iOS video recording with STEREO line-in audio replacing built-in mic

viribus

viribus

Gold Supporting Member
Jan 1, 2011
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I never actually learned to play very well
#1
I did search and can't find anything relatively recent that addresses my question. Someone asked the same question in 2011 and there were no replies. Anyway, apologies in advance if this has been beaten to death already and I'm just not seeing it.

I want to record video on my iPhone 8, but not using the phone's built-in mic. I want to record the video with the audio coming from a STEREO line level output from another device. Emphasis on STEREO line-level audio recording to accompany the video.

I can find devices that claim to do this but they're priced around $150 and up. My requirements aren't that complicated. I could record the audio track on a computer using Audacity and sync it up to the video during editing but it's kind of a hassle.

Mono-only adapters are about $20, but that's not what I need.

Ideas?

EDIT: The audio line out from the source device is unbalanced, coming from RCA jacks.
 
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#2
Found this at Sweetwater. Line 6 Sonic Port.

Line 6 Sonic Port

User review says “Sonic Port works great for adding line-in audio to an iPhone video, out of the box with no other software. Just plug it in after you start the camera app. Records stereo audio with the videos too.”

It seems to do what I need. Might give it a go.
 
#5
After a lot of trial and error (to be described in a followup post), here’s an initial somewhat successful test of the Line 6 Sonic Port capturing stereo line out audio and feeding it to an iPad Pro that’s recording the video & audio. No other editing.

How does it sound?

 
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#7
Be very careful with the "free" Line 6 Mobile POD app! There is no advisory in the description about in-app purchases. The basic app is free but watch out. I consider myself fairly savvy about this stuff but somehow I accidentally made a $19.99 in-app purchase that I neither want nor need. Grrr. I had to contact Apple Support to arrange for a refund. This has never happened to me before.
 
#8
Here's a few random notes about using the Line 6 Sonic Port to feed line-level audio an iPhone (or iPad), replacing the normal mic.

The biggest single handicap is I can't monitor the audio using either the headphone jack on the Sonic Port, or on the iPhone. Of course my iPhone 8 doesn't even have a headphone jack, but that's a different issue, need another special cable. Anyway, the SP manual says the SP's headphone jack should work, but it's not happening for me. No output while recording. To work around that, I fed the line-level output from the source device into a simple mixer, with the output from the mixer feeding the SP. I plugged in headphones to the mixer. That works.

The SP is powered by the i-Device's Lightning Port connected to the USB port on the SP. To get proper audio recording, I have to first launch the iDevice camera app, select Video, then plug the SP in to the Lightning port. It takes a few seconds for the SP to power up and get "synced". Then start my recording. This works without using their app.

Well it works for my silly hobbyist purposes. :)

Now for some Ecstatic Dance Music!

EDIT: I just realized that without using the app, the audio is mono, not stereo. ****!!!!

EDIT #2: I discovered I had a bad RCA to 1/8th inch stereo adapter cable. That’s why the recorded audio was mono.

 
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