Recoding on Phone.

[Marv]

I just saw the following: "There are apps for your smartphone that can make PCM recordings."

1)Do we have a guide or thread here which discusses this? I searched but couldn't find it.
2) I am interested in knowing which Apps work best and what microphones and other gear is needed for both Apple and Android.
3) How do recordings on a phone (with the right apps and accessories) compare to recording made on a recorder. Quality wise, I mean..are they just as good?

[Bruschi]

I use Dolby On and Audiolab, to name two for Android. I have always deemed apple loathsome and twee and never touch the fruit. Recording to PCM is not any big deal at all. PCM is just a lossless container and has nothing to do with fidelity per se, just means it won't rape and debase whatever it is you've managed to capture by using an algorithm to denude it.

Fine recordings have been perfectly possible and plentiful since the dawn of the microphone in 1925 c.e. regardless of container--from wax to disc to magnetic tape, vinyl you name it. Contrary to the clowns who make excuses for their posts of "sixties" and "seventies" performances with "sounds good for the time," all you've ever needed is a good microphone, good source of course, and a keen understanding of the acoustic properties and dynamics of the room.

If a dumb band is playing a bad mix too loud in a boxy room, a million dollars of equipment won't save the live show let alone it's material artifact. If a skilled band with a master mixer who has taken time to dial in the room for instrument separation and other niceties of amplification plays and you choose your location wisely, then all sorts of setups will work, though of course there are more and more "sounds bad for the time" recordings now due to the proliferation of pitiful portable picnic players with on board microphones or of course Generation Dumb Phone holding up even lesser devices at performances.

The biggest factors you can control are the microphone you choose to attach to your phone---compare carefully to your taste and don't skimp on price though will not be a bank breaker--and figure out where to sit in the given venue. Naturally you also need to be highly mindful of setting levels from the outset.

Much as I never touch empty3 at all, the fact is you'd typically get a better recording minding those two factors with a decent phone setup and that shameful container than with a lossless file from an onboard mic or perhaps even plain jane external mic especially in a boomy or otherwise bad location with bad level set, etc. regardless of a Zoom H6 or whatever. Essentially, all the device and the file format do is accept the signal the mic provides. The mic is where the rubber meets the road. A Corvette with threadbare tires will round the turn more poorly than a heap with sweet new radials.

Nevertheless, you can readily record to lossless but of course if you're fixing to hoover in a long show, make sure your memory, SD card or otherwise, can handle it.

Finally, get good at Audacity and its plugins or any other high quality post processing software. While there are absolute limits to how much you can sweeten a mediocre recording with these tools, you can always excise the hoots of the tools around you, remove clicks and diginoise, work the levels, emphasize different parts of the spectrum, ad infinitum.

[LeifH12345]

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