Frequently Asked Questions About the App This is a free app, with no advertisements. A few features like MP3 and Voice Changer are paid features (see below). Supported file formats: - WAV uncompressed (default) - OGG compressed - MP3 compressed (paid/free trial) Change using Settings - Compression (File Format) The WAV format allows Multi-part recording, so for long recordings, a series of WAV files are created, each being below the 4GB file size limit for WAV standard. WAV also supports Hi-Res Audio up to 32-bit at 192kHz on Marshmallow and above devices. Call recording: - Manual incoming/outgoing - Incoming Auto - Outgoing Auto (paid/free trial) Outgoing Auto call recording is free for TalkBack and other screen reader users. Themes (paid/free trial). Purchase using Menu - Store. Or donate using Menu - Donate. Donations will unlock all paid features. Working with 32-bit WAV files 32-bit WAV files can be played when you press the Play button, but very few audio player apps can play 32-bit WAV files. Here is one audio player app which can play 32-bit WAV files: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.neutroncode.mpeval Neutron Music Player (Eval) by Neutron Code Limited 1.1 Phone call recording is not working on my phone Android does not allow phone call recording (because it is illegal in some areas of the world). However phone call recording does work on many phones models. Press Record button during a phone call to record phone calls. If it does not record both sides of the call correctly with Default setings, then click on Settings - Call Recorder - Reset Call Recorder, and select the Samsung E7 setting. If this setting also does not record correctly, then select the Nexus setting (which will use the speakerphone, but in a way which will not disturb your phone call). E-mail us using Menu - Contact, and we will help you find the best settings for your device. There is a section in the FAQ below for more detailed information on phone call recording. Recording with Bluetooth headsets can be problematic - for this reason, call recording with a Bluetooth headset may not work correctly. Make sure that you have uninstalled other call recording apps from your phone. One call recorder app can start recording and interfere with another call recorder app. If you are call recording manually, then make sure you press the Record button after the call has started. This will ensure that the recorder knows that this is a phone call, and will use the appropriate recording settings. If you are using a wired headset during call recording, it may work, or it may require different settings. Let us know if you have issues by clicking Menu - Help - Contact to e-mail us. 1.2 Auto Call Recording is working, but manually recording phone calls is not working If you are manually recording phone calls, you have to make sure you press the Record button after the phone call has started. This way, it will be recognized as a call recording (i.e. the recording will be saved in the Call Folder instead of the Recordings Folder, and will use the Call Recorder settings). If you press the Record button before the phone call has started, then it will be recognized as a regular audio recording. 1.3 WhatsApp or Skype call recording is not working You cannot use an audio recorder app to record WhatsApp or Skype calls. On Android, two apps cannot use the microphone at the same time. When you use WhatsApp or Skype to make calls, they are using the microphone. If you try to use an audio recorder app at the same time, it will not be able to record, because the microphone is already in use by the previous app. This restriction does not apply to phone calls (using SIM card), because phone calls are a separate system on Android. On many phones it is possible to record phone calls using an audio recorder. Some phones do not allow phone call recording, because of legal issues (phone call recording is illegal in some areas of the world). 1.4 Echo problems during audio recording There can be an echo in audio recording if you are using earphone monitoring (i.e. Listen to Recording feature is On, and you are using headset or earphones to listen to whatever is being recorded in real-time). The reason is that earphone monitoring will be playing whatever is recording onto the headset or earphones. If that sounds is loud enough to be heard by the microphone again (which is doing the recording), then you will get a feedback loop. The sound which was recorded, is being played on the earphones, and is again being heard a short time later by the microphone. This can happen if you are using earphone monitoring, and using a headset (where the built-in microphone is very close to the earphone part), or if you are using earphones, and happen to move the android device close to your earphone (the android device microphone will then start hearing what is being played in the earphone). To avoid this feedback, you can either ensure that the microphone is far away from the monitoring earphones. Or you can reduce the volume, so whatever is playing in the earphones is low in volume. Or you can turn off earphone monitoring completely, by setting Listen to Recording to Off (Settings - Record Settings - Listen to Recording). Generally, the feedback can be a problem with headsets, since their built-in microphone is very close to the earphone part. For this reason, earphones may be a better alternative, since with earphones, the android device microphones are used, and these can be positioned farther away from the earphones. In addition, earphones have the added advantage that you can record in stereo (in contrast, headsets which use the built-in mono microphone, can only record in mono i.e. even with stereo, both left and right channels will have the same audio signal). 1.5 Echo problems during phone call recording If you are testing with two phones in the same room (i.e. close to each other), then you will hear an echo during phone call recording, because the sound from one phone's speaker can be heard by the other phone's microphone, which allows for the feedback of audio, so the same sound can be heard over and over, leading to an echo effect. To reduce this effect while testing call recording, just have a friend move the other phone farther away, to another room. There is another situation where there can be severe echo effects during phone call recording testing: if you happen to plug in a headset while Reset Call Recording is set to Nexus or Moto G (where speakerphone is used). This has been observed for a few android phones, and suggests you should not plug in a headset for these situations. If you are using speakerphone (because you need it to record both sides of phone calls on Nexus / Moto G phones), then it does not make sense to plug in a headset in any case. 1.6 Vibration at start of recording Some devices will vibrate for longer or shorter period than others with the same app settings. If you find that the vibration feature is causing vibration to appear at the start of recordings, go into Settings and either decrease the Vibration Duration setting, or increase the Record Delay setting. You should be able to eliminate the vibration completely from your recording. 1.7 Gaps or missing recording If you find that there are gaps in recording or some parts are not being recorded, increase the Record Buffer Size from the default of 1 to something higher. Click on Settings - Record Settings - Record Buffer Size. Some android devices may not record at higher buffer sizes, but this is very rare. You can also try reducing the processing burden on the CPU by reducing the Sample Rate being used. Settings - Record Settings - Auto Sample Rate set to Off, and then set Sample Rate to a lower number. Some sample rates may not work on your device. 1.80 Power Button to Record is not working, or stops working after a while NOTE: Power button may not work for devices where the screen on and screen off is sluggish or slow when you press the Power button. This can happen on Marshmallow devices that are low-powered, or low on resources and are running TalkBack screen reader for blind users. On these devices sometimes the screen can take 5 seconds to turn on after you press the Power button. There is a solution to this - if you turn off the speaking of notifications on the lock screen, then screen on and screen off becomes faster, and Power button to record will work much better. Click Settings - Sounds and notifications - click on 'When device is locked' - and then change 'Show all content' to 'Do not show notifications'. The reason screen on and screen off events are important is because apps cannot directly access the Power button events, and have to rely on the screen on / screen off events to guess when the Power button was pressed. Make sure any battery optimizer, or power saving app is turned off, or make sure that you have excluded our app from being optimized. This will ensure that Power Controls feature remains available and is not stopped by the battery optimizer or power saving apps. If Power Controls button on the left side of the screen is On, and the Power Controls settings in Settings - Record Controls are On as well, then Power Controls should work, even after your reboot your device. A low priority notification should also appear in the notification area, at the very bottom of the notifications. This is an indication that Power button clicks will be heard and the appropriate action taken. However, if you have Battery Optimizers running, or are using Power Saving mode, then the system may be stopping our app from running, and would be removing the Power Controls notification as well. Some users use third-party apps for battery optimization, and some manufacturers like Huawei and Samsung also include Battery Optimizer software. So if Power Controls features are being disabled after some time, make sure that our app is not being stopped by the battery optimizer or power saving app you are using. Usually these apps allow you to exclude certain apps from being optimized. So you should also disable optimization for our app as well, if you want Power Controls to remain available all the time. 1.81 Notification Always On button is not working or notifications are being removed by the system Normally our app will show a notification in the status bar area at the top when the app is Recording, Paused, or Playing. No notification is shown when the app is stopped. However, if you turn the Notification Always On button to ON, then notifications will be shown even for the stopped state. That is, the notification is kept always on for your convenience, so you can reach our app from anywhere, just by going to the status bar. You can click the notification to launch our app, or click on the buttons there to record directly. However, on some devices, users have found that the notification is being removed by the system. This usually happens on devices which are running a battery optimizer or in some power saving mode, which shuts down services which are associated with our app. To resolve this on Huawei devices you can go to Settings - Protected Apps and switch our app from Unprotected to Protected, so it is not removed by their Battery Manager or power saver app. For other devices something similar may need to be done. When everything is working well, the Notification Always On notification should be shown in the status bar or notification tray area at the top of the screen. And if you are using at least one widget on your home screen, then the notification will show again after you upgrade the app, or restart the device. However, if the user uses Android Settings - Apps - Force Close, then our app will be closed, along with any notifications, even if Notification Always On is on. However, if you start the app again yourself, or restart the device and you have at least one widget on home screen, then the notification will be restored. Note that keeping the Notification Always On button set to On does not consume any significant battery power. So you can keep this on, for the convenience of having the app always available from the notification area. 1.81 When Notification Always On is set to On, then the LED notification lights are on when the screen is locked - how do I turn these off ? The LED notification lights indicate when there is something happening in your notification area. These are controlled by Android, and apps usually have limited control over these LED notification lights. However, many devices have settings for LED notification lights that allow the user to turn these off if they want. On Android One running Android 5.0 Marshmallow, click Settings - Sound and notification - Pulse notification light - which can be turned Off. And on Samsung Galaxy Note 4 running Android 5.0.3 Lollipop, click Settings - Display and wallpaper - LED indicator - which can be turned Off. 1.9 How do I add a widget to the home screen ? For Samsung devices, long-press on a blank area of the home screen. Then click on Widgets. You can then select the widget you want to use. For Nexus devices, press on the middle button above the home button to show the list of installed apps. Click on the Widget tab at the top. You can now select the widget you want to use. 1.91 Pressing buttons on the widget is not doing anything This problem can occur the first time you install the app. The solution seems to be to restart your device. Or power it off and then power it back on again. The widget buttons should now work. 1.93 Using 32-bit Audio, and high Sample Rates Will my android device natively support 32-bit audio and 96kHz or 192kHz Sample Rate ? Starting with Android 6.0 Marshmallow, you can now record beyond the earlier 16-bit 48000 Hz limits, and can now record in 32-bit floating point at 96kHz and 192kHz. On most Android devices, you won't get any greater audio quality - the same audio signal will be extrapolated to give 32-bit and 96kHz or 192kHz. However, some Android devices do advertise native support for 32-bit and 96kHz Sample Rate. These include the Marshall London, LG V20 and ZTE Axon 7. These articles compare LG V20, HTC 10, LG V10 and ZTE Axon 7: https://smartphones.gadgethacks.com/news/top-4-phones-for-music-lovers-audiophiles-0175956 Top 4 Phones for Music Lovers and Audiophiles http://www.mobilechoiceuk.com/News/40992/the-best-phones-with-hi-res-audio-feat-lg-v10-htc-10-and-sony-xperia-z5-premium.aspx The best phones with Hi-Res audio, feat ZTE Axon 7 mini, LG V10, HTC 10 and Sony Xperia Z5 Premium 1/23/2017 This forum thread lists android devices that support hi-fi audio: http://forum.powerampapp.com/index.php?/topic/8736-list-of-android-devices-with-hi-res-audio-support-internal-dac/ List of Android Devices with Hi-Res Audio Support (Internal DAC) 1.94 What does 32-bit Audio do ? 