Last Update: 1/4/21 Applications Manual for Sound Recording with iOS Sonic Presence SP15 USB-C Spatial Microphone™ Applications Manual for Sound Recording with iOS iPhone Version 3.0 Sonic Presence SP15 captures three-dimensional audio on iOS devices by connecting through the USB-C port. This manual will help you get started and offer useful tips to get the most out of your SP15. Table of Contents 1. SP15 Spatial Microphone BEST PRACTICES 2. Making a Great Sound Recording 3.
Last Update: 1/4/21 Applications Manual for Sound Recording with iOS 1. SP15 Spatial Microphone™ Sonic Presence captures sound with stunning realism. It’s as if you are there. The sound is a perfect match for today’s mobile devices, especially the latest 4K/HD models. What’s been missing up until now is the ability to capture sound with a realism that matches the picture. The SP15 Spatial Microphone solves the problem.
Last Update: 1/4/21 Applications Manual for Sound Recording with iOS 2. Making a Great Sound Recording - by Russ Hamm People ask me why is it so difficult to make a great sound recording? I know the challenge well. When I started out as a young sound engineer, I struggled to find answers to questions like: what’s the right placement for the microphones? How many microphones do I need to use? How do I set levels, so I don’t get distortion? It’s a steep learning curve.
Last Update: 1/4/21 Applications Manual for Sound Recording with iOS 3. Connecting the SP15 to iOS Devices The SP15 uses the industry standard USB-C plug to connect to your iOS device. A short male to male cable is included that plugs directly into the USB-C port on the current generation of iPads. Apple has not upgraded the iPhone to directly support USB-C as of this writing. iPhones use a proprietary “Lightning” connector.
Last Update: 1/4/21 Applications Manual for Sound Recording with iOS 4. Digital Audio File Formats Table Quality Ultra High CD Good Fair Sampling 96kHz 48kHz 44.1kHz 44.1kHz 44.1kHz Word Size 24bit 24bit 16bit 16bit 16bit Format PCM PCM PCM AAC MP3 Bit Rate 4,608kbps 2,304kbps 1,411kbps 320kbps 128kbps 5.
Last Update: 1/4/21 Applications Manual for Sound Recording with iOS 6. Recommended Audio and Video Apps for iOS The following Apps record stereo sound on iOS devices using Sonic Presence’s SP15 Spatial Microphone. This manual describes each App’s functions for making an original Audio Recording. Many of the Apps have additional signal processing functions (editing, equalization, dynamics) that are not addressed here. For details about these functions, please consult each App’s Instruction Manual.
Last Update: 1/4/21 Applications Manual for Sound Recording with iOS 6a. Voice Memos Audio Recording App – sampling frequency 48kHz, Apple Lossless and AAC files www.apple.com Voice Memos is a very simple and easy to use App that comes installed on every iPhone. You find this App in the iPhones “Utilities” folder. It’s intended for mono recording with the built-in mic, however when you plug-in the SP-15 Spatial Microphone, it records in Stereo. The Voice Memos main screen has one button: Record.
Last Update: 1/4/21 Applications Manual for Sound Recording with iOS Pushing the three dots (…) opens a menu to Edit, Duplicate or Share. The Share menu gives you a wide range of choices for exporting the file and sending it to other Applications on your phone. The Apps default setting records files in the AAC format. It is 48kHz sample rate with 128kbit compressed quality. That’s OK for voice memos, but for Music you want something much better.
Last Update: 1/4/21 Applications Manual for Sound Recording with iOS 6b. ShurePlus™ Motiv Audio Audio Recording App – sampling frequency 44.1/48kHz, 16 or 24-bit output file size www.shure.com ShurePlus™ Motiv is a clear, straight forward App for recording stereo audio. The main screen has the basic transport controls, a simple waveform display of the audio track and easy to read level meters.
Last Update: 1/4/21 Applications Manual for Sound Recording with iOS “Record” button to start recording. Push the “Pause” button to stop recording. Push the “Check” button to save your recording. That’s it! USB Mic Input control not showing The USB interface sometimes gets confused trying to figure out what controls are available. This is particularly true when you switch between Apps. Best practice is to make sure you close all Apps that may be running in background.
Last Update: 1/4/21 Applications Manual for Sound Recording with iOS Our Meter check and Level testing (see Section 7) reveal the following: The meter scale calibration is a tapered log scale, which is very useful for monitoring the recording level. The two red segments indicate a 3dB range, which borders on the maximum level before distortion. The yellow segments show the signal level between -12 and -3 where the normal level peaks should register.
