How To Record Pro Audio on iPhone and iPad | Best Mics for iPhone and iPad + Rode Rec Tutorial

Learn how to record professional audio on your iPhone and iPad using a range of iOS compatible microphones like the iRig Mic, Rode Smartlav and Apogee Mic with the Rode Rec app for iPhone and iPad as well as the Behringer Q502 USB mixing desk.

This video will teach you how to transform your iOS device into the ultimate field recorder capable of recording pro audio at 48kHz suitable for your film and audio productions in a variety of lossless formats like AIFF, WAV and FLAC.

We also teach you how to import audio wirelessly to your iPhone and iPad from your external field recorder like the Zoom H4N and sync it with your iMovie project using the Maxell Airstash.

Download the Rode Rec App from the app store here: http://goo.gl/ixjWZT

Microphones featured:
iRig Mic - http://goo.gl/Al6dYb
Rode Smartlav - http://goo.gl/GPXtaz
Apogee Mic - http://goo.gl/Vi6zWe
Behringer Q502 USB Mixer - http://goo.gl/7QpTzP (NOTE: Since iOS7 this desk is now compatible with the iPhone - we have personally tested it with an iPhone 5 running iOS 7)
Maxell Airstash - http://goo.gl/hZmTLh

Chapters:
1. Introduction - 0:06
2. Rode Rec App Tutorial - 2:19
3. iPhone & iPad Audio Inputs Explained - 4:45
4. iRig Mic by IK Multimedia Demo - 5:25
5. Rode Smartlav mic Demo - 7:26
6. Apogee Mic Demo - 9:04
7. Behringer Q502 USB Mixer Demo - 10:34
8. Maxell Airstash for Wireless Syncing - 11:50

This guide is for iPhone and iPad filmmakers, musicians and media producers who want to record professional audio for their productions using an iOS device.

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Website: http://epictutorials.com

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Closed Caption:

