Topic: Minimum setup for a stereo location recording

[Martinez Llorca]

Cell phone or smart phone recording has become like a fever. DSLR cameras are being replaced by IPhones and Android phones, and becoming quite demanding on what results you can get.

There seems to be two smartphone families: IPhone and Android. For now I'm not interested in the former, only Android. So I wonder what experience do people have here.

The only Android phone I could find that pays some attention to manual settings seems to be the LG LV20. Is there any other?

What Android software attends the manual setup requirements for audio?

Then comes the preamp & mics question, which for mobile situations and high quality is also a major issue.

There's always the possibility of using additional small digital recorders, capable of recording wav or pcm in at least 16/48. The also have the same 1/8" interface.

But I still wonder how far can I go recording audio on a cell phone. Android, of course.

[dallman]

I see much more IOS info than Andriod, but I was wondering if there was anything more to report on this device?
http://taperssection.com/index.php?topic=172222.0

I am still of the school that thinks there is just too much going on with a phone to get a quality recording, but I would love to be proved wrong since no one really looks at someone holding a cell phone during a show and thinks much about it.

[thatjackelliott]

The last time I checked, a couple years ago, the Android OS didn't provide any way for the audio subsystem to gain priority, so audio recording softwares sometimes had glitches. I wasted a lot of time with USB Audio Recorder Pro ( http://www.extreamsd.com/index.php/products/usb-audio-recorder-pro ) on a Nook tablet (edit: sorry, it's a Samsung Tab 4 tablet) but found myself dealing with all kinds of odd recording artifacts. After a lot of to-ing and fro-ing with the app dev's tech support, including sending clips for them to listen to, they eventually admitted that the OS isn't set up to prioritize audio. Which makes their app pretty much useless. Perhaps the os has changed, I'd look into that.

[Martinez Llorca]

Recently I saw a kind of an example tutorial YouTube video where they used the LG LV20 as the recorder, and it had manual setup and adjustment for audio & video.

What I don't know is where to go find LV20 users comments, and see if the phone fulfills what it promises.

[fanofjam]

Recently I saw a kind of an example tutorial YouTube video where they used the LG LV20 as the recorder, and it had manual setup and adjustment for audio & video.

What I don't know is where to go find LV20 users comments, and see if the phone fulfills what it promises.

There aren't many people here on ts.com that consider a cell phone to be a viable device for serious recording of music or video, so that's probably why you aren't getting much response.  Until the technology changes, I don't see many people changing from digital recorders and/or hi-resolution video cameras, but as Dallman says, there are intriguing possibilities as cell phone technology becomes more sophisticated and the possibility for larger and larger memory cards to be used.

[aaronji]

How about the DPA MMA-A, also known as the d:vice. It's designed for iOS, but I think a few people have gotten it to work with Android as well.  There's a long thread with samples. Not cheap, as is par for the course with DPA, but it makes the best phone recordings I have heard, by a long shot...

[WiFiJeff]

I'd say also that  DPA40xx > MMA-A > iPhone6 is better sounding than  DPA40xx > MMA6000 > Sony D50, which I used for several years and made several hundred recordings with.  Also  fewer cable and power issues, and much smaller. 

Jeff

[Martinez Llorca]

How much money we are talking here for the DPA stuff?

I can see that the cell phone idea sounds fine, but maybe not yet. At least using Android.

Maybe a Tascam DR-05 is a better ready made option, with fewer compromises.

Looking at flat-frequency lavaliers on B&H, DPA seem to be around +$500 each, but there are other options for less money. Like Countryman.

I have some lavalier that I used on my wireless Lectrosonics that I could plug in the Tascam DR-70 to see how they sound for music, The DR-05 preamps are certainly poorer in quality, but maybe not that much.

[Jonmac]

I've used Rec Forge on various Android phones, but none of them would record in Stereo.

I have a Tascam DR05 that I'm very happy with, the link below is to a recording I made with the DR05
in local club, using the built in microphones.

The recorder was lying on a table between the beer glasses.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/cy4iwh2ep0xbxln/Yankee%20Doodle%20Dandy.mp3?dl=0

[if_then_else]

I've used Rec Forge on various Android phones, but none of them would record in Stereo.

Probably because the inputs are TRRS and not TRRRS (as with the Sony Experia series of Android devices).

http://pfitzingervoicedesign.com/field_recorder/external_mic.html

[2manyrocks]

Dr05 is pretty handy and usually goes on sale this time of year.  Battery life is decent.  Menu is simple.    I think you'd need an external battery box to power external mics like the dpa 4061s and countryman's.  At853 mics with the resistor mod might work with the internal plug in power, but I would have to check to be sure.

[Jonmac]

I've used Rec Forge on various Android phones, but none of them would record in Stereo.

Probably because the inputs are TRRS and not TRRRS (as with the Sony Experia series of Android devices).

http://pfitzingervoicedesign.com/field_recorder/external_mic.html

Correct, I don't know of any Android phones with stereo inputs.

Is there any software that can use the USB connector on an Android phone for an external A/D converter ?

[Martinez Llorca]

I've used Rec Forge on various Android phones, but none of them would record in Stereo.

I have a Tascam DR05 that I'm very happy with, the link below is to a recording I made with the DR05
in local club, using the built in microphones.

The recorder was lying on a table between the beer glasses.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/cy4iwh2ep0xbxln/Yankee%20Doodle%20Dandy.mp3?dl=0

Treble is quite attenuated, but I think that might be the mics guilt. An external mic would certainly work much better.

[Martinez Llorca]

Dr05 is pretty handy and usually goes on sale this time of year.  Battery life is decent.  Menu is simple.    I think you'd need an external battery box to power external mics like the dpa 4061s and countryman's.  At853 mics with the resistor mod might work with the internal plug in power, but I would have to check to be sure.

Building an external power supply for any electret mic is fairly easy. Just a series resistor from the battery and a capacitor C1 to block DC to the recorder. You may even add a bass cut switch between different C1 caps. I can put a diagram here if necessary. That goes for balanced or unbalanced mics.

[aaronji]

I'd say also that  DPA40xx > MMA-A > iPhone6 is better sounding than  DPA40xx > MMA6000 > Sony D50, which I used for several years and made several hundred recordings with.  Also  fewer cable and power issues, and much smaller. 

It's probably worth noting that "DPA40xx", as used here, refers only to the miniature mics (4060/70/80/90 series).  The MMA-A can also be used with many of the 19mm "40xx" capsules (4006, 4011, 4015, and 4018; not sure about the 4017) as well as the 20xx caps (2006 and 2011), but you need some pretty expensive cables (MMP-GR/GS) in between the caps and the MMA-A...