Shure MV88

Steveperrywriter

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Got a new mike for the iPhone/iPad/iPod, the Shure MV88. Uses the lightning connector, comes with a windscreen, and is pretty much the cat's pajamas, much improved sound quality over the iOS built-in microphone. I haven't gotten good side-by-side sound samples yet, but it's waay better.

Few things for folks looking to upgrade the iPhone recording experience with this toy:

First, if you have case that covers the bottom of your device, the mike won't like it. It needs to sit flush, and a lot of cases won't allow that.

Second, if you record with it, you need to set your device to airplane mode, and Do Not Disturb. If you don't, you can get interference, pops and crackles, and interruptions if somebody calls or you get an information ping.

Third, the gain is such that it likes loud music but not soft voices, so if you want your vocals to show up, fiddle with the presets. There are five, Speech, Singing, Flat, Acoustic, and Band. With me and my ukulele, Singing works pretty well. With other instruments in the mix, the Flat and Acoustic seems to do the trick.

You download the control app MOTIV from the app store, for free, and run it through that. (The mic also works with the videocam, just point and shoot, and adjust the mic on its swivel.)

To move big files from the app to your computer, you use iTunes, the file-sharing function. Or Dropbox. Most email servers choke on big files, so emailing long videos or WAV files isn't so good. I have been using a tiny flash drive that plugs into iOS devices, a uDrive. Got a lightning connector on one end, and USB on the other. Plug it into your phone, copy files to it, then plug it into your computer and copy them across. Not the fastest way, but it works fine.

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I've been using the shure for a while now for all of my uke needs. It's been great, tons of options with the shure app.
 
Nice detailed review.

I have been using the MV5 for playing around at home for a while.
It also comes with a lightning cable, but a USB cable as well so you are not tied to the apple products.
It takes up a bit more space, and it is not stereo, but I assume that the larger size provides a higher quality some how. This only has three settings: Talking, playing strings and normal/flat. I use flat for everything, sounds better to me.

One problem I had when connecting it to my iPhone is with the apple software in general.
Since I have not committed 100% to iTunes and stuff that wants to synchronize my devices, I was totally bugged that I couldn't transfer the recording by cable without. Also I couldn't email it to myself. I ended up converting it to a video, since videos are in the photo album and can hence be transferred without iTunes. After that I couldn't edit it in Audacity.
Now I use an "on the go" cable and plug it in an android device. That allows me to browse my file folders from the pc and transfer the file manually. Also the battery in my tablet gives more power to the mic, so the sound level is better.
 
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