There’s an old saying: Nothing ruins a great video like lousy audio. And when using consumer cameras, you’re often stuck with a less-than-optimal microphone to begin with.
But if you have a reasonably modern smartphone, you have all you need to record great audio on location.
Get close to the source
Many times the shot you want doesn’t make for good audio. Usually it’s just a distance problem: When you’re far enough to get the shot framed the way you want it, the camera mic isn’t close enough to pick up a good, clean audio take.
But you don’t need a microphone and boom to solve this problem. Grab your smartphone, hit record, and then set it just out of frame, close to your subject—and start recording.
Then just overlay or mix the phone track onto your video track later, and reduce the volume of (or delete) the original audio track. Voila! Crisp, detailed dialogue.
To make it easier when cutting everything back together, don’t forget one of the oldest cinematic tricks in the book: Have your subject clap his or her hands loudly once everything’s recording, then wait another second to start talking. Big productions generally use a clapper board, but a simple, loud, on-camera clap can give you the same visual (and audio) cue you’ll need to align your smartphone audio track with the raw video tracks later.
Cut down distortion
So you’re at a loud concert or dance club and everything you shot has an audio track that sounds like static. Unfortunately, the ambient audio in the room was too loud for the gain on your camera, and it clipped your recording levels. At best, it sounds like somebody turned on a fuzz box; at worst, it’s a totally inaudible mess.
Given most smartphones aren’t so flexible with setting custom gain (and distort easily at high volumes), there’s not always a great solution in your phone’s software.
Good thing Scotch tape is all you need to address this tricky situation! Just
place a small piece of tape over the microphone hole(s) on your phone and it will reduce the amount of sound that’s able to enter the mic, often giving you a much better result.
Make sure there are no bubbles or seams in the edges of the tape that might leak higher-volume sounds, and experiment with different thicknesses of tape (duct, masking, paper, etc) until you find one that works best with your phone and environment.
Not sure? Stick a few small squares of varying tapes onto the back of your phone before your next concert so you’ve got some options to play with. Easy.
(Seems obvious, but you’d be surprised … ) Use Airplane Mode!
Now you’re prepared to capture decent audio for awkward shots and noisy environments. The red light’s on, everything’s going well… when a text message noisily arrives, messing up your recording.
Avoid these embarrassing audio gaffes by always setting your phone to Airplane Mode (which silences
its cellular, Bluetooth, and WiFi connections) and muting its volume when on location, so that you don’t ruin an otherwise perfect take. The screenshot below is from iOS—but most all modern smartphones have this feature, so make sure you know where it is and how to use it.
Additional pointers
The three tips above should get you on your way to capturing great audio. Here are a few more pointers to help out.
- Set your smartphone on a soft, vibration-free surface so it won’t rattle.
- Angle your phone’s mic away from anything that hums or buzzes (a/c units, coolers, engines, etc). Often even small shifts in mic angle can make a big difference.
- Show up early and take a test recording if at all possible—then listen to it carefully to find any other issues you may encounter before getting started.
- Carry a good pair of headphones to listen to your tracks carefully. Smartphone speakers are no substitute.
- Consider better microphone and software options for your phone or tablet! Not only do many professional-quality recording apps exist for iOS, Android, and Windows Phones, but there are plenty of external microphone options you can add on to get even better quality.
Looking to learn more? Check out one of these LinkedIn Learning courses:
- Audio Recording Techniques
- Audio Mixing Bootcamp
- GarageBand: Podcasting
- Pro Video Tips
- Audio for Video: 1 Getting Started
Recording internal audio on an Android smartphone used to be surprisingly difficult without rooting or buying a phone from a specific manufacturer. But starting with Android 10, apps have gained a way to capture audio via the so-called broad audio input sharing API. While this was largely introduced as an accessibility-minded feature, like Live Caption, developers quickly caught on to its utility for adding internal audio recording to screen capture apps.
There's one thing you need to keep in mind: Apps can deactivate support for the audio API that screen recorders use. That means that sometimes, you just won't be able to hear audio in your recordings, even if you've properly activated the respective settings. This can be the case for phone apps in countries or states that forbid call recordings. And as you might guess, this also applies to most streaming services out there and some games, too. Be sure to test if your screen recorder properly retains audio before you record something important.
Native screen recorders
Most manufacturers these days have screen recorders built-in, like Google, Samsung, OnePlus, Xiaomi, and Huawei. It's likely you'll have access to a tool just like that on your phone, so there might be no need for an extra app.
