How To Get Studio Sound

[David Mitchell]

I made this video live with my smartphone. No sound syncing.

(NOTE: I was hitting my smartphone input pretty hot when I made this. I should have brought the headphone output of my soundcard down slightly and it would have cleared up the slight breakup for a more pure tone.)

This is a brief demonstration I made showing how you can get live studio sound in your bedroom without using recording software and trying to sync the audio to it. Just do it on your smartphone. A smartphone is a high quality digital recorder. Just plug directly into it through the headphone jack. Phone companies don't tell you that it's a state of the art digital recorder. You will need a special 4 position adapter that plugs into the headphone jack. Within that headphone jack is an external input but you need the special adapter to access it and the phone companies don't have it nor will they even know what you are talking about. I just built me a little cable that goes from my soundcard to my Moto Z Force 2 phone. I found an android video program capable of shutting off the smartphones built in mic and switching to the internal input. I am using Cantible Lite VST hosting software for my steel guitar effects rack with no latency. Just like playing through the best amp and rack gear in the world. It's all happening in real time live!! No syncing audio.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYdYUgzgkUE

[Tony Prior]

Most if not all Smartphones can be set to 44.1 KHZ/ 16 bit format . 44.1 / 24 bit is Red Book. This is not uncommon. But they are mostly MONO. They record pretty darn well !


Most streaming audio we listen to , if not all, peaks at 16K and is either 16 bit or perhaps 24 bit. 16 bit is a smaller file size so it's really the streaming standard.

Smartphones , as David mentions, can indeed be used for many tracking scenario's.

But don't throw away your DAW !

[David Mitchell]

Right Tony. A modern smartphone is a CD quality digital recorder but most people never tap in to that quality using the cheap onboard mic. How much trouble is it to run a wire from your USB interface to the cellphone? Just saying and the quality will be night and day difference.

[Tony Prior]

David, I think the bigger question is, how much MORE trouble is it to use a Smartphone over a small Portable 2-track Recorder, Workstation or a DAW !

Whats the purpose of the recording ?

At some point we meet the point of diminishing returns !

[David Mitchell]

I use the smartphone Technic if I want good sound making a video for my Facebook friends. Lot less trouble. If I plan on doing punch-ins and getting everything perfect for RCA Victor and a music video to be made at a later date it only makes sense to use the DAW and sync the sound to the multitrack video. Music videos are edited with multiple tracks of video just like audio.

[Tony Prior]

Of course it just comes down to personal choice . It has nothing to do with making a recording for RCA Victor with a follow up Video.

[Ian Rae]

I found an android video program capable of shutting off the smartphones built in mic and switching to the internal input.

I would like to be able to do that so I can use my Cleartune app direct from the pedal in a noisy environment. What app did you use?

Can't help wondering if there's a less roundabout way.

[Jack Stoner]

Peterson used to have (don't know if they still do) an adapter for 1/4" guitar cord to 3.5mm stereo plug. Several others including Peavey and IKMedia had similar adapters.

I think IKMedia now has a adapter for later Apple products that use the Lightning port. Probably others too.

[Ian Rae]

I made this out of an old set of earphones. The ring furthest from the tip is the mic circuit. The mic can be disabled through the Google app. There's something called Mute Mic which I haven't tried yet but should be fewer steps. Shame the phone can't detect the plug and cut the mic off automatically like a physical break jack.

Apologies for straying from David's original topic of recording stereo. Where do you get the "special 4-position adaptor"?

[Greg Cutshaw]

Peterson 3.5mm - 1/4in iPhone/iTouch Adapter Cable White:

https://www.musiciansfriend.com/accesso ... HUEALw_wcB


Lightning to 3.5mm Headphone Jack Adapter:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07MK ... UTF8&psc=1


I'm using these with the Peterson tuner app on my iPhone 10 and they work great.

[Ian Rae]

What I think I want to know is what David is using to access the stereo input that the manufacturer (in my case Nokia) doesn't tell us about.

[David Mitchell]

I found an android video program capable of shutting off the smartphones built in mic and switching to the internal input.

I would like to be able to do that so I can use my Cleartune app direct from the pedal in a noisy environment. What app did you use?

Can't help wondering if there's a less roundabout way.

This one. The audio and video is great. Turns Android phone into an HD DSLR except for being able to change the lenses. The switch to go from internal to external input is in the settings menu.

https://www.camerafv5.com/

[David Mitchell]

I made this out of an old set of earphones. The ring furthest from the tip is the mic circuit. The mic can be disabled through the Google app. There's something called Mute Mic which I haven't tried yet but should be fewer steps. Shame the phone can't detect the plug and cut the mic off automatically like a physical break jack.

Apologies for straying from David's original topic of recording stereo. Where do you get the "special 4-position adaptor"?

That's it. I just got one with a terminal barrier so I could wire it any which way because I wasn't sure how my Moto Z phone was wired internally.
Looks like Greg found the source.