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Are you looking to use external mic with your iPhone or iPad , then spare the next
few minutes to watch this video , it could save you a lot of time and aggravation.
With the ability to record high-quality video many people use iPhones and iPads as their video
cameras to make videos for business, home, or just pleasure. But like most devices with
built in microphones, the audio can leave a lot to be desired. If you want to put over
a professional image then your audio is just as important as your video, if not more so.
Like it or not if you want good audio you going to have to use an external mic and for
vocal work of the most popular types is a lapel mic, Iike i'm wearing now.
Now you would think it is simple just by a lapel mic, plug it in and start recording.
But like so many seemingly simple things in life it turns out not to be so. You can't
just plug any Mic into an iPhone or iPad. Apple don't use the usual connection method
of a connector for Mic and another for the headphones, instead they've combined them
together into one connector.
Now unless you buy microphone that is specifically made for the iPad or iPhone your going to
need one of these. It's an adapter that allows you to plug your microphone into an iPhone
or iPad. Sounds simple, yes it should be but here comes another but there are two types
microphones, ones which work with an external battery like this ATR3350 from Audio-Technica.
You can tell these could have a small container with a battery lives somewhere along the lead.
And then there are the self power ones these get their power from the device itself, they
have a Mic at one end and a connector at the other and nothing else in between.
Now the problem if you can't use the same adapter lead for both microphones you have
to get on a different adapter lead for each mic otherwise your microphone will not work.
Now just add even more confusion into the mix, the iPhones and iPads are configured
to carry on using the internal Microphone when it doesn't recognise the external mike correctly.
Unlike most normal audio equipment, if you had the wrong connector you normally get no
sound recorded but in this case you still may get an audio recording but of a some what
poorer than expected quality because it's still going to be recording from the internal
Microphone.
If you don't know about this it will have you pulling your hair out and wondering just
what the hell is going on when your iPhone continues to use the internal Mic even when
you have an external one plugged into it.
When it happened to me I was lucky I have both types of Microphone available, so when are battery-
powered one didn't work I tried the self powered one and that worked fine and that's when I
realised it down to the type of Microphone that causes this problem.
There are a few suppliers out there selling these adapter cables but before you buy anything
you should make sure that the company or person you're buying from knows about this and offers
two types of adapter cable, one for battery- powered mics and one for self power mics in
that they can tell which one you need depending upon the microphone you have.
Check on our website at video-alchemy.com or it is there is a link under this video
click on there and we have a list of suppliers which we have already found.
There is no standard to these, Apple do not make an official adapter so they could look
like this or this, so you just have to trust your supplier to give you the right one just
beware the cheap ones offered on eBay and Amazon because they don't always work.
Again look for a supplier which knows you have two different types of Leads.
So that's it now you know what to look for in adapter that matches your microphone and
hopefully your audio will sound great.