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  • How to use Professional Vocal Microphones with Smule

    If you start out with the Sing! App on your phone or tablet, you probably use a simple headset like the one that came with the device. And that is fine! The Apple EarBuds for example are pretty good for what they cost. But if you are looking for better options you will find that the professional microphones used on stage or in studios are meant to be plugged into a professional mixer, not a phone or tablet. But with a little device, you can use any professional mic in the Sing! app. There are two problems to overcome:

    Audio cable jacks

    Professional microphones use the XLR connector standard with three pins. Today’s phones and tablets use a 3.5-mm 4-conductor audio jack for analog audio input (microphone) and output (headphones). It is basically a tweaked headphone socket with an additional connection for the microphone to save the room for a dedicated microphone input socket. As a result, you can plug any headphone with a 3.5-mm jack into your phone, but not any microphone. The microphone cable needs to be specifically made to work with these 4-conductor phone sockets. So even microphones with a 3.5-mm phone connector, which might work for your computer or digital camera, won’t work with your phone or tablet without an adaptor—even though the jack fits in the socket. And XLR microphones aren’t meant to be plugged into phone ports at all. 

    jackcomparison.jpg

    • Left: XLR jack
    • Middle: standard phone connector jack with 3 conductors for left, right, ground (“TRS”—Tip, Ring, Sleeve)
    • Right: Typical smartphone connector jack with 4 conductors for left, right, ground and microphone/control signals (“TRRS”—Tip, Ring, Ring, Sleeve)

    Phantom Power

    Professional microphones, especially the ones used in studios, are often condenser microphones. They require a permanent power source to work. If you just plug a condenser mic in a regular mic input, you won’t hear anything at all. To make a condenser mic work with Smule, you not only need an XLR to phone connector adaptor, you also need to provide the necessary phantom power. But luckily there are several devices available to achieve this and they aren’t even that expensive. 

    irig1.jpg

    A common choice is the iRig PRE, which I use myself. You can plug in any XLR microphone including condenser mics. The phantom power is provided by a battery which lasts for about 10 hours (or 30 for dynamic microphones). There is a gain control knob on the side of the iRigPRE. You need to play around with it a little bit to find the perfect setting, so the mic input signal in Smule is neither too high nor too low. There is an additional headphone socket on the device, so you can still hear the audio signal from your phone or tablet. However, the sound quality is not as good as when you plug the headphones directly into your phone or tablet and the buttons of the Apple EarBuds also stop working. 

    The iRigPRE output is an analog audio signal, so you can be sure it works with any app that supports the regular mic input port (so basically all of them). There is also the much more expensive iRig Pro I/O, which has a digital output and connects to your device through a lightning or USB cable. This should provide a better audio quality with less noise, but I haven’t tested it myself and can’t say if it is compatible with the Sing! app. 

    Similar to the iRigPRE, both in price and functionality is the TASCAM iXZ. The advantage of it is that the input socket does not only support XLR jacks, but also 6.35-mm jacks for guitar/line input. As with the iRigPRE you can be sure this works with Smule and any iOS device with a 3.5-mm headphone socket. 

    tascam.jpg

     

    The discussion section below this article has been closed. If you have more questions regarding this topic, please use the forum. The many questions can be structured and answered better there. 

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    Great article! I just upgraded after my iRig mic combo thing stopped working. I bought the prerig and MXL 990 condenser mic.  I am still trying to get a feel for it.   I think the battery life might become an issue! I try to remember to turn it off between songs, but i haven't quite got there yet, and have gone through 15$ in 9v batteries in a week. This could get expensive.  Any suggestions on good dynamic mics?

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    opentype

    Posted

    56 minutes ago, TalulahMae said:

    I think the battery life might become an issue! I try to remember to turn it off between songs, but i haven't quite got there yet …

    Yes, one needs to be disciplined to turn it off when its not used. Forget it just once and the battery will be empty the next morning. 

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    I have sm 58 and LG G4. I use a jack connector but my phone still doesnt recognize my mic. Any suggestion?

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    opentype

    Posted

    50 minutes ago, Diding Damanik said:

    I have sm 58 and LG G4. I use a jack connector but my phone still doesnt recognize my mic. Any suggestion?

    Do you use any of the adapters mentioned in the article? Just a cable XLR to 3.5mm phone jack usually isn’t enough and might not even be wired correctly. You need an adapter like the iRig PRE .

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    I actually sometimes use two microphones with 2 devices and record into a blank track in addition to the track I am joining. SO I get a copy of my vocal only, and then I can use that to mix myself. I have iRig Pro and an iRig Duo and I use a Shield. I finally invested in rechargeable batteries which seems to be the way to go, for the iRig Duo.

