Recording interface for phone?

Gear & Tools Talk đź’» Hardware, Software & Recording
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Does anyone make a 2-channel USB-type interface that can also be used on your phone e.g. doesn’t need external power?
Every now and then I think it would be nice to be mobile, even record outside. I have a wireless lapel type mic (3.5mm out) but that’s single-channel.

I know you can run GarageBand on your iPhone for instance. It would make recording in the garden or whatever so much more flexible and the phone has a far better camera too than my actual webcam.

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You own one? Any comments on it?

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I don’t own one but I came across it a while ago on some of the guitar store websites. It has plenty of reviews on the web worth checking out.

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Thanks… decent brand obviously. The only thing I’ve used similar before was the iRig but that was years and years ago. I believe they do a dual-channel version now

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Hi,
There is a few alternatives. If you are looking for a fully mobile ready solution without any additional efforts but are ready to pay premium price then the Zoom H6 does exactly what your are looking for:

  • fully mobile (built in powerbank)
  • two channels
  • supported by IPhone and IPad
    Same feature set but a little cheaper and little less comfortable regarding power (reg battery management) is the IK Multimedia iRig Pro Duo I/O.

As an alternative you can use a standard class compliant interface for example the Steinberg UR 12 and power it with a power bank (the Steinberg has a separate input for driving it with a power bank). This is less pricy but little more effort (as you need powerbank, audio interface, IPad and cables to connect instruments, IPhone and powerbank) where the Zoom has the battery pack already built in. The Zoom has more features of course for mobile use.

Maybe there are other interfaces not needing external power / bus power and other community members can help (there are quite a few “mobile” interface with one channel but not so many with two I think)

Best regards
Andreas

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I use one of these

With one of these

… a couple of notes:

  • power from phone (and iPad) works for newer devices, iPhone 11 is fine, iPhone 10 requires lightning power supply into adapter.

  • folk say to get the official Apple usb camera adapter as they sometimes update their software to disable third party adapters. No experience of this, just what I read.

Edit:

  • even newer phones with usb-c may be good without the adapter, I won’t know anything about that for a few good years yet :slightly_smiling_face:
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Well, if they can sell you the adapter for ÂŁ45 :dizzy_face: then I guess they would.

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The NUX Mighty Plug Pro has 2 channels. It might do what you want. It might not. He is using open camera which is not available on iphone afaik. There might be alternatives to open camera though.

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Interesting I hadn’t even considered that any USB interface which can draw power through USB might be able to do so through the phone. In fact my PreSonus 2ch one works that way, it doesn’t even have a dedicated power-in.

I imagine I can find out the power requirements of a given device and and what power output a given Android/iPhone can supply.

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Buying a 3rd party MFI-certified cable is good enough (and probably any cable is good enough). The thing is not that Apple makes changes in order to disable the use of 3rd party accessories, but they warn that they cannot guarantee the correct functioning of non-MFI accessories after updates. Which in itself is fair enough, and the risk in the case of simple cables is probably next to 0. I know a lot of people using random 3rd party charging cables with their iPhone or iPad, but I’ve never heard of anyone having issues. So I wouldn’t fret too much about this.

MFI stands for “made for iPhone”, and is a certificate delivered by Apple confirming the accessory is up to their standards. I have a lightning charging cable from IKEA which was way cheaper (couple of euros) and stronger then the original Apple one and is MFI certified. Just to say there are even certified non Apple options out there without a premium price tag.

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I have a scarlett 2i2 that works with my iPhone. I wanted to try to get it working with garageband. I purchased a few USB charging adapters until I found one that worked. (Which is the official apple one, obviously the most expensive)

After that I learned that the connection is quite temperamental. I think you have to connect the interface and power to the adaptor, then the adaptor to the phone. Then open the app. If you lose the connection for any reason, you have to do all the steps again, at least that is my experience. I did it for a while then gave up, I struggled with the size of the phone screen to play around.

So be prepared to send the adaptors back, and fiddle a little, to get the sequence right.