How to record video with an external microphone on a Samsung S9+

I tried this method with my samsung galaxy s9+. Open camera or default camera, using an old sony ecm 909 stereo mike.
stereo seems to work, but volume is extremely low. Not sure if the mic, will get a lavalier soon. Talking 1 inch away no problem, but using for vlogging or ambient sound 1 or more meters away for example, very low volume. The phone's mics are 5x louder (and pretty good sound). Have you see a big drop in volume compared to phone mic if 50 cm or more from source of sound? or is it just my microphone or the effect of the cable? i will have a cheap lavalier soon with ttrs connector will see if any difference, maybe a high gain mic is needed, and gain is not adjustable anywhere.

Yes, the Samsung galaxy s9+ mic is really pretty decent, truth be told. But I was looking for a "get-things-done" easy and cheap solution to capture audio from a person +2 meters away from the phone. Think of recording a video while you stand in front of a flipchart or screen. I put my phone on a tripod (see pic) and the lavalier mic has a pretty long cable (don't trip over the cable :). The phone mic doesn't capture audio too good from a that distance, that's why I came up with the idea of a lavalier mic. And got a bit stuck finding out how to get the audio from an external microphone recorded easily. Took me some time to figure out how to get it done. Hope this helps, keep me posted if all works fine.

I had much better volume without the splitter cable, using a $3 trrs lav mic. It also came with a mono trs-trrs adapter cable, and now my sony mike also works well (in mono), good volume like the lav, so problem solved i guess for $3.

So still playing around with it, but the breakout trrs-trs cable (headphone + mike) i bought lowers mike gain significantly. I guess i dont really need stereo , but would be cool for some uses.

Dear Frederik, Thanks for your suggestion. I've tried your info, but it doesn't seems to work. I've got also a S9+, combined with a lavier send over a FM (Kongin KM208 (alieexpress). This comes with a 6.3mm male output, so I've let someone make a cable/jack to 3.5mm (4 segments). Any suggestions to solve this or test what is wrong.
Sincerely, Barry

Hi, I'm trying to connect my bluetooth headset to my S9 to record a video. The headset seems to work perfectly for phone call but doesn't work to record a video.
Any suggestions?
Kind regards.
Sandra

One other critical thing you show in the second pic above but didn't emphasize in the explanation is you need to buy a signal splitter! If you try to record simply using a single fm/m adapter, Androids don't pick up the signal and record - you get silence. The default is that the phone output jack is dedicated to headphone sound out. The two-piece splitter adapter that you show is also critical (these are cheap to buy) to enable your external mic to record! One side will always have the headphone icon, and the other a mic icon. Plug into the mic icon and you will get sound in (you can opt to put headphones in the other and listen to what you're recording, but you don't need to put anything into the headphone jack. I think iPhones don't need this signal splitter, but Androids do. Just wanted to mention this, can't vouch for the sound quality one gets but you will get the external mic sounds you're trying to record as the camera's rolling.

(Good call on the app though, it's a shame that more apps don't have this option. Most voice recording apps don't, they just assume you want to record audio only into your phone - you had to find a camera app to do this. This is one of the only apps I've seen on Android that allows you to select an external mic for use with the camera specifically. Maybe there are more, I just don't see them).

Please remember when I ask this question...there are no "dumb" questions. I have installed the Open Camera App. I selected External Mic. I will now also get the suggested splitter...glad I scrolled to look at the comments and revisited your picture. Okay here goes...When I am taking video, I am supposed to pull up Open Camera and then start my video? I am just about to try that, probably before I receive an answer back...but because I also need the splitter.... that may end up being the final necessary component to be off and running with taking my technical skills up a notch...woo hoo. Thank you in advance for sharing your awesome knowledge...jojo

Okay one more question. Would you please put a link to the splitter you show in the picture? My search on Amazon has not found what you are showing. Thank you so much.

Okay...it's jojo again...lol I may have found the splitter you recommend but I would still feel better if you include a link so that I know I am purchasing the correct equipment. Thank you for your patience.

