Very low quality audio recordings

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ok, here is a test audio file to test the microphone with for reproducible results:
https://github.com/CorvusCorax/android-audio-recorder/raw/fp3_tests/sounds/testsound/test_samples.ogg
and here is the apk (debug build)
https://github.com/CorvusCorax/android-audio-recorder/raw/fp3_tests/apks/audiorecorder-universal-3.3.11-debug.apk

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And I added some tests with the Fairphone FP3 I have, using all working profiles.
Test setup:
I used the same audio file, playing back through a Bluetooth HiFi speaker aproximately 2m away from the fairphone and on a different piece of furniture. The test sample was played back at identical volume each time:
Original Test Sample

I was able to make recordings in the following modes:
DEFAULT

MIC

CAMCORDER

VOICE_RECOGNITION

VOICE_COMUNICATION

and
UNPROCESSED

As you can see, the sources DEFAULT, MIC and CAMCORDER all employing the exact same audio profile. As audible in the test, it employs an auto-gain that fails horribly with music, ruining not just music recordings themselves but also voice recordings with music or other loud noise in the background.

VOICE_RECOGNITION applies additional filters, as can be seen in the spectrogram in reduced high frequencies. However it still employs an auto-gain confused by music and noise, unusable for music sources. The filter also ruins recording of voice with noise in the background.

VOICE_COMUNICATION is the filter normally used during voice calls. It assumes the speaker is directly next to the microphone, so it uses much lower gain to begin with. That doesn’t stop it from being confused by background noise though and lower the gain further. This is probably why people have complained about horrible voice quality. The filter is OK with a single voice source, but if there’s music or party noises in the background, the filter goes GAGA, and whoever is on the other side of the call wouldn’t understand a word.
This is probably the most critical flaw and must be fixed, as it affects using the Fairphone for making Phonecalls!!!

UNPROCESSED has horribly low initial gain, but at least nothing beyond that is applied. The signal is weak, but of high quality.

The gain filter misbehaviour is so pronounced it is even visible in the spectrogram plots.
Look at second 60 to 65 and 155 to 160 - this is always when loud music is encountered, after around 5 seconds, the auto gain goes BERSERK and cuts down gain across a large part of the spectrum, not only ruining the music but also making the speaker completely incomprehensible.

The other profiles could not record in this test. VOICE_PERFORMANCE is probably not yet supported by this Android version, while REMOTE_SUBMIX only makes sense with a remote speaker such as a car connected and VOICE_UPLINK, VOICE_DOWNLINK and VOICE_CALL would only work during a voice call.

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Been to a concert yesterday and made a few videos. That sound is terrible. Thanks for advices for a workaround. I hope fairphone will fix it with an update soon.

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I’m a bit disappointed about the microphone quality of the Fairphone 3. What are your experiences?
Here’s some test footage I took last December in Vienna:

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I moved your post here to avoid duplicate topics.
Also of interest if you understand German or know how to use Google Translate or DeepL

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Do you think this is a problem that will be resolved via update or do I have to send my phone in (or sell it) in order to get rid of this ridiculous problem?

I think it can be resolved via update.
The support is also aware of it, as they have gotten many reports by now.
If Fairphone cannot fix it, I am pretty sure the community can, once rooting or installing LineageOS or similar becomes an option. But it might require patching some drivers. Worst case it could be a firmware issue in one of the proprietary blobs which means there must be an update from Qualcomm - but in that case it might be a good thing that production phones are affected.
I’d be confident that in 12 months or so the problem is solved. But don’t hold your breath that long :wink:

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Hello, any news on this topic? I also need the phone to record music while I play together with my group, but its useless! My previous very old 2014 Motorola MotoG 1 was OK.
I see there are external microphones that can be used via the jack plug or usb-c. Anyone tried this? Would this be a workaround? Or the same voice filter would be applied?
Thank you, bye Marco

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I tried an external microphone connected by jack (the Rode Smartlav+) and the result was the same: the filter is applied. My old Android 4.2 phone was OK also.

I hope they solve it soon, I usually work in music and media (interviews) and I need this, it’s a tool for my work.

Meanwhile, I record videos with Open Camera and audio with Audio Recorder, because I can select “Unprocessed” in the input settings (so the filter is not applied), but the entry level is really low :frowning:

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Thank you Miguel, I’ll try Audio Recorder. I see in the parameters there is “recording volume”, set at 100% as default, that can be increased to 400%. Maybe this can overcame the low sound level in umprocessed mode? I’ll try this evening at home.

Hm. I had absolutely zero issues so far. Neither with voicemail nor with recordings of people talking. But maybe my expectations are just too average.

