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Hello again, guys. Well, I am still going back and forth with my Boya pvm1000.

I record my videos for YouTube with my smartphone. It is the LG V60. Super legit Camera and Video recordings. Even the audio is fair, but obviously, I want to use my $80 shotgun microphone from Boya to have better quality. That said, I have realized that I needed a TRS to TTRS adapter after all for the Mic to PHONE audio recordings. Bought it. The Boy a works just fine when plugged into my Focusrite 2i2 at the desk.

So, I purchased the adapter, ironically enough, also a Boya product, and it sounds worse than the phone audio. It is very digital. Think 1990s video playback on your DELL.

I'm at a lost, man. I just cannot figure out why I can't get this formula correct. It seems to me that I should have this Boya mic plug into the TRS to TTRS adapter, then my cell phone, and it should playback with better than audio that's recorded on the phone. Afterwards, I even edit audio with Audacity, but the track will not work (quality wise) with what is being recorded via the 3.5 mm Jack into the cell phone from the Boya.

So... I noticed that you guys are definitely smart with this stuff. Any suggestions before I return the adapter?

Thanks in advance!

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Comments

bouldersound Fri, 12/18/2020 - 17:00

There's more than one way to get from that TRS to TRRS. I wonder if the adapter just isn't wired properly. I presume it's a mono mic with a cable designed to make it compatible with a stereo input (tip and ring carrying the signal). One of both of those contacts would need to go to the right contact on the TRRS, which I presume is the ring closest to the sleeve (because the other ring would be the right channel of the stereo headphones). A TRS-TRS cable and a DMM would let you confirm the wiring.

paulears Sat, 12/19/2020 - 08:56

Keep in mind that the microphones in phones are surprisingly good quality - horrible phone audio can usually be traced back to the apps the compress, reduce bit depth and overall quality. A Boya $80 video mic is not necessarily going to sound nicer. Many short shotguns are totally the wrong choice for quality Wideband audio - not at all what they are designed for - they tend to have feeble bottom end, to help directivity that's easier to achieve at HF - reducing unwanted capture. Even expensive shotguns exhibit a less 'musical' sound on things other than voice.

If you have bought a hardwired adaptor, with no electronics then it cannot change the sound. The sound you get is what comes out of the mic.

Why don't you set up an experiment. A full range loudspeaker playing a 20-20,000Hz sweep tone, record it with the phone and the external mic and compare the results. Then use your phone to record some high quality music in the room and record that on both. Video mics, especially the cheaper ones are always a compromise. Loads of people are doing these covid remote recordings with 30+ participants and I've edited quite a few and iPhones and android phones have surprised me with their quality. The horrid sounding submissions were recorded at 8 bit, 11K sampling rates in strange compressed formats. Those with phones recording at 44.1 at 16 bit + were really nice I found.

Boswell Sat, 12/19/2020 - 14:44

The Boya PVM1000 has an XLR output, and is powered by either 48v phantom power from the XLR source or an internal AA battery (yes, 1.5V!). It's designed as a very directional speech microphone for camcorders. It's not good at capturing music.

If you want to plug it into a 3.5mm TRS or a TRRS microphone socket, you need to fit the AA battery and then use a specially-wired adaptor cable that (a) blocks the d.c. and (b) connects the live output to both the tip and ring contacts. If you use a lead that connects the tip and ring separately, you will be sending a difference signal to the L and R channels, and that won't sound pretty. Most TRRS sockets will deal with TRS plugs, simply grounding the second ring to the sleeve.

Boswell Sun, 12/20/2020 - 03:33

Yes, exactly. On a 3.5mm headphone output connector, the tip and 1st ring are the L and R headphone outputs and the 2nd ring (if present) is the mono mic input. On a 3.5mm stereo mic input connector (usually TRS), the tip and ring are L and R mic inputs with plug-in-power. You would need different wiring in the two cases.

Boswell Mon, 01/04/2021 - 00:49

We have to assume you are hoping to plug your Boya microphone into the headphone jack on the V60. This jack is a 3.5mm TRRS connector that has headphone L and R outputs on tip and first ring contacts. The second ring is an input for an unbalanced mono microphone, and presents 3V plug-in power. This is about a big a mis-match as you could get to a microphone that has a balanced XLR output requiring 48V phantom power.

Fortunately, your Boya mic can be fitted with a 1.5V internal battery, which can remove the need for external 48V power, at the cost of a reduction in sound pressure level handling. But that still leaves the problem of how you cable it to the mic input of your LG V60. I don't know of any commercially-available cables to do this job, but I would be surprised if one of the specialist camera or phone websites did not offer one. Bear in mind that a cable would need to block the 3V power out of the connector as well as correctly wiring the microphone input leads. Simple TRS - TRRS adaptors are not going to work properly.