KVR Audio

uspino · Post by **uspino** » Mon Nov 21, 2011 9:13 pm

It's been way more than a year since the Blue Mikey and other external microphones became useless when the iPhone 4 and the iPad came out.

And finally someone is offering what looks a very well-built, small, professional microphone, from none other than Tascam.

$79, available now (although so far is nowhere to be seen). Let's just hope the d/a conversion is as good as Tascam is saying.

http://tascam.com/product/im2/

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dalor · Post by **dalor** » Mon Nov 21, 2011 9:16 pm

Hmm it would be nice if it can record beyond 44.1 khz up to 96khz.

knockman · Post by **knockman** » Mon Nov 21, 2011 9:55 pm

it does look promising.

http://tascam.com/product/im2/specifications/

only up to 44.1KHz/16bit but that would be fine for my purposes.
what would be most useful for me however, would be if it could be used in conjunction with the camera for video. i guess that's not happening though.

olja · Post by **olja** » Mon Nov 21, 2011 10:14 pm

Looks really good, been waiting for something like that. What will be crucial though, is if they open up for other apps to take advantage of it, not just their own recording app. Then it will be incredibly useful.

Chickenman · Post by **Chickenman** » Tue Nov 22, 2011 4:02 am

That is awesome, I want something for recording (drunken) acoustic jams when I am at my mates, was gong to buy a zoom thing but... hopefully this isn't too much of a bugger to get a hold of.

dayjob · Post by **dayjob** » Tue Nov 22, 2011 4:54 am

pretty much replaces the tascam recorder i've had for a few years now.

shadoe42 · Post by **shadoe42** » Tue Nov 22, 2011 4:02 pm

damn now if they will just build one for android phones

soundtrends · Post by **soundtrends** » Wed Nov 23, 2011 7:30 pm

yup, this looks sweet. Thanks for your post.

knockman · Post by **knockman** » Sun Dec 04, 2011 11:41 am

Well I pick one of these up today, after reading it would work with video and other recording apps. So far though, I haven't had any success getting my iPod touch to record with it

Seems my iPod only wants to use the built in mic!?!

I installed Tascam's PCMrecorder app but can't find anything in the settings that allows switching of input. The iM2's indicator is lit, but that's all. I've submitted a request for help to Tascam support but it'll probably take a few days. Perhaps there is something simple I'm missing?

Anyone else know what could be up?

aMUSEd · Post by **aMUSEd** » Sun Dec 04, 2011 11:48 am

uspino wrote:It's been way more than a year since the Blue Mikey and other external microphones became useless when the iPhone 4 and the iPad came out.

What made them useless?

I wonder if there is a disincentive for hardware manufacturers to support iOS devices if Apple constantly change the specs

ravedog · Post by **ravedog** » Sun Dec 04, 2011 2:45 pm

knockman wrote:Well I pick one of these up today, after reading it would work with video and other recording apps. So far though, I haven't had any success getting my iPod touch to record with it Seems my iPod only wants to use the built in mic!?!

Hey, I was wondering where you got one? According to the Tascam website, the only place to buy them is B&H Photo and they list it as only pre-order - not available yet. Any ideas?

Thanks.

G.

knockman · Post by **knockman** » Sun Dec 04, 2011 8:52 pm

ravedog wrote:
knockman wrote:Well I pick one of these up today, after reading it would work with video and other recording apps. So far though, I haven't had any success getting my iPod touch to record with it Seems my iPod only wants to use the built in mic!?!
Hey, I was wondering where you got one? According to the Tascam website, the only place to buy them is B&H Photo and they list it as only pre-order - not available yet. Any ideas?

Thanks.

G.

Yodobashi Camera, Tokyo. Some brands are often out a little earlier here. Perhaps too early, as it doesn't seem to work! I'm sure there's something simple I'm overlooking though.

Cheers

ravedog · Post by **ravedog** » Wed Dec 07, 2011 6:04 pm

knockman wrote:
Yodobashi Camera, Tokyo. Some brands are often out a little earlier here. Perhaps too early, as it doesn't seem to work! I'm sure there's something simple I'm overlooking though.

Cheers

Thanks. Looks like I'll have to wait!

dayjob · Post by **dayjob** » Wed Dec 07, 2011 9:13 pm

shadoe42 wrote:damn now if they will just build one for android phones

i've read some things about android phones and audio apps lately that do not inspire hope that they will do any such thing.

i guess the audio hardware in android phones is not well spec'd and doesn't do anything with a reasonable latency. but i've also read that google isn't taking the software part of it seriously.

there's a whole bunch of blah blah blah here about it but i take it all with a grain of salt

http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=3434

knockman · Post by **knockman** » Wed Dec 07, 2011 10:14 pm

Well, I'm still having no joy getting this to work

Every app continues to use the built in mic - there's simply no way to select input or switch between the two. I only have an ipod touch, but all the online info/packaging says it is compatible. I'm beginning to doubt this is the case though, as I read that iOS devices read the iM2 as a USB audio device. As far as I was aware, this option has always been disabled on the ipod.

I have read that if a headset were plugged into the jack socket it might cause the device to go with the headset mic rather than the iM2. Similarly having headphones plugged in might cause the device to automatically select the built in mic. In such a case the iM2 user guide says to unplug the headphones and plug them in again for the device to switch to the iM2 for input. Unfortunately, the ipod's headphone socket is blocked by the iM2, so there's no way to test that

My support request to Tascam hasn't been answered yet, I'll give them a couple more days, then I'll approach a stranger carrying an iphone or ipad and ask then to test it for me.

Finally! An external microphone for the iPhone 4, 4S and iPad