Budget Audio Recording

One of the main concerns I have when teaching is whether or not this learning is accessible. When I was studying audio. Most recording products were out of my budget.

I spent hundreds and possibly thousands over the years collecting kit that would allow me to create recordings. Of course the institutions supplied equipment on campus, but it wasn't available for further study. So here I put together a sub £50 recording kit to use with your IOS or Android device. It's expandable, produces great results and is very portable.

You can make the kit cheaper by buying second hand or by using things you may already have to hand. My kit includes the following:

  • BOYA MM1 microphone - £20

  • Generic (ebay) boom pole - £12

  • Generic (ebay) mini tripod - £5

  • 3m TRRS cable - £4

  • Lightining to TRRS adaptor - £5

  • Your smartphone voice recorder (free assuming you have a smartphone)

The prices depend on where and when you buy, so shop around for deals. My mic only cost £17 and the boom pole had a further discount at £9. The Boya mic also comes with cables so if you don't need long cables you can skip the 3m length I bought.

Flexibility is really what you need when you are starting out. This set up can extend to just about 1.5m, adding the shock mount that comes with the mic and short tripod probably takes it nearer 1.6m. It can be used for vocals with its fuzzy windshield and without the windshield or close micing it works on most subjects. The images you see are of me using it to capture wind from the chimney.

You can upgrade the mic with a very similar Rode video micro. However, I have both and the only real difference I can find is the shock mount is more flexible with the Rode. This has pluses and minuses.

Another option you have is using an alternative mic that uses a mini jack. Any dynamic or electret microphone should work as long as it has a micro 3.5mm jack.

Some sample sounds from this set up are below., the only editing was to shorten the tracks.

The next thing you need to consider is what you are recording on to. Primarily I use IOS devices, I'm finding they way the apple ecosystem works much more to my liking. This wasn't always the case however, I was windows and android through and through until work required it and ultimately I could afford it. Apple is extremely overpriced for the hardware, It really is just the OS I find best.
So back to recording interfaces, both IOS and android have built in voice memo apps. This is good enough to get you started. If you want more functionality I can recommend Lexis Audio Editor. Available on both IOS and Android its most basic version is free with the option to buy more functions later.

With this set up you'll quickly be able to capture useful audio as a start to your sound projects. There are some draw backs such as not being able to monitor the audio, but really as an entry level this is not such a big deal.
You'll be polishing up your recording and editing techniques in no time.