32-bit Audio provides greater dynamic range than the regular 16-bit audio. Click Settings - Record Settings - 32-bit Audio to turn On 32-bit. Some Effects (Pitch and Voice Changer) will not be available when 32-bit is On, because we haven't implemented those for 32-bit yet. 32-bit Audio works with OGG and WAV. MP3 is limited to 16-bit. If you select MP3, the 32-bit setting will be ignored, and 16-bit will always be used. OGG can use 32-bit, since it uses floating point internally, and so the input into the OGG engine will be 32-bit (which may give slightly better results). However, the output file will be the standard OGG file and will show up as 16-bit when you open it in a program like Audacity on your PC or Mac computer. WAV 32-bit floating point is the preferred choice, since it preserves all the audio information from 32-bit audio. In contrast, if you use lossy compression algorithms like OGG or MP3, those always throw out some information which he human ear will not be able to hear. OGG and MP3 lossy compression algorithms use a psycho-acoustic model to discard audio details that the human ear cannot hear. So for processing and mastering, you should use 32-bit floating point WAV. WAV 32-bit floating point however is not that commonly supported by audio player apps. It can be played in our app, using the Play button, but if you want to click on a file in the file manager, then you need an external audio player that can play 32-bit floating point WAV files. Here is a list of apps which support that: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.neutroncode.mpeval Neutron Music Player (Eval) by Neutron Code Limited To edit 32-bit floating point WAV files, you can use the free Audacity program on your PC or Mac computer. Note: WAV 32-bit floating point files will be twice as big as the 16-bit version. 2.0 Recording controls There are a variety of ways you can control recording: - Buttons - Widgets - Notifications (turn On the Notification Always On button to show notification even when recording is stopped) - Launcher icons (InstantRecord and RecordStop launchers), and Intents that can be used by Tasker app and Dimple.io NFC buttons - Power button (works even when screen is locked) - 3 clicks to Record/Stop, or 4 clicks to Record/Pause/Stop (choose in Settings - Record Controls) - Ear Detect (uses proximity sensor) - bring to ear / flip phone on table to Record/Pause or Record/Stop - Volume Up/Down buttons (up/down/down-long-press to Record/Pause/Stop) - Headset button (click/double-click/long-press to Record/Pause/Stop) - speak "Ok Google open Instant Record" to record - Gestures (Settings - Show Buttons). Or use the full screen app: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.stereomatch.gestures.recording or the full screen app: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.stereomatch.gestures.recording.hires To avoid TalkBack sounds in recording: use Gestures, Ear Detect, Headset. Volume Buttons don't work for TalkBack, but do for Shine Plus. 2.11 Launchers, Widgets, and Tasker support Launcher icons on the home screen - Instant Record and Record Stop toggle When you install the app, it will show 3 icons on the home screen (and in the Applications list). One is the app icon, which is the default launcher, and these 2 extra launcher icons: Instant Record, Record Stop. We have provided the Instant Record icon because some users wanted a way to open the app, and to start recording immediately at the same time. The Record Stop icon allows you to click to Record, and then to click again to Stop. It does not open the app. While this could have been done as a 1 by 1 widget as well, this was provided as a launcher because some users wanted to hook up their Huawei Honor 7 extra hardware key (or Blackberry Android phone's 'Convenience Button'), and use it as a toggle for Record/Stop. And for that they needed some app or shortcut that they could run if the hardware key is pressed. All 3 launcher icons can be used by apps like Tasker as well. If you don't need to use the extra icons, just remove them from your home screen. Widgets You can choose from a number of widgets. These widgets can be placed on the home screen, and allow you to record, stop and pause. Some allow you to control auto phone call recording as well. And a few have the Notification Always On button on them as well. There are 6 widgets: AAMR 1, AAMR 2, AAMR 3, AAMR 4, AAMR 5, AAMR 6, which have different number of buttons in them. Shortcuts Currently, we are not using any shortcuts. These are like widgets, in that they are only visible in the list of widgets. While widgets can change their look dynamically, for example, change the state of a button, the shortcuts in contrast are just static icons. But unlike widgets, shortcuts can also be used by other apps like Shortcut Launcher, or Quick Shortcut Maker. From the developer's perspective, it is slightly easier to create a shortcut, than a widget. Intents that can be used by third-party apps like Start Intent and Tasker Intents or messages that an app publicly announces (in it's AndroidManifest.xml) that it will respond to if that intent is sent by anyone. These intents are not visible to a casual user, but can be used from third-party apps like Tasker, or Start Intent. For example, with Start Intent, you click Create Intent, then paste in the intent action string, then long-press to create a shortcut on the home screen for that. So using Start Intent you could create icons on home screen for all of the intents available. However, a casual user would not bother doing all this. These intents are more for the use of users who are tinkerers and who want to create a custom experience for the app. The app exports a number of intent actions that it will respond to: com.stereomatch.mp3.audio.recorder.external_record com.stereomatch.mp3.audio.recorder.external_pause com.stereomatch.mp3.audio.recorder.external_pausenotoggle com.stereomatch.mp3.audio.recorder.external_stop com.stereomatch.mp3.audio.recorder.external_play com.stereomatch.mp3.audio.recorder.external_recordpause com.stereomatch.mp3.audio.recorder.external_recordstop com.stereomatch.mp3.audio.recorder.external_notificationsalwayson_toggle com.stereomatch.mp3.audio.recorder.external_settings com.stereomatch.mp3.audio.recorder.external_folder Using these intents, other apps like Start Intent, or Tasker can thus be used to do things that you would normally do from within the app. Here is a post on the Tasker reddit forum, which describes the features in our app, that can be used with Tasker: https://www.reddit.com/r/tasker/comments/3z1rgh/dev_android_mp3_voice_memo_field_recorder_call/ [DEV] [ANDROID] MP3 Voice memo + field recorder + call recorder with Tasker support (Record, Pause, Stop, Play, Folder, Settings 2.12 Dimple.io NFC buttons and similar NFC buttons You can easily set up the Dimple.io NFC buttons to toggle Record Stop. The Dimple app supports launching of apps. Our app includes 3 launchers - the app launcher, and the Instant Record and the Record Stop toggle launcher. You can set up a Dimple button to launch the Record Stop launcher for our app. NFC usually only works if the screen is on. So if you are on the home screen of your device, you would have to turn make sure the screen remains on. If our app remains running in the front, then it will keep the screen on (this is an old feature of the app). and you can keep using the Dimple button to control recording. Rooted phone users who are running the Xposed framework can use an Xposed module called NFC LockScreenOff Enabler, which will allow NFC to work (and thus Dimple buttons to work) even while the screen is off. However non-rooted factory-fresh android devices do not have this capability, and for those, the Dimple NFC button will require the screen on, so that NFC can work. To get started with Dimple.io, make sure NFC is enabled in your device settings (check if your device supports NFC - not all devices support NFC). Install the Dimple app from Google Play. Then set up a button to launch the Record Stop launcher. And now when you press the Dimple button, it will toggle Record / Stop. And you will have a hardware button that allows you to toggle recording. We have not tested yet with Dimple, but there may be some changes to Record Stop launcher that could be improved. We will update that once we get some testing done with an actual Dimple device. Dimple app on Google Play does not currently support intent actions. But it is expected to do so in a future upgrade. Once that becomes available, you will be able to use the intent actions that our app supports, and assign them to the Dimple buttons. This will give much more control using Dimple buttons. For now you can accomplish that by using the Tasker app from Google Play, and set up a task which starts an intent action. Then from the Dimple app you can set up a button to launch that Tasker task. So using this method, you can launch the intent actions that our app supports. Other NFC button products may have support for intent actions, and so may offer this functionality already. Dimple.io website: http://www.dimple.io Dimple.io app on Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=io.dimple.s Dimple.io A useful third-party plugin for Dimple (allows adding of shortcuts to bookmarks etc.): https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=pw.dimple.g Assign Shortcuts to Dimple 2.22 Power Button to Record - 3 clicks The 'Power Button to Record' feature makes it easy to record by just pressing the Power button on your device. Just click it 3 times to Record / Stop. The other record control methods (Ear Detect, Volume Buttons, Headset button) only work when the app is on the screen. However 'Power Button to Record' will work from your home screen or anywhere, even when the screen is dark (i.e. screen locked). You do not even need to look at the screen, just click Power button 3 times. The vibration feature of this app will tell you whether recording has started, or whether recording has stopped. The Power Controls button on the left side of the screen can be used as a master control, since it enables/disables the Power button controls. More settings for the 'Power Button to Record' feature can be found in Settings - Record Controls. If you click on Settings - Power Controls - Record Controls, you can change the behavior to Record / Pause instead of Record / Stop. You can also change to 3-clicks to Record, and 4-clicks to Stop. The options are: - 3 clicks to Record / Stop - 3 clicks to Record / Pause - 3 clicks to Record. 4 clicks to Stop. - 3 clicks to Record / Pause. 4 clicks to Stop. Note: if you choose the 4-click settings, then the 3-click action will happen after a delay of 1 second. This is needed to make sure there is no 4th click, before action is taken on the 3 clicks of the Power button. NOTE: If your device has a double-click action defined for Power button, then just click Power button slowly (about once per second), so it is not recognized as a double-click. Make sure any battery optimizer, or power saving app is turned off, or make sure that you have excluded our app from being optimized. This will ensure that Power Controls feature remains available and is not stopped by the battery optimizer or power saving apps. 2.24 Using 'Power Button to Record' with other Power button actions Some users may be using the Power button to trigger other actions. Or their devices may already be set up to respond to double-click of the Power Button. For example on Android One running Android 6.0 Marshmallow, a double-click of the Power button will start the camera app. TalkBack screen reader users sometimes use a double-click of the Power button to darken the screen - so that others cannot see their screen (for improved privacy). This setting can be turned On using Settings - Accessibility - Vision - Dark Screen. Some third-party apps allow users to control their LED flashlight using double-click, or 3 clicks of the Power button. To avoid confusion with a double-click of the Power button, try pressing the 3 clicks of the Power button a little slower - with about 1 second between clicks. This way the clicks will be far enough apart that they will not be recognized as a double-click by your device. For third-party apps using a similar pattern of clicks, you may need to disable those apps, or change their Power button settings. 2.25 'Power Button to Record' during phone calls In Settings - Record Controls there is a setting called 'Enable during Calls' under the Power Controls settings. This setting is Off by default, but can be turned On if you wish to use Power Button to Record during phone calls. This setting was added because it was discovered that on some devices, the Screen Off/On that Android does during phone calls will also be seen as Power button clicks by our app. And so some users reported that recording was being triggered during phone calls because of the Screen Off/On that Android was doing (using the proximity sensor). Android uses the proximity sensor to turn Screen Off when the phone is moved close to the ear to save power and to avoid button presses by the ear. However, on some devices this also causes SCREEN_OFF/SCREEN_ON events to be generated - which are detected by our app as Power button clicks. NOTE: apps cannot detect Power button clicks directly, and instead have to use SCREEN_OFF/SCREEN_ON events as an indirect indicator. Even though these events can be triggered by other things - the screen waking up on arrival of a phone call etc. - but still it is useful because if 3 or 4 such events occur that can be a good indication that the user has pressed the Power button manually. It is because of this guesswork that the Power Controls feature on this app works reasonably well, most of the time. Recommendation: the 'Enable during Calls' setting is Off by default, so Power Controls will not work during phone calls. But if you turn On the 'Enable during Calls' setting, then you will be able to use Power button to record during a phone call. However, you will have to be careful, because on some phones, recording may be triggered by the Screen Off/On that Android is doing during a phone call. If that happens, just turn Off the 'Enable during Calls' setting. On some devices, like the Android One running Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow, the Android Screen Off/On during a phone call does not trigger SCREEN_OFF/SCREEN_ON events, and thus for that device, you can safely turn On the 'Enable during Calls' setting. 