Your Macbook has an internal mic, but it isn’t that good. Off course you can buy those external USB mics from Amazon, but they are quite expensive as well. Turns out, you can use your iPhone’s mic as an audio input for your Mac. The trick here is simple. All you need is an app that transmits audio from your iPhone to your Mac and set up your Mac, to make it receive audio input. Let’s see how to do this.
- Use Iphone As Bluetooth Mic
- Microphone App For Iphone Bluetooth
- Use Iphone As Pc Microphone
- Bluetooth Microphone For Iphone 11
- Use Iphone As Microphone Bluetooth
- Not strictly an answer to the question, but try airfoil for iphone or rogue amoeba for android - you can stream any source of sound from pc or mac beit web based or music player.
- I need to use an external mic and not a mic app as the external mic must be placed away from the phone connected by an audio cable. So far, I have found that when I place the external mic in the 3.5mm headphone socket in the phone, the bluetooth becomes deactivated and fails to communicate with the external bluetooth speaker.
- Now you will be using your iPhone as the microphone of your PC. You could use it for any kind of your needs like voice calling, recording, and anything that is possible with a normal microphone. I think, now you got the answer for your question How To Use iPhone As Computer Microphone.
- It works very well but the only catch is that the iPhone app costs $2.99US to have. If you are a frequent user, it’s actually quite cheap for having an app that turns your iPhone into a wireless microphone for your PC. If you are using a Windows Phone. Same as iPhone users, PocketAudio is also your best chance. And again, the app costs.
Read: Best Audio Recording Software for Mac
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You Will Need
- A free app – Microphone Live
- Apple’s Lightning to USB cable
- And of course, iPhone and MacBook.
Use iPhone as External Mic Input in MacBook
Step 1
Once you have downloaded the Microphone Live app on your iPhone, connect your iPhone and MacBook through the lightning to USB cable. Placing your iPhone on a tripod or hold it in your hand, to make the best use of the microphones placed at the bottom.
Step 2
Now, go to your Mac and open a new Finder window by pressing ‘cmd + N’. Click on ‘Applications’ under the head favorites, in the left navigation menu.
Step 3
Scroll down to find the ‘Utilities’ folder. You can also access the same in your Launchpad or even in the Spotlight search.
Step 4
Look for ‘Audio MIDI Setup’. This app is a macOS utility that manages audio and MIDI devices.
Step 4
Open the Audio MIDI Setup and look for your iPhone’s name on the left menu. Click on ‘Enable‘ right under your iPhone’s name. This allows your iPhone to appear as an audio input device on your MacBook.
Step 5
Now, go back to your iPhone and open Microphone lite app. You’ll see the input and output options at the bottom of the screen. Although initially, the app shows the input device as iPhone Bottom Mic. But in some devices, you’ll notice that as soon as you enable the device on your Mac, the audio input changes to Front iPhone Mic.
This is because your device has another microphone that you were probably not aware of. It is placed right on top along with the stereo speakers.
Step 6
On the bottom right of the app, you’ll see the output device menu. Tap on it once and select ‘Dock Connector’ if not already selected.
Step 7
Open System Preferences either through launchpad or Spotlight and look for Sounds.
Here you’ll see that iPhone is now available as an input device for your Mac. Select iPhone and you are good to go. You can check if the device is working right from this menu itself. As you speak the sound bar shows input.
Step 8
Similarly, if you use Audacity to record audio, you can now see iPhone in the input device drop-down menu.
Step 9
Now go back to your iPhone, open the microphone lite if it’s not already open and press the power button to activate iPhone mic.
Step 10
And that’s it, hit the record button on Audacity and start recording audio on your Mac from your iPhone’s mic. You might have to do some noise removal and audio compression with Audacity, here is our step by step article on how to improve your voice over with Audacity
Recording Audio on Your MacBook
Although there are other ways to record audio on your iPhone and then transfer it to your MacBook, for better audio quality. In fact, you can even record audio on the native Voice Memo app which is common across your Apple devices and hence you can access it on your Mac as well. But then again there’s a hassle of importing the audio file into the editing software. Microphone Live and other similar apps let you record audio in apps like audacity in real-time. So make your choice and let me know your experience in the comments below.
