Topic: Insta360 Mic Pro - New wireless mic with 32-bit stereo internal recording

[Ozpeter]

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.

[Ozpeter]

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.

[Ozpeter]

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...