2.3 Ear Detect to record (proximity sensor) The Ear Detect feature uses the proximity sensor to record. Move the device to your ear to Record, and move it away to Pause, Stop or Play (depending on the Settings - Record Controls - Ear Detect Settings - Away from Ear behavior). So depending on the proximity sensor you can Record/Pause, Record/Stop or Record/Play. The Record/Play setting is useful for voice practice, where you want to Record and then immediately hear your voice. For that just bring the phone to your Ear to Record, and move it away to Play. The Record/Pause and Record/Stop settings can be useful for voice memos, where you do not want to press buttons to Pause or Stop, while you are thinking about what to say next. With other recorders, users have to make a decision whether they should Pause the recording, or to let it continue, as they are thinking of something while recording. The Record/Stop setting will create a new file every time you bring the phone to your Ear. So it can be useful if you want to record short sound bites. With Ear Detect, the mental effort required to Pause or Stop is minimal, and a user can intuitively Pause and resume their recording without thinking about the mechanics of the recorder. The Ear Detect feature can also be useful in the classroom, where the device can be placed face-down on a table to Record, and flipped so it is face-up to Pause. This makes it easy to control recording, without pressing buttons, or looking at the device. With Ear Detect, you can put the device in your shirt pocket, and it will Record, and when you take it out, it will Pause (because when the device is in the pocket, the proximity sensor will be triggered to Record). To enable Ear Detect, click on the Ear Detect button on the left side of the screen to turn it On. It is best to turn Off the Ear Detect feature for archival recording, or when you do not want the proximity sensor to be triggered by accident. You can turn off Ear Detect using Settings - Record Controls - Ear Detect to Record, or by just hiding the Ear Detect button (using Settings - Show Buttons). NOTE: the Ear Detect feature will only work while the app is on the screen. The 'Power Button to Record' feature will be better for situations where you cannot see the screen, or where you are not sure if the app is on the screen or not. NOTE: Ear Detect will not work on devices that lack a proximity sensor (many tablets without phone functionality also will lack a proximity sensor). 2.4 Volume Up/Down buttons to record The Volume Up/Down buttons can be used to Record, Pause and Stop: - Volume Up to Record - Volume Down to Pause - long-press Volume Down to Stop To enable 'Volume Buttons to Record' feature, click on Settings - Record Controls - and turn On the 'Volume Buttons to Record' setting. You can also turn on the 'Button Messages' setting there for additional feedback (which will give additional spoken feedback for screen reader users). NOTE: the Volume button to record feature will only work while the app is on the screen. The 'Power Button to Record' feature will be better for situations where you cannot see the screen, or where you are not sure if the app is on the screen or not. NOTE: Volume buttons to record will not work for new versions of TalkBack screen reader. However, Volume buttons to record works well with the Shine Plus screen reader. TalkBack allows blind users to use Android. Google has acknowledged that in the newer versions of TalkBack there is a bug which disallows use of the Volume Button by other apps while TalkBack is being used. Hopefully Google will fix this in a future update to TalkBack. Here is the bug tracker webpage for this issue: https://code.google.com/p/eyes-free/issues/detail?id=309 - Issue 309: Talkback Volume Up/Down OnKeyDown does not fire 2.5 Headset button to record The Headset button (found on headsets that include stereo earphones as well as a built-in mono microphone) can be used to Record, Pause and Stop: - single click to Record - double click to Pause - long-press to Stop When you click on the Headset button, additional feedback in the form of Toast messages will be shown on the screen. For screen reader users, these Toast messages will be spoken and will not disturb the recording (since they will appear in the Headset). NOTE: when using Headsets, the built-in microphone will be used. Headsets always have a mono microphone (since the earphone jack on Android and iOS devices only have wiring for one microphone). Therefore, if you are trying to record in stereo, then using a Headset will always give a mono recording i.e. both the left and right channels will have identical sound and so will sound like mono (even though there will be 2 channels in the recording). For this reason, when trying to record in stereo, just unplug the headset from the device, so that the device's built-in microphones will be used for a true stereo recording (using 2 microphones). NOTE: the Headset button to record feature is On by default. So you just have to plug in a Headset into the earphone jack on your device, and can then click the Headset button to Record, Pause and Stop. NOTE: the Headset button to record feature will only work while the app is on the screen. The 'Power Button to Record' feature will be better for situations where you cannot see the screen, or where you are not sure if the app is on the screen or not. 2.61 Using voice commands 'Ok Google' to start recording You can start recording using voice commands - just speak 'Ok Google open Instant Record'. This will launch the Instant Record launcher that is included in the app. This will start recording and open the app as well. To just start the app, say 'Ok Google open X', where X is the name of the app. You cannot use voice commands to stop recording, because the 'Ok Google' feature does not work if recording is in progress. NOTE: 'Ok Google' only works when you are on the home screen. But you can make it work even when an app is on the screen, as this article suggests - How to get 'Ok Google' voice search on any screen: https://www.androidpit.com/how-to-get-ok-google-voice-search-on-any-screen. However, this setting does not seem to be available on all devices. If 'Ok Google' is not working for your device, check out this article - OK Google is not working: here's how to fix it: https://www.androidpit.com/ok-google-is-not-working-here-s-how-to-fix-it 2.62 Ok Google cannot be used while phone is ringing If there is an incoming phone call, you will not be able to use Ok Google commands. Android seems to disable Ok Google detection while there is an incoming phone call. Muting the ringing does not help either. This means Ok Google detection cannot be used to answer a phone call. However, Ok Google does work if you press on the Ok Google widget i.e. press the microphone icon, and Google Now will start listening for commands. So Ok Google detection only works during phone call ringing if you click on the Ok Google widget - on the microphone icon there. 2.63 Ok Google cannot be used during a phone call Ok Google detection is also disabled during a phone call. This means you cannot use an Ok Google command while a phone call is in progress. However, if you click on the microphone icon in the Ok Google widget, it will show the Google Now screen and it will recognize Ok Google commands. So Ok Google detection only works during a phone call if you click on the Ok Google widget - on the microphone icon there. 2.6 Permissions used by the app Boot Completed - initializing widgets on starting device Network Access and Google Play billing - paid features Phone State and Outgoing Calls - call recording Modify Audio and Change Configuration - detecting headset, setting ringtone Record Audio and Write to Storage - audio recording Vibration - vibration feedback 2.7 Sharing, Emailing files Sharing or Emailing files Click on Action on last recording button on the bottom right to show 6 new buttons. Rename, Trash, Favorites, Cloud, Share and Ringtone. Click on the Share button to share the last recording with Skype, Email, DropBox or other apps. Click on the Play button to listen to the last recording. To share earlier recordings, click Recordings Folder at bottom right, just above the Action button. The Folder button will show you your recorded files in the built in OI File Manager. You can also set Total Commander File Manager, ES File Explorer, X-plore File Manager or ES File Explorer Pro as the default file manager. Within the File Manager, long press on the audio file, and then select Send or Share. For OI File Manager, click on top right on the 3 dot overflow menu icon and click on Send in the drop down menu. With Total Commander, long press on file and then select Send To from the drop down menu. Sharing via MMS The Messaging app on your device will generally handle SMS as well as MMS messaging. If your provide an attachment to your text message, then the Messaging app will use MMS or multimedia messaging service to deliver your message and it's attachment. So just Share, and click on the Messaging app from the list that appears. The audio file will automatically be attached. You can then specify the recipient of the MMS message and type any text message, and then click Send. Sharing with Facebook It may be difficult currently to share a recording directly with your Facebook app, because Facebook currently limits sharing to photo sharing and video sharing. It does not currently allow sharing of audio files. This may change in the future. Sharing with WhatsApp The WhatsApp app allows sharing of audio and video files only. Save recording as MP3 files if you would like to share audio via WhatsApp. Settings - Compression and turn on Compress Audio. Then click Compress Types and select MP3. WhatsApp also allows sharing of WAV files, but uncompressed WAV files will be much larger and take longer to upload through WhatsApp. If you want to share OGG files, you can rename them and add dot MP3 at the end so WhatsApp thinks it is an MP3 file. At the other end, your friend can then rename it back to an OGG file. There are some apps which allow you to do this seamlessly i.e. transfer all types of files through WhatsApp. 2.8 Set and Manage Ringtones Set last recording as Ringtone, Notification or Alarm sound Click on Action on last recording button on the bottom right to show 6 new buttons. Rename, Trash, Favorites, Cloud, Share and Ringtone. Click on the Ringtone button. 3 new buttons will appear. Ringtone, Notification, and Alarm. You can click on these to set the last recording as the ringtone, notification or alarm sound. NOTE: Only the first megabyte or so of the last recording will be copied to avoid inadvertent copying of large files. View Ringtone, Notification and Alarm folders and Manage default sounds Conveniently manage Ringtone, Notification and Alarm folders and set the default sounds for them right from our app. Click Settings - Ringtone Management. Set a previously recorded file as Ringtone, Notification or Alarm sound Click Folder on the bottom right to show the recorded files. Click on a file to play using one of your installed media players. The media player that is included with ES File Explorer will allow you to set the Ringtone. ES File Explorer is one of the more popular free file managers on Google Play. Other built in or third party audio player apps may also allow you to set Ringtone. You can also use Ringtone apps like Ringtone Maker which will allow you to edit a file and choose the portion you want to use, and will allow you to save it as a Ringtone or Notification sound. 3. Can I quickly Rename the last recording ? Rename last recording Click on Action on last recording button on the bottom right to show 6 new buttons. Rename, Trash, Favorites, Cloud, Share and Ringtone. Click on the Rename button. A Rename dialog box will appear on screen. The Edit Box will show the current filename without the extension. And the caret will be aligned so you can append to the file name. Add something extra to the filename so you remember what the recording was about. Or completely change the filename. Press OK to change the filename, or Cancel if you decide not to rename after all. This provides a quick way to rename the last recording. In addition you could always use the Folder button and rename files or folders from within the file manager. 4. What are the Cloud, Trash and Favorites buttons when I press on the Action button, or why isn't there a Delete button on screen ? Trash and Favorties buttons Click on Action on last recording button on the bottom right to show 6 new buttons. Rename, Trash, Favorites, Cloud, Share and Ringtone. The Trash and Favorites buttons are a way to remember which files you would like to delete later and which files seem great at the time of recording. The Trash button can be used like a Delete button, except it will just move the last recording to the Trash sub folder. You can later browse or delete this folder using Recordings Folder file manager. Trash as an alternative to a Delete button The Trash button is safer than a Delete button on screen, because a Delete button can be mistakenly pressed and is hard to reverse. The very presence of such a destructive button on screen can make a user become careful about all button presses, perhaps adding 100 milliseconds or more to every button-press choice they make. In contrast to that, the Trash and Favorites buttons are reversible, you can press the Trash button and then the Favorites button to mark the last recording as Favorites instead of Trash. However, some users may still want a permanent Delete button. We do provide a Discard button for immediate delete - we do not encourage it's use (it is hidden by default). You can enable it using Settings - Show Buttons - Action Buttons - Discard Button. Local Trash / Favorites vs. Top-level Trash / Favorites folders When Local Trash / Favorites is On, then Action - Trash / Favorite moves to Trash and Favorite sub-folders in the same folder as the recorded file. When Local Trash / Favorites is Off, then Action - Trash / Favorite moves to top-level Trash / Favorite sub-folders of the Recordings Folder (having only one Trash folder makes it easier to delete). If you have Daily Folders set to ON in Settings - File Management, then you have a choice of having Action - Trash / Favorites move the recorded file to Trash / Favorites sub-folders that are within the Daily Folders, or to move to Trash / Favorites at the top-level. Having Trash / Favorites sub-folders within the Daily Folder allows you to separate one day's trash from another. Keeping Trash / Favorites at the top level makes it easy to delete files, since there is only one Trash and Favorites sub-folder created. Cloud folder and Cloud storage services Click Action - Share to share the last recording with Dropbox, Google Drive, Box, OneDrive apps, to upload to your cloud storage service. You can also use the built-in file manager to share previous recordings. However, the Action - Cloud button provides a convenient way to move the last recording to a Cloud folder. You can customize the Cloud Folder location using Settings - File Management - Choose Cloud Folder. The default location for the Cloud folder is at the top level in the Recordings Folder. The Cloud folder is just a convenient way to organize, like the Trash and Favorites folders. Except the Cloud folder is always at the top level, while the Trash and Favorites folders can be set to be at top level or be created within each Daily Folder. Recordings placed into the Cloud folder will NOT be automatically synchronized with your cloud storage service. However, if you use an app like DropSync, available on Google Play, you can set it up