what's up everyone welcome to epic
tutorials today we're going to be
looking at how to record pro audio using
an iOS device either an iphone or an
ipad now all the audio you're going to
hear in this video is recorded with an
iOS device there's nothing plugged into
a video camera or a computer or an
external field recorder
it's all straight off the iOS device now
we're going to run you through your
complete range of recording options
starting with things like the irig
microphone which connects by mini jack
then we're going to be looking at the
road smart lab which is a new super
cheap level that's really cool then walk
work our way out to some digital options
including the incredible
apogee Mike and then we'll look at how
to record audio using a phantom powered
XLR microphone like this lab alia rode
mic that you're hearing right now all
the way out to things like NT 1 a's and
professional studio mics and finally
we're going to show you how to get audio
you might have recorded with a zoom h4n
external field recorder that records on
SD card and had a wirelessly transfer it
to your iOS device without a computer
using an incredible thing called an air
stash
so before we start giving you a demo of
what these might sound like I want to
talk about apps now you could really
record your audio using any app
including garageband FL Studio oriya any
app that supports core audio but for
this video because we want to focus on
filmmakers although this is fully
applicable to music producers journalist
or just creative media artists and we
are going to use the app called Road
record now it was previously available
in the app store under the name fire to
field recorder and the reason i love
this app is because it supports multiple
sample rates up to 4800 hertz which is
the standard for film and video as well
as 44.1 and it will export in a huge
range of formats including
aiff wave as well as flax so it has all
the uncompressed professional level
formats that you would want
ok so this is road record running on an
iPad it's in two times magnification
mode but the process is exactly the same
on the iphone now before you ever record
anything i'm going to go to my home
screen
you need to make sure that you have
airplane mode turned on this will stop a
call interrupting your recording as well
as cutting down on sort of blips and
things that it can pick up now if I tap
on the lower left hand corner of the
Micom what this allows you to do is it
will check for any connected hardware
then you can choose your sample rate and
channels now you can see I've got
nothing plugged into the headphone or
the Lightning port so i only get the
built-in microphone but we can still
record at 4,800 hurts so i'm going to
select that and tap safe now when you
tap the + button it creates a new
recording and you can see I've got the
level meter at the top to the left of my
time code here i have my input so i can
increase that you can see it speaking to
the right we have our output level so
you can monitor your audio with a
headphone jack
now if I tap on settings here I can
select input and this is probably the
most important area because i want you
to hear the raw quality of all these
might i'm going to turn
I OS processing off and i'm going to
make sure boost is off here you have the
option to turn on and off playthrough
and if you have the pro version you
actually get access to a range of
presets
that's powered by izotope and some of
these are pretty good but they will
detract from the raw quality but if you
need it you have things like noise gates
so I'm gonna go back here
go back to my recording and then tap on
transport as soon as you are ready to go
you can tap record and as you can see
it's recording that life
you can record the audio levels as you
go which is a nice feature
I'm going to tap stop and finally if you
want to name it you can tap info name
and you can give it a new name
so this is how all the audio in this
tutorial is going to be recorded using
that exact process of checking for audio
hardware selecting a sample ray
tapping safe new recording settings
making sure iOS processing is off and
then of course setting the level here
and hitting record
alright so now we know how to use the
road record app let's start looking at
our microphone options now you have
three ways to get audio into an iOS
device doesn't matter what iOS device it
is a headphone jack which acts as a 3.5
millimeter input your digital connector
which is either the Lightning connector
or the 30-pin connector depending on the
model you have
and finally externally through itunes
where you can take audio recorded on a
field recorder like the zoom h4n you can
sync it via itunes but that requires
that you use a computer which sometimes
is an ideal especially if you're just
using iOS devices now we're going to
start by looking at the mini-jack
options now there's a few pros and cons
about using this technology here i have
the Irish Mike by ik multimedia is one
of the first condenser mics i got for
the iOS system and it is really good but
you need to be aware of a couple of
things firstly anything that connects by
the 3.5 millimeter jack is using an
analog in so it's more prone to noise
feedback pops and clicks and things like
that
secondly because your headphone jack
acts as an input and output
unless you're mike supports it or you
have an adapter
you won't be able to monitor your audio
if it just has a mini jack in because
you've got no way to plug your
headphones
the pros of using this technology is it
works perfectly on the iphone and ipad
there's no power consumption issues that
you get when using USB mics on an iphone
for example because it can't quite power
them now the irig has three settings are
three sensitivity settings low medium
and
hi and the great feature about it is you
can see on the jack
it has an audio output built in so you
can still monitor your audio by plugging
it into the headphone jack and then just
plug in your headphones into this . so
this is why this might really cool so
let's get this hook top
ok so this is the iRig mic by ik
multimedia it's fairly inexpensive
probably about sixty dollars and I got
this i think on amazon i'll put a link
in the description to it so you can
check it out
and this mike is ideal for people
conducting interviews or maybe recording
lectures talks and things like that and
the quality is not bad you can hear
there's a big difference between this
and my road laughs here but for the
money
it's really great and the fact that it
has the built-in output on the headphone
jack makes it
excellent so I'm going to stop this now
the next mini jack michael want to show
you is the newly-released road smart lab
now this is a pretty incredible
Mike the first thing is the price tell
me about sixty nine dollars and there's
a link in the description to it and if
you've ever bought a lab before you know
that is incredibly cheap as you can see
