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Audio(mic) volume issue

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SinsOfTheSaint

Hello, I'm new to this forum but not to Smule. I'm so frustrated!! I cannot sing a sustained note longer than about 2-3 seconds without my voice suddenly being suppressed. Help please, this has really got me down and depressed.

Using an Android smartphone and new apple earbuds.

Edited by SinsOfTheSaint
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opentype

Please provide more detailed information about the hard- and software you use. Otherwise it will be impossible to find a possible cause. 

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RamKrish1012

My Guess is that it is a compatibility issue between an Android Phone and Apple Ear Buds and Mic.

Once I accidentally plugged the Apple mike and ear phones to a Samsung Phone and found the pin was loose meaning lose contact. Does the Connecting pin have 2 lines(3.5mm - 3 Connector TRS) or 3 lines (3.5mm- 4 Connector TRRS Connector)

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SinsOfTheSaint
On 6/9/2018 at 10:16 PM, opentype said:

Please provide more detailed information about the hard- and software you use. Otherwise it will be impossible to find a possible cause. 

Greetings opentype and thank you for your response. I had actually hoped you would respond, as you seem to know your stuff. Following is the list of phone specs. Not clear on what else it is you would like, although I am happy to track any info down that may help. I'm just using my phone with Apple earbuds/mic and the most recent Smule Sing app.

 What I do know is that it specific to the recording function and only occurs with ear buds attached. I attempted to produce sustained sound for more than two seconds and the volume is automatically suppressed way down. I can sing another note and it jumps immediately back up but then down again, over and over. This is extremely frustrating. Is there anything I can do?

Thanks again openmic

Phone Specs:

Blade Z Max

SPECIFICATIONS

1.1%
383,077 hits

35
Become a fan

6.0"1080x1920 pixels

16MP1080p

2GB RAMSnapdragon 435

4080mAhLi-Ion

FooMetroPCS. Also known as ZTE Blade Z Max Z982.

NETWORK

TechnologyGSM / HSPA / LTE

LAUNCH

Released 2017, August

SIMNano-SIM

DISPLAY

TypeIPS LCD capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors

Size6.0 inches, 99.2 cm2 (~70.6% screen-to-body ratio)

Resolution1080 x 1920 pixels, 16:9 ratio (~367 ppi density)

MultitouchYes

ProtectionAsahi Dragontrail Glass

PLATFORM

OSAndroid 7.1.1 (Nougat)

ChipsetQualcomm MSM8940 Snapdragon 435

CPUOcta-core 1.4 GHz Cortex-A53

GPUAdreno 505

MEMORY

Card slotmicroSD, up to 128 GB

Internal32 GB, 2 GB RAM

CAMERA

PrimaryDual: 16 MP + 2 MP, phase detection autofocus, LED flash

FeaturesGeo-tagging, touch focus, face detection, HDR, panorama

Video1080p@30fps

Secondary8 MP

SOUND

Alert typesVibration; MP3, WAV ringtones

LoudspeakerYes

3.5mm jackYes

 - Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic
- Dolby Surround Sound

COMMS

WLANWi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Wi-Fi Direct, hotspot

Bluetooth4.2, A2DP, LE

GPSYes, with A-GPS, SUPL

RadioFM radio

USBType-C 1.0 reversible connector

FEATURES

SensorsFingerprint (rear-mounted), accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass

- Fast battery charging (Quick Charge 2.0)

- MP4/H.264 player
- MP3/WAV/eAAC+ player
- Document viewer
- Photo/video editor

Battery

Non removable litium ion

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opentype

It sounds like the mic gain is too low, so the automatic noise cancellation of Smule kicks in too early. 

I would try to use different headsets to see if they produce the same result. As RamKrish1012 said, there might be a problem with the headset or its connection.

If that doesn’t help, you can look into increasing the gain through the operating system. But I hardly ever Android, so I am not sure what options there are for your phone.  

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himanshusabot

This is interesting as someone who struggled to get clean transparent recording with good voice without any sound-loss. I M not much aware what smule software does. But I have this feeling, from a no of perms n combos from 5 standard headphone/ earphones w mics in 3.5 mm singlre jack (4 pin) with 3/4 android phones, that once u plug in the jack the external noise is greatly cut n the earphones mic gets control, but if one doesn't use a headphone) earphone then the phones mic takes over leading to amazing recording quality it it's a closed room; I guess here the smule studio settings might be effective for gd recording.

Moreover from above trials n errors I found that headphone mics n inbuilt mics in android smartphones are powerful enough for smooth singing, whereas if one uses low cost mics in y-shaped splitter-adapters of headphone n microphone connected by a single 4-pin 3.5mm jack, the voice quality drastically goes down and no consistent uniform recording, the voices become high n lies that was very irritating. Want to hear from you all. Thanks.

