Managed to get my Zoom H5 talking to my phone, which is a huge get. Previously, if I wanted quality audio on a video, say for an Instagram post, I’d have to:
- Record audio onto H5, record video on phone
- Export both separately to my computer
- Sync audio to video in garageband
- Make any other edits if I wanted in iMovie
- Export and convert to a reasonable format
- Share back to my phone via email or Google Drive
- Upload to Insta
Before I tried it, I didn’t find a totally clear answer online as to whether it would work. So figured I’d share my findings for anyone else wondering.
What I have:
- iPhone 7, iOS 12 (but i’d imagine other models and OSs would work)
- Zoom H5 (I’d imagine plenty of other interfaces don’t work)
- Apple lightning to USB 3 adapter (the one that also gives you an extra lightning port for charging the phone while the adapter is connected. I’d imagine the USB-only one would also work). I’m pretty sure these got cheaper than they used to be; it’s only like $30 now.
I tried out all combinations/orders of plugging stuff in, just to know what works and what doesn’t. The key details:
- The H5 must be in “iPad” USB interface mode. The bus-powered “PC/Mac” mode does not work. (didn’t try the non-bus-powered “PC/Mac” mode, but there’s no reason to)
- The H5 must be put in USB interface mode every time before plugging it into the phone. If you unplug it, you need to exit and re-enter USB interface mode before re-plugging. I didn’t realize this at first, and it really confused my testing. (you get weird audio rate issues)
- I only tried Stereo mode, not Multi-Track. I’d imagine Multi-Track probably wouldn’t work.
Otherwise, it just works™.
- Doesn’t seem to matter the order of plugging H5 into the adapter, and plugging adapter into phone
- Doesn’t seem to matter the order of plugging in the H5, and opening the desired app. (I tried the Camera app, Instagram, and Snapchat. ymmv with others)
- The phone can actually switch from internal mike to H5 mid-video, if you plug it in while recording. There’s a stutter in the recording when it switches, but it works.