Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsFor the current price a great mic
Reviewed in the United States on September 13, 2016
This rating is based on the $10 purchase price. I was looking for either a Tascam or Zoom handheld unit to record band practice. Just a bunch of old guys playing classic guitar rock type stuff. We got a 24 x 24 rehearsal space, acoustic drum set, and the 2 guitars and bass are all using half stacks which are overkill, but they are only as loud to be even with the drum's volume. Also full blown PA for vocals and keys.
I had a few old iPhones laying around so I thought for the price why not try it. Well it works very well. I downloaded and used the Tascam recording app. Kind of wonky interface but doesn't take much to figure it out. The iPhone is a 4S factory reset with the latest iOS and updates. So it's basically only has the Tascam software on .it
Tried it out first with acoustic guitar (Taylor 114CE). Wow sounded great. Compared it to built in mic, no contest, this blew it away. Experimented with proximity. In even a small 8 x 10 room, if you back away you pick up a lot of ambient room noise. If you are right near the guitar sort of near 12th fret but slightly pointing at sound hole it sounded fantastic. I A/B 'd a few sound files against the built in mic. This really is pretty nice to capture an acoustic.
Next tried it at band practice. Easy to set the levels with either the switch or via app. Came out pretty well given my low expectations. You get the ambient room noise and some distance away from amps and drums. But for what I wanted it for to just get a gauge of how crappy we sound and what we need to work on it's perfect. Great for capturing jams or if someone has an idea. A step up from cell phone mic.
I have not tried sharing via the built in soundcloud. I have attached to iTunes and dragged the files out though and that's pretty easy. From there you can do what you need to do with them.
Few things to watch out for:
- watch out picking it up, moving or turning it on of off. any touching of the phone you will hear. Even very gently touching the record button gets recorded.
- the mics can be rotated but they only rotate together. Would be nice if you could rotate one in one direction the one the other the opposite. Would open up the stereo field although the phone would have to sit on edge to have them pan left and right.
- my phone doesn't have a sim in it so no radio interference. I saw someone complain about noise so I wonder if that was the case.
Anyhow, two thumbs up.