to automatically synchronize the Cloud folder with Dropbox. Now any recording you move to the Cloud folder will automatically be synchronized with Dropbox, because DropSync app will ensure that. We chose to not implement cloud storage directly into our app, because there are better apps which specialize in that, and support a large range of cloud storage providers. The DropSync developer also makes similar apps for Google Drive, Microsoft One Drive and Box. Here is a link to the DropSync app on Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ttxapps.dropsync - Autosync Dropbox - Dropsync - by MetaCtrl. They make a similar app for Google Drive: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ttxapps.drivesync - Autosync Google Drive - by MetaCtrl. And for Microsoft One Drive: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ttxapps.onesyncv2 - Autosync OneDrive - OneSync - by MetaCtrl. And for Box: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ttxapps.boxsync - Autosync Box Cloud Storage - by MetaCtrl. Here is their complete apps list: https://play.google.com/store/search?q=metactrl 4.1 Instead of the Action - Trash button, why isn't there an Action - Discard button which actually deletes the last recording permanently ? There is an Action - Discard button, but we have hidden it by default. You can turn it on so it appears on screen using Settings - Show Buttons - Action Buttons - Discard Button and turn it On. We discourage use of the Action - Discard button. Instead we recommend that users use the Action - Trash button, and then periodically use the file manager to delete the Trash folder manually. The Trash button is reversible, since it just moves the last recording to the Trash folder, and you can do Action - Favorite to move it out and into the Favorite folder. We discourage the use of the Discard button, because it makes changes which cannot be reversed. If such a button is placed on the screen, eventually the user will delete an important recording by mistake, or because they were not careful. From that point on, they will become very careful about pressing the Action on last recording buttons. And this carefulness will add a few hundred milliseconds to each button press, since their brain will be trying to be careful. This is against the overall philosophy of our app's user interface, where we have tried to remove such risks in button presses, so that users become comfortable pressing buttons without thinking, and in a fast way. However, some users may sometimes need a Discard button, and so the Discard button is available if you need it. 5. Cannot find the app on Google Play on older Android devices My friend cannot find this app on Google Play Google Play will only show this app to devices running Android 4.0 and above. Users can also download the APK from our website: stereomatch.com 6. Blank 7.11 Recording Phone Calls - Free and Paid features Paid features: - Automatic Outgoing Call Recording (click Settings - Call Recorder - Outgoing Auto Record) - Floating Record Button (click Settings - Call Recorder - Floating Record Button) Click Menu - Store to purchase the Call Recorder feature, or donate using click Menu - Donate to unlock all paid features. These paid features are free for all TalkBack, Shine Plus and other screen reader users. Free features: All other call recording features are free. Automatic Incoming Call Recording (Settings - Call Recorder - Incoming Auto Record), and Manual Recording of Incoming and Outgoing calls, are free. 7.12 Automatic and Manual recording of Phone Calls With automatic recording of Incoming/Outgoing calls, the app will automatically start recording at the beginning of the call, and stop recording at the end of the call. For manual recording of incoming/outgoing calls, the user will press Record during a phone call, to start call recording, and recording will stop by itself when the phone call ends. To enable Auto Call Recording, make sure the Call Record button on the main screen is Enabled. And in Settings - Call Recorder - Incoming Auto Record and Outgoing Auto Record are turned On (they are On by default). The Call Record button on the main screen can be used as a master control, and this button is available in a few of the widgets as well, so you can control automatic call recording using a widget as well. If Auto Call Recording is Off, you can manually record phone calls by just clicking Record during a phone call. While you will have to click the Record button to start, you don't have to worry about pressing Stop, since recording will stop when phone call ends. You can also manually record calls using the Floating Button during Call feature. This will show a floating button on screen during a call, to make it convenient to manually click Record during a call. The Call Record button on the main screen needs to be On for this feature, and Settings - Call Recorder - Floating Button during Call should also be On (it is On by default). 7.13 What is the Call Record button on the main screen ? This button can be used as a master switch to turn Off the call recording features (Auto Incoming/Outgoing Call Recording, and Floating Button during Call). You can use it to quickly enable / disable automatic call recording, or the floating Record button during call feature. Make sure the Settings - Call Recorder settings: Incoming Auto Record and Outgoing Auto Record, or Floating Button during Call are On (they are On by default). The Call Record button is also available in a few of the widgets, so you can control automatic call recording using a widget as well. 7.14 Manual recording of Incoming and Outgoing Phone Calls Even if Automatic Call Recording is off, you can still record a phone call manually. Just press the Record button - but make sure to press Record after the phone call has started. You can press the Record button from the main screen of the app, or from a widget. If you keep Notification Always On button set to On, then you can press Record from the notification area, or can click to get to the app directly from the notification area. Note that when the Notification Always On button is On, then a notification will always be present in the notification area. Manual recording of phone calls requires that you press the Record button after call has started. However, recording will stop by itself when phone call ends. Our app knows whether a Record button was pressed while a phone call was in progress and uses the appropriate settings (Settings - Call Recorder). Call Recorder recordings are always Mono, and use the Audio Source for Call setting and are saved to the Phone Call Folder. This means you don't have to worry about where to move the recorded file - as they will automatically be stored in the appropriate Phone Call Folder. It makes sense to stop a call recording when phone call ends, because phone call recordings use a different set of settings (Settings - Call Recorder and are Mono, and use Audio Source for Call, Call Folder etc.), and it makes sense to stop a call recording when phone call ends. Note that keeping the Notification Always On button set to On does not consume any significant battery power. So you can keep this on, for the convenience of having the app always available from the notification area. You can also manually record using the Floating Button during Call feature. To use this Settings - Call Recorder - Floating Button during Call should be On (it is On by default). And you should turn on the Call Record button on the main screen to enable call recording features. Now during a phone call, a floating Record button will appear on screen to allow convenient manual recording of the call." 7.15 How do I record phone calls ? You can record phone calls at any time during a phone call, by just pressing the Record button manually after the call has started. Call recording will stop by itself when phone call ends. You can also turn on the Call Record button on the left side of the screen for automatic call recording, and to also show the floating Record button during call (for this Settings - Call Recorder - Incoming/Outgoing Auto Record and Floating Button during Call should be on - they are On by default). And now phone call recording will start automatically when phone call starts, and will stop when phone call ends. If you just want the floating Record button for manual call recording, click Settings - Call Recorder - Auto Incoming/Outgoing Call Record and set it to Off, while keeping Floating Button during Call set to On - also turn on Call Record button on main screen. 7.16 What happens to an audio recorder recording that is interrupted by a phone call ? You can specify how your audio recorder behaves when interrupted by a phone call. You can choose to make audio recording: - stop immediately - pause on call start, and then resume audio recording on call end - or continue recording through the phone call (using the audio recorder settings - usually this doesn't give good results) Click on Settings - Call Recorder - Audio Recorder and choose between these options. If you have set call recording to start automatically, then obviously the previous audio recording will always be stopped, but if automatic call recording is off, then the previous audio recording policy you selected will be used. If you continue recording without interruption, that may not always give good results, since some phones may record the phone call portion with a very low volume. But the stop setting, and the pause / resume setting both should work well for most phones. Let us know your phone model and what settings worked best for it, using Menu - Contact to send us e-mail feedback. 7.17 Phone-specific Settings for Call Recording Most devices will record phone calls (both sides of the phone call) with the default settings. However, some phones require slightly different settings. Settings - Call Recorder - Reset Call Recorder provides a convenient way to choose between the different types of phones that we have encountered. For now, you have a choice of different reset types for the call recorder settings: - Default - Samsung E7 - Nexus - Moto G pre-6.0 (less than Android 6.0) - Moto G 6.0 (Android 6.0) - Nokia 6 The Default setting is the usual default setting, and will work for most phones. Samsung E7 settings are those that work for the Samsung Galaxy E7 (basically Audio Source for Call is set to Voice Call instead of the default). And the Nexus settings (and instructions given there) are those that will make call recording work well for the Nexus devices. Use the Moto G pre-6.0 settings for Moto G 2nd Gen type phones running Android versions below 6.0. Use the Moto G 6.0 settings for Moto G 2nd Gen type phones running Android 6.0. The Moto G settings may work for other Moto G and Moto X type phones as well. The Nexus type of phones prevent recording of the other side of the phone conversation, and require use of speakerphone to record the other side. While other call recorder apps either require rooted Nexus phones, or use speakerphone with bad results, with our settings you will be able to get good recordings even on a Nexus phone (and without needing a rooted phone). The reason our method works better is that while we turn on Speakerphone for Call for the Nexus type setting, we also increase Volume Boost for Call to 8x (or 16x), and then ask the user to set the in-app speakerphone volume to minimum (Android remembers this setting, even across reboots). With these changes, you can record phone calls even on a Nexus type device, with speakerphone volume very low (so it does not disturb your phone call), and with volume boost high enough that the recording comes out reasonably good. Like the Nexus, the Moto G 2nd Gen (running Android versions less than 6.0, i.e. Android 5.0 Lollipop etc.) and similar phones, require use of speakerphone to record both sides of phone calls. However, unlike the Nexus, the Moto G 2nd Gen has stereo speakers, and seems to use the bottom speakerphone. This speaker is very close to the bottom or Normal microphone and interferes with recording. For this reason the Moto G 2nd Gen settings will make sure the top or Camcorder microphone is used instead for call recording - so it is far away from the speakerphone. With this setting, the Moto G 2nd Gen will give reasonably good recording. The Moto G 2nd Gen running Android 6.0 Marshmallow can do call recording without needing speakerphone (for Android 5.0 they did require use of speakerphone). For Moto G running Android 6.0, use the Moto G 6.0 setting. Nokia 6 (Model TA-1033 running Android 8.1) can do call recording. Call recording works both with and without headset plugged in. Call recording has also been reported working with Bluetooth headset (Model: SONY MDR-AS700BT). Just follow the instructions in Reset Call Recorder for the different reset types to get the best results for your phone. Reset Call Recorder gives a convenient and fast way to quickly switch between different settings, so you can test which setting works best for your phone. 7.18 Speakerphone can be avoided for Nexus and some other phones, if you use a wired headset during phone call For the Nexus phones (Nexus 4, Nexus 5, Nexus 6P etc.), just use a wired headset during phone call, with Default (or Samsung E7) reset type (no speakerphone needed!). However, a wired headset is not always available when you need one. 7.19 Why do some devices require speakerphone ? Many manufacturers, and Android itself (in the Nexus line of devices, for example), prevent the recording of the other party in a phone call for legal reasons (since recording without informing the other party is illegal in some areas of the world). For this reason, on many phones (like Nexus devices), you cannot record the phone call especially the voice of the other party on the phone call. But you can record the other party if you turn on the speakerphone. However the AndroidOne series of phones record both sides of phone conversations at the default settings. Moto G 2nd Gen phones also require speakerphone (like the Nexus devices) for Android 5.0. But Moto G 2nd Gen running Android 6.0 does not require speakerphone. So this varies by manufacturer and device. 7.20 Some phone call recorders implement methods that bypass Android restrictions on recording phone calls For phones which prevent recording (and where you are forced to use the speakerphone), there is the possibility to use apps designed for rooted phones. These apps will use methods that only work for rooted phones, and not for the regular factory fresh phones. For these to work, you will need to have a rooted phone - a factory fresh phone will not be rooted, until you root it yourself using methods available on the internet. Our app does not use any root methods. But instead we use the speakerphone, but ask the user to reduce it's volume to minimum - this reduces the speakerphone interference in your phone call and gives a reasonably good recording, even on phones like the Nexus and Moto G 2nd Gen (running Android 5.0 - for Android 6.0, the Moto G 2nd Gen does not need speakerphone). 