Thank you for your article. I have the same problem, I have the same external microphone and I have samsung galaxy note 8. Unfortunately on my smarpthone this method doesn't work. I read sth about adapter audio mini jack to usb C. Maybe it will figure out this case, maybe...

Hello,

I am a dj trying to connect to my phone. I have a pioneer ddjsx and I have rca to 3.5. I recently bought a trs to trrs adapter, I am plugging into my galaxy s9+ and I am getting no audio input. Is this possible to do? I know my friend is able to do with with an older iPhone. Thanks for any help!

Is it possible to record by plugging a line level source into the TRRS adapter rather than plugging in the microphone?

Also, Audio-Technica has replaced the ATR3350iS mic with the ATR3350xiS: https://www.audio-technica.com/cms/wired_mics/31aab512709f0f3c/index.ht…

Thanks!

Why do you need a splitter? Is this so you can listen to playback through headphones? I'm looking into getting a Rode videomic me (not micro) to use with my Galaxy S10e.

Frederik, have you had a chance to try this with a line level signal yet (I want to use a mixer output to plug in)?
Thanks!

Hi Jim,

Not yet, we moved very recently and that was quite the experience. But most is sorted out, so I can get back to these nice tests. I call it MacGyvering. Will get back on this.

All your feedback is welcome too, it's good to share these kind of experiences, to help other people avoid bumping their heads.

Frederik

Hello. I recently bought a Lavalier clip-on mic, and I downloaded open camera and selected the 2 settings that you say to select here. I have a moto G6 phone. This does not work. It continues to use the phone's internal camera. Any suggestions? Would be much appreciated.

PS I AM using the TRRS (4-segment) jack.

Hi,

Great article and I currently have the Rode VideoMic Me, which has a TRRS male pin.

It was working on my S9+ connected directly but then didn't anymore, even after trying several combinations of opening the app first then connecting the mic, and restarting phone with it connected etc.

Now I am looking at getting the splitter, maybe that is the issue, but the splitter, like the one in your pic, has the TRRS male connection which goes in the phone and that's fine, however were you connect the mic on the splitter, that seems to be a TRS female jack inside, or at least those are the splitters I have found.

Will the mic still work that way seeing that it has a TRRS male pin?

Hi, and thank you for sharing your knowledge.
A little bit like someone above I'm trying to record my mix on the samsung Galaxy s10e.
I used to be able to do that with Sony xperia very easily.
Using a RCA to Jack I go from my mixing table into a rode adapter SC4 (Jack trs female to Jack trrs Male). And I plug the adapter into my phone.
I did download the app camera you suggest and I followed your instructions for the setting of the app.
And guess what !
Still not working...
Its driving me nuts

(Sorry for my poor English)

Dear Sir,

I try to record video and audio directly from my ES100 digital piano to Android phone using Open Camera app. The problem with the app is that there is no audio recording level (rec level). The only volume setting I have is the piano master volume, which means, to set the rec level right, I have to play in a very low volume.

Do you have better solution for this? Is there any android app to record video with rec level setting?

Sincerely yours,

Aria Astra

Hi,
Does this also work for screen recordings? I want to record gameplay on a Tab S7 and have my game chat recorded as well using my gaming headset (Steelseries Arctis pro). The setup I am thinking about is tablet <-> USDB-C to headset Jack adapter <-> Signal Splitter <-> Headset