it just has a single a 3.5 millimeter
jack
so you have no way to monitor the audio
out of your device once it's plugged in
which is a little bit of a drawback but
once you experiment with this mike you
will see that it's not such a big deal
you sort of know what you're going to
get
and of course you can use an adapter so
i'm going to go ahead and plug this back
into the ipad and we are pretty much
ready to go so i'm going to hit record
so now you are hearing the road smart
lab it's only sixty nine dollars
it's a pretty incredible Mike and it is
really useful especially for documentary
filmmakers journalist people doing
interviews or even recording speeches
talks lectures and things like that
now if you're using headphones you're
probably going to notice that there is
quite a bit of noise it's not too
serious but to really inexpensive Mike
and
has a tiny capsule so it can't really be
avoided now if you want to hear how this
might sounds after it's been processed
with noise reduction
i'll put a link to a video around here
this was the best app for students that
epic tutorials did and it was recorded
using this might plug straight into my
iphone 5 and then we applied noise
reduction and I was pretty happy with
the results so the iRig mic and the road
smart lap a great inexpensive mini-jack
Mike's but if you want to take your
audio quality to the next level
you really want to use a completely
digital input and one such device is the
apogee Mike
now of course it costs more this is
about a hundred and ninety-nine but it
really is worth the extra investment if
you want great and iOS audio now this
comes with a gain knob on the side so
you can adjust that on the mic itself
which is nice and it only comes with a
30 pin connector so if you have the
iphone 5 for the ipad for you are going
to need to get the additional adapter
from apple so just an additional expense
to take into account so i'm going to go
ahead and plug this into the ipad
let's jump into road record and he had
this sounds okay so what you're hearing
right now is coming straight from the
apogee Mike recorded into road record as
you can hear it is a very fine Mike it's
perfect for voice overs narration
recording acoustic instruments as well
as vocals and room at moss and room tone
so great for filmmakers
but of course it has to be fairly close
to your iOS device due to the short
cable now if you want to check this out
there is a link in the description below
but you can hear yourself this is leaps
and bounds ahead of using an analog in
so let's go ahead and stop this and now
for my favorite option for recording
digital audio into an ipad it's not
actually using a mic that plug straight
into the device but for $69 i'm using a
behringer q 0 2 USB powered mixer
and what this allows me to do is plug in
any XLR mic like the rode smartlav i'm
using now or it could just as easily be
a studio condenser mic like the rode
nt1-a and then using Apple's camera
connection kit i can plug it in my USB
and this is running into an ipad mini
and i'm using robe record
now this method will only work on an
iPad because the iphone just can't and
put out enough power even though the
desk is powered it just says this
accessory is not supported with the
iphone and the camera connection kit
which is an additional accessory from
apple
I think there are about thirty dollars
is really designed to work with the ipad
now this device will just work with a
mixing desk in fact it will probably
power just about any USB self-powered
Mike that you have used on your computer
so this is an essential accessory
ok now it's on to our final method of
audio acquisition on an iOS device and
that's taking an SD card from something
like a zoom field recorder really
doesn't matter what make it is as long
as it uses an SD and then using this
incredible accessory called the air
stash
now this is sort of labeled as a
wireless external HD for your iOS device
it certainly is that it's compatible
with the iphone and ipad and down this
end it takes an SD card
so what you can do is you can record
using an SD recorder then take it out
plug it in and push it into the air
stash and now when i hold down the power
button
I'm going to get a few flashes that
tells me that this device is on
so with this on I can then go to my
settings here under Wi-Fi turn that on
what this device does is it broadcast of
wireless network
now it doesn't have to be connected to
the internet for this to work you can be
in the middle of nowhere and it will
broadcast this so i can now connect to
the air stash just by tapping on it in
settings you can see I'm connected
next I can use
free app called air stash designed to
work with this and now i can access this
SD card wirelessly
I can tap on file list there it is you
can see here I have some video files and
you can import a huge range of files but
i have a recording that I made using
wrote record i can tap that
I'll tap start from beginning this and
it starts training that life that the
call feature is if I tap and hold on the
audio recording it gives me some info
but i can choose to send to app here so
it downloads that as soon as I tap it
you can see my options I have to video
editors hear that support the open in
feature I movie and video I can also
send it to something like Dropbox which
other apps might support import import
from and i can send it to my converter
and I've got a bunch of really cool apps
that i could open this in but let's just
say this is dialogue i want to sink in
an iMovie project
I can tap open in iMovie it asked me to
choose which project on imported into
i'll choose my project and there is my
external audio
I can tap and hold this and I can move
it around the project here and sync it
up
so this is a really great way of getting
audio into your ipad or iphone without
having to use a computer because
sometimes if your mobile filmmaker you
want to go out in the middle of nowhere
and push the boundaries of mobile
filmmaking
you don't want to take an eye on a
laptop with you or you won't have a
desktop so this is probably the best way
to just take your SD card out of your
recorder imported into something like
iMovie or it can be another app and
start sinking it out and editing it
note that it also supports video import
and export and you can save to and from
your camera roll wirelessly to this so
that is an intro to how to record audio
using an iOS device from the basic 3.5
millimeter headphone jack through to the
digital in using the
apogee Mike all the way up to XLR mics
are using the behringer q 50 to USB disk
and finally sinking your audio
wirelessly using the ass - an incredible
device by maxell there's a link below
and for the money they are really
incredible
if this is help plz subscribe we're
going to have loads more film making
music production and just digital
creative stuff coming soon for iOS
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