The lack of support for Bluetooth stereo headsets was a staple of every forum thread after the introduction of every new iPhone hardware or firmware for years—until it finally materialized. Then nothing much was heard about the subject ever again. So, when I ordered my Sennheiser MM450 Bluetooth headset/headphones with noise cancelation, I didn't really know what to expect. After a few months of use, however, I'm now ready to share all the sordid details. This post is first and foremost meant to provide insight into the world of Bluetooth stereo audio on the Mac and the iPhone, even though I only tested with the MM450. I have some remarks about the headset itself at the end.
The way Bluetooth manages to work between computers, keyboards, mice, headsets, cell phones, and many other devices is through profiles. A profile determines how two devices talk to each other. Two devices must both support the desired profile for a function to work—the same way a browser and a Web server must both speak HTTP.
A common audio-related profile is the headset profile (HSP). HSP allows for two-way telephony-quality audio communication between a cell phone and a headset, along with some limited controls, such as taking a call and ending it. The hands-free profile (HFP) does the same thing for Bluetooth car kits. The Mac has supported this for a long time, and the original iPhone also supported HSP/HFP. But because the audio is mono and sampled at 8kHz, the quality is barely sufficient for phone calls. You certainly don't want to listen to music this way.
Use Iphone As Bluetooth Mic
For music, there is the Advanced Audio Distribution Profile, A2DP. Unlike HSP/HST, A2DP can only send audio in one direction: from the computer (or phone) to the headset, though it supports full 44.1/48kHz quality in glorious stereo. Unfortunately, Bluetooth would be somewhat out of its depth transferring full CD-quality digital audio uncompressed, so A2DP allows a variety of audio compression codecs.
In theory, it's possible to simply send already compressed AAC or MP3 audio to the headset, which then decompresses it and plays it back. In practice, few A2DP implementations support anything other than the mandatory SBC codec. This means that the sending device must (re)compress the audio before it's sent to the headset.
Last but not least, there's the Audio/Video Remote Control Profile (AVRCP). This profile allows the headset to send back playback control commands (next/previous track and the like) to the audio source. When Apple initially added A2DP to the iPhone, the company left out AVRCP. In fact, it's still missing from some older iPhones, even though the iPhone 4 and Macs running Snow Leopard support it.
Pairing
Back to the Sennheiser MM450. Like any Bluetooth device, it needs to be paired before it can be used. This is a simple matter of keeping a button pushed on the headset until some lights start to flash, waiting for it to show up on the Mac or the iPhone, and then selecting the MM450 from the list of discovered Bluetooth devices. On the iPhone, that's all there is to it; the Bluetooth headset is used for audio until you manually select the speaker.
Microphone App For Iphone Bluetooth
On the Mac, things are a bit more complicated: two audio output devices and one audio input device are now added to the system. The easiest way to select one for use is by alt-clicking the loudspeaker icon in the menu bar if you've set it up to appear there in the Sound pref pane. Of course you can also change audio in- and outputs through the System Preferences. In some cases the output devices are labeled Stereo and Mono, sometimes this helpful information is left out. Choosing mono means that the HSP profile is used, making the computer's audio sound really crappy.
But you do get to use the headset's microphone this way, so it's somewhat useful for Skype calls and the like. However, Skype supports 16kHz audio, so you may want to use another microphone or headset.
This is a short audio clip (in WAV format) recorded at 8kHz over Bluetooth using the HSP profile. And this is a clip recorded at 48 kHz using a wired headset through a MacBook's audio in/out port.
If you choose stereo, the Mac sends all its audio output to the headset using the A2DP profile. As mentioned above, this audio is (re)compressed. However, there is quite a bit of quality difference in the way different devices and software versions do this. Under Mac OS 10.5 Leopard, the quality is good, but not excellent. Under Mac OS 10.6 Snow Leopard, it's a lot better. And on the iPhone 4, it's better still—as far as my untrained ears can tell. Obviously, anyone looking for the audiophile experience is going to steer well clear of Bluetooth, but I was hard pressed to hear any difference with wired audio when listening casually to my MP3/AAC library.
On the computer, you can influence the amount of compression the SBC codec applies by modifying the editable Bluetooth compression variables listed here:
Do this by issuing defaults write <variable> = <value>. Don't forget the quotation marks in the variable names. However, when I cranked up the bitpool settings too far, the headset wouldn't produce any audio anymore.
