Ozpeter on June 29, 2026, 09:38:27 PM
How to make the Mic Pro less interesting to security at event checks...
https://youtube.com/shorts/VSuo3xRqZMY?feature=share
You forgot "condom box."
Quote from: meltycrayon on June 29, 2026, 10:12:16 PM
Quote from: Ozpeter on June 29, 2026, 09:38:27 PM
How to make the Mic Pro less interesting to security at event checks...
https://youtube.com/shorts/VSuo3xRqZMY?feature=share
You forgot "condom box."
Now there's an idea...
I had a similar idea as well!
(https://i.ibb.co/ccvJ2bq6/Whats-App-Image-2026-06-30-at-14-55-14.jpg)
Solid ideas! I was thinking about putting the band's logo on there and wearing it as a "button" to get in and then placing it where it needs to be to record the show.
Indeed, some great ideas there for the display!
I've been doing some comparisons (sourced from the hifi) with another recorder in the MicTrak series, the M3. Once again, I think the Mic Pro has the edge. Once again, the Mic Pro has more at the bottom end and needs a little help at the top end, but 'out of the box' it just sounds 'better', including the stereo image. I compared the noise from each by normalising some room silence, and the noise from the Mic Pro wasn't so hissy as the noise from the M3, although that could be due to its naturally less HF sound. But the M3 had a crackly sound happening, whereas the Mic Pro had nothing amiss in the noise of that sort.
I guess I must bite the bullet and get out my costly Sennheiser MKH M/S rig and compare with that... That at least should make a good reference point.
I didn't want any logo on my screen so with my phone I took a photo lens side down on a table and got a
completely black photo and loaded that onto my screen. I have an MKH m/s setup also. As good as the
Insta360 is, that's going to be an unfair comparison.
To get past security, do you think would sticking it to the back of your phone like a phone grip would work?
Quote from: papabliss on June 30, 2026, 02:12:18 PM
To get past security, do you think would sticking it to the back of your phone like a phone grip would work?
Is anyone going to look at it closely enough to determine it's a recorder? I wouldn't even take it out of my pocket. Last show I went to, I had an Instamic Pro C in one pocket, and my lucky silver dollar and a neodymium magnet in another, and neither set off the wand. It's not a gun, knife, or vape, so it's probably not going to get a second glance.
Quote from: papabliss on June 30, 2026, 02:12:18 PM
To get past security, do you think would sticking it to the back of your phone like a phone grip would work?
Some of those mushroom things have a circular kind of spiral pattern on the back - make that the display image and it might help. I think I will try that right now...
Here you go - a little while back I attached a sticky metal disk to the back of my phone (I got a packet from Amazon a few years ago) and the Mic Pro holds onto that like a limpet, particularly if I use the supplied magnet thingy. I guess if showing a guy your phone while holding it they wouldn't see what is underneath it anyway - or if put on a table type surface, phone screen up, they would assume it had a holder behind as it wouldn't lie flat. And if they glanced at the back, the image on the Mic Pro kind of looks like the back of a holder. Well, slightly...
Pics attached, hopefully... you could download the design I used to your phone and use that to customise your Mic Pro display. Or not.
If anyone read the two posts I have just deleted, I embarrassed myself by incorrectly assembling the MS pair I was comparing to the Mic Pro. Idiot. And so the comparison I did, and uploaded to YouTube, will now have to be done again from scratch. This is what happens when you get old. But on the other hand, it shows that while some traditional mic techniques can be totally done wrong, you would have to work hard to make a mistake with the Mic Pro!
So here's my video of my tests of the Mic Pro vs the Sennheiser MKH 30/40 MS rig, which costs about 30 times more. And it is massive in comparison. And takes a fair bit of setting up.
- I don't make money from my channel.
I incorporated relevant frequency plots in the video rather than clutter this discussion with them.
Overall, to my (elderly) ears, there's not a vast difference between these two rigs. Certainly less difference than there seems to be between the Mic Pro and other low cost portable 32 bit float stereo recorders with built in mics I own. The chief difference is probably due to the inherent difference between MS audio and 'normal' audio.
It seems to me that this is a groundbreaking device - but apart from people here, nobody seems to have cottoned on to it. I've not seen other YouTube videos focussed on its use as a stereo recording device - others just see it as a another wireless mic system only for use with video. Oh well. Time will tell.
Quote from: Ozpeter on July 02, 2026, 06:45:11 AMOverall, to my (elderly) ears, there's not a vast difference between these two rigs. Certainly less difference than there seems to be between the Mic Pro and other low cost portable 32 bit float stereo recorders with built in mics I own.
After watching your video, I have to agree that the difference between the 2 rigs is not that vast. In an ideal (open) taping situation I would much prefer to use my DPAs or AKGs, but the Insta360 seems plenty good enough to my ears for those times when using a full sized rig is not practical or feasible.
https://youtu.be/8jx27TrEYn4
In this unmonetized video, I present comparisons between the Mic Pro and six other devices, namely
Zoom H1 XLR with Superlux S502 mic
Zoom M2 MicTrak
Zoom M3 MicTrak
Zoom H2 essential
Zoom H2N
Sony A10
together with various displays. I also added a comparison with the EQ that I find works well on the Mic Pro. I have to say that my ears tell me much more than the frequency response displays, but maybe that's just me.
The video goes for about 1 hour 20 minutes, but I've set up chapter markings in the description so anyone seeing it can jump around from one device to another and draw their own conclusions.
In about 10 days time I may get a rare chance to try it out at a live jazz gig. Fingers crossed.