Last Update: 1/4/21 Applications Manual for Sound Recording with iOS 6c. Apogee MetaRecorder(coming soon) 6c. TwistedWave Audio Recording App – sampling frequency up to 96kHz, 24-bit output file size. www.twistedwave.com IMPORTANT: FIRST: plug the USB Camera Adaptor Cable into your iOS device. SECOND: plug the SP15 into the Camera Adaptor Cable. THIRD: launch the App. Following this procedure will ensure your device recognizes the SP15.
Last Update: 1/4/21 Applications Manual for Sound Recording with iOS When starting a New Recording, the following screen pops up, so you can select the sampling frequency and track format. You access the Settings menu from the Main Screen by pressing the “Gear” icon. Set the App to record 32-bit temporary files These files will be stored internally. Later, you can process them to 24-bit or 16-bit when you output the file in its final format. © 2020 Sonic Presence, Inc.
Last Update: 1/4/21 Applications Manual for Sound Recording with iOS The choice of file type and word size in bits, is set in the Export File menu. You access the menu by pressing the Export icon located at the upper right of the Main Screen. The Export menu allows you to send files by email or cloud services using the Wi-Fi network connection. Pressing “Format” on the Export menu brings up this screen: WAV, AIFF, CAF are all linear formats with no compression of the data.
Last Update: 1/4/21 Applications Manual for Sound Recording with iOS Meter Check and Level Test We made the tests with the “Input Gain” set to the center of the slider. We recommend this gain setting as a good starting point. Our acoustic signal generator calibrated to 114dB.SPL registers “-10” on the meter display. That same source set to 94dB SPL registers -30 on the meters.
Last Update: 1/4/21 Twisted Wave scale scale marking generator mV rms calculated level in dB PB level dB(analog) reference acoustic level Applications Manual for Sound Recording with iOS Mic Volume = center green -60 na na na green -30 6 -30.0 30 94dB SPL green -20 19 -20.0 20 green -12 49 -11.8 12 yellow -6 95 -6.0 6 red 0 190 0 0 120dB SPL © 2020 Sonic Presence, Inc. / All products US and International Patent Pending / sonicpresence.
Last Update: 1/4/21 Applications Manual for Sound Recording with iOS 6d. GarageBand Audio Recording App – sampling frequency 44.1kHz, output files in compressed format. www.apple.com GarageBand for iPhone has a very clean Main Screen layout, but with limited controls. There are no controls in GarageBand to set sampling frequency (it’s fixed at 44.1kHz) or word size (it’s fixed at 16 bits). There’s a VU meter that monitors the level of the combined audio channels.
Last Update: 1/4/21 Applications Manual for Sound Recording with iOS This screen shows you the Input Level (Mic Volume) slider control. It’s not calibrated, but behind it is a meter showing the recording level with green, yellow and red indications. We set the slider to the mid position, which worked well for our tests. You access this track layout screen by clicking on the “…” icon from the Main Screen. With this App, you can record and overdub multiple tracks although we only used it for Stereo.
Last Update: 1/4/21 Applications Manual for Sound Recording with iOS We set the input level control to the center position, which gave our 120dB SPL acoustic test signal a reading ‘+5dB on the front meter. You can see from the record and playback readings in the table they follow our generator level very closely. That means this App exhibits good signal linearity, which means that changes in the Output Level accurately follow changes in the Input Level.
Last Update: 1/4/21 Applications Manual for Sound Recording with iOS 6e. RØDE Audio Recording App – sampling frequency 44.1/48kHz, output file 24-bits resolution. www.rode.com The Initial Screen for the Røde App is actually your library of Recordings. To make a new recording, click on the microphone icon at the bottom left of the screen. Here you see the Configure Screen where you can select the sampling frequency from 8kHz to 48kHz. You also have the option to select mono or stereo modes.
Last Update: 1/4/21 Applications Manual for Sound Recording with iOS The Main Screen of the Røde App features a clean layout with audio meters at the top, just above the time code display. The waveform monitor is in the middle of the screen with big buttons for transport control at the bottom. The meters are a bit small, but they do show both tracks of the stereo signal. The meters are in Monitor Mode, so you can see your input levels immediately without hitting Record. These meters use the K scale.
Last Update: 1/4/21 Applications Manual for Sound Recording with iOS We suggest you start with the Mic Volume set to its mid position just to the right of the cursor. (see screen photo). That’s the setting we used for our tests with good results. You adjust the signal level with the slider control using the meters as your guide. Here is a graphic to illustrate the settings we used in our tests. The center of the range aligns just to the right of the waveform display’s cursor.