    Microphone Set Up.jpg

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    Ben

    Posted

    Hi there!

    I have a Rode NT-USB with a genuine Apple USB to Lightning connector, but can't seem to get it working with Sing! on my iPad Pro. 

    Any suggestions?

    Regards

    Ben

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    opentype

    Posted

    16 hours ago, Ben said:

    Hi there!

    I have a Rode NT-USB with a genuine Apple USB to Lightning connector, but can't seem to get it working with Sing! on my iPad Pro. 

    Any suggestions?

    Start Garageband first to activate/set up the microphone. 

    It was discussed in the forums before:

     

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    Meiii90

    Posted (edited)

    hi ! im using irig pre & condenser mic for sing! app with samsung galaxy note 4

    and its work ! but why cannot monitoring the sound ?  

    anyone can help me to solve this problem ? 

    Edited by Meiii90

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    The trick is to open Garage Band first and turn the monitor on there and then switch to Sing!

     

    Good luck!

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    opentype

    Posted

    9 hours ago, Meiii90 said:

    but why cannot monitoring the sound ?  

    So you have your headphones plugged into the iRig?
    Does is play nothing at all? Or just not the mic sound? (Which would be normal on Android)

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    If you are using headphones with built in mics, you need to buy and extension lead for the headphones that only carries the left and right channel. Two rings on the plug, not 3. Plug these into your iPad headphone socket, not the mic. 

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    Bijesh kv

    Posted

    It's great that we can connect professional microphones using iRig pre , tascam etc....But what about live monitoring of vocals while singing? Do we have an option to hear ourselves singing , which will make a huge lot of difference.

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    opentype

    Posted

    2 minutes ago, Bijesh kv said:

    It's great that we can connect professional microphones using iRig pre , tascam etc....But what about live monitoring of vocals while singing? Do we have an option to hear ourselves singing , which will make a huge lot of difference.

    Depends on your device. On iOS devices the music and vocals are both played. As far as I heard, Android devices still don’t have that feature. 

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    dasnabajyoti

    Posted

    Hello Sir,

    I am having Android phone and I purchased one NeeweerNW800 XLR Microphone and it not working with Android Smule App. If I purchase Phntom power 48V, whether will it be work for sound recording with my Mobile phone device.

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    opentype

    Posted

    3 hours ago, dasnabajyoti said:

    Hello Sir,

    I am having Android phone and I purchased one NeeweerNW800 XLR Microphone and it not working with Android Smule App. If I purchase Phntom power 48V, whether will it be work for sound recording with my Mobile phone device.

    You need something like the iRig PRE. It provides the phantom power AND has a regular mic/headphone jack you can connect to phones with an audio socket. 

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    Hey guys, would it be possible to use a mixer instead of the iRig? I actually want to buy a mixer for recording to PC anyway. The one I chose has Stereo XLR and 6,3mm Jack OUT so all I need is a way to get that signal to a cable with 4 conductors. But not sure if this works or if such a cable exists? 

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    opentype

    Posted

    I think there are a few Smule users who use a mixer, e.g. to connect a vocal and a guitar mic at the same time. 

    But you still need an adapter to convert the mixer signals and have the headphone output work at the same time. An XLR to phone jack cable wouldn’t work. XLR cables should always have XLR on both sides. 

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    I record voiceovers from home, so I have a somewhat elaborate set up including several dynamic and condenser mics.  As far as dynamic, in my opinion, Shure is the best.  There are diff models so it depends on what you want to spend. Condenser mics are a different story... if you sing metal, you need a mic that can handle the dB I have a RODE NT-1 that I love but if I get too loud, it pops and distorts.  It def can't handle anything too loud.  As far as singing, I like my AKG C414 XLII.  (AKG C412 also a nice mic that's cheaper). The AKG 414 has 9 polar pattern options,3 bass cut filters and preattenuation levels and dynamic range of 152dB.   I have several others, but I use them for work and I'm sure no one wants to spend thousands on a mic just for smule 😂😂😂. 

     

     

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    On 8/14/2017 at 7:13 PM, MusicalianMusic said:

    Hey guys, would it be possible to use a mixer instead of the iRig? I actually want to buy a mixer for recording to PC anyway. The one I chose has Stereo XLR and 6,3mm Jack OUT so all I need is a way to get that signal to a cable with 4 conductors. But not sure if this works or if such a cable exists? 

    Look at tchelicon devices.  Fairly simple to setup and you can use on mobile device or computer. 

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