🤳Using Your Phone to Record

A. The app!

Your iPhone should have the Voice Memos app automatically downloaded on it. (If you are an Android user, we recommend using Smart Voice Recorder, which is free and similar to Voice Memos. While the interface may look slightly different, most of the steps when using for podcasting are the same, so feel free to continue to use this as a resource)

This is the icon for the NEWER version of the Voice Memos App

This is the icon for the OLDER version of the Voice Memos App

B. Recording

• Below are the steps for how to use Voice Memos:

1. Open the Voice Memos app by tapping on it.

2. To start a new recording, tap the red button at the center of the bottom of the screen.

   

Once you press the red button, the recording should start. You can tell if your phone is recording by looking at the red line above the button. The line moves as time progresses, and it fluctuates in size based on the audio’s volume. To be certain that the recording is working, make sure the numbers on the screen are ticking upwards.

During a conversation, spikes in the line will parallel spikes in speaking volume. Don’t be alarmed if there are points where the recording line goes flat! These will correspond with lapses in conversation. Just make sure the line continues to fluctuate with the conversation.

Check that the numbers are ticking upwards — this means that the recorder is rolling!

The flat portion of the red line corresponds to quiet audio, while the peaks in the red line correspond to louder audio.

Once you are done recording, press the stop button. But don’t forget to get 30 seconds of silence at the end of the interview!

C. How to hold/orient your phone

• Below are some tips on how to handle your phone during the interview:

  • For the best sound quality, you should hold your phone with the BOTTOM facing the interviewee because the microphones on the bottom of the iPhone are the most accessible (see photos below).

  

  
• Hold the phone close to the speaker with the bottom pointed towards them. The phone should be about one-fist-length away from their mouth.

• NOTE: it may feel slightly invasive to hold the phone so close to the interviewee’s face. Make sure to tell the interviewee BEFORE the interview starts that you’re going to be holding the phone close to their face, but that they should just ignore it and speak to you like they would in any normal conversation.

• Hold the phone at a slight angle away from the center of the speaker’s mouth. Try aiming for the corner of the interviewee’s mouth. This technique helps prevent the recorder from capturing the interviewee’s breathing and “p-pop” sounds (audio distortions when someone pronounces a word with a “p”).

• When it’s your turn to talk or answer a question, move the phone between yourself and the interviewee. When you’re recording your own voice, remember to still hold the phone about one-fist-length away from your mouth and at a slight angle away from the center of your mouth.

  

Note how the phone is about one-fist-length away from the interviewee’s mouth, and that the bottom of the phone is facing towards the speaker. The phone is also being held at angle (not straight at the speaker’s mouth).

D. Exporting interview audio

• Below are the steps for exporting audio files from Voice Memos:

1. After you’re done with the interview and have pressed the stop button, a file called “New Recording” will appear in your Voice Memos screen. (To rename the file, tap on “New Recording” and type in the new name.)

2. Tap the three dot icon in the bottom left of the new recording file.

3. From the pop-up menu that appears, tap “Share.”

4. From there, a list of sharing options will appear. I recommend that you email yourself the audio file. From there, you can log into your email from a computer and use the computer’s audio editing software to stitch together your podcast.