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RamKrish1012

Himanshu Currently I am using a gaming head phone which has no Mic and uses the Samsungs built in Mic. I was not very pleased with the outcome so I have spliced the standard android mic that comes with the ear plug to the Head Phone Cable so the Mic is located at the correct position and use a splitter to connect both to the Phone. Has worked OK so far but I am after even better and consistent quality. Am looking at Sennheiser MK4 Condensor Mic and a Sennheiser HD630VB head phones but then it is a very expensive option for hobby singers on smule costing USD $800 each..Others have suggested Bollinger. Will let you know when I finalise my optuons.

Cheers

Ram

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sZHMX

I'm having this issue too. I'm on the beta version of smule and the noise cancellation has been really harsh in the recent updates. The start of a note and sustained notes would be cancelled out abruptly. I normally use built in mics and this has been happening only from a few days ago. I wish smule would fix it asap. 

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himanshusabot

Thanks RanKrish 1012 Sir, for Ur inputs. I shall share my experience w u  n others too about this splitting of mic n audio-earphone from a single 4-pin 3.5 mm android slot to the recording qualities in diff smartphones, earphone, earphone+ mic hacks n their quality. Valuable experience I will share that myt help others. 

Will post later in 1/ 2 days. Please give sometym. Presently busy 

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himanshusabot

@sZHMX Hello Sir. Ur beta smule won't be of much help. If U wanna get a gd quality recording then get into vip that offers many possibilities. However, we r discussing here mostly the hardware parts of good crystal&clear recording. Hope u got, what I meant. If course this is no nudge for you to go for paid vip smule scheme. Thanks 

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himanshusabot
4 hours ago, sZHMX said:

Hello 😀 I never said I'm not a vip user. 

Ok Sir. 🙂✌️@sZHMX Hello Sir. Ur beta smule won't be of much help. If U wanna get a gd quality recording then get into vip that offers many possibilities. However, we r discussing here mostly the hardware parts of good crystal&clear recording. Hope u got, what I meant. If course this is no nudge for you to go for paid vip smule scheme. Thanks 

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  • 2 weeks later...
himanshusabot

I have no idea if head-/ ear-phone mics not able to hold sustained longer notes. I hv nt tried any such song or singing. So far d occasional longer, may b for 1/2 seconds singing I did, never faced any problem. 

But then I suspect, this could be due to mic quality (due to small size, randomly guesding)), whereas this myt not be the case if one uses larger, sensitive, high-end condenser-mics, although I have not tried.

My understanding of little physics tells me that the condenser acts as store house of soundcard which convert them later into music-notes, whereas d smaller, although may be sensitive, may not be hold on to n store such sustained notes and the high pitched soundcard may evaporate partially before reaching---guessing...

Another thing is that the inbuilt mic in android phones, when you plug in a good earphone/ headphone for recording, does not totally suppress the external louder honking, loudspeaker sounds (they pick up those even although as background noise) amidst a good song recording, I mean one can do a decent song recording. I M telling this as I stay in a roadside flat with frequent honking, BULLET motorcycle sounds, n loudspeaker blaring from nearby temples/ masjids n recreation-club song-playing.

May be one needs to use condenser, high quality mics for sustained-note singing, instead of the usually small earbud phones n headphones.

Would love to hear from you all

H K SABOT

 

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BrainDad

I don't think so. The way the issue reflects on the registered sound suggests it is some kind of software compressor that kicks in. It can be either designed to avoid noises disturbing the phone conversations, or music compressor overreacting or malfunctioning.

It might even be somehow hardcoded at low level on some sound chipsets , as they are intended to work with telephone conversations.

A studio condenser mic should'n be neccesary to record a sustained note. Also, there are a lot of dynamic quality mics that would be useless if they couldn't get a sustained note.

IMO, this is just karaoke ... of course, the earbud mics or phone mics are not designed with singing in mind, but if software doesn't interfere, they can yield quality enough for this purpose.

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himanshusabot

Thank you BrainDad for your viewpoints, Nice to know them. 

Yes, what you say mostly us true. As smartphones are proliferating n singing as hobby is catching up, I hope we myt be able to devise a way how to record clear song, sung by a commoner without too many technical glitches or expensive technical hardware.

Thank you. H K SABOT

 

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  • 1 month later...
SinsOfTheSaint

HELLO FOLKS! CHECKING BACK IN:(apologize for caps but I need to differentiate between my OLD reply below that never posted and my current reply now(8/26/18) Again, below are my phone specs as requested and my original replies..

  It's great to see that this topic lives on and that I am not the only one with this problem! Btw, 8 different sets of earbuds now and they ALL get suppressed on any kind of sustained note attempt.

  Himanshusabot::: So nice of you to show up here and share your experience and wisdom. I'd like to just say here that Braindad has been right on point with the very issue I originally posted about.