I’d like to add that this mic is designed for voice recording. The quality on phone calls so far has been good with my FP3. Not perfect or great, but good. If I want a better sound I sometimes use a mic on a headphones cord. But after all, for a recording of something varying as much in frequency and amplitude as music… seriously: I would use a device made to record music - not a phone mic, made for phone calls and voicemail… That’s like requesting the built-in camera being as good as SLR quality. It won’t be, and it was probably never the intention. The shown band recording just illustrates that fact.

It was already established that microphone and software work as intended for voice.
The issue at hand is not the design of the microphone it seems, but that a filter is applied by default by the software, when not applying it would increase music recording quality dramatically.

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I think the videos and recordings in this thread are just exaggerated examples. Assumably most of the people wouldn’t want to record and mix their band on a phone to print it on disk later on. But probably a lot of people want to record a concert, or a video of them singing a birthday serenade, or send a voice mail, while in a loud club or on the street passing a street musician. And all of that are cases, in which the filter applied to the recording would distort the voices to an almost completly opaque level.

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Hello, I have gotten used to using my phone to record myself playing or my fellow musicians playing. I don’t have very high expectations, I just need the recordings as a reference, or I try different arrangements while reproducing them. This has worked well with my previous very old (2014) phone. It’s similar to my taking photos with my phone to document some of the jobs I do in my garage, I actually have a nice choice of digital cameras from Fuji and Nikon, but the phone is what I find in my pocket while working and just use it. The photos are not great but “good enoug”. This is just to explain why one could use the microphone in a smartphone for something different from voice, the smartphone has the quality of being in my pocket quite often! That said, yesterday I tried the Audio Recorder app, set the source to “Unprocessed”, bumped the gain to 400% et voilà, I am back in the game :slight_smile:
I like what I hear, the sound level is still quite low but the recordings are again “good enoug” to me, or I dare say even “promising” if I find a way to increase the level with some sort of postprocessing with another app. Maybe recording in wav and then converting to mp3 while increasing the volume? I’ll try also “open camera” for video recording with unprocessed sound, I need those videos to have a record of the right fingering while studying a new music: I film my teacher :slight_smile: and then try to reproduce at home. Ciao marco

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a filter is applied by default by the software, when not applying it would increase music recording quality dramatically.

Okay, sorry, I obviously skipped that comment.

Still this does not change my perspective. Because obviously, when recording language, you need background suppression of some sort. Which would not be very kind in general to a music recording like this. That - to me - is to be expected of a phone mic and standard phone software.

probably a lot of people want to record a concert, or a video of them singing a birthday serenade, or send a voice mail, while in a loud club or on the street passing a street musician.

That’s the real hardware issue here. (The one behind the hardware.)

I probably have very different standards at this point. I do video and sound editing for years now. And I completely disagree with this consumer claim of having a phone being able to make a good-quality audio recording of anything other than voice in an average noisy area. If I want to write an essay, I do it using a keyboard. This is not something basic. If you want a great recording, get a great recorder.

I’ll leave you ppl alone now, recording some serenades on your phone and writing essays on a palm-sized screen… :tipping_hand_man:

Practical thought: The only thing you can do if you want to “improve” the quality of bad recordings is to do some post fixing on it (preferably on a computer, with real software, not an app), and use a recording app that only sets the input level and does not process the raw voice data any further. But I hope that one is in here already.

Bye then :wink:

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@hello.world

The problem isn’t just that music recording fails. The presence of music scrambles any recording. This means if you try to record voicemail, make a phonecall, or do anything else voice related while there is music in the background (at a party, etc…) it will not just scramble the music, it will scramble the voice, too to the point it’s not intelligible.

If the music was simply filtered out in favor of voice - that’d be OK - at least for the speech relevant profiles (voicecall, etc…) but that is not the case, the culprit is the auto-gain which affects the entire recording.

But if you have the luxury to be able to go to a quiet place every single time you need to take or make a phone- or skype/whatsapp/other-messenger call, then this will not affect you and FP3 will work great.

(otherwise I’m sure this would have been caught during testing before phones were shipped out)

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It looks that this problem has been fixed in the last software update (FP3 A.0110). You can compare how default camera app recorded audio before the update and after updating the phone:

Also the app I usually use for recording (Easy Voice Recorder Pro) now allows me to choose non-filtered source for my recordings. I’m still doing tests with different settings, but it looks that the problem has gone (even with external mics plugged by jack). Great!

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So i just tested the video sound with the new January2020 software update.

To me the issue is resolved now. Thank you very much.

If anyone asks me to I can provide a before and after test video, but since this requires a little bit of effort I would only do this if anyone needs it.

Again thanks to Fairphone, the video sound quality on this device is finally good enough for everyday use :slight_smile:

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Glad to hear this issue is resolved by Fairphone :ok_hand:
Could someone, who examined the problem before, state which audio source I should choose after the update for:
Standard Camera App:
OpenCamera App:
Voice recordings:
Music recordings / live music recordings:

Thank you!

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