7.21 Which phones allow recording the other party without using speakerphone (and without needing root) ? Some Chinese manufacturers include the ability to record phone calls in the phone dialer app itself. With other mainstream phones, it is possible to record phone calls. We have tested these phones which record phone calls successfully with our app i.e. they record both sides of the conversation. Some phones will work at the Default settings. While others will require that Settings - Call Recorder - Reset Call Recorder are set to the Samsung E7 type, or another setting there. Reset Call Recorder set to Default type: - AndroidOne running Android 6.0 Marshmallow - Samsung Galaxy Note 4 running Android 5.1.1 Lollipop - Samsung Galaxy SIII Mini running Android 4.2.2 - Samsung Galaxy S5 Mini (SM-G800F) running Android 4.4.2 - Samsung Galaxy S7 (heroqlteatt) running Android 6.0 - LG G3 running Android 5.0 Lollipop - Lenovo A6000 running Android 4.4 Kit Kat - Qmobile Noir A290 running Android 4.4 Kit Kat Reset Call Recorder set to Samsung E7 type: - Samsung Galaxy E7 (SM-E700F) running Kit Kat. - Sony Xperia Z3 Dual (D6633) running Android 5.1 Reset Call Recorder set to Nexus type (uses speakerphone but in a way which does not disturb phone call): - Nexus 4 - Nexus 5 - Nexus 5X running Marshmallow - Nexus 6P - some Samsung Galaxy S5 phones running Marshmallow seem to require speakerphone method Reset Call Recorder set to Moto G pre-6.0 (uses speakerphone but in a way which does not disturb phone call): - Moto G 2nd Gen running Android 5.0 (or versions below 6.0) - Moto G and Moto X phones Reset Call Recorder set to Moto G 6.0 type: - Moto G3 running Android 6.0 Marshmallow - Moto G 2nd Gen running Android 6.0 Marshmallow - Moto G and Moto X phones Suggestion for the Samsung Galaxy E7: click Settings - Call Recorder - Reset Call Recorder - and select the Samsung E7 type. This will change Audio Source for Call from the default setting (System Default) to Voice Call - this gives a much better balance between the local and the other party's voice on the Samsung Galaxy E7. Similarly, many other phones may work perfectly. Let us know your phone model and what settings worked best for it, using Menu - Contact to send us e-mail feedback. 7.22 What procedure should I follow to get started with phone call recording ? Turn on the Call Record button on the main screen. Also make sure Settings - Call Recorder - Incoming/Outgoing Auto Record is On, as well as Floating Button during Call. Now recording will automatically start when you get an incoming phone call. Or keep Incoming/Outgoing Call Record set to off, and just use the Floating Button during Call, or press Record button during a phone call. Check the recording by pressing the Play button. If both sides of a phone call are not being recorded at the default settings, click Settings - Call Recorder - Reset Call Recorder, and then try the Samsung E7 setting, and if that doesn't work, then try the Nexus settings (and follow the instructions there). And if that doesn't work, try the Moto G pre-6.0 or Moto G 6.0 reset types. One of the reset types will work for your phone. In addition, you can experiment with the other call recorder settings as well. 7.23 Why is a phone call recorder needed in an audio recorder app ? An audio recorder must know how to behave if it is interrupted by a phone call. And since it needs to be aware about phone calls, it makes sense to include the option to record phone calls as well. In addition, if you use one app for audio recording, and a different app for phone call recording, there is a danger that they may interfere with each other. For example, the audio recorder may not stop in time, before the other phone call recorder app starts recording, and thus the second app will fail to get access to the audio system (Android does not allow multiple apps to be recording - usually the second one will fail to get access to the microphone). 7.24 How does the phone call recorder behave differently (compared to the audio recorder) ? The phone call recorder is an integrated part of the app. So it uses the same audio recorder, except with slightly different settings that are optimized for phone call recording: phone call recordings are always recorded in Mono, and use the Audio Source for Call setting in Settings - Call Recorder. Settings - Call Recorder allow you to specify different settings for phone call recording than your usual audio recording settings. You should test which of the Settings - Call Recorder - Reset Call Recorder settings (Default, Samsung E7, Nexus, Moto G pre-6.0, Moto G 6.0) are best for your device. Other than that, a phone call recording can be manipulated in the same way as a regular audio recording. For example, you can move last recording to Action - Trash / Favorites. The major differences between a regular audio recording and a phone call recording are: 1) uses the phone call settings (Settings - Call Recorder) 2) always end when the phone call ends 3) are saved to the Phone Call Folder (instead of the Recordings Folder) 4) if Automatic Call Record button (on left side of screen) is On (default is Off for new users), and Settings - Call Recorder - Automatic Incoming / Outgoing Record settings are On (which they are by default), then a phone call recording will start and end automatically (when phone call starts and ends). For your convenience, a separate Phone Call Folder button is available above the Recordings Folder button (on the bottom-right of the screen). You can use this to view the Phone Call Recordings in a file manager. Note also that if you select Settings - File Management - Daily Folders (On by default), then the Daily Folders are created also within the Phone Call Folder, as would be expected. And if you turn on Daily Trash / Favorites setting, then Trash/Favorites sub-folders are created within the Daily Folders - so will be within the Phone Call Folder. This means that if you turn Daily Trash / Favorites setting On, then Trash / Favorites sub-folders are going to be created within the Daily Folder - which are within the Phone Call Folder. In contrast, if you turn Daily Trash / Favorites setting Off, then the same Trash / Favorites sub-folders at the top level will be used which are used for audio recording. 7.25 Can you recommend some other call recorder apps on Google Play ? The Boldbeast Call Recorder is the most often mentioned one for rooted devices. Call Recorder by Boldbeast: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.boldbeast.recorder Total Recall is another one. Call Recorder by Killer Mobile: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.killermobile.totalrecall And ACR Call Recorder is also mentioned a lot. Call Recorder - ACR: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nll.acr Call Recorder by Skyvalex is another one: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.skvalex.callrecorder These professional call recorder apps work hard to make their app work on a variety of devices. However, even then some device which worked earlier, can stop working after an android update. So even with the professional call recorder apps, not all devices work for call recording. 7.26 Does call recording work while using a wired headset ? Many users have reported that if they plug in a headset, then they are unable to record both sides of the phone call correctly. However, for some phone models - like the Nexus devices - using a headset allows call recording to work well at the default settings. For the Nexus devices, if you don't use a headset, then call recording does not work well at default settings, and you have to use the speakerphone method (Reset Call Recorder set to 'Nexus' setting). 7.27 Does call recording work while using a Bluetooth headset ? Many users have reported that if they use a Bluetooth headset, then they are unable to record both sides of the phone call correctly. 7.28 Legal issues with recording phone calls Recording phone calls without informing the other party on the line is illegal in many countries. You should make sure your attempt at recording phone calls is not violating any local laws in your area. See this reference for the U.S.: http://www.dmlp.org/legal-guide/recording-phone-calls-and-conversations 8. Stereo recording not working Stereo recording is not working on my device Most Samsung devices will record stereo. Some devices like the Moto G and Moto X will record stereo ONLY at 48000 Sample Rate. Moto G will record stereo at ALL sample rates IF you change Audio Source for Stereo setting from the default CAMCORDER to Normal. Some devices like the Nexus 4 and Nexus 5 and Nexus 6 will NOT record stereo. However, the Nexus 5 running Android 5.1.1 or later WILL now record stereo IF you change Audio Source for Stereo setting from the default CAMCORDER to Normal. When stereo recording is not working on a device, both the left and right channels will be the same. Sometimes devices DO have two microphones, to do background noise removal, as on the Nexus 5, or 3 microphones as on the Nexus 6. However, the manufacturer may have for some reason decided to ship without stereo available. In some cases it is possible to enable stereo recording by modifying some system files on a rooted device. Moto G and Moto X will record stereo Motorola Moto G and Moto X will only record stereo if you set Sample Rate to 48000 Hertz. Uncheck Auto Sample Rate in Settings and set Sample Rate to 48000 Hertz. However, Moto G can record stereo at ALL sample rates, with a change of settings. Change Audio Source for Stereo setting from the default CAMCORDER to Normal, and Moto G will record stereo at all sample rates. Nexus 5 running versions prior to Android 5.1.1 cannot record stereo Nexus 5 running Android versions earlier than 5.1.1 will NOT be able to record stereo. Nexus 5 running Android 5.1.1 can record stereo Nexus 5 running Android 5.1.1 and later CAN record stereo at ALL sample rates. Change Audio Source for Stereo setting from the default CAMCORDER to Normal, and Nexus 5 running Android 5.1.1 or later will record stereo at all sample rates. NOTE: Nexus 5 running Android versions earlier than 5.1.1 will NOT be able to record stereo. Nexus 5X can record stereo Nexus 5X devices can record stereo. Reference: https://www.reddit.com/r/nexus5x/comments/3qd10n/nexus_5x_has_a_stereo_mic/ Nexus 6 has no stereo recording, but it can be enabled in rooted devices Nexus 6, even with the Android 5.1.1 update, will not record in stereo. Nexus 6 has 3 microphones, like many other devices. However, it does not do stereo recording, even with the built in camcorder app. But stereo recording CAN be enabled for rooted Nexus 6 devices after some system file modifications. Reference: http://tinyurl.com/mo2m5k7 Nexus 6P running Android 6.0 records stereo well Nexus 6P with the Android 6.0 update is able to record stereo. Nexus 4 will not record stereo The Nexus 4 does not support stereo recording. Xiaomi Mi 5 running Android 6.0 records stereo well A user has confirmed that the Xiaomi Mi 5 (gemini) running Android 6.0 records stereo well at the default settings for Audio Source for Stereo setting (set to Camcorder). Where are the two microphones located for stereo Stereo recording usually uses the Normal (default) bottom microphone and the Camcorder (top) microphone. When the device is held in landscape mode the microphones will be separated horizontally and will allow you to distinguish sounds horizontally i.e. whether a sound is coming from the left or the right side. Why is there noise in stereo recordings ? Some devices may have noise in the Camcorder (top) microphone, which may be due to interference from the antenna in the phone. Use Airplane Mode to reduce noise in this top camcorder microphone. Avoid Headsets for stereo recording If you use a Headset while recording, then the built in microphone on the Headset will be used. Since Headset microphones are always Mono, you will get the same audio in both channels of your stereo recording. To record stereo correctly, you should either record without anything plugged into your device, or you should use Earphones without built in microphones. The Earphone jack on most android devices also only supports mono microphones. Does live monitoring work with stereo recording ? Yes. If your device is able to record stereo without anything plugged in, then if you plug in Earphones without built in microphones, then you can use these to monitor the recording in real time using the Earphones. If you use a Headset with a built in microphone you will not get a stereo recording, because the built in mono microphone on the Headset will be used when it is plugged in. Does stereo recording increase file size ? Yes. Recording in stereo will generally double the file size, since you have to store not one but two channels of audio with stereo. However if you use compression this should be less of a concern, since file size is reduced drastically when compression is on. 9. Volume buttons not starting recording for TalkBack users Volume buttons to record does not work with TalkBack TalkBack allows blind users to use Android. Google has acknowledged that in the newer versions of TalkBack there is a bug which disallows use of the Volume Button by other apps while TalkBack is being used. Hopefully Google will fix this in a future update to TalkBack. Here is the bug tracker webpage for this issue: https://code.google.com/p/eyes-free/issues/detail?id=309 - Issue 309: Talkback Volume Up/Down OnKeyDown does not fire Volume buttons to record works well with Shine Plus screen reader If you are a Shine Plus user, then the Volume Buttons will work correctly. You will be able to Record, Pause and Stop using the Volume up and Volume down buttons. 10. Vibration does not work Vibration does not work on my device Some devices like Tablets may not have a vibration feature. If so, you will not get vibration feedback. 11. Ear Detect does not work on my tablet Ear Detect does not work The Ear Detect feature uses the proximity sensor built into your device. The Proximity Sensor is primarily used during phone calls to disable the screen so your Ear does not press the hang up button by mistake. Many manufacturers of tablets will therefore choose to not include this sensor if the tablet has no phone functionality. Ear Detect will not be available on devices that lack phone features. 12. If I uninstall will I lose recordings ? Uninstalling app and files You can uninstall our app and the recordings will remain in the default folder or the folder you chose in Settings. Only certain folders on your internal storage or external SD card are considered temporary by Android and those special folders may be deleted on app uninstallation. As long as you avoid saving to such obscure locations, your recordings should be safe on uninstallation of app. 13.1 I need best quality audio Best quality audio Best quality is the default setting, so Reset Settings to get to best quality settings, where Auto Sample Rate is ON, so that the highest sample rate supported by your device is used. You can however turn on Compress Audio to reduce file sizes, while retaining good quality. 