How To Connect A Professional XLR Studio Condenser Microphone To A Smartphone - With A Rode NT1A
87See below for a list of the stuff used in this video.
This video has a number of my personal preliminary microphone clips in it were I show How To Connect A Professional XLR Studio Condenser Microphone To A Smartphone.
The reason for doing this is mostly to use an XLR studio condenser mic for vlogging on a mobile vlogging rig using an Android SmartPhone. Although this configuration will also work for anyone wanting to connect an external professional studio condenser microphone to an iPhone or other IOS devices.
This setup will also work very well for doing video interview work with an Android or IOS iPhone SmartPhone. In Fact, this will work for virtually any scenario where you want to connect an XLR mic to a SmartPhone for any dialogue or sound recording application. I dare say that these types of setups are perfect for anyone using a SmartPhone for Indie filmmaking or short film production.
Aside from this video showing the capture of video as well as the audio. These setups would allow you to use your Android or IOS iPhone SmartPhone as an audio recorder with high end microphones. Something which would be good for recording synchronised dialogue/audio and as a replacement for a typical location audio field recorder.
This video also shows you one of many ways to connect an external microphone to a smartphone.
Two takes use the Saramonic SmartRig. This will supply phantom power to the attached microphone, in this case the Rode NT1A. The SmartRig connects to the phone via a 3.5mm male TRS to 3.5mm male TRRS cable. Unfortunately, this way of connecting can introduce noise and other artefacts due to a phone's analogue to digital conversion, preamplifier and the usual high level of dynamics processing, such as limiting and compression that most phones apply to anything coming in on the headphone microphone input socket. This in no way is a reflection of the quality of the Saramonic SmartRig, it's just the phone.
The other tests are with the IK Multimedia iRig Pro. This has an awesome analogue stage, including its mic preamp and gain stage. It also supplies the 48 volts of power required for phantom power. The most important thing about this interface is that it does all the digital to analogue conversion itself and then simply bitstreams the data to the phone via USB.
Two important things with that.
1. The iRig Pro has a fantastic analogue to digital converter, which can equal the quality of many pro A/D units.
2. When the phone receives the audio via a pre converted signal through its USB interface, it usually does not apply any further dynamics processing.
Anyways. I hope this video has shown you what it's like to use a Rode NT1A as vlogging microphone, or more to the point, using the Rode NT1A as proper mobile vlogging mic :)
For anyone interested, here is a list of the main stuff I used in the video.
FULL DISCLOSURE ABOUT MY AMAZON LINKS. I WILL RECEIVE AN AFFILIATE COMMISSION FOR ANY PURCHASES USING MY AMAZON LINKS.
The main grip/rig was the Ulanzi ST-02S, which is awesome it's had of aluminium and has a cold shoe on top:
http://geni.us/Ulanzi
http://geni.us/UlanziUK
The cable for connecting the Smartrig was the Rode SC7 TRS to TRRS:
http://geni.us/RodeSC7
The small desk stand is this one:
http://geni.us/NeewerSmallLightStand
Here's the Saramonic Smartrig XLR phantom power analogue preamp. There's also a newer updated version.
http://geni.us/SaramonicSmartrig2
http://geni.us/SmartRig
The iRig Pro I used may not be made anymore, I'm not sure, but here's the newer model:
http://geni.us/iRigPro
The mic I used is the Rode NT1A:
http://geni.us/NT1A
The cradle that I used for the NT1A was out of this cheap mic set, which also has a foam shield that fits the NT1A perfectly:
http://geni.us/NT1AcheapfilterUSA
http://geni.us/NT1AcheapfilterUK
As for the pistol grip, there's loads out there just find the one that suits you. And the phone I used was the Google Pixel, but most Android and iPhone IOS phones will do, just use whichever is best for you.
I hope this video was of help and you and maybe entertaining :)
Thank you very much for watching this video, take care and goodbye now.
Cheers,
Dave.
www.DavidHarry.com
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