Last Update: 1/4/21 Applications Manual for Sound Recording with iOS On the Control Screen you see many functions in addition to the Mic Gain (Input Level) control. Be sure to turn the “iOS Processing” to OFF. This is a type of Automatic Level processing that compresses the audio signal often in undesirable ways. Note: “Digital Boost” is actually the Playback Level. This control does not have an effect on the Record Level.
Last Update: 1/4/21 Applications Manual for Sound Recording with iOS Before hitting the Create Audio File, you select the Format. Here are the formats you can choose for your output file. You can repeat the Create Audio File process for each type of file you want to output. Now when you go to the iTunes File Finder, the files will appear in the Røde folder. If you selected the WAV file Format, the shorter files will be WAV, while longer files will be in CAF Format.
Last Update: 1/4/21 Applications Manual for Sound Recording with iOS loud, a slight nudge to the left is all that’s needed. Same rule of thumb for softer sounds. A slight nudge to the right is all that’s needed. Røde Mic Volume Scale --Gain dB -30 --20 -10 center 0 + +15 ++ +25 +++ +35 Our acoustic signal generator calibrated to 120dB.SPL registers in the red scale on the meter display. That same acoustic generator set to 94dB SPL registers in the mid green scale on the meter display.
Last Update: 1/4/21 Applications Manual for Sound Recording with iOS The big red button on the bottom left starts the recording. The small “Start” button at the top right also starts recording. The “iiII” icon on the upper right brings up the Level Check screen. © 2020 Sonic Presence, Inc. / All products US and International Patent Pending / sonicpresence.
Last Update: 1/4/21 Applications Manual for Sound Recording with iOS Here you can see the input Source is set to Sonic Presence. Just above the Input Source you have the Mic Volume slider (Input Gain). You should set this to “0” for most situations. That’s the level we chose to calibrate this App for our tests. At the top of the screen are the meters, which are switchable to VU or PPM. This is everything you need to set your levels before pushing Record.
Last Update: 1/4/21 Applications Manual for Sound Recording with iOS Meter check and Level Test This measurement table shows our test generator’s signal levels together with the VRP 7 App’s meter readings and the headphone analog output level. We set the Input Gain to “0” for these tests. The headphone analog output level is 6dB below the other iOS Apps we tested. We do not know why this is the case.
Last Update: 1/4/21 Applications Manual for Sound Recording with iOS 6g. ShurePlus Motiv™ Video Video App with Sound Recording – Sample rate 44.1 & 48kHz, WAV and AAC file formats www.shure.com ShurePlus Motiv™ Video is a straight forward, easy to use video App with great audio features. Here is the main screen: There are controls for adjusting picture contrast, exposure resolution and so on. To understand these Video Control functions, refer to the App’s manual.
Last Update: 1/4/21 Applications Manual for Sound Recording with iOS You see “External Mic.” Indicated at the top and the large audio level meters. Below the meters is the Input level control. It should initially be set to 50%, which is the calibrated level of the SP15. That level is set so that 0dB on the meter scale is equal to a level of 120dB SPL. Meter check and Level Testing The meter scale calibration is a tapered log scale, which is very useful for monitoring the recording level.
Last Update: 1/4/21 Applications Manual for Sound Recording with iOS The Audio Gain control is calibrated from 0% to 100%. We measured the actual gain/attenuation in dB with a reference of 0dB at the center or 50%. As you can see there is a wide range of adjustment. We recommend you stay within plus or minus 12dB to avoid distortion. Motiv Mic Gain Scale 0% Gain dB -30 20% -20 40% -10 50% 0 60% +10 80% +20 100% +30 6h. Apple Camera Video App with Sound Recording – sample rate 44.
Last Update: 1/4/21 Applications Manual for Sound Recording with iOS This App has very limited video controls and sometimes exhibits unpredictable behavior for audio. Make sure you put your iPhone in Air Plane mode to avoid disruptions due to phone calls and message notifications. 6i. ProMovie Recorder Video App with Sound Recording – sample rate 44.1/48kHz, output file in PCM format. www.promovieapp.com Here you see the Main Screen of the ProMovie Recorder App.
