Input options and microphones

[Keith]

I wanted to post that I have had great success using a Blue Mikey on my touch. By making a cable trrs to trs with the ground floated on the trrs (modified headphone extension) and using a dock extender things sound great. If I can find a big enough jacket and small enough resistor and cap, I would be able to play back with just headphones.

[monk'o'funk]

I purchased a Blue Mikey a few weeks back and Multitrack about a week ago and finally got a chance to test it "in anger". I captured several songs in a jam session with a bass player (I drum) in a small rehearsal hall and was generally pleased with the results.

The sound levels were quite high (at times we had PA/monitors playing back as well) and with the gain on the Mikey on the least sensitive setting and the input fader on Multitrack left on zero and placing the iPhone about 10 feet from the drums and bass amp, I got decent recordings. I didn't have much opportunity to tweak the level and the bass distorted a bit in some sections, but that was no fault of the equipment. There was some sibilance from the hi-hats that I could do without, so next time I will set it a bit further back and bring down the level a scosche.

All in all, I'm pleased. I got the Mikey to record when I play out (seldom these days) and other casual occasions such as drum lessons, jam sessions etc. I made some suprisingly good recordings with "voice recorder", but wanted something with an input gain control. After researching the offerings, Multitrack looked to be the best app even without the stereo mike recording. I'm looking forward to the updates and at some point I might actually use more than one track!

[pwnified]

I wanted to post that I have had great success using a Blue Mikey on my touch. By making a cable trrs to trs with the ground floated on the trrs (modified headphone extension) and using a dock extender things sound great. If I can find a big enough jacket and small enough resistor and cap, I would be able to play back with just headphones.

Cool, thanks for the update. It seems only some of the blue mikey's are having the clipping problem.

[pwnified]

The sound levels were quite high (at times we had PA/monitors playing back as well) and with the gain on the Mikey on the least sensitive setting and the input fader on Multitrack left on zero and placing the iPhone about 10 feet from the drums and bass amp, I got decent recordings.

Unfortunately turning the input fader down on MultiTrack wont solve the clipping issue, it's a hardware problem with the blue mikey itself. So the signal is clipped before it even reaches MultiTrack. The developers of blue mikey are working on this

[bernard carville]

Has anyone tried the Belkin Go Studio with Multitrack? I'm curious to find out ifthat would work well.
The built in mikes are said to be pretty bad but there are a lot of input options.
I'd like to know how it works with an Iphone 3g.

[therald2000]

I built a nice little microphone and interface rig using a Panasonic capsule. I had found the schematic floating around the Internet several years ago and built some of these as a demonstration for an audio course I teach at Oakland University. I refined the design by mounting the capsules in turned rosewood barrels, using a nice housing for the 9-volt battery, and placing everything in a cool Duratool case. This setup uses a video camera cable to break out the mic in and headphone out connections. I mounted a regular mini TRS jack on the box for monitoring. The results are amazingly clean and accurate. I'll post some photos and an audio clip of a classical guitar piece on my website later this week (http://www.terryherald.com)

[pwnified]

I built a nice little microphone and interface rig using a Panasonic capsule. I had found the schematic floating around the Internet several years ago and built some of these as a demonstration for an audio course I teach at Oakland University. I refined the design by mounting the capsules in turned rosewood barrels, using a nice housing for the 9-volt battery, and placing everything in a cool Duratool case. This setup uses a video camera cable to break out the mic in and headphone out connections. I mounted a regular mini TRS jack on the box for monitoring. The results are amazingly clean and accurate. I'll post some photos and an audio clip of a classical guitar piece on my website later this week (http://www.terryherald.com)

That sounds like an awesome project. Do you have a link for the schematic? Your website is truly inspiring.

[eocaecilia]

So - any idea when the "made for iPhone" version of Blue Mikey is available? I'm kind of dying to get my hands on one, but I'm wondering if it would be smarter to hold off a month or two. But if it's still a year out, then I might just bite the bullet and pay the price of early adoption.

[pwnified]

So - any idea when the "made for iPhone" version of Blue Mikey is available? I'm kind of dying to get my hands on one, but I'm wondering if it would be smarter to hold off a month or two. But if it's still a year out, then I might just bite the bullet and pay the price of early adoption.

I haven't actually spoken to Blue Microphones but heard that on the interwebs, definitely make sure you get one from a place you could return it if needed. I was able to make some great low volume recordings, but the connection to the iphone was also intermittent (another common problem with these units) so I returned it.

[Keith]

I have been experimenting with the mic in again. I'm coming out of the ipod with a 4 cond 3.5mm. Tip, ring 1, & ring 2 to headphones. Ring 2 to xlr pins 1 & 3. Sleeve to xlr pin 2. There is a 2.2k resistor between ring 2 and sleeve. This sounds reasonably good. My problem is that there is pretty bad crosstalk from the two mix monitor back into the channel I'm recording to. I've tried various caps, resistors, and transformers. Obviously if the headphone level is lowered the crosstalk is also lowered. I am about maxed out with my knowledge of electronics. Any ideas?

PS. My C-24 sounds pretty nice.