Over driving Ipad mics

[Steve Madewell]

Has anyone experienced the onboard Ipad mics are over over driven? One of the primary ways I use this ap is to catch songs, and I will sit down in a quiet place and quickly recorded an idea. Seems there is nothing I can do with this last upgrade to back down the input level to get a clean recording.

[pwnified]

Please try Measurement Mode: Close the current song -> Gear icon -> Options -> Measurement Mode -> ON
The apple processing on the internal mic and speaker is totally unsuited for live music recording, but works ok for voice. Turning on measurement mode removes this processing (in multitrack only)
Unfortunately, I have to default it to OFF, otherwise people leave bad reviews that it's not loud enough.

[Gigaah]

Yes, measurement mode will probably help. I don't usually record audio with MultiTracks via internal mic. Measurement mode must be new..it may not be enough tho. I use an different app generally to gain control of iOS's internal(or external)microphone. There is a possibility tho you'll need to do that unless MultiTrack has controls for..or automatically sets the internal mic's gain. I've never looked.

It is a bit finicky of an operation that relies on the fact that the FIRST APP you open that requests the gain and buffer controls is given sole access to these controls until either (the app releases them?) or the app granted control is closed.

So if Multitrack doesn't have mic gain controls. You'll have to open the other app. set the gain. make sure the app stays running background. Then open Multitrack. Keep in mind this method will prevent multitrack from setting the buffer size as you have it set to. I don't recall if it will prevent Multitrack from switching it into measurement mode tho. Not an issue as the app used has measurement mode controls.

Eitherway, I use AUM by Kymatica or I've used AudioBus to effectively sieze control of the buffer and Mic gain settings by opening AUM before opening a different App(like MultiTrack). I've done this to force a variety off Apps down to a lower buffer size in order to reduce the "lips to ears" latency for better "real time" monitoring and to reduce the gain/stop the AGC(Automatic Gain Control) from mucking things up. Keeping things like you've mentioned from running the mic into overload..or so the first syllable of a a word in a verse isn't dropped out before the AGC cranks the gain up enough.

I've noticed (in the long ago past) the gain and buffer settings will often just sit there at what ever setting the last app to use them left it at. Not sure if it still does this..but it was(or is) a dirty habbit of iOS.

@pwnified If Multitrack is set and running background the measurement mode switch will effect other apps that make no attempt to change the state of this setting ...far as I know..anyhow. Tho it's possible it might be separate from the gain and buffer settings which are only granted to a single app and absolutely has a system wide effect.PS. I know this is old. lol.

[pwnified]

Measurement Mode has changed behavior several times. Unfortunately it currently does seem to be a system wide setting. It also affects the internal speaker.

As far as input gain, unfortunately Apple broke hardware input gain sometime around iOS 13, so I was forced to use a software input gain for the built-in and headset mics (but not USB headset mics). Apple now says this has been fixed in iOS 16 beta. So multitrack now detects the iOS version and re-enable hardware gain control on iOS 16 or later. This should help with clipping problems, because software gain cannot undo a clip that came earlier in the pipeline.

Oh and yes, buffer size (buffer time, as apple makes us call it) is also a system wide setting, and multitrack will seize control of it as well, as long as it gets to it first,

[Gigaah]

That makes sense. I never dug into it..but it seemed to me "something changed" a time or two regarding measurement mode and gain controls over the last few years. That's good to know information that will make a difference to me here and there. Ty

[Steve Madewell]

I appreciate the dialog. I have made some excellent recordings with this app and various interfaces/mics, but as I said in my initial post, I used to be able to make adequate captures of ideas, that I could listen to, and share. That ability evaporated a few OS upgrades ago.
So perhaps the measurement control, or one of the other audio apps I have has mucked that up.
Thanks!
S