Audiobus: Use your music apps together.
What is Audiobus? — Audiobus is an award-winning music app for iPhone and iPad which lets you use your other music apps together. Chain effects on your favourite synth, run the output of apps or Audio Units into an app like GarageBand or Loopy, or select a different audio interface output for each app. Route MIDI between apps — drive a synth from a MIDI sequencer, or add an arpeggiator to your MIDI keyboard — or sync with your external MIDI gear. And control your entire setup from a MIDI controller.
Download on the App StoreAudiobus is the app that makes the rest of your setup better.
Rode iPhone Mic for Field Recordings
Anybody use the Rode Videomic Me?
I have an Edirol, and I understand Tascam DR22 is excellent. But I find that my Edirol field recordings are frequently left on the device. And then when I examine them days (or even hours) later, they're all named, like, 283_68.WAV. With this, you'd have it in either voice memos or, I assume, AudioShare, and you could rename them immediately: Unhinged bigot being shouted down on F train.
Comments
I don't have this mic, but it looks like it wouldn't fit without taking my phone out of it's case. The sample recordings I've heard sound decent though.
And, I do understand the issue with not knowing what you've recorded, and all of these cryptic names etc. It's an issue for sure.
What I like about the DR22WL is that I can connect to the recorder with my iphone/ipad, stream the recordings to myself from the recorder for reference, then name them on the spot. Works for me, but I do get the allure of easily available to name on the spot.
For my use though, I'd end up not naming them anyway... and I'd be constantly filling up my iPhone with random recordings. Instead, with the DR22... I'm only filling up a cheap SD card. And, if I remember to name them later via the iOS app, I've got them named on the DR22 and the transferred file to my iOS device.
Mono recording through the phone's headset mic input, it would be a step backward in fidelity from your Edirol.
I know. But is unused high-fidelity audio better than mono sound that actually makes it into a track? I think you're probably right though.
Have you seen the Rode iXY yet?
Measurement mode with Audioshare would definitely give you mono sound that can make it into a track. I have a tascam im2 which I just got back, works great with lightning to 30 pin adapter, the whole thing would be less than $20 via Amazon.
Looks great but it occurs to me that A mic with a lightning connection rather than a 1/8" mini plug might be obsolete sooner than later. There are loads of Rode iXY mics with the older iPhone 4 connectors on eBay for cheap....
I'm lazy, I have the Røde SmartLav+ with me most of the time to capture stuff that happens around me.
(Recording is mostly done with AudioShare's in Measurement mode).
The iPhones built-in mic is quite capable as well for quick recordings as long as one doesn't fumble around with the phone as it adds extra noises.
to avoid confusuion:
measurement mode only applies to the internal microphone or to gear that it connected to the headphone socket.
The old 30pin connector is actually a USB device for the system for anything later than an iPhone 3gs.
(which was the last item featuring true analog input lines, but those were almost impossible to use - some old dock connectors did and the BlueMikey mic)
If you only plan on using it with iOS device I don't really think that's a big deal, I can't see Apple ditching the lightening connector so soon. Very nice mic though, great stereo sound and the Rode Record app is awesome of field sampling and editing your recordings.
If one uses a case on the iPhone the lightning attached mics are a real pain in the...
The only mic's I've found so far that include a detachable distance platter to work with cases are the Zoom IQ series.
iXY comes with different mounting kits for use with cases, FWIW. I use mine with the stock leather iPhone case all the time, fits perfect.
What iPhone model?
None of the Lightning mics except the Zoom IQ series fit The iPhone 5/5S/SE models with the stock Apple Leather case
Iphone 7.
Does anyone know why there's a problem with lightning microphones and bluetooth monitoring? According to Rode it's impossible to direct the mic signal to bluetooth headphones, and there's no way to split the lightning connector to allow both a mic and phones to be connected simultaneously. I initially thought this was just Rode being hopeless, but I notice that the Shure lightning mic suffers from the same problem.
I was also hoping that IOS 11 might bring solve some more of the IOS bluetooth audio problems (last time I experimented it was a mess: some apps worked with Bluetooth, some didn't, or half did) but, at least in the case of the microphones, it still seems broken.
I wonder if the monophonic Rode is not much an improvement on the built-in mic on the iPhone SE. For my purposes, the sounds are used as additional color. And now that Busfri is available, I'm not sure what the advantage to a somewhat-higher-fidelity microphone.
Not sure about the mono Rode, but the stereo - in A/B tests - is much better.
The internal iPhone mic is optimised for picking up very close speech, and for giving that speech as much isolation from background noise as possible. To me, the Rode has much more detail, particularly in the top end.
Agreed, and a LOT more stereo seperation too.
I have the first generation Apogee Mic for field recording. Great sound!
The Rode iXY looks very nice, but I'd like an option to mount it on a stand and connect it with a cable to avoid handling noise and have easy access to the screen.
The built in mic is actually really nice. But you have to use a recording app that can disable the digital processing, otherwise the signal is compressed to death.
Hi @Tarekith question for you. Can you use other software apart from that rode app with the iXY?
Sure, in fact I usually use Audioshare these days. The only limitation is that in recent versions of iOS, the mic only works at 48kHz. Easy enough to convert it later if need be, so that's never been an issue for me.