audio - page 2

How to record any audio on your iPhone

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Make sure you use the right cable for IPhone recording
Make sure you use the right cable.
Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac

However old your iPhone is, it records great audio. You can use it as a dictaphone, to make field recordings of ambient sounds, to “tape” music, and even sample everyday noises and make music from them. But how do you do it? How do you hook up, say, a portable keyboard or an MP3 player to your iPhone, and actually save a recording? Let’s see.

Epic promises audio improvements for Fortnite 8.01

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Fortnite
Listen out for the sound improvements this week.
Photo: Epic Games

Fortnite fans are still enjoying last week’s massive season eight update, but many will have noticed that certain things need fixing. One of those is the audio for a bunch of weapons and items, which Epic Games is already working on fixing.

Seth Weedin, Fortnite’s technical sound designer, has detailed a number of big audio improvements that will roll out in a version 8.01 patch.

Popular VLC video player is getting AirPlay support

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VLC AirPlay
VLC will make it easy to stream to Apple TV from anywhere.
Photo: VideoLAN

CES 2019 bugPopular open-source video player VLC is getting AirPlay support “in about a month.” VideoLan, the team behind it, also plans to make it easier for users to switch to VLC from iTunes.

The confirmation comes just as VLC celebrated a staggering 3 billion downloads — around a quarter of which came from mobile devices.

Retro mic turns your iOS device into a portable studio

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Samson Satellite mic
The Samson Satellite USB/iOS Broadcast Microphone brings the studio into the field.
Photo: Samson Technologies

CES 2019 bugFor musicians, podcasters and streamers, “the studio” is an iOS device in a living room, coffee shop or some crazy live event.

Samson Technologies rolled out a new microphone at CES this week that promises to gather studio-quality audio no matter the location.

How to record podcasts on iPad part II: The apps

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The iPad has some amazing tools for recording podcasts.
The iPad has some amazing tools for recording podcasts.
Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac

In part one of this series, we saw how to record remote podcasts using only iOS. It requires using your iPhone to place the FaceTime or Skype call, but you end up with a great result. That post covered the setup. Today, we’ll see how the recording and editing parts work, using AUM and Ferrite on the iPad.

How I record podcasts on iPad only

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The iPad is more than capable of recording podcasts.
The iPad is more than capable of recording podcasts.
Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac

The iPad Pro is pro enough for almost anything, but one thing it still can’t manage is making a Skype (or FaceTime) call and recording it at the same time. This is actually the fault of Skype (and FaceTime), but is nonetheless a pain for anyone who travels and podcasts.

There’s a workaround, however. It requires that you use an iPhone and an iPad together. But seeing as how the alternative is carrying a MacBook, too, it’s a pretty good option. It’s also easy, once you get your head around the setup. And you don’t need to travel to use this setup. After some experimentation, this is now my default podcasting method.

Unlock the dual audio outputs in new Macs

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A totally legit audio-routing setup.
A totally legit audio-routing setup.
Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac

Up until last year, if you plugged a pair of headphones into your Mac, the speakers were effectively disconnected. There was no way to send simultaneous audio stream to both headphones and speakers. Now, with modern T2-equipped Macs, you can double up on audio. For instance, you could have alerts sound through the built-in speakers, with music routed through the headphone jack, so you don’t get notifications interrupting your banging tunes.

The best part is that its really easy to set up. And, if you prefer the old behavior, you don’t have to do anything.

Apple tech saves you from ever putting headphones on backward

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Apple headphone patent
Apple headphones, as seen in this conceptual illustration, look a lot like the HomePod.
Photo: Martin Hajek

Apple removed the headphone jack. Soon, it may take away something else – the L and R on the headphones.

Microphones in the ear cups would detect which ear is which and send each ear the proper signals, according to an application for headphone technology filed by Apple with the United States Patient and Trademark Office.

This would make the headphones reversible.

How to make your iPhone videos sound as good as they look

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The quickest and easiest way to improve iPhone audio is with a Lightning mic.
The quickest and easiest way to improve iPhone audio is with a Lightning mic.
Photo: Zoom

Your iPhone camera is amazing. Especially for video. Modern iPhones capture 4K video, and pretty much any iPhone from the past few years can easily do high-definition 1080p. It’s also likely that your videos will be stabilized, so they look smooth, like they were shot with a Steadicam, not a shaky human hand.

The sound, though, isn’t as good as the image. The iPhone’s microphones are good, but not nearly as high-end as its camera. Also, the best place for a microphone often isn’t right next to the lens. It’s better to put it as close to the sound source — usually a person speaking — as possible. The good news is that it’s easy to get much better sound on your iPhone videos. Here’s how.

Pick up the portable speaker of your dreams [Deals]

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Bring your favorite tunes and shows wherever you go with one of these massively discounted Bluetooth speakers.
Bring your favorite tunes and shows wherever you go with one of these massively discounted Bluetooth speakers.
Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

Carrying your music around has never been easier. In fact, the options are almost overwhelming. So we’ve rounded up some of the best portable speakers at the best prices, from speakers you can take on a hike to speakers you can shower with. Everything is going for more than half off the usual price, read on for more details:

DAW Cassette makes your music sound like it was recorded on tape

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daw cassette
You wouldn't leave your iPhone in the sun like this.
Photo: Jure Cuhalev/Flickr CC

There’s little that’s more hipster than an audio cassette. Its sound is far from perfect, it’s impractical, and — most important of all — it is easy to see that you’re using one. But that doesn’t mean that tapes were all bad. Lo-fi cassette decks actually add some rather pleasant audio artifacts to audio.