13.2 How can i remove the auto-gain and noise reduction that android usually uses ? You can avoid using the automatic gain and noise reduction feature of your android device, by switching to the Raw setting for your Audio Source for Mono. Switching to Raw will not work for Audio Source for Stereo setting - but it may work on some devices. 13.3 How can i record the audio output of the device (like Stereo Out recording on Windows computers) ? On rooted devices, it might be possible in some way (check the internet for that). However, for regular non-rooted devices (factory fresh), there is currently no way to internally record the general audio output of the device - except just using the speakerphone method. That is, just press Record, so that the microphone can record whatever is playing on the device. However, if you are recording in a loud area, then that noise will also be recorded. One option is to use a loopback dongle, which will record the output electrically (and without using microphone). The advantage of this is that the recording will not be affected by environmental noise, since you will not be using the microphone, but the output that would go to an earphone is electrically connected to the microphone input. However, this will only be mono audio - since earphone jacks on both Android and iOS devices only have connections for mono audio i.e. two pins are used for audio - one for signal and one for ground. Here is an example of such a audio loopback dongle which you would plug into the earphone jack on a phone. https://source.android.com/devices/audio/loopback.html Audio Loopback Dongle Quote: The diagram and photo below show an audio loopback dongle for the headset connector that we call the Dr. Rick O'Rang audio loopback dongle. The Chrome hardware team designed this circuit and plug for functional testing; however it has many other uses too. The Android audio team uses it to measure round-trip audio latency, via the Larsen effect (feedback loop). End of Quote. Here is a companion app on Google Play written by a current or former google employee Glenn Karsten - which you would use with the dongle to measure latency etc.: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.drrickorang.loopback Dr. Rick O'Rang loopback 14.1 How can I reduce file sizes Reducing the sample rate will reduce the amount of data recorded per second, however it will also reduce the audio quality. Click Settings - Record Settings - and turn Off the Auto Sample Rate setting and then for the Sample Rate setting, choose a lower sample rate. For example for voice memos a lower Sample Rate like 16000 Hz may be sufficient. However, most people will find they get better results by just using compression. The default setting uses no compression and saves as WAV uncompressed files. But you can turn on OGG compression or MP3 compression. To turn on compression, click Settings - Compression - and set the Compress Audio setting to On. Click the Compress Type setting to choose between OGG compression or MP3 compression. When using OGG compression, you can reduce file size even more, by setting the Ogg-Vorbis Quality setting to 0.1 (low quality) for even smaller file size. When using MP3 compression, you can reduce file size even more, by setting the MP3 Bit Rate setting to 32 kbps (low quality) for even smaller file size. The MP3 Quality setting does not affect file size too much. 14.2 How much space does uncompressed WAV use ? One hour of uncompressed WAV will use 342 megabytes of storage space at the default settings. A 10 hour recording would be 3420 megabytes or 3.4 gigabytes. This would start to get you close to the 4 gigabyte file size limit if you are writing to the extenal SD cards which are usually FAT32 formatted. 14.3 How much space does MP3 compression use ? MP3 files will be 12 times smaller than uncompressed WAV files at the default settings. MP3 is a proprietary standard, and is the most widely recognized music and audio file standard, and is a paid feature. One hour of uncompressed WAV will use 342 megabytes of storage space. One hour of MP3 audio will use up 28.5 megabytes, or 1/12 the space, at default settings. NOTE: After choosing compression type, turn ON compression using: Settings - Compression - Compress Audio. 14.4 How much space does OGG compression use ? OGG files will be 10 times smaller than uncompressed WAV files at the default settings. OGG is an open compression standard. One hour of uncompressed WAV will use 342 megabytes of storage space. One hour of OGG audio will use up 32.5 megabytes, or 1/10 the space, at default settings. NOTE: After choosing compression type, turn ON compression using: Settings - Compression - Compress Audio. 100 hours of recording would be 3200 megabytes or 3.2 gigabytes which is still below the 4 gigabyte file size limit on external SD cards that use the FAT32 file formatting. You can reduce file sizes further if you turn Auto Sample Rate to OFF and then select Sample Rate to be something lower, like 16000 Hertz. This will reduce file size to about half, but at 16000 Hertz the sound quality will suffer. That is, it will not be good for music, but ok for voice memo recording. 15.1 Are there any file size limits There are no file size limits from our side. The limits will be how much free storage space you still have available, and any limitations of the Android file system. For internal storage, the Android file system limits are very large. So in practice, it will be the size of internal storage which will determine how long a file can be. FAT32 file size limits on external SD cards If your Android version is allowing you to save to external SD card, then you should be aware that most external SD cards that users use will be formatted as FAT32. That is, the old MS DOS and Windows file standard. This is typically how most SD cards are shipped as, and so there will be the usual FAT32 file size limits if you are saving to the external SD card. FAT32 will not allow files to grow bigger than 4 gigabytes or 4000 megabytes. So once your recording exceeds that, it will probably remain at that size and recording will stop because it is unable to write more data to the file. 15.2 How can I save recordings to the external SD card ? As explained in the section below, starting with Kit Kat (Android 4.4), Android has made it difficult to write to the external SD card. With Lollipop (Android 5.0), Google allowed an alternate API for writing to the external SD card. However, most apps (including ours) have not bothered to implement this, since it is slightly different from the standard method of writing to files etc. Some of the better file manager apps, like Total Commander and ES File Explorer, have made that effort (since management of storage is their primary function) - so on Android Lollipop and later, you can use these file managers to create files and folders on the external SD card. Android however, does allow apps to freely access a certain app-specific folder on the external SD card. However, this folder is temporary and will be deleted if you ever uninstall the app. For this reasons most users would want to avoid using this app-specific folder on external SD card. Only users who are aware of the risk should consider doing so. If you are willing to take the risk of using this app-specific folder on the external SD card (i.e. risk of data loss on app uninstall), you will need to create a folder on the external SD card of the form: Android/data/package-name/files (where package-name will be the package name of the app). So for our app this would be: Android/data/com.stereomatch.mp3.audio.recorder/files on the external SD card. You will need to use Total Commander or ES File Explorer to create this folder (since lesser file managers will not be able to create folders on the external SD card). Once this folder is created, you can use Settings - File Management - Change Recordings Folder to point to this folder. You should probably change the file manager to ES File Explorer or Total Commander first - using Settings - File Management - File Manager. After you have changed Recordings Folder to the new folder, you can switch back to OI File Manager if you want. Most users should avoid using this app-specific folder on the external SD card. However, users who are aware of the risks can do so - just make sure you don't uninstall the app, because then Android will delete this app-specific folder on the external SD card. One minor side-effect of keeping Recordings Folder on external SD card can be if you have set Cloud Folder to internal storage (i.e. they are on different storage media). In that case when you do Action on last recording - Cloud (to move last recording to Cloud Folder), that move will fail (because our app is assuming the move is on the same media and can take place immediately). This problem does not arise for Trash and Favorites, since those are always sub-folders of the Recordings Folder. This problem also does not arise for Action on last recording - Ringtone, since there the last recording is copied to the Ringtone folder (at most 1MB of data is copied, to avoid copying too much data). 15.3 External SD card not accessible from apps on Android Kit Kat and later - or the history of external SD card support on Android User and Developer criticism on Kit Kat restrictions on external SD card The external SD card has been a distinctive feature of Android as compared to the Apple universe. But starting with Android Kit Kat this feature was removed by Google. There was much developer and user criticism of this move. And the explanation by Google had been criticized as well. The ostensible reason given by Google for this move was their concern that the external SD card gets polluted by apps which run rough shod over the external SD card, leaving files even after uninstallation of the app. Yet, the critics pointed out, this same problem was much more severe on the internal flash storage, and was much less of a concern for external SD cards. Since the external SD card is not included anyway on Google devices like the Nexus 5, the critics asked why Google felt this was such a big issue when almost no users or developers report this to be a serious concern. Some saw this as a strategic move by Google to force users to avoid cheap external SD card options, and instead to start relying on Google cloud-based backup services like Google Drive. Bypassing the external SD card restrictions on Kit Kat On Android Kit Kat, the only way you could re-enable external SD card support was to root your phone and make some simple configuration changes. Some Chinese manufacturers included these changes in their devices to bypass this Google restriction. Samsung and others however followed the Google behavior. Uneven playing field Because of the restrictions imposed by Android starting with Kit Kat, many app developers faced user wrath about the sudden loss of external SD card access. File Manager app developers suffered, because they suddenly became non-competitive with the built-in file managers that were included with Kit Kat devices. Improving situation with lollipop With Android 5 dot 0 also known as Lollipop, Android brought back access to the external SD card, but app developers had to use a special method in order to do so. Some apps, and this included the file manager apps, started including this support, since it was an essential feature to support. As a result with Lollipop, there were apps which could access the external SD card. However, not many apps bothered to implement this feature. New features with Android 6.0 Marshmallow for external SD cards With Android 6 dot 0 also known as Marshmallow, you can format external SD cards as either Portable mode or Internal mode. With Portable mode, the data on your external SD card will be unaffected, and you can use it as you would have used it with Lollipop. This is the recommended mode if you have plenty of built-in local storage on your device. For example if it is more than 8 GB. However, if you have a device with very low built-in local storage for example below 8 GB maybe you could consider using Internal mode. The advantage of Internal mode is that it makes the external SD card an integral part of the android file system. It will no longer behave like an SD card with all the limitations that Lollipop had for external SD cards. However there are some powerful reasons not to use Internal mode, and those are listed below. Internal mode in Android Marshmallow If you choose Internal mode for your external SD card, under Marshmallow, make sure you restart the device afterwards. This will avoid many issues reported by early users on the internet. In addition, while a Migrate option is available so existing data on the external SD card will be copied over by Android to the new format, there have been reports about problems with migrating. So it may be simpler to just copy any existing data you want to save off your external SD card first, so that you can restore it back later. This will allow a clean format to take place, after which you could restore the old data by copying it back manually. Internal mode means the external SD card will be formatted and encrypted. Any new data you put into it will only be readable as long as the external SD card is plugged into this device. If you remove it and try to use it on your laptop, it will be unreadable because of the encryption. So Internal mode really makes the SD card suitable only for that device, as if it has become a part of the device. And assumes you will not want to remove it. However, you will be able to remove the SD card and erase it and use it again for another purpose. And you can use it again for Portable mode, if you decide Internal mode is not what you want. But make sure you backup any important data elsewhere so you can restore it back later, since the move from Portable mode to Internal mode will destroy the data on your external SD card. When Portable mode maybe better than Internal mode in Android Marshmallow While Internal mode may be valuable for devices which have very low built-in local storage, since it allows users to expand available storage very cheaply by using cheap external SD card. However Internal mode has some peculiarities which may confuse new users. This is because when you switch to Internal mode, it not only changes the behavior of your external SD card, but it also changes your access to the built-in internal storage. This will be confusing for new users, because they will not imagine that an innocuous procedure on their external SD card could have impact on their built-in local storage. And the impact is that once you are in Internal mode and have copied files over from local storage to external SD card, as Marshmallow suggests you do. After having