Hello,
I have a Galaxy S9 and bought a Fulaim wireless mic system to be able to capture clear audio from a subject while recording video from a distance away. Through hours of reading, and using trial and error, I have found a work around for getting the phone's original camera to capture audio from this external mic.
I knew the mic was transmitting to the receiver because I could connect a headset to the receiver and hear the external microphone clearly.
I also knew that the camera would record from an external mic because I could plug in my earbuds used for phone conversations and it would record audio onto the video every time while also indicating it was using the external mic.
I am not sure what the issue is with the phone recognizing the wireless receiver, but I found that if you unplug the connector cable from the phone AND the receiver, then plug the connector cable into the phone FIRST and then plug the connector cable into the receiver next, the external mic would work. It would work for multiple recordings until you had to unplg from the phone to listen for playback. To make it work again, I would have to unplug the connector cable from both devices and then plug them back in, phone first then receiver, before the external mic would be recognized.
The very brief and translated instructions indicated that the TRS end of the connecting cable should go into the receiver and the TRRS end should go into my phone. The only problem with that is that the system came with a connector cable with two TRRS ends. :) This issue and solution was exactly the same when I tested it using the Voice Recorder app on my phone, which indicates an issue in the connection with the S9.
(Note: I tried using this exact setup with an older LG phone that we had lying around. It worked flawlessly on the first try. It did not matter how I plugged or unpluged anything....it just worked....every time.)
I have read your comments about having a splitter and wonder if using a TRS cable from the receiver into the mic of the splitter might make a difference. At least then it might let me hear playback of the video from the audio side of the splitter without unplugging the connector from the phone.
Until then, I will just have to unplug and reconnect in the correct order to make it work.... and keep looking for a better solution to use this mic with my S9. We also had the same problem with my daughter's S10 but could not find a solution. The earbuds/mic would record to video when plugged in, but the wireless receiver was not recognized at all.
I will update this after trying the splitter.....

I wanted to verify that you found that the TRRS splitter method will only record MONO. The way I see it, the 4 TRRS segments of the phone's jack are: 1 ground, 1 mono mic, 1 headphone left, 1 headphone right. With and without the TRRS splitter, all attempts at plugging various things into the phone's headphone jack only recorded MONO.

I'd like to record stereo. In my case, the source is the stereo LINE OUT from a digital piano.

I used an OTG USB adapter with my Galaxy Note 8, and an Edirol UA-1EX USB audio interface. They're hard to find, but the Behringer UCA-202 or UCA-222 are nearly identical and would work just as well. An advantage of the UA-1EX is that it has a volume control for the line input. I imagine any USB audio interface with line outputs would work with any inputs the device supports (such as 2 microphones for stereo recording).

I couldn't get the default camera app to use the USB audio, so I installed Open Camera. I needed to plug in the USB audio interface before launching the Open Camera app in order for it to use the USB audio instead of the phone's mics. No surprise there.

I hope this helps somebody. If you think I've missed something or done anything wrong, please let me know!

Hi, I have a Samsung s9+, bought the trrs splitter, downloaded open camera app, selected correct settings, but although the phone tells me it is recording via external mic, it is still recording sound via phone mic. I tried a lavalier & a generic one, and both didn't work. Do you have any further suggestions? Thankyou

Hey there
im trying to connect my microphone to my s9+ but its not recegnizing it
it works on other phones but not on mine and an other s8 and s8+
the microphone has a trrs jack

i have docomo F04G cell phone. i have boya M1. not working. tried all indian sites. boya m1 not working on my cellphone.

Thx for this article. Whatever I try, I just can't get audio in to work on my samsung s9 and i'm out of options. Tried every adapter, apps like Open Camera, stereo/mono jacks into the splitter... nothing! It's very frustrating.

One thing that seems to be overlooked in this article is the difference in wiring standards. Some phones use the OMTP standard, while most newer phones have adopted Apple's CTIA standard. There are splitters for both, and they look identical, but they're very different. In short:
OMTP >> mic is wired to the 2nd ring of the TRRS-plug
CTIA >> mic is wired to the 1st ring (which would be the ground for most standard audio connectors)

If you experience things like volume/zoom sliders going all over the place, assistants popping up, etc, you have the wrong splitter.

happy to say, though hard to find, your solution worked for my note 9. Thanks a ton!!!

I'm not sure where you are getting your information, but great topic. I needs to spend some time learning more or understanding more. Thanks for fantastic information I was looking for this info for my mission.

Very helpful. Didn't know that Samsung S9's built-in camera app does not automatically use the external microphone. Thanks

It worked for me just fine! I own a samsun m31.
Thank you very, I was almost returning the mic device I bought.

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