  PLEASE NOTE: For the sake of clarity and to bring this to focus once again, the problem is the following: Whenever I attempt to sing a note longer than a about 1 second the volume is significantly suppressed! Also, the recording quality seems to be compromised as well. PLEASE HELP!!

I feel like I have paid for WHAT these last months??

THANK YOU so much for any and all constructive input!

Peace

 

 

 

I'm pretty certain neither Smule, nor the earbuds is the culprit. As I mentioned, this occurs with the phones own proprietary voice recorder as well and with different sets of "buds". It does not happen without the buds though which in mind indicates my device's own sound cancellation hardware. Does this sound plausible?

Thanks opentype

 RK- so very sorry, I meant to and thought I had thanked you for your time. I'll respond directly.

On 6/10/2018 at 11:19 PM, SinsOfTheSaint said:

Greetings opentype and thank you for your response. I had actually hoped you would respond, as you seem to know your stuff. Following is the list of phone specs. Not clear on what else it is you would like, although I am happy to track any info down that may help. I'm just using my phone with Apple earbuds/mic and the most recent Smule Sing app.

 What I do know is that it specific to the recording function and only occurs with ear buds attached. I attempted to produce sustained sound for more than two seconds and the volume is automatically suppressed way down. I can sing another note and it jumps immediately back up but then down again, over and over. This is extremely frustrating. Is there anything I can do?

Thanks again openmic

Phone Specs:

Blade Z Max

SPECIFICATIONS

1.1%
383,077 hits

35
Become a fan

6.0"1080x1920 pixels

16MP1080p

2GB RAMSnapdragon 435

4080mAhLi-Ion

FooMetroPCS. Also known as ZTE Blade Z Max Z982.

NETWORK

TechnologyGSM / HSPA / LTE

LAUNCH

Released 2017, August

SIMNano-SIM

DISPLAY

TypeIPS LCD capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors

Size6.0 inches, 99.2 cm2 (~70.6% screen-to-body ratio)

Resolution1080 x 1920 pixels, 16:9 ratio (~367 ppi density)

MultitouchYes

ProtectionAsahi Dragontrail Glass

PLATFORM

OSAndroid 7.1.1 (Nougat)

ChipsetQualcomm MSM8940 Snapdragon 435

CPUOcta-core 1.4 GHz Cortex-A53

GPUAdreno 505

MEMORY

Card slotmicroSD, up to 128 GB

Internal32 GB, 2 GB RAM

CAMERA

PrimaryDual: 16 MP + 2 MP, phase detection autofocus, LED flash

FeaturesGeo-tagging, touch focus, face detection, HDR, panorama

Video1080p@30fps

Secondary8 MP

SOUND

Alert typesVibration; MP3, WAV ringtones

LoudspeakerYes

3.5mm jackYes

 - Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic
- Dolby Surround Sound

COMMS

WLANWi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Wi-Fi Direct, hotspot

Bluetooth4.2, A2DP, LE

GPSYes, with A-GPS, SUPL

RadioFM radio

USBType-C 1.0 reversible connector

FEATURES

SensorsFingerprint (rear-mounted), accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass

- Fast battery charging (Quick Charge 2.0)

- MP4/H.264 player
- MP3/WAV/eAAC+ player
- Document viewer
- Photo/video editor

Battery

Non removable litium ion

 

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BrainDad

Thinking about this issue ... I can figure an experiment.

My old phone had a mic hole in its back side, intended to get the noise coming from outside of the conversation and "substract" it from the front mic recording.

Maybe you can locate that mic hole and try to close it with a band aid or your finger , to fool the phone, and see if there is some difference.

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BrainDad

I've googled about this devices. It is called noise cancellation mic, and I've seen pretty much complains on the internet about android makers overusing that technique, resulting on bad recording issues. This one is about my very phone series:

http://en.miui.com/thread-561321-1-1.html

It seems people know how to tune that noise cancellation settings to the users' needs. It may , or may not, require root access to the phone. One option is the Sound about app.

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PeggyLeon

Hi...i am a new user here. In my case I found that headphone mics n inbuilt mics in android smartphones are powerful enough for smooth singing, whereas if one uses low cost mics in y-shaped splitter-adapters of headphone n microphone connected by a single 4-pin 3.5mm jack, the voice quality drastically goes down and no consistent uniform recording.

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himanshusabot

Hi BrainDad, That's a brilliant suggestion. And can be experimented. Yes, I found many of the android phones have excellent inbuilt mics for recording but with background small noise of extraneous sounds. I am further helped in this cause due to my fortuitous residence in a roadside 6th-storied flat, where I always get attention-seeking Royal Enfield Bullet mobile sounds, even in a closed room. Yes, these can be experimented. Thank you so much 4 Ur contribution.

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