Recording audio on Android phones or iPhones is a possibility that we can improve with the option of recording with an external microphone . The great variety of combinations makes the solution not simple, fast and probably not cheap, although if we need it it will offer us a satisfactory result like any other device that we can buy even for a higher price.
Possibly you think that it should not be so complicated, at the end of the day it is only about connecting a microphone to the mobile and start recording, but the truth is that the first inconvenience we find to connect the microphone to the mobile since not all Phones and microphones have the same type of connector although we will limit ourselves to talking about the audio jack.
The necessary adapters for each mobile
We begin by talking on the phones with an audio jack that although they are integrated and could facilitate the process, is not always of the TRRS type . This is the one that we are going to need so that the microphone is recognized instead of being worth only to introduce headphones. On iPhone there is no model compatible with this connector, something that is repeated mostly on Android and that we can only check manually. That’s when adapters like the one we show you make their appearance, allowing us then to connect a compatible microphone.
Mobile adapters with USB Type C
It is very possible that our Android mobile does not have an audio jack input and in this case we need an adapter similar to the one we have shown you. This time the input to the smartphone will be Type C but at the input to the adapter it must be kept and continue to be TRRS type or otherwise we will not be able to use the external microphone on the mobile .
IPhone Adapters
In iPhone, the Lightning input causes us to also need a specific adapter to connect an external microphone and we will again need compatibility with the TRRS type.
Connect the external microphone to the adapter
After having our smartphone ready we only need the external microphone, which we can buy any that have the given audio jack output or we can use a microphone with XLR output where we are going to need a new adapter to connect it to the mobile. In this case there are no better adapters than others, but we recommend one of them that will avoid us looking and wondering about which one can work.
Record with a Bluetooth microphone and forget about cables
An option that we should not overlook is recording with a Bluetooth microphone, a technology that is present in both Android and iOS and allows us to save compatibility problems in adapters. Its operation is like that of any other device that we connect via Bluetooth, you just have to pair it and follow the steps shown below. There are several models to choose from, we show you an option with Bluetooth 5.0 technology that also allows us to keep our hands free.
We start recording with the external microphone
Once we have the method we have chosen to connect the microphone to the mobile, it is time to use it. Now what we will have to do is download the application that allows us to use the external microphone instead of the internal one of the mobile , something that we cannot do in the native applications of Android or iPhone.
In the case of having an iPhone we recommend MoviePro which unfortunately is not free but we have not found any alternative option for which we do not have to pay. In Android, however, we do have the possibility of doing it without cost with the Cinema FV-5 Lite app.
After installing it, we just have to open it and go to the option settings to select the audio section and tap on the audio source option to select the external microphone or the Bluetooth microphone. Even so, we will encounter restrictions, since we will not be able to use all the lenses of the smartphone while recording.