Freesound Forums
Dare 2025-02 - Leave your gear at home - deadline for uploads 16-Feb-2025
Started February 3rd, 2025 · 26 replies · Latest reply by AlienXXX 9 months, 3 weeks ago
I have been working on some music productions and I needed to record some sounds. Had been putting it off because the memory card on my recorder was full and I would have to download everything to my computer and format the card before I could go and make those recordings.
Finally did it today....
It is very timely the suggestion I received from a colleague form the Moderators team for the next dare:
Record something using your phone
Most phones these days have a very decent microphone. So, if you have never recorded before because you don't have a sound recorder - you actually do!
Maybe you think it is not good enough? Well, give it a try! Then upload the sound here.
Please tag with "Dare2025-02".
Also tagging with the phone model is very much appreciated, but not mandatory.
You can make more than one recording. There is no limit for the number of uploads for this dare. So why not experiment some different settings: record outdoors, indoors, close to the sound source or more distant.
Deadline for uploading sounds for this dare is 16-Feb-2025.
Thank you for this challenge! 
Along with the #Dare2025-02 I will include the tag
#phone-recording
Not sure if they will participate in the challenge, but i want to highlight the following user who has already shared some amazing phone recordings!
https://freesound.org/people/ayse.j.e/
Looking forward to this one!
Cheers!
Edit : already recorded and uploaded something!
Will do more 
Hey Alien,
Here's a filter/link that should find all my Dare uploads : https://freesound.org/search/?q=%2BDare2025-02&f=username%253A%2522Sadiquecat%2522&s=Date+added+%28newest+first%29&si_tags=1&si_name=0&si_description=0&si_packname=0&si_sound_id=0&si_username=0&d0=0&d1=*&ig=0&r=0&g=0&dp=0&cm=0&mm=0
I already posted 16 even though it hasn't been 24h, I suspect more will come before the 16th :X
To be respectful of people's time I will probably edit this post and share a best-of 5 towards the end.
I will probably also share thoughts of the user experience, and audio quality.
Cheers!
Here's my contributions
E chord - guitar piano computer
https://freesound.org/people/gis_sweden/sounds/787821/
Bicycle spokes - front wheel
https://freesound.org/people/gis_sweden/sounds/787820/
Maybe I will make a recording with the Zoom H1 and my phone at the same time. It could be interesting. At the moment, I don't have a good idea of what to record. Any ideas? Suggestions?
That's fun. For me a simple challenge. I just need to tag all my phone recordings and that's it.
By the way, an excellent idea to add the tag phone-recording. I had never thought of that before.
Here is my (older) contribution to this challenge. Maybe there will be some more.
gis_sweden wrote:
Maybe I will make a recording with the Zoom H1 and my phone at the same time. It could be interesting. At the moment, I don't have a good idea of what to record. Any ideas? Suggestions?
Some ideas
Setting the phone and the recorder side by side by an open window and recording for a few minutes will be an interesting test. Maybe you even want to do a little bit of experimenting with the record level on the recorder to try to obtain identical level on both devices.
This is an interesting test of recording 'far away sounds' and quite interesting in its own right: a 'good' phone mic should reject far away sounds as 'background noise'. In some cases, this could even be implemented on the phone via software...
If you are feeling very curious, why not ask for family cooperation and try recording on different phones?
Now, you are in the unique advantageous position of having a phone, a a recorder and ALSO a modular synth.
This gives you the chance of doing some more extensive testing: record a stretch of white noise or a sine sweep from 20Hz to 20kHz on both the phone and the recorder to compare frequency response characteristics on both devices.
You can also do multiple recordings, changing the angle between the recording device and the speaker, so you can also get an idea of the radial response of both devices.
Still on that same note, pardon the pun, you could record white noise with the recording device at varying distance from the speaker - to look for 'proximity effect', where the low frequencies get boosted if the mic is close to the sound source.