Google Pixel phones natively support recording device audio since Android 11. To access the tool, swipe down from the top of your screen twice to open the quick settings toggles. You may need to swipe left to see the screen recorder on the second page, but if it's not there, you'll need to hit the pencil button and add the tool to your quick settings toggles from there. Once you've accessed the screen recorder, make sure you've selected "Device audio" under "Record audio," and don't forget to flip on the toggle next to the drop-down menu.
Google's screen recorder.
Samsung offers the feature as part of its custom One UI interface. If you haven't changed your quick settings toggles, accessible by swiping down twice from the top of your screen, you should find a tile labeled "Screen recorder" sitting on the second page. Long-press it to enter its settings and enable "Media sounds" to record your phone's audio. You can also activate both media and mic sound. Samsung additionally lets you draw on the screen and include a video of your front camera if you're so inclined.
Samsung's built-in screen recorder.
OnePlus first added native screen recording to the OnePlus 7 Pro, and it's available on both older and newer devices. Look for the screen recorder entry in your quick setting tiles (you may need to add it by tapping the pencil icon at the bottom of the section) and hold it to head to its settings. There, you can choose internal audio as the source for your recording.
OnePlus' built-in screen recorder.
Xiaomi offers native screen recording on most of its devices thanks to a pre-installed app called "Screen Recorder" which you should find somewhere on your homescreen. Once you open it, tap the gear icon in the top right corner and look for the "Sound source" entry to make sure you've got device audio recording enabled.
Xiaomi's screen recorder.
Huawei and Honor also let you record your screen natively. Swipe down from the top of your screen to see the quick settings tiles and tap the screen recorder button. A floating bubble will appear with a record and microphone button. If the latter is crossed out, you're recording internal audio, and if it's not, you get sound straight from your phone's mic.
Third-party apps
If you don't have Android 10 or higher on your phone or a device made by Google, Samsung, OnePlus, Huawei, or Xiaomi, you'll likely be out of luck if you don't want to root your handset. Android 7 through 9 forbid screen recorders from accessing internal audio, so you'll be stuck with silent screencasts or you'll have to go for more hacky solutions, such as an external HDMI screen recorder. To check which Android release you have on your phone, enter the system settings and use the search box to find the "Android version."
You'll have to go through a similar workflow to set up the two apps presented here. They both come with floating control buttons, so you need to allow them to draw on top of other apps. Other necessary permissions include the microphone (if you want to record external audio) and files and media (to save the recorded files).
ADV Screen Recorder
ADV was among the first screen recorders to support the API when it was introduced in Android 10. When you start the app, you have to accept its privacy policy (mostly concerned with the collection of non-personally identifiable statistics) and give it access to external storage. Once you've set up ADV, you can head into Settings by tapping the three-dot overflow menu in the top right corner. Scroll down to the Audio settings and choose to record Internal audio (Android 10+).
Go to settings and choose internal audio.
ADV comes with a floating button that allows you to stop and start recordings without entering your notification shade. It can be deactivated if you don't want to have it in your screencasts. As for advanced features, ADV lets you change the resolution, the bitrate, and the frame rate. It also offers a basic video editor that lets you trim your footage without the need for additional software.
AZ Screen Recorder
Unlike ADV, AZ Screen Recorder comes with ads, but you can fully disable them in exchange for a low fee. To record internal audio, you need to go to the rightmost tab (settings), look for the Audio source entry, and select Internal audio. Other than the regular options like changing the resolution, bitrate, and frame rate, the app gives you access to a suitable selection of editing features: You can trim or crop a video, cut out the middle, convert it to GIF, extract frames, add backgrounds, audio, text, and stickers, and you can even merge it with another recording.
Go to settings (gear icon in top right) and choose internal audio.
If you want to get rid of the floating button, you can opt for the "magic button" instead — it's an invisible element that you can use to pause and stop recordings. It also allows you to draw on the screencast. AZ Screen Recorder is additionally capable of live streaming and Wi-Fi transfer, making it the more versatile of the two.
Choosing your preferred screen recorder comes down to preference — they're all pretty much comparable on a technical level, while some are more bare-bones than others. If you don't care about extra features like video editing, you can choose the one you find the most intuitive. And if you own one of the devices with built-in screencast capability, you don't even need to download an extra app.