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External mic for Android smart phone to record band rehearsals for reference?

Discussion in 'Recording Gear and Equipment [BG]' started by NoiseNinja, Mar 11, 2017.


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  1. Mar 11, 2017 #1
    NoiseNinja

    NoiseNinja Experimental-psychedelic-ambient-noise-drone Banned

    Feb 23, 2011
    Denmark
    Anyone who can recommend me a decent cheap external mic to connect to my Android HTC smart phone (it's an older model and am not sure which exactly)?

    It's important that it is cheap!

    The sound quality doesn't have to be super, just better than the crappy build in one, so it is actually possible to differentiate what is going on on the recordings.

    Just going to use it for recording band rehearsals for internal reference, so nothing fancy needed.

    Read somewhere that usually the internal microphone on cell phones have low and high cut filters build in, and this can only be bypassed by connecting the external microphone to the USB connection instead of the mini jack stick connection, where you usually would connect it, but don't know if this information is true.

    Anyway, feel free to shoot away with suggestions, just keep in mind that it has to be cheap and decent but doesn't have to be super HI-FI studio recordings quality, just good enough to be able to hear what is actually going on.
     
  5. Mar 11, 2017 #2
    bholder

    bholder Affable Sociopath Supporting Member

    Sep 2, 2001
    central NY state
    Received a gift from Sire* (see sig)
    I wonder if any USB mic (like a Blue Yeti) would work if you ran it through a USB - micro USB adapter? (Those aren't cheap, of course, but there are cheaper decent USB mics out there.)
     
  10. Mar 11, 2017 #3
    And I

    And I

    Feb 19, 2009
    Witchtown, MA
  14. Mar 11, 2017 #4
    seamonkey

    seamonkey

    Aug 6, 2004
    Look for an omnidirectional mic
    A single omnidirectional works better for most all recording.
     
  18. Mar 14, 2017 #5
    Badwater

    Badwater

    Jan 12, 2017
    You can use a headphone or earbuds as a mic for the smart phones or tablets. same size plug and it's compact and easy to set up.
     
  22. Mar 16, 2017 #6
    Ulf_Hansson

    Ulf_Hansson

    Apr 15, 2014
    Devices with Android 5.0 and above support class compliant USB audio, so that should work. (I'd try it in the store first, though...)
     
  26. Mar 20, 2017 #7
    Bullitt5135

    Bullitt5135

    Nov 16, 2010
    SE Michigan
    I searched the google for "android audio recorder app with gain control" and came up with this article. It looks like there are a bunch of audio recorder apps like RecForgePro that allow you to adjust the input gain on your phone. I don't think an external mic is necessarily going to help you unless you can adjust the input gain.

    Otherwise a Zoom H1 recorder for ~$79 might be a good option.