done that, the built-in local storage will become invisible to you as a user. You will not be able to see it in a File Manager app. And you won't be able to manage files or folders in it as you used to do before. Instead that whole built-in local storage will be reserved and taken over by Marshmallow for it's own internal purposes. The only storage you will be able to see in any File Manager app will be the local storage, which will actually be the external SD card, with all the data on it that was earlier on the local storage. So it will look like before, but will be the external SD card. So two entries in your file manager will now be reduced to just one. And this will be the external SD card. The built-in local storage on your device will still be used, and you will be able to affect how it is used, but only in an indirect way. Since that will hold the system apps and apps that came built-in with your device. And it will hold the apps and app data. You will have the ability to move apps between local storage and external SD card. And that will be the total extent of your control over the built-in local storage. For this reason, it is recommended that if you have a device with more than 8 GB of built-in local storage you may want to use Portable mode, because in Internal mode you will lose ability to manage files and folders on the internal storage. And since you have paid for that fast local storage, why not use it. This is especially relevant because local storage can be up to 10 times faster than the external SD cards you attach to your device. External SD cards are slower than built-in internal storage While the ability to use external SD cards seamless is a great advantage, since it provides cheap storage options. And users can install extra space for storing their photos and movies and large game apps. However, users should be aware that while external SD cards are fast enough for playing movies etc., they may be up to 10 times slower than the built-in internal storage on your devices. So only move the large apps, and photos and movies to your external SD card, and try to avoid moving anything which is used very often. As it might be better to keep that on the built-in internal storage. Summary for external SD card use under Android Marshmallow You can now use external SD card just like internal storage, but for that Android will format it and encrypt it. If you want to have ability to remove SD card and use it elsewhere, then you should keep it as Portable format. But if you have a device with less than 8 GB of internal storage, you may benefit from using Internal storage as it will allow you to expand storage for photos, movies, and large game apps by using cheap external SD cards. 15.4 Why can't I move the app to the external SD card ? Our app does not allow installation on the external SD card. The reason for this is that any app that uses widgets should not be installed on the external SD card (since removable or external SD cards can become unavailable, which can lead to widget inconsistency). Android guidelines for this are described on this webpage: http://developer.android.com/intl/ko/guide/topics/data/install-location.html - see the section: Applications That Should NOT Install on External Storage. 16. Why is the screen always on ? Screen always on While the app is on screen, the screen will not be dimmed and the screen lock will not appear. If you really do want the screen to dim, you can use Settings - Screen Timeout - Dim Screen on Timeout set to ON, and then set the Brightness to the level you want. If you want to record without running the app, you can use the widgets which have Record, Pause, Stop and Play buttons on them. The idea is that you would use the app screen for those situations where you really do want the screen to on and the buttons to be always available, without needing to remove a screen lock etc. Also many user interface related features also happen to work better if the screen remains on, for example the Ear Detect feature which uses the proximity sensor works better and more reliably if the screen remains always on on android devices. Dim Screen on Timeout Dim Screen on Timeout is OFF by default, so as not to confuse new users. When it is set to ON, the screen will be dimmed after a timeout period to save battery power, regardless of whether the app is recording or not recording. You can set the dimming brightness and the time out period in settings. Tap once to wake up the screen from timeout. After this you will be able to click on the Record and other buttons as before. Dim Screen Near Ear Dim Screen near Ear is ON by default. The screen is dimmed if Ear Detect is ON in settings and you bring the phone near Ear to record i.e. whenever the proximity sensor is triggered. You can set the brightness to dark if you want to save battery power. By default it is set to a moderate brightness so that new users are not confused by this feature. If you want to dim the screen at other times, you can use the Dim Screen on Timeout settings above. 17. I want to record a lecture from far away Volume Boost to record lectures Click on Effects and then Volume to adjust the recording volume. You can monitor the recording with earphones - make sure you plug the earphones in before you record. You can also set Menu - Settings - Record Settings - Volume Boost which can set the default volume. So if you like to keep the recording volume slightly higher than normal, you can do it with this. Volume Boost can be set to 16x which may be too much, but with a Volume Boost of 8x i.e. 8 times normal, you should be able to record a person whispering from across a large room, provided the room is quiet. If your classroom is noisy, then Volume Boost will make the noise loud as well. Automatic Gain Control or dynamic volume adjustment Apart from the Volume Boost setting, your android device will usually also do automatic volume gain or dynamic volume adjustment on it's own as well. This will automatically increase the recording volume or gain for the quieter parts of the recording, and reduce the recording volume or gain for the louder parts of your recording, so that both are recorded well. If you are recording in Stereo, this automatic gain seems to be on by default. However for Mono, you have the option to disable automatic gain, by changing Audio Sources for Mono setting to RAW. This will give you the raw unprocessed audio without dynamic volume adjustment. Android devices can vary in their behavior, and may behave differently for different Audio Source settings. Top and Bottom microphones Most Android devices have the normal bottom microphone (which is used for phone calls), and a top or camcorder microphone (which is used for noise cancellation). For Stereo recording, both the bottom and top microphones are used. The phone should be held in landscape mode while recording Stereo. For Mono recording, you can set Audio Source so that it uses the bottom microphone (Normal default), the bottom microphone without processing (RAW), or the top microphone (Camcorder). Usually Audio Source set to Normal (default) is best, but on some devices you may find that Audio Source set to RAW or Camcorder gives better results for your device. It has also been noted that the Camcorder setting for Audio Source will use not just the top microphone but also the bottom microphone for some devices. 18. I cannot hear anything in my left/right earphone, or I cannot record when headset is plugged in, or why is headset recording in mono ? Earphones left/right earpieces can fail The left or right earpiece on Earphones can often fail especially if the Earphones are lower quality models. Try with another Earphone or borrow from a friend. Headset does not record anything Try using another headset, or borrow one from a friend. Make sure you use a headset which is compatible with your particular device. Because there are variations in headsets between Samsung and some other manufacturers. I am using earphones or head phones without a built in microphone, yet I am unable to record, or I only hear a whine or feedback noise in recording This can happen with incompatible Head Phones or Earphones. That is, even though they do not have a built in microphone, the Android device is still thinking that a headset with built in microphone has been inserted. This can happen because of incompatibility in the pins for the Earphone jack. So try to use an Earphone or Head Phone that is known to work for your device or manufacturer. Headsets and Mono recording Headset microphones usually are mono, and this is why even if you have set Stereo Recording to ON in settings, the audio in left and right ear will sound the same. 18.1 Headset with built-in microphone is not working on my device When you buy a headset with built-in microphone or earphones, you need to be sure that they work for your particular brand of android device. So you would tell the shop that I want a headset that will work with Samsung devices or whatever device you have. Here is a wikipedia link about audio connectors: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phone_connector_(audio) Here is a thread on androidcentral.com about headsets and how those designed for one manufacturer may not work on another manufacturer's android device: http://forums.androidcentral.com/samsung-galaxy-s3/189523-final-soultion-why-most-headsets-won-t-work.html Final Soultion: Why Most HEADSETS WON'T WORK 18.12 Can I do audio recording while using a Bluetooth headset ? Can I do call recording while using a Bluetooth headset ? Yes, many users are able to use a Bluetooth headset to do audio recording. However there may be Bluetooth devices which may not record well. The earphone monitoring feature which does work for wired headsets, may or may not work for Bluetooth headsets. We have heard of users who tried various settings and were still not able to get the earphone monitoring during recording feature to work correctly. Bluetooth headsets may not work well for call recording. We have heard from users who have been unable to get call recording to record both sides of call correctly - while they were using a Bluetooth. 18.2 Can I record using a wired external microphone ? Yes, it is possible to record using a wired external microphone connected to your device earphone jack. Try using a standalone microphone - the type that you would buy for your desktop PC or laptop. For example a lapel microphone or lavalier microphone. As long as the pins on the jack are compatible, it should be able to record for your android device. Here is a website with a good explanation of wired microphones connected via the earphone jack (see the section - External microphone through the headset port - for the type of jack the earphone should have for it to work with an android device): http://www.wildmountainechoes.com/equipment/audio-recording-with-a-smartphone Audio Recording With a Smartphone 18.3 Can I record stereo audio using a wired external microphone ? Earphone jacks on Android and iOS devices only have contacts for mono audio (i.e. one signal and one ground pin). So you can only record mono using a wired external microphone that is connected to the earphone jack. Headsets with built-in microphone also only record mono audio - these provide 2 channels output i.e. stereo audio output, but only one channel input i.e. mono microphone input. Here is a website with a good explanation of wired microphones connected via the earphone jack (see the section - External microphone through the headset port - for the type of jack the earphone should have for it to work with an android device): http://www.wildmountainechoes.com/equipment/audio-recording-with-a-smartphone Audio Recording With a Smartphone In order to record stereo audio using a wired external microphone, you would have to use a USB stereo microphone (see the section on USB microphones below), or use bluetooth stereo microphones (if they are not working now, they may start working in the future). 18.4 Can I use this app for Cosplay (costume play) or as a real-time megaphone ? Yes, you can record with a wired external microphone, and also send that out to an external wired speaker at the same time. You will need a Y-splitter, which you will plug into the earphone jack of your phone. This will allow you to plug in a wired external microphone, and a wired external speaker into the Y-splitter. If you don't have a Y-splitter, you can plug in a headset (which include a built-in mono microphone and stereo earphones). If you plug in the headset before you press Record, you will be able to hear your voice in the earphones of the headset in real time. You can use Effects - Pitch to lower the pitch of your voice to sound like a giant superhero. Or any of the other effects in real-time. The recording is sent to the speaker because the 'Listen to Recording' setting is On by default (click Settings - Record Settings - Listen to Recording). If you do have a Y-splitter, you can plug the Y-splitter in, and then press Record after that. When you speak into the wired external microphone, your voice will also be played on the wired external speaker at the same time. You can find Y-splitters on Amazon or Ali Express. You can even make your own, if you have soldering skills. These consist of a male plug that plugs into your Android devices, and it has two female plugs for the external microphone and external speaker. Check Help - Cosplay for detailed information on Y-splitters and external speakers that are recommended by cosplayers. 