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A quick word about audio codecs: The iPhone’s Voice Memo app uses the MPEG-4 codec to record and playback audio files — and compresses these files using the Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) codec or the Apple Lossless Audio Codec (ALAC). You want the Lossless codec, to ensure the highest possible quality.
To get the highest quality audio with Voice Memo:
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Press the big red Record button to start your audio recording |
When you are finished recording, select the three ellipses “...” button to open up the menu options for this audio file: |
And select “Share” to send the audio file to your computer via AirDrop or to your email inbox. |
The resulting file should have a file extension of “.M4A” When you open the file in Premiere, you will see that the file was recorded as Mono, with a sample rate of 44.1kHz. |
How to Record Audio with your Android
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There are several good free apps on the Google Play store for audio recording, and we recommend “Easy Voice Recorder”. First, download the app.
Open Easy Voice Recorder |
Click the hamburger menu in the top right corner of the screen |
Select “Settings” |
Change Sound Quality to “High” |
In the Tuning Menu, make sure the Format is “.WAV” |
And change the Sample Rate to 48kHz |
Go back to the main settings menu. Under Advanced & Troubleshooting, make sure “Compress PCM files when sharing” toggle is switched OFF |
Now you are ready to start recording audio files! Just hit the red microphone button when you are ready to start. |
When you are done recording, you can find your audio list in the “Listen” tab. Here you can also share your audio file with a nearby device or via email. |
The resulting file should have a file extension of “.WAV” When you open the file in Premiere, you will see that the file was recorded as Mono, with a sample rate of 48kHz and a Bit Depth of 16. |
Upgrading your Phone Mic
For an improvement in audio recording quality (and a higher sampling rate than the 8 kHz of the built-in iPhone mic), you could purchase an external mic for your phone:
- For iPhone specifically:
- Rode Directional mic (TRRS connection) - $55.00
- Rode Directional mic (Lightning connection) - $79.00
- Zoom Mid-Side Stereo mic (Lightning connection) - $99
- Shure MOTIV MV88 Condenser mic (Lightning connection) - $149
- For Android specifically:
- Zoom Am7 (USB-C connection) - $99.99
- Rode Directional Mic (and “Vlogger kit”) (USB-C connection) - $149
Each of these mics come with software for your phone, allowing you to record WAV files (instead of M4A files) at a 48kHz sampling rate, and control the microphone sensitivity.