Rode SmartLav Really Quiet Through iPhone Loud on Android Devices

[Michael]

Hey guys,

I am trying to record through the Rode SmartLav into an iPhone 4, sometimes when recording the audio will be at expected levels and very clear when played back but most of the time the audio recording is extremely low and I am not quite sure why it works perfectly sometimes and at other times seemingly barely. I have checked the settings and it doesnt appear to be them as they remain unchanged.

When the mic is plugged into an Android device is records as it should every single time so I dont know if its settings in the Rode Rec app. I have the pro Rode Rec version too and expected the extra settings to perhaps help with this.

The only app I really like for recording on Android is RecForge but it doesnt have all the nice settings that Rode Rec has, does anyone here have any experience with this? I cant figure out if its hardware or software issues here, its flawless on Android though. Its a shame the Rode Rec app is only available for Apple devices.

Thank you.

 

[MrThomsen]

Yeah I bought a Røde SmartLav as well. I only have Android devices and at the moment it seems to be quite useless. The only app that I have found to work just a little is the Hi-Q MP3 Voice Recorder, which has the possibility to lower gain. But there is still a lot of noise though

 

[Michael]

Yeah I bought a Røde SmartLav as well. I only have Android devices and at the moment it seems to be quite useless. The only app that I have found to work just a little is the Hi-Q MP3 Voice Recorder, which has the possibility to lower gain. But there is still a lot of noise though

I have had the same experience, I am able to clear out the hiss mostly in audacity but with iphones the mic seems to not be recording correctly through Rode Rec, the output from it no matter what the settings is quite faint and every now and then something makes it come through as it should and the quality is rather good for the price but could do with a bit of editing in post.

I have swapped phones with my girlfriend as she will be using the SmartLav more than me and shes using RecForge for now through that and its alright but it sounds quite nasally, I tried a low pass on it but it doesnt help too much, I am no pro audio editor though so I could need to do more with the output to get it right.

RecForge has an auto gain switch control so you can turn it off which is good. I could still send it back but I am undecided yet. Do you bother using yours any more?

I must say I do prefer the shotgun Rode Videomic to using this most of the time, the sound is so much warmer and richer sounding using that but I would have expected that really.

 

[MrThomsen]

Do you bother using yours any more?

Never really got around to use it, I bought it at the same time with the Audio-Technica ATR3350 and a Zoom H1 Handyrecorder, so I'm basically using that. I bought them both because both are pretty cheap and I thought I would do a comparison (I probably still will in the future), but I was just annoyed with the fact I had such a hard time with it, that it's just been laying on a shelf since then.

I just took it out though to try again with my new LG G3, and at -20db gain it actually sounds fairly clean, but it is also very low volume. So I might be taking a look at it again, it would be great to have a second lav if I ever where to do something with another person on camera

 

[Michael]

Ill check that app out does it have other features other than the gain control in it? Yeah its good as a backup or something to grab and go if you dont have another choice really I suppose its better than using a shotgun mic on a table too when doing tutorial videos as well.

 

[MrThomsen]

Ill check that app out does it have other features other than the gain control in it? Yeah its good as a backup or something to grab and go if you dont have another choice really I suppose its better than using a shotgun mic on a table too when doing tutorial videos as well.

You can:

• Choose bitrate: 32, 64, 96, 128, 160, 192, 256, 320 kbps
• Record in stereo
• Set Gain level: -20 dB -> +20 dB
• Mic selection: Front microphone, Rear microphone or Raw audio

And that's pretty much it.

 

[Michael]

You can:

• Choose bitrate: 32, 64, 96, 128, 160, 192, 256, 320 kbps
• Record in stereo
• Set Gain level: -20 dB -> +20 dB
• Mic selection: Front microphone, Rear microphone or Raw audio

And that's pretty much it.

Ill check it out What do you set yours as, -20db?

 

[MrThomsen]

Ill check it out What do you set yours as, -20db?

I messed around with it a bit last night, and the -20dB it without noise, but it's to low volume. So you have to gain it a bit up in audacity, which introduces noise. So you have to do a bit of noise reduction anyway =/

Still need to see if it makes sense to recorder at louder gain and just do noise reduction. The less I have to do in post, the happier I am

 

[Michael]

Thanks man, Ive just got it working properly with the iphone, you need to turn digital processing right up, gain off and ios processing off too, it seems okay so far but we will see [DOUBLEPOST=1403859615][/DOUBLEPOST]I cant believe if you use SoundCloud to upload your files you cannot grab the originals back to your PC without paying £4 a month, what a sting lol first the paid Rode Rec app and now SoundCloud want nearly a fiver a month [DOUBLEPOST=1403860157][/DOUBLEPOST]Lol I tried FTP couldnt get it to work so I am using direct browser download using the iphones port