Ozaki iPill Microphone

Posted by Ub3rG33k on Sep 23, 2009 in IPod Touch

As some of you may know, in just over 2 weeks I’ll be heading to the Holiday Inn in Birmingham for Dimension Jump iPill-iPod-Nano-493x369 XV, this year Red Dwarf Convention, and as we do a Red Dwarf podcast (ScutterCast), I thought it might me a good idea to record some footage while I was there.

I’ve been looking at a number of solutions and came up with the idea of using Audioboo from my iPod touch, then picking up the Audioboo feed using WP-o-Matic, which will then post the audio on the Red Dwarf Forum homepage, which will then tweet this out.

One major downside to using the method, was that the iPod Touch doesn’t have a built in microphone, although I do have the “earbud with built in microphone”, which would be find for recording my own voice, but probably a little intrusive if I wanted to record anyone else.

After a couple of days of looking at different mic solutions, I read a review over at iLounge and they did a mic comparison, the audio from the iPill sounded awesome, so decided to go with that. After an evening of trying to buy one, it seemed that these are only available in the states, and they seemed to be out of stock, having heard the quality difference, I was adamant that this was the mic I wanted, in a bid of desperation, I decided eBay it was. Luckily, I found a company in the Republic of Ireland that had these in stock, and instantly bought.

This morning the mic turned up, and I’ve got to say, I’m really impressed. The first thing I noticed was the packaging, and the look of this thing. The plastic container is in the shape of a petri dish, with a small clip holding the pill shaped microphone in place.

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The iPill itself pulls in half, to review the 3.5mm jack plug, that plugs into the bottom of the iPods headphone jack, and the other half has a small loop where you could potentially add some string so you don’t lose this thing.

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So, the audio quality…what’s it like ?…pretty awesome ! I plugged it into the bottom of my iPod Touch, and it was instantly recognised, and I gave it a quick test in Apples “Voice Memos” software, and attached my recording below

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iPill Test

Final thoughts ?, granted this isn’t the same quality as my M-Audio mixer, and my condenser mic at home, but think it will do an awesome job, of getting some footage at Dimension Jump.

I can highly recommend this microphone to anybody who want to turn their iPod Touch into a decent dictating machine, and for £13 delivered, it’s worth every penny !

Tags: 5mm, Apple, audio, audio quality, Audioboo, Birmingham, bottom, couple of days, desperation, dimension, dimension jump, downside, dwarf, earbud, ebay, footage, forum homepage, half, holiday inn, idea, ilounge, ipill, ipod, ipod touch, ipods, jack, jump, microphone, o matic, ozaki, petri dish, plastic container, quality, quality difference, red, Red Dwarf, Republic of Ireland, stock, test, thing, touch, voice

iPhone Dilemma

Posted by Ub3rG33k on Jun 9, 2009 in Apple

As some of you may know, the new iPhone 3GS has been announced, and due for release on the 19th of June 2009.

Currently I have a 32Gb iPhone Touch 2G and a Nokia E90 running JoikuSpot so I have an internet connection wherever I go, however this does mean carrying 2 devices around with me.

So I’ve been eagerly awaiting the new iPhone announcement as it’s been rumoured for months now.

The new hardware specs are for the 3GS are

Improved performance
3-megapixel autofocus camera
Video recording
Voice Control
Digital compass
Cut, Copy & Paste
MMS
Spotlight Search
Landscape keyboard
Voice Memos

Compared to the below for the 3G

2-megapixel camera
Cut, Copy & Paste
MMS
Spotlight Search
Landscape keyboard
Voice Memos

Now I’m happy that I feel I need one in my life, to minimise the amount of hardware I carry, however below are the pro’s and cons

Pro’s

New Shiny iPhone
Contestant Internet connection
Only have to carry the 1 device
The E90 is quite an ugly phone

Con’s

£180 to pay off my existing contract
Another £187 for the iPhone on an 18 month contract.
No 3G signal in my home on O2 (but I would have wi-fi, so wouldn’t really matter)
Would loose my Vodafone Stop the Clock
Would have to pay for tethering which I currently get free with JoikuSpot
Would have a redundant iPod Touch

There is another dilemma, currently the iPhone is exclusive to O2, however I’ve read many rumours, and even been told by a guy at Vodafone this morning that O2 loose exclusivity of the iPhone this month, so expects them to be on all networks within the next couple of month, which if correct, I’ll stick with Vodafone. However, the clock is ticking, and in 10 days I could be holding in my hand an iPhone….

Although the Cons do seem worse than the Pros, it is a shiny new device, and over the past 6 month I’ve come to love the iPod Touch, and couldn’t imagine life without it, so I’m assuming having this in phone form would just be perfect.

Tags: 2g, 3gs, amp, camera, Con, connection, Copy, digital compass, dilemma, exclusivity, hardware, hardware specs, internet, internet connection, iphone, ipod, ipod touch, JoikuSpot, keyboard, Landscape, megapixel, Memos, MMS, month, new hardware, nokia e90, o2, Paste, recording voice, rumours, search, Spotlight, touch, video recording, vodafone, voice, voice control, voice memos

M-Audio Fast Track Pro

Posted by Ub3rG33k on Apr 18, 2009 in Tech

Over the post 6 months or so, I’ve become heavly involved with recording audio for a number of projects we work on, over at Fictionshed. If you listen back to the earlier podcasts (Fictioncasts), you’ll here me say, that you don’t need any specialised equiptment to record your voice, and a standard PC, with cheap mic will do…..the rest of this post will be me eating my words.

Due to getting a not the quality I wanted from the cheap headphone/mic combination, Tony kindly lent me a mixer and a couple of mics. This did improve the quality, however gave me some hard background noise.

In January, and with the ScutterCast in mind, I decided to splash out and get myself a MacBook Pro, as this was the only way I could find to do an enhanced podcast. The sound quality with the MacBook was a massive improvement, however the internal mic gave me a “roomy” type sound to my voice, which has been ok, however I needed something a little more direct.

After weeks of looking at the Samson C01U, the SL300 USB Studio Microphone and even the Samson G-Track, however Tony suggested I get the same as him, which was the M-Audio Fast Track Pro, as I already had the mic

Well Friday it finally turned up, and due to spending my Friday evening editing together the latest ScutterCast, I’ve only had chance to get to play with it today.

All I can say, is this thing is MINT ! It’s exactly the sound I’ve been wanting, it’s crisp, it’s clean, and NO background noise !

I now feel I’m set up to record the machinima project, this will also mean a lot less editing on the ScutterCasts, as I usually spend an age increasing the volume on my voice.

My setup is now as follows

MacBook Pro
M-Audio Fast Track Pro
AKG D650S Microphone
Stand & Pop Shield