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Do you sound a lot better than if you recorded yourself with an iPhone or iPad camera?
Random question.

IPads and iPhone cameras never do as good of a job as a professional recording device. Those tiny mics and speakers just can't do us justice on these big instruments I've noticed.

Most microphones will not cover the frequency range of the tuba properly. The industry standard Shure SM-58 has a flat response from 50 Hertz up, the Shure SM-57 is a bit better at 40 Hertz and up. Our horns can delve into the realms of around 20 Hertz, so that said, most microphones will just not reproduce our "voice".

I have not had good success with the stock microphone on the iPhone 5s recording much of anything accurately. But, I have used this little accessory, which seem to help w/ iPhone 5s.

http://www.rode.com/microphones/ixy" target="_blank

Great for turning your iPhone into a VERY reasonable field recorder.

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Automatic level control gets in the way, too. It compresses dynamics into a mezzo somethingorother. Brings the gain up on softer stuff, which then make all the valve noise and such more apparent relative to the louder sections of what you've played. Pitch, rhythm and time are clear, but dynamics and tone quality--not so much.

smitwill1 wrote:Automatic level control gets in the way, too. It compresses dynamics into a mezzo somethingorother. Brings the gain up on softer stuff, which then make all the valve noise and such more apparent relative to the louder sections of what you've played. Pitch, rhythm and time are clear, but dynamics and tone quality--not so much.

That makes sense because I was recording myself next to a bass trombone and I was playing almost as loud as him and I listened to it and I couldn't hear me really well. I think it had to do with the fact that it was on an IPad, that the bass trombone is a instrument with with a forward facing bell, And that the tuba has an upwards looking bell, not reflecting and capturing sound near as efficiently.