Overall performance
I was impressed with the solid reception and distance the Bluetooth audio works over. It easily goes through one wall, and when Bluetooth has to compete with WiFi (both use the 2.4GHz band), WiFi loses out and slows down—Bluetooth typically remains solid. The only circumstances under which the audio would break up (and even then usually not that much) is when my iPhone would get caught between me and some solid object, or when I would walk across an open field in front of my house. With my iPhone in my left pocket and the MM450's electronics on the right side, apparently there need to be some objects in the vicinity for the Bluetooth signal to bounce off of to circumnavigate my body.
The solid reception lasted until I had been using the MM450 for about a month. One morning, the audio kept dropping out—badly. This kept up when I left the house, so apparently it wasn't the neighbors transferring big files over WiFi or nuking some popcorn in a badly shielded microwave. Nothing I could think of would clear up the problem. Fortunately, the MM450, like most Bluetooth headphones, comes with an optional cable for use in airplanes. The next day things were back to normal. This keeps happening about one day a month. The fact that it's impossible to debug the problem is unbelievably frustrating.
Other things I have learned: first, the volume on the headset and that on the computer are independent and work in multiplicative fashion. So, you can use either to turn down the volume, but you only get the maximum volume by turning up both.
What I do is keep my iPhone volume set to maximum—fortunately it remembers the volume separately for each output—and use the MM450 buttons to select a pleasant playback volume. On the Mac, I set the Mac's volume to around two-thirds, which makes the volume with and without the cable the same. Connected to the Mac, after an hour, the headset turns itself off to save power. Not so with the iPhone, which keeps the headset awake until it runs out of power.
Activating Voice Control on the iPhone happens via the Bluetooth button (not the main play/pause button!), but I always forget whether it needs a short or a long press, so I often end up redialing the last dialed number. Voice Control is a bit slower than normal because the Bluetooth connection first has to be switched to HSP mode so the microphone can be used. The headset insists on reconnecting to the last connected device when it's turned on; making it connect to another device requires a few extra steps—it's not quite as simple as unplugging a cable from your iPhone and plugging it into your computer.
On the Mac, there is a very noticeable audio lag. This is very obvious when changing the volume using the volume keys on the keyboard: the feedback clicks are noticeably delayed. Forget about playing back video; the synchronization between the audio and video is off by a lot. This is strange, as the SBC codec is supposed to be optimized for low latency.
Use Iphone As Pc Microphone
The iPhone does much better with video—I've been able to watch video where the audio/video sync seemed fine, and other times it was off, but just by a little. Maybe the fact that lips are so much smaller on the iPhone screen also helps.
Finally, a few words on the Sennheiser MM450. Although I was impressed by the Bluetooth audio quality, the MM450 is bested in audio quality by much cheaper headphones. The electronics create a little noise in the right ear and turning up the volume too much makes the headset resonate. I was disappointed at first by the noise canceling feature: it didn't seem to cancel that much noise.
Bluetooth Microphone For Iphone 11
After using the MM450 for two months walking to work past a busy road, I did the same using regular headphones and I really noticed the difference. Although you still hear pretty much everything with the MM450's noise canceling active, you can easily listen to audio without cranking the volume up much, if at all. With the regular headphones, I need to set the volume to painful levels to follow what's being said in a podcast I'm listening to. The noise canceling does take the edge off with traffic or plane noise, but it doesn't do much for voices.
I was surprised to see that keeping Bluetooth on the iPhone 4 didn't impact battery life perceptibly, at least not compared to the battery life when trying to blast 3G through the steel and concrete cave that is my office. Using the headset wirelessly also doesn't seem to have a huge impact, although I've rarely done that for more than three hours a day.
The big question is whether it's worth all the trouble. Having to charge another battery pretty much every day, being surprised by 'bad wireless' days, the poor audio quality in HSP mode, the video-killing lag, and the extra cost all scream 'No!'
Use Iphone As Microphone Bluetooth
Still, getting rid of that wire is really nice. Walking into the kitchen while listening without even bothering to pocket my iPhone is good. And not seeing the iPhone fly through the air because the headphone cable got caught behind a doorknob once again is even better. Apparently, the answer is a qualified 'yes' after all.