Finally, you can also try DI (direct input) recordings, by bypassing the mic and connecting the modular headphone out to the recording device using a cable.
A lot of ideas I see 
Recording something close to noise is a good idea. My modular can create very good white noise, but maybe not my speakers...
Anyway I did this test. Iphone 13.
https://freesound.org/people/gis_sweden/sounds/787835/
And at the same time I recorded with two other devices.
Zoom H1 (og)
https://freesound.org/people/gis_sweden/sounds/787837/
Tascam DP-008EX
https://freesound.org/people/gis_sweden/sounds/787836/
My conclusions
> iPhone. Disadvantage. It has a kind of 'Auto level'. Maybe it can be turned off?
> Tascam. Not as dynamic recording as with H1.
> H1. Also picks up background noise clearly. Most sensitive.
This might be a subject for another thread, but comparing phone recordings with "real" digital recorders might be appropriate even here.
How do I compare? Looking at spectrogram, plot spectrum, listen and.... what!? 👂
I guess you have done some of the comparisions already (by ear).
Looking at the spectrogram is another way of doing it. And Audacity, for example, has some analusis tools.
The interesting thing is that the speaker and the white noise don't need to be perfect *i.e., flat frequency contents), even if it is not flat to begin with, you might be able to see differences between the 2 recording devices - frequency bumps and dips.
This discussion is actually good fun, and more in-depth than I was expecting (which is great).
Another point to consider is that all the phones I ever tried don't record to wav format, they use some kind of compressed audio format. That is an addidional step that can (will) make the recording characteristics different from a digital recorder output in wav format.
And, in the end, whatever the frequency spectrum looks like, what matters is 'how it sounds'.
A lot of great recording gear is considered great, not because it reproduces the sound exactly, but because the way it changes it (in a certain way).
An important point to make, especialy for people who might be put off recording because they don't have 'good gear' or 'the right gear' is that phones might not be perfect recorders, but they are perfectly usable.
In fact, in some cases, they might even be better. For example, if you are trying to record yourself playing your acoustic guitar in a non-perfect and non-quiet room, you might find tgat a phone gives you a usable recording, whilst a good recorder with a more sensitive mic picks up too much background noise.
This is not just a story... actually happened to me when taking 2 recorders to record drums at friend's place: the better recorder picked up background noise and too much high frequency and sounded harsh, the worse recorder sounded more balanced and no background noise.
Phone indeed provide another form-factor and robustness that not all recorders/microphones have.
For instance most phones are IP68, water resistant, which for recording a storm from outside, or even the underwater ambiance of a river might come in handy. Though I wouldn't risk my phone.
Two recordings, I don't think I would have made with other gear is this :
https://freesound.org/people/Sadiquecat/sounds/787800/ Recording beyblade from under the stadium, I have very little clearance there.
Another recording is this one : https://freesound.org/people/Sadiquecat/sounds/787750/
I put the phone in the cup dispenser. I believe the omni ish pickup pattern to help there. A zoom recorder would have been akward to point in the right direction, maybe not even fit. A omni capsule on a NT5 would have worked, but need a tripod or tape and blah, this was a quick thing.
All of this a tiny wireless lav mic would handle very well too!
I think all in all, a recording is better than no recording because we didn't have the gear or it was too tedious for our laziness.
As we are in the sub-topic of recorders versus phones, and comparing these could often mean setting both devices to record next to each other...
You may also get phone interfeerence on your recordings.
Tgat has occasionally happened to me when trying to record and my mobile phone happened to be close by.
This is another potential advantage of recording on your phone: your mobile phone will be less prone to phone interfeerence. But, by all means, set a phone to record with another phone sitting next to it and prove me wrong...
Fun fact: the Zoom H1 could actually record its own electronic interfeerence. At least mine does...
You need a very quiet place and to really boost the recording volume (90 is a good number...).
When you listen to the recording there will be a characteristic buzz-buzz-buzz of digital electronic interfeerence. - this is more noticeable when recording to mp3 than to wav.
