phones
Phone sound recording will often need further clarification. You might have a camera with pristine quality, but poor battery life. You might have a long lasting battery, but poor sound quality. Each phone model offers varying quality in its features.
built-in microphone
Microphones were originally developed alongside the phones. Today, most people carry a cell phone, and therefore a microphone, with them at all times. Making phone sound recording the most convenient way to record anytime. What kind of microphones are used in cell phones? Typically tiny electret condenser or MEMS microphones. These mics require very little power to function, which is easily supplied by the cell phone battery. They also fit nicely within the circuitry of the typical cell phone. The newer the phone model, likely the better their mics as well.
EXTERNAL microphones
So even though cell phones are built with electret and MEMS internal microphones, they can also “use” external microphones. Cell phones can connect to wireless Bluetooth microphones (modern smartphones all have Bluetooth capabilities). Smartphones (which make up a great number of the cell phones on the market today) can also accept signals from external microphones through their headphone jacks (TRRS) and through their charging ports.
phone sound recording tips
Recording via USB is better option than TRRS if your phone supports it.
If you are using an external microphone, make sure the connectors are compatible with your phone.
Watch sound levels to make sure you are picking up enough sound, but not overwhelming your microphones.
Try to monitor the levels, while recording. It helps keep the levels within range.
Sound files can be large, depending on your sampling rate, so make sure you have enough storage.
phone or a recorder?
Phones are in our pocket, very convenient to just pull them out, when we need to record something on the go. But the convenience comes with a price. Since phones have so many functions, these functions are not professional by far. And will sacrifice the quality of an audio recording as well. So it all comes down to your specific needs. If you tend to record voice memos, while holding the phone near you in a fairly low noise environment then of course go with a phone. If however you consider using the recorder to record something important, maybe in more noisy environment, or planning to hide the recorder out of sight, then you need a dedicated recorder. Compare voice recorders.
nd recording, phone sound recording
