Amazing sound recording from Nokia N9
We’ve said this plenty of times, but something extremely overlooked in video recording (in addition to the quality of video, you know, some competition just like saying they do 1080p even though it’s shit) is audio. It is quite startling how bad the audio recording quality is of some competition. It’s like it’s 2003 for some of them.
Nokia however, has always been class leading. In this example, Jari (who shared this in one of the comment sections) was at a gig last year with his Nokia N9. The Nokia N9 does proper stereo recording (with actual left right separation as opposed to N8 with has front and side). I was amazed actually as first I thought Jari just put a normal mp3 track on. It only sounds like it’s recorded when you hear the crowd.
I think it might be better than the N8 at recording very, very loud sounds. I can’t confirm this, it’s just the last time I was at a gig with the N8, it just cracked at the top end (that and of course the bass was just ridiculous).
That crackling in the N8 is demonstrated here. I’ve not uploaded mine, this was at that very early Rihanna gig (prior to launch of N8).
I can’t tell if that’s the wind or whether it can’t handle the recording. The sound is just like what you’d hear if you were recording on a windy day.
Seems to happen again here:
N900 no problem
Again, here’s my N900. No problem again.
I wonder what happened with the N8 why it’s doing that at loud volumes.
This gives me an idea of something to do with the stereo recording of the N9. The only other phone to do stereo recording properly was the N93/N93i.
Category: Nokia
About the Author (Author Profile)
Hey, thanks for reading my post. My name is Jay and I'm a medical student at the University of Manchester. When I can, I blog here at mynokiablog.com and tweet now and again @jaymontano. We also have a twitter and facebook accounts @mynokiablog and facebook.com/MyNokiaBlog. Contact us at tips(@)mynokiablog.com or email me directly on jay[at]mynokiablog.comSubscribe
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Glad I have the phone that records so well! My N9 actually took some amazing shots of my friends out in some NYC night clubs! Very cool!
I have used my N9 to record a christmas symphony and everytime I sho it to people, they give good compliments about the phone
Been using Nokia N series phones to record at concerts for years, starting with my N80ie, N82, N86 and now the N8. Check out http://www.youtube.com/imjasonmh to see the evolution in Nokia’s finest over the years. Here is a great example of the N8′s great audio/video capabilities:
Oh wow, that guy is playing a keytar…
The sound is definitely better than my N8 though. I know what you’re saying Jay, the thunderous sound from the bass and also sometimes the top end gets clipped or blown out.
I think I read somewhere that covering one of the microphones with sticky tape can help for when you’re recording at a gig.
I actually managed to extract a very good quality MP3 from a video I recorded @ a concert..
Here is the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CM9RTFKA2ow
here is the MP3 file
http://www.mediafire.com/?8f7kz4n3uk6oaib
Its from an N8.. stereo sound and all
I noticed this too. Saw Eminem in concert here in Sydney. Had N8 and N9 with me (N8 to record and N9 as my phone) and N8 died part way through. So recorded rest with N9. When I went home and reviewed footage, the N9′s sound was WAY better.
Ecosystem Ecosystem Ecosystem Bah… LOL
was recently @ a concert and recorded some songs with my n8 i was shocked @ how well the sound recording was, my ears hurt @ some moments and the N8 had no issues
ill look through my vids and upload it later
the N9 sounds quite superb as well
Who would do a simple program that could just record converstions and uses a mp3 codec for that? I know there are some apps already, but they do not pack well enough to send “voice messages”. I mean record something, attach in a multimedia message and send.
No matter the quality of a recording. Essential is that the file is small enough to be sent with an mms.
People stop talking about N9. It doesn’t matter anymore. The future of nokia depend on strong ecosystem. Nokia N9 is shit. Buy great lumia 800 with best OS on market. You have great tiles with application list. I am tired talking people anymore. God. I hate my job. After february 11 insomnia is killing me.
LOL !
I liked ur user ID…
I recorded this over a year ago with my X6:
http://youtu.be/sPmRPUkDMZk
http://youtu.be/PvX-1Mo–H0
From what i’ve seen on youtube it beats the audio of the Lumia 800 by far:
Your X6 is AWESOME, sounds almost perfect.
Hi Dunno: Lumia 800 audio quality was crap, x6 much better.. seems Nokia is going to wrong direction with MS phones:-( N9 Rocks:-)
I think the bitrate has something to do with it. The x6 records at 96kbps in ACC and the lumia 800 around 50kbps. They need to bump it up.
I think the N8′s mic is just too sensitive. It picks up the sound from auto focusing (if you’re using CameraPro N8), and it picks up the sound from the wind too. But I’ll still choose it for the superior image quality. I was recording the 2012 London fireworks, and I found that screenshots from the videos are actually very usable: (Link)
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.266372190093742.67034.100001628890777&type=3&l=8c290da2fa
That sounds just perfect, as if I were there.
my n9 can do this??
@ Jay,
Good that u made a nice post out of *Jari’s* comment on the other page:
http://mynokiablog.com/2012/01/19/nokia-n9-user-review-of-the-nokia-lumia-800-lumia-800-is-the-only-phone-id-trade-my-n9-for/
I surely felt that his shootings were awesome & the audio was truly ambient. He deserved it — our N9s deserved it !
Thanx,
Qorax
Tnx Jay & Qorax, one more vid here: Vintage & Calypso 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GGjJ9FZKlI. Note what Jean Michel Jarre says after the first track called “Vintage” He says (and wants these vids to be seen in Internet): “.. to make some light from Turku to the internet, where everybody is watching us tonight.. so show them” Great artist!
Niiiice ;-P
I think it’s time Nokia made an all round device to tempt the iphone masses. I don’t like it when I know that my N9 photos are crap compared to those from an N8.
And there is no way I will buy a camera phone, a video phone, a music phone etc!!! They just can’t fit in my pockets.
What irritates me is that Nokia has all the technology but won’t nail it in one phone. Can someone hear me!!
What you’re asking for is a god phone, doesn’t exist and never will.
Many have come very close (esp Samsung lately) but there’s always at least one or two notable areas of weakness.
for eg. The bad sound quality of SGS 2…and Android OS.
Buy Lumia 710, 800 and 900.
900 is the Greatest Windows Phone device! It has got best quality Carl Zeiss Tessar optics and a good quality image sensor unlike the HTC Titan 2. Internet sharing is disabled on all Nokia devices in order to differentiate our products from the products manufactured by others. Microsoft has given us the exclusive privilidges to customise Windows Phone but we won’t do so in order to prevent fragmentation in the Windows Phone platform.
And to get wi-fi tethering and good audio quality…you should buy the Windows Phone devices of other manufacturers. But please, do not buy Android and iOS devices.
Is it really Nokia N8 has a problem regarding audio recording on videos?
high volume sources mainly.