Last Update: 1/4/21 Applications Manual for Sound Recording with iOS You see the App recognizes the Sonic Presence USB Input Device provided you’ve followed our procedure. Below the microphone indication is an Audio Gain slider that adjusts the Mic Volume. It’s calibrated from 0 to 100%, which is not exactly a pro audio standard, but is sufficient as a reference. Our testing showed the best results when the slider was at 50%. You can select the sampling rate of 44.1kHz or 48kHz.
Last Update: 1/4/21 Applications Manual for Sound Recording with iOS ProMovie iOS scale generator mV rms calculated level in dB PB level dB(analog) Comment white 5 -30.1 -32 white 10 -24.1 -26 white 20 -18.1 -20 white 40 -12.0 -14 yellow 80 -6.0 -8 red 160 0 -2 Clean 6j. FiLMiC Pro Video App with Sound Recording – sampling frequency up to 96kHz, output file 24-bit PCM format. www.filmicpro.com Here’s the Main Screen for the Filmic Pro App for iPhone.
Last Update: 1/4/21 Applications Manual for Sound Recording with iOS The Audio menu select icon is in the top middle row. Pressing this Icon opens another menu. The top selector bar indicates which microphone connects to the audio input. In this case it clearly indicates that Sonic Presence is the selected input device. IMPORTANT: FIRST: plug the USB Camera Adapter Cable into your iOS device. SECOND: plug the SP15 into the Camera Adapter Cable. THIRD: launch the App.
Last Update: 1/4/21 Applications Manual for Sound Recording with iOS -24 -18 -12 -6 3 0dB While this App has a meter, there is no way to control the audio input level. We’ve calibrated the internal level of the VR15-USB so 0dB is equal to 120 dB SPL. That is as loud as it gets at a heavily amplified Rock Concert. If you see the meters hitting Red, then back away. You’re damaging your hearing! Here is our table showing the audio performance.
Last Update: 1/4/21 Applications Manual for Sound Recording with iOS RF interference may occur in urban areas. Make sure your device is set to “Airplane Mode”. Left and right channels are reversed Make sure to put your SP15 Spatial Microphone on the correct ears. Left and Right are marked “L” and “R”. 8. Dynamic Range Our basic design concept for the SP15 was to develop a sound recording device which simulates human hearing as closely as possible.
Last Update: 1/4/21 Applications Manual for Sound Recording with iOS The VR15-USB microphone design incorporates a 24-bit analog converter. We’ve chosen 120dBSPL as the level at which we generate a full scale 24-bit digital sample. Our experience with live music proves this is sufficient for recording extremely loud concert performances of amplified bands and very large orchestras. On the quiet side, our experience shows dynamic range is limited by the noise of the acoustic environment.
Last Update: 1/4/21 Applications Manual for Sound Recording with iOS Audio Dynamic Range Examples Painfully Loud dB SPL VR15-USB 126 dB FS 0 Rock Band Action Movie 1Pascal 90 Party 72 Conversation 54 Living Room Sound Studio Threshold of Hearing 94dB SPL -24 Dynamic Range 105dB Loud Stereo Whisper -12 108 -36 -48 -60 -72 -84 36 -96 18 0 Noise Orchestra -108 -148 Scale = 3dB/division © 2020 Sonic Presence, Inc. / All products US and International Patent Pending / sonicpresence.
Last Update: 1/4/21 Applications Manual for Sound Recording with iOS 9. Testing Methods Sonic Presence’s Level Test Setup and Measurement Procedure In order to accurately measure signal levels and determine the precision of meter readings you must use calibrated test signals. For our acoustic tests we used an ANSI S1.40 - 1984 calibrated sound generator. It produces a 1kHz sine wave signal, which is switchable between 114dB and 94dB SPL (Sound Pressure Level).
Last Update: 1/4/21 Applications Manual for Sound Recording with iOS This Reference Table shows the output level of the signal generator in millivolts in the left column. We calculate the level in dB in the next column to the right. The next three columns are the actual readings in dB shown on the scale of the three measuring Apps. Reference Table generator mV rms 80 55 40 20 10 5 calculate dB 0 -3 -6 -12 -18 -24 ProLevel dB 0 -3 -6 -12 -18 -24 Logic dB 0 -3.
Last Update: 1/4/21 Applications Manual for Sound Recording with iOS iPhone Android App analog digital Function Generator analog Voltmeter calibrated 1Volt rms =0dB Sonic USB Interface This table shows our test results for the Røde App. Note the Apps meter is not calibrated, so we indicate the playback level by noting the lit LEDs: red, yellow and green. Now you can see how the Apps meter readings correspond to the digital input signal level and the phone’s analog output.
