Looking for a handheld mic that can plug into a smartphone for podcast interviews

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Looking for a handheld mic that can plug into a smartphone for podcast interviews

Posted by Sophia Smoloka on March 25, 2015 at 3:36 pm

Hi,

I’m looking into ways to improve the quality of interviews recorded for an online podcast. The recordings will be done by various different people so I’m looking for a straight forward solution that will ‘just work’.

So this will purely be for interviews and the recording situations will vary, but often there’ll be background noise in busy locations (that can’t always be changed unfortunately).

As this needs to be something that lots of people can use as they go round to meetings, the best solution seems to be: plug a handheld mic into your phone.

I found this mic, which has reasonable reviews: https://www.ikmultimedia.com/products/irigmichd/

I think with another adapter (Micro-USB-OTG to Mini-DIN), it will plug into other phones as well.

Is that going to make for an ok setup to record interviews at a decent quality? I’ll teach them how to hold the mic etc. but do I get away without an audio recorder like a Zoom or Tascam?

Thanks!

Sophia Smoloka replied 11 years, 4 months ago 2 Members · 2 Replies
2 Replies

Ty Ford
March 26, 2015 at 7:49 pm

Hello Sophia and welcome to the Cow Audio Forum.

Podcast audio quality is always a challenge. The irig gear can work.
I haven’t used any, but were I to, I’d probably get this one:
https://www.ikmultimedia.com/products/irigpre/

Allowing me to use any mic I want. On the street, an ElectroVoice RE50 is the gold standard.

If you are doing on the street interviews where you need both sides of the interview, you should use an omni directional mic and move it decisively back and forth. A cardioid pattern mic will hear less noise but you’ll probably lose parts of the conversation unless you’re REALLY good with moving the mic, or unless you don’t need the interviewer portion.

I’m not thrilled by the idea of recording on smart phones unless you have a set of headphones on to make sure your mic placement is correct and that you actually hit the record button. ALso 24-bit wav files are best for noise reduction back in the studio. That eats up smartphone storage pretty quickly.

So you’re hoping that light weight consumer phone gear will work for you. Maybe. Maybe for a while until the daily wear and tear makes the jacks and plug not connect properly.

Please let us know what you choose and how happy you are with that.

Regards,

Ty Ford
Cow Audio Forum Leader

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Sophia Smoloka
March 30, 2015 at 12:04 pm

Hi Ty and thanks for your reply,

Is there an alternative to the ElectroVoice RE50 that you know of that’s cheaper? I know asking for the same quality for less $$ is the impossible question…

Something like this for example?
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/984649-REG/polsen_hdr_10_hand_held_dynamic_omni_directional.html
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/157395-REG/Shure_VP64A_VP64A_Omni_Dynamic.html

If I understand this right, these type of mics are more suitable for interviews than the mic I suggested before (omni directional vs cardioid) as you don’t have to get as close to the interviewee and you can move the mic back and forth. Will they pick up more background noise though?

I will look into buying an external recorder because it’s probably the more sensible choice. If that’s not an option in terms of budget, I guess the iRig Pre would be a way of feeding the mic into the phone. Headphone would be used in either case!

Thanks!

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