AlienXXX wrote:
...the white noise don't need to be perfect...phones I ever tried don't record to wav format
You right. The noise is the same for both devices anyway.
I recorded flushing water and kettle yesterday. Both some sort of noise.
My iPhone can record in wav, with one of my apps.
But I still haven't found out how to cancel auto recording level. I guess there is some sort of auto level...
I will try to record outside in the evening with phone and H1.
Mission competed.
Took a short walk this evening and recorded distant traffic noise with my iPhone 13 and my Zoom H1 (og).
This round clearly goes to H1!
Hear for your self.
https://freesound.org/people/gis_sweden/packs/42771/
gis_sweden wrote:
Mission competed.
Took a short walk this evening and recorded distant traffic noise with my iPhone 13 and my Zoom H1 (og).
This round clearly goes to H1!
Hear for your self.
https://freesound.org/people/gis_sweden/packs/42771/
On a quick listen, the iphone recording seems to lack stereo width and much high freq contents versus the H1 recording.
Does not surprise me, as a phone would be designed to pickup close sounds. Distant sounds would almost always be uneanted background noise.
As for the auto-volume, it must be some kind of native feature. If you cannot find it and switch it off in settings, you might be stuck with it.
Then again... google it... if there is a way of switching it off, it will be somewhere on the internet.
If you have an app that can record inyo wav format, it is worth using that as the best like-for-like comparision to the recorder. Also worth indicating in the description which app was used.
Walking by traffic, then into a mall.
https://freesound.org/people/copyc4t/sounds/788093/
https://freesound.org/people/copyc4t/sounds/788094/
Sorry for the m4a, my stock app can record as wav but alas, I forgot to change the settings...
Cool recordings!
Are you fine with sharing what smartphone you have?
I also encourage you to use #Phone-recording (not obligated) (not to be repetitive, but I wouldn't read an entire forum topic so I expect this note to have been unseen ^^)
Many thanks for participating and sharing these sounds!
Some more recordings, indoor this time, and wav.
https://freesound.org/people/copyc4t/sounds/788369/
https://freesound.org/people/copyc4t/sounds/788370/
https://freesound.org/people/copyc4t/sounds/788371/
I'm noticing a few Stereo recordings while my phone does mono.
Perhaps in a similar spirit to the dare, I could record things with my action cam (Dji action 3) which does stereo.
It may also have better mics.
Recordings from it here https://freesound.org/browse/tags/?f=tag:%22action-cam%22
IDK if I should tag those recordings with Dare2025-02 as it's in the same spirit of "do with what you have outside of field recording equipment" or not as it's also as study on the sonic quality of phone microphone recordings.
(Like I could probably plug in a usb-c microphone and record on the phone, but then it's probably not in the spirit. Unless it was a 15€ lav mic ? x')
I know I'm a bit off-track, I will only post internal phone mic recordings with the dare.
But I'l try other equipment so we can compare. And the challenge raises the question of : Assuming everyone has phone, what's the next upgrade worth the money? Is it a 80-100€ handy recorder like a zoom H1e? Or can we find a decent mic upgrade for less? I don't think there's any stereo options for USB-C plug on mic. If staying in mono there's stuff like a lav mic (15€ish for a cheap off-brand) 50€ ish you can get a rode videomic micro or smart-lav etc...)
OFC the answer is if you're on a budget, get a second hand field recorder, and then it's on luck but around 30€ should be possible.
Cheers
Here's a side by side comparison from my phone and action cam ^^
1)
https://freesound.org/people/Sadiquecat/sounds/788382/
https://freesound.org/people/Sadiquecat/sounds/788383/
2)
https://freesound.org/people/Sadiquecat/sounds/788396/
https://freesound.org/people/Sadiquecat/sounds/788397/
(This will be all, I notice the action cam has auto-gain or a expander making it hard to do field recordings)
- 1
- 2