18.5 Can I use an external USB microphone to record ? USB microphone support has been added in Android 5.0 Lollipop and above. However practically speaking, you will have to make sure a USB microphone works with your android device. If USB recording works for your device and USB microphone combination, then it should work just like the built-in microphones i.e. you would set Audio Source to Normal (MIC) or Raw (VOICE_RECOGNITION). Some USB devices will only run at Sample Rate of 48000 Hertz, or 44100 Hertz. So you could try those as well. For an example of an android device using a USB microphone, check out this Youtube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LCEYcKo-Vg USB Audio FINALLY Works on Android! (Recording Test - Shield Tablet Running Lollipop) Here is a webpage from the developers of the USB Recorder Pro which lists the limitations of Android 5 USB microphone support: http://www.extreamsd.com/USBAudioRecorderPRO/Android5USB.html Google's Android 5 USB driver limitations External USB stereo microphones may allow recording in stereo (something which is not possible with wired microphones connected to the earphone jack). Here is a website with a good explanation of USB microphones (see the section - External microphone plugged into the micro-USB port for Android): http://www.wildmountainechoes.com/equipment/audio-recording-with-a-smartphone Audio Recording With a Smartphone 18.6 Can I use an external XLR microphone to record ? An external XLR microphone can be hooked up to an XLR to TRRS adapter cable, which can then be plugged into your Android device. Check out this link - Record to Any Android App with an XLR Microphone: http://www.androidaudiorecording.com/record-to-android-apps-with-xlr-microphone 18.7 Can Sony Xperia devices record stereo using a wired stereo microphone from Sony ? Most Android and iPhone devices have a TRRS earphone jack which only supports mono microphone input. While Sony Xperia devices, it seems use a TRRRS earphone jack - which has an extra pin which allows for stereo microphone input. However, this only works with their proprietary 'Sony Stereo Microphone STM10', and you probably need to use their Sony Audio Recorder app as well. This info is taken from this webpage - search for Xperia on this webpage : Audio Recording With a Smartphone: http://www.wildmountainechoes.com/equipment/audio-recording-with-a-smartphone 19. How do I play a recording and organize my recordings ? Play button The Play button remembers the last recording, even across app sessions. Use this to remember your last recording session. File manager to play The Recordings Folder button is located just above the Action on last recording button on the bottom right. Click the Recordings Folder button to browse through all your recordings using the built in OI File Manager, which is a full featured file manager. Or use one of the other file managers that are supported. When you click on one of the files, Android will show you a list of apps which can be used to play or edit this file. If you click on an audio player app, it will start to play your file. If you click on an audio editor or ringtone editor app, you can begin to edit the file. If you check the default checkbox before selecting the player, or click on the Always button, instead of the Just Once button, Android will remember that choice as the default to use next time, and will no longer show the list of apps next time, but will directly play the file using that app. If there is only one player or editor app on your device, Android will not show a list but will instead directly play the file when you click on it. Changing or resetting the default player for recordings If you have previously clicked on a file in the file manager, and Android has shown you a list of apps, and you chose one of those apps, but also clicked on the default checkbox, or clicked on Always button, instead of the Just Once button. Then from that point onwards, whenever you click on a file of that file type, Android will directly show it using that app, and will no longer bother to show you a list of apps to choose from. This is because you have previously told Android which app to use by default. You can reset this behavior, so there is no default set for that file type, so that when you click on a file in the file manager, then Android once again shows you a list of apps to choose from, as before. To do that, click Android Settings - Applications. Then click on the application which is currently set as the default. This will show the app information. Scroll down to the Launch by Default setting, or the Open by Default setting, and click on it. Then click on the Clear Defaults button there. It will now say No Defaults Set. Now when you click on that file in the file manager, Android will once again give you a choice of apps for playing that file. Choice of File Managers In addition to the built in file manager, you can choose to use Total Commander File Manager, ES File Explorer, X-plore File Manager, or ES File Explorer Pro. Total Commander gives better support for TalkBack for blind users. For example it gives better feedback when you select single or multiple files in TalkBack. If you choose these file managers, you will be taken to Google Play to download them when needed. Full featured file manager to organize You can use the full featured file managers to organize your files. Copy, Delete, Rename, create new folders, or compress files or folders into ZIP files that are then easy to share with others. If you use the Total Commander File Manager, then you can use the FTP and other plugins available on Google Play for Total Commander. 20. I want to record without any indication on screen that recording is taking place Legal Issues It might be illegal in some locations to record without informing others that you are recording. You CAN however remove all buttons from the screen. Remove Buttons If you find you rarely use one of the buttons, you can remove it from the screen using the Show Buttons settings. Remove one or all buttons. Thanks to the button less recording capability of this app, you can remove all buttons from screen and still record effectively using the Ear Detect feature. Or use the Volume Buttons or the Headset button to Record Pause and Stop. The Vibration feature will give you feedback about what the app is doing. 21. How did testing for blind accessibility improve the app ? Testing for blind accessibility The primary purpose of the app was to reduce the need for user to be looking at the screen, and because button presses carry with them the one in a hundred risk of bad button presses, we wanted to reduce the need to hunt and peck on buttons by the user. This naturally meant the app could be usable by blind users as well. For this reason we asked Eyes Free google group users to help us improve the app. This led to improvements in how our app worked with TalkBack, the Google supplied accessibility solution on Android. But Eyes Free users also suggested a number of improvements which were never part of our original plan, for example stereo recording (which is helpful to locate the position of speakers in a meeting), headset button recording, volume buttons to record, and even the listen to recording in real time on earphones. These features are now part of the app. 22. Eyes Free Google Group user credits We got great help from these users on the Eyes Free group: Jacob Kruger for testing Dim Screen near Ear. And for finding a major bug with the voice changer Collum voice and others. This bug was fixed in version 0.10.18. Dávid Németh and Andy el Duderino for headset button controls. Anthony James for suggestions on button control. Warren Carr for stereo recording and numerous suggestions. Russell James for UI bug fixes and numerous suggestions. Beqa Gozalishvili for pointing out volume buttons not working with TalkBack Gregory Nowak for resolving issues with Nexus 5 and for Listen to Record in real time feature. Kyle Brouhard for seeking more File Manager options. And for Android 2.2 version of app (see our stereomatch.com website for APK) and compression issues and keyboard navigation to Counter TextView issues. Kostadin Kolev for helping remove compression issues. Salim Qureshi for stereo for Moto G. Steve Nutt for Confirm on Exit option in Settings so user can disable the confirm on exit if they want. And for finding that Nexus 6 does not record stereo even with built in camcorder app. Stereo recording on Nexus 6 requires root and modification to some system files. Reference: http://tinyurl.com/mo2m5k7 Sharif Jones for suggesting Sound Feedback (it may also have been suggested earlier by others). Henk Abma for helping remove Pitch issues on Android Lollipop. Allan WKF for helping remove bug in detection of multiple screen readers Samsung's TalkBack and Google TalkBack on Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge. Sergei V. Fleytin for pointing out that Volume buttons can be used to record with Shine Plus screen reader (Shine Plus is an alternative to TalkBack). Juan Antonio Fuentes Bermúdez for help removing bug where files were not appearing when phone connected via USB to windows computer. Nitin Patel and Warren L for pointing out issue with Pause and then resume creating a new file. Salim Qureshi for pointing out that the bottom speaker is used for speakerphone during calls on the Moto G 2nd Gen. This led to the addition of Moto G 2nd Gen type (for Settings - Call Recorder - Reset Call Recorder). While Moto G 2nd Gen also requires speakerphone to record both sides of phone call (just like the Nexus 4), the Moto G 2nd Gen has stereo speakers and the speakerphone during call seems to use the bottom speaker which interferes with the bottom microphone. So for the Moto G 2nd Gen, we switch to using the top or Camcorder microphone, and that gives good results. Satguru Rathi and Mohammad Luhar for pointing out that speakerphone is not needed for Moto G on Android 6.0 (it was needed on Moto G Android 5.0.2). Adding a new setting for Reset Call Recorder called: Moto G 6.0 for Moto G running Android 6.0. Satguru Rathi for helping fix bug in the 'Power to end call' feature (changed from 1-click to end call to a 2-click to end call behavior). This feature was later removed in version 0.9.99 because it required the CALL_PHONE permission, and most TalkBack users were unwilling to stop using the Android Accessibility 1-click to end call feature. Nikola Jovic for the 'Enable during Calls' setting in the Power Controls settings. This is needed because on some devices it is better to disable Power Controls during phone calls. On these devices, the Screen On/Off that Android does (using the proximity sensor to turn off screen when you bring phone to your ear) also seems to trigger recording. This happens because apps can't detect Power button clicks directly, and have to detect Screen On/Off events instead. And this Screen On/Off that Android does during phone calls is seen as a Screen On/Off by the app as well. On other devices like the Android One running Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow, this problem does not occur. So on these devices, users may want to keep 'Enable during Calls' On so they can use Power Controls during phone calls as well, while the setting will in general be kept Off (default). Warren Carr for confirming that Samsung Galaxy S4 running Lollipop requires using speakerphone method to record both sides of phone call. Sameer Vasta for helping find permission issue with microphone on Nougat (app version 0.10.13 running on Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 running Android 7.0 Nougat). Rod Maccoux for helping remove bug where a renamed file was still visible with it's old file name when used via USB with a Windows PC. This was fixed in version 0.9.15. Rod Maccoux also pointed out that Action - Rename dialog was not showing old filename as highlighted text (so it can easily be replaced), and the keyboard was not showing by default. These have been fixed in version 0.9.15. Aaron Spears for files not appearing on USB connection and stereo for Moto X. Paweł Masarczyk for feedback on Notification Always On not working on devices which led to bug fixes. In addition it highlighted the role of Huawei's Battery Manager which was aggressively killing app services - solution was to use Settings - Protected Apps - and switch the app from Unprotected to Protected. Riz Khan for testing audio recording on Google Pixel phones. And for confirming that call recording works at the Nexus settings. Aaron Spears, Paweł Masarczyk and Riz Khan for suggesting using gestures for controlling recording (implemented in version 0.10.20 and in separate app Gestures: Amazing MP3 Recorder which is a helper app for full screen gestures). ke7zum for suggesting WAV file recording should allow for multi-part WAV files (thus bypassing the WAV standard 4GB file size limit). A sequence of WAV files (each below 4GB in size) will be created - which can then be concatenated in an audio editor program like Audacity on PC/Mac. Ravi N. Hiremath for suggesting that call recording should have separate file format setting. This has been added in version 0.10.41. Viraj Kafle for testing and reporting on bug (MP3 and Effects - Pitch combination giving interrupted recording). This bug was introduced in version 0.10.33 - now fixed. Kostadin Kolev for testing and suggesting optimal settings for call recording on Nokia 6 (Model TA-1033 running Android 8.1) - call recording working both with and without headset plugged in. Call recording has also been reported working with Bluetooth headset (Model: SONY MDR-AS700BT). Vicki B. for suggesting landscape mode for use with tablets (landscape mode setting added in version 0.10.48). Kostadin Kolev for testing bugs in Settings - Landscape mode, and Settings - Record Controls - Ear Detect Settings (both fixed in version 0.10.52 Beta). 23. Other user credits Dave A for pushing for Rename last recording feature (also suggested by others before). And for helping remove needless warning message: Tapjoy servers report LOWER. NyvenZA (reddit user) for pointing out that using a wired headset with Default settings on Nexus phones will allow recording of both sides of phone call, without needing to use the speakerphone method. Shay Green for pointing out issue with Recordings Folder, Cloud Folder, Call Folder not being remembered, which led to bug fix. Daniel Trivin for helping remove Share (Send) bug in OI File Manager. Ju Wei Ong for helping fix WAV file bug (if you Force Close the app in the middle of WAV recording, the earlier recording is lost - this bug exists in lots of audio recorder apps). Now doing a Force Close in the middle of WAV (or OGG/MP3) recording will preserve the recording that has been made so far. Rodney Bolman for suggestions (added to Help - Cosplay) on Y-splitters that actually work, and speaker/directional-microphone suggestions suitable for cosplay. Surya Prakash Sharma for confirming that Moto G3 running Android 6.0 Marshmallow gives good call recording with Settings - Call Recorder - Reset Call Recorder - set to the Moto 6.0 setting. 24. Translation credits Translation help from the Eyes Free Google Group Rami Ahmed for Arabic Kostadin Kolev for Bulgarian Andy el Duderino for German Dávid Németh for Hungarian Outsidepro (Denis Shishkin) for Russian Translation help from Reddit najodleglejszy for Polish Adriao Neves (www.adriaoneves.com) and Cucumber1 for Portuguese vrc_ (Vicente Rios) for Spanish Translation help from Twitter Piciok (Paweł Masarczyk) for Polish salihkn (Salih Kunduz) for Turkish Translation help from users Grigore Frisan for Romanian 25. Translation credits for application translation Rami Ahmad for Arabic. Tomasz Bilecki for Polish. Grigore Frisan for Romanian. Cleverson Casarin Uliana for Portuguese (Brazil) (app translation and Google Play Description changes). Michel Henrique for Portuguese (Brazil) (app translation). Wendrill Aksenow Brandão for Portuguese (Portugal) (app translation). Wagner Soares Da Silva for Portuguese (Brazil) (Google Play Description). Juan Antonio Fuentes Bermúdez for Spanish (Spain). Sergei V. Fleytin for Russian. Øyvind Lode for Norwegian (app translation and Google Play Description). Henk Abma for Dutch (Netherlands) (app translation). Coscell Kao for Chinese Traditional mailto:coscell@gmail.com Mallard (Ollie) for Italian (app translation and Google Play Description). Meisam Amini for Persian (app translation).