Cable to record iPhone voice memo

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Cable to record iPhone voice memo

By 6/8 Stanley Mon Apr 01, 2019 10:51 pm
Just need a cable with 3.5 mm stereo one end, two mono phone plugs other end, right? I think (guess) the voice memo is mono but goes to both earphones. There's a way to change the earphone output to dual mono, don't know if that's necessary or if it would change the cable requirement. I saw some youtube where it might damage the phone or MPC if the cable sums the signal without resistors, but this wouldn't sum it. About 75% sure.

The voice memo is a recording of my nephew's water heater. Stuck the phone right against it; the memo sounds pretty good. Water heater keeps a nice beat with gong sounds, gurgling and variations. This will be my first use of MPC sampling capabilities if all works OK.

No this is not an April Fools thing, though I can see how somebody might think that.
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Re: Cable to record iPhone voice memo

By Lampdog Tue Apr 02, 2019 12:41 am
Use a full stereo cable and just put a mono adapter on one end.

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Re: Cable to record iPhone voice memo

By 6/8 Stanley Wed Apr 03, 2019 5:45 am
Thanks times three.

Bought an adapter, not really stereo to mono, just left channel of stereo to mono, but OK for this. The 3.5mm stereo to dual 1/4" TS would be handy for this and also for bringing stereo from phone or music player.

Email was my first idea, haven't set it up yet on the phone. Need to choose a fresh email account the spammers don't know about. The voice memo is m4a so need to convert to wav file for the MPC. An extra step, but maybe the resulting sample would sound cleaner that way, since it would be an exact copy.

Re: Cable to record iPhone voice memo

By 6/8 Stanley Fri Apr 05, 2019 3:31 am
Got the free email for the phone and emailed the "water heater" clip to myself. Played it with VLC player on the laptop. Checked the Codec information and was surprised to see it's a m4a stereo file. The left and right channels sounded the same but it seemed like the higher pitched sounds came through better in stereo, not sure about that.

The little TRS/TS adapter came today, and the stereo to mono summing cable might get here in a day or two. I could put the clip on the CF card but I don't see any point in making a stereo sample. There's probably a way to sample one side of a stereo file but trying to keep it simple since I'm winging it with no experience.

My MPC Tutor book on 2500 with Akai OS (using JJOS128XL but it's still handy) recommends using the digital SPDIF input for noise-free sampling. The m4a is 44.1 so if I had the right usb to SPDIF adapter that might be the easiest way to get in the MPC (without converting it to wav if I understand the manual). Saw adapters online but don't understand the options. Maybe someday, analog for now.
This is just a fun / learning project anyway.
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Re: Cable to record iPhone voice memo

By tapedeck Fri Apr 05, 2019 4:56 pm
i still think you are overthinking this... a 1/8" out of your phone to two mono 1/4" plugs into the mpc, then just sample the left or right channel and you are done.

one other option, since its an more modern mpc, just use drag and drop. plug the mpc in via usb, open the file in audacity, re-save as wav, and then put that on the mpc. done - no cables (other than usb) needed.

6/8 Stanley wrote:the stereo to mono summing cable
dont use that.
if you are correct that you've got a cable that will mix two channels to a single, mono channel, dont use that. it will cause problems. at best, it will work for a while. at worst, it will make your signal disappear.
unless of course it is a specialised cable designed to do that, but 99% of the time, its not, and this is a common mistake.
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Re: Cable to record iPhone voice memo

By Lampdog Fri Apr 05, 2019 5:01 pm
tapedeck wrote:i still think you are overthinking this.

Re: Cable to record iPhone voice memo

By 6/8 Stanley Fri Apr 05, 2019 7:48 pm
Overthinking is normal for me, especially when I'm doing something new on MPC. Things always seem super-difficult when I'm studying the various manuals, then when I try it it's "hey, that was easy". On the other hand, sometimes I spend hours or days trying to figure out how do something that turns out to be impossible.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MSAID6I/re ... B01N36ZU5D

The summing cable is this one, it has resistors. I've listened to the water heater a bunch of times in mono left, right and stereo, each coming out of both speakers. The stereo version seems to have a better mix of highs and lows. So I'll try using that. I'll also get the other cable suggested by Saltmcgault, have a similar one already to connect MPC outs to sound system, need one more.
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Re: Cable to record iPhone voice memo

By saltmcgault Fri Apr 05, 2019 9:19 pm
6/8 Stanley wrote:Overthinking is normal for me, especially when I'm doing something new on MPC. Things always seem super-difficult when I'm studying the various manuals, then when I try it it's "hey, that was easy". On the other hand, sometimes I spend hours or days trying to figure out how do something that turns out to be impossible.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MSAID6I/re ... B01N36ZU5D

The summing cable is this one, it has resistors. I've listened to the water heater a bunch of times in mono left, right and stereo, each coming out of both speakers. The stereo version seems to have a better mix of highs and lows. So I'll try using that. I'll also get the other cable suggested by Saltmcgault, have a similar one already to connect MPC outs to sound system, need one more.


Neat!
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Re: Cable to record iPhone voice memo

By tapedeck Fri Apr 05, 2019 10:13 pm
6/8 Stanley wrote:https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MSAID6I/ref=psdc_13152801_t1_B01N36ZU5D

The summing cable is this one, it has resistors.

that's cool, good choice. i still would say just pick a side and use it - you never know how stereo phase will affect a mono signal until you've done it. again, at best it works ok, but at worst parts of the signal disappear.

Re: Cable to record iPhone voice memo

By 6/8 Stanley Sat Apr 06, 2019 6:31 am
Well I did it. Recorded in mono direct from the phone. First sample, 3 minutes of a freaky sounding water heater on MPC, saved to the hard drive. Sounds about like you'd expect, nice and loud too.
Sounds like there's a wasted drummer beating on a snare drum and a djembe in there along with the gurgling water. Thanks for the hep ! What to do next ? Dunno. Maybe I can chop it into a drum kit, need to read another section of the book to learn how. Or leave it like it is and add some more percussion.
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Re: Cable to record iPhone voice memo

By Wal Martian Tue Apr 09, 2019 4:47 pm
6/8 Stanley wrote:Played it with VLC player on the laptop. Checked the Codec information and was surprised to see it's a m4a stereo file. The left and right channels sounded the same

You're almost there. You can convert this file to a mono wav right in VLC.
Media>Convert/Save>+Add
navigate to and select the stereo .m4a file
Convert/Save
Choose Audio - CD
click the little wrench
Go to the Audio codec tab
Channels should be 2 change it to 1
Destination file: click Browse
Select the directory and name your new file
click Start

Re: Cable to record iPhone voice memo

By 6/8 Stanley Wed Apr 10, 2019 9:02 pm
I'll try that next time. VLC's a handy little player, haven't used it for fie conversion yet. Turned out I didn't need to read the book to chop the sample and put it on the pads. Just loaded the sample, went to the trim window, hit Chop (a lucky guess) and MPC did the rest.
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