So what? Well, now you don’t need to lug around a Walkman and a bag of tapes to enjoy the retro sound of audio cassettes, because there’s a) an iOS audio plugin and b) a website that will tape-ify any track you like.

Cheaper HomePod might be in the works

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refurbished HomePod
Apple might be planning cheaper HomePod to boost sales
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

HomePod sales have fallen well below expectations, according to one of the best Apple analysts in the game.

KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo told investors today that Apple is considering making a low-cost version of the HomePod in order to give disappointing sales a boost.

These are the best music memo apps for iPhone

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alternative to voice memos
We've come a long way.
Photo: YunHo LEE/Flickr Public Domain

If you like to pretend you’re in a private detective movie, recording yourself with voice-memos as you go about your everyday business, then your app choice is obvious: Voice Memos from Apple. It’s built into your iPhone, it’s simple, quick to use, and rock solid. But if you’re a musician, and you want to quickly capture ideas, the choice is more complicated. Let’s take a look at the best iOS apps for recording music memos.

Peek inside the lab that perfected HomePod audio

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WWDC2017
It took Apple six years to create the HomePod.
Photo: Apple

Apple’s quest to build the perfect sounding speaker could also give a huge boost to audio quality on future iPhones, iPads and Macs.

To promote the launch of its new HomePod speaker, Apple gave journalists a behind-the-scenes look inside the custom audio lab it built to fine-tune every aspect of HomePod’s sound. Not only did Apple one of the best audio teams in the world, but it also gave them tools no company in the world can match.

Why Apple’s HomePod is poised to bomb

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Will Apple's HomePod smart speaker be DOA?

Image: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

HomePod, the first new Apple product of 2018, is about to arrive. And as a huge Apple fanboy, I couldn’t care less.

Apple’s been hyping its smart speaker ever since unveiling the device last June at the Worldwide Developers Conference. And yet HomePod has failed to really excite fans (except through leaks that gave us early details about the iPhone X). Apple bills HomePod as a powerful speaker that packs Siri to take your listening experience to an all-new level. But with its Feb. 9 release just weeks away, HomePod is looking more like Apple’s next big bomb.

How to hook up a USB audio device to your Mac

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mackie-blackjack
Mackie's Blackjack works equally well with iOS and Mac.
Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac

If you want to listen to music on your Mac, you either suffer its built-in speakers, or you plug a speaker into the headphone jack. But what if you want to get sound into you Mac? Or you have some fancy speakers hooked up to a fancy mixer, and the little headphone output doesn’t cut it, quality-wise? Then you should switch to USB. And don’t worry — you won’t have to install drivers, or any of the other crap that makes PC use so painful. In fact, using a USB audio interface is as easy as plugging in a pair of headphones, only better.

Roland’s new audio recorder works with iPhone and Apple Watch

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roland r-07
Tiny, and made to work with the iPhone and the Apple Watch.
Photo: Roland

CES 2018 bugYou iPhone is pretty handy for making quick audio recordings. Many musicians use the Voice Memos app, and some have upgraded to Music Memos. Unfortunately, the quality of the recordings from those apps isn’t good enough for actual music making.

For a start, it’s not stereo. Second, the iPhone’s mics are fine, but nowhere near as good as even a cheap external microphone. But using your iPhone to record is so convenient. Roland’s R-07 is a pocket audio recorder that works either alone or in tandem with your iPhone. It gives you the quality of a proper recorder with stereo mics — and the convenience of an iPhone app.

Boss’ smart wireless guitar amp is designed to work with your iPhone

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Boss katana air
Look ma, no wires.
Photo: Boss

CES 2018 bugThe Boss Katana Air looks like the ultimate living room amp for guitar players. It looks cool, it runs off mains power or AA batteries, and it features a wireless dongle that plugs into your guitar and means you never need to trail a cable across the room ever again. It even has a companion iOS app so you can tweak all the settings not available from the knobs and buttons on top of the amp.

DropStream: Drag-and-drop movie streaming for Apple TV

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Apple TV Siri Remote
DropStream streams any video or audio straight to Apple TV.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

You can snap photos of your iPhone, edit them on your iPad, and view them on your giant-screen iMac, with everything almost instantaneously in sync. But what if you have a video clip that you want to watch on your Apple TV? Oh man, maybe it’s best not to even ask. Now, though, there’s an app that lets you do just that: DropStream.

DropStream’s function is right there in its name. You drop a movie onto its Mac window, and the movie starts playing on your Apple TV (or Chromecast). You don’t have to convert it to the right format, or add it to iTunes, or anything like that. It just, as they say, works.

Awesome Mac apps for photo editors, coders and more [Deals]

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This Mac App roundup covers photo masking, web design, and lots more.
This Mac App roundup covers photo masking, web design, and lots more.
Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

Your Mac is a powerful machine, but it’s only as useful as the apps you put on it. This roundup of apps is a mixed bag of top shelf goodies for photo editors and web designers. There are also useful tools for just people who work with Wi-Fi and different a variety of media files. Additionally, everything is discounted by half or more. Read on for more details: