I play piano and have a Yamaha C2 grand. I'd like to occasionally record using the video camera on my iPhone 4. I've done a couple of tests using the built-in mike, and also using the little mike on the included white earbuds; these are almost good enough for my purposes, but there's a little distortion, especially on louder passages. (See here for a couple of tests with the earbud mike.)
I'm just looking for something good enough to post on Facebook or YouTube, for the benefit (?) of friends and family who are willing to humor me and my amateurish playing. I'm not looking to become an hobbyist sound engineer. Unfortunately, all of the resources I've found online on recording piano (here, here, here, or here for example) are aimed at the high end and involve hundreds of dollars worth of bulky gear – multiple microphones, preamps and stands and cables and whatnot.
Some other options I've considered and/or tried:
- There are a lot of good USB mikes out there; I use the Blue Snowflake for videoconferencing on my computer. Someone suggested that I could use the USB-to-dock-connector adapter that comes with the iPad Camera Connection Kit to connect a USB mike to my iPhone. I've tried this and it doesn't work (accessory not supported message, no signal from the microhone).
- The Blue Mikey looks perfect, but alas doesn't work with the iPhone 4.
- The AMT M40 also looks like a good solution, but I'm not sure I can justify to my wife spending $500 on this.
So here are my criteria:
- I'm not looking for audiophile quality
- I'd prefer not to spend over, say, $100
- I'd prefer to stick with a single microphone
- I'd really prefer something self-contained, e.g. with a built-in preamp
- I'd like something that can live unobtrusively in my living room (for example, no floor mounts)
- I'd like for everything to be done on my iPhone – i.e. I don't want to record the audio separately on another device or on a computer and then have to combine it with the video.
Any suggestions?
Best Answer
Have you checked this? And maybe an accessory here.
Also a different alternative is shown here, using the headphone’s jack.