Roland’s mobile mixer gives your smartphone videos stereo sound
Proper audio mixing for your quick clips
Hang on, my smartphone already has a microphone?
I’m sure it does – but, if you’ve ever tried recording at a concert, you’ll know that smartphone mics and loud, complex noises don’t do well together. Unless you like fuzzy crunch.
I think I used to have Fuzzy Crunch for breakfast. So this box will make it better?
It sure will. Stick it in your smartphone – it’s not wireless, sadly – and it’ll capture crisp stereo sounds from all sorts of inputs. What’s more, it’ll record straight onto the video you’re shooting, rather than having to sync sound with footage later – so you can simply point and shoot.
It looks pretty small to sound that good.
OK, so it probably won’t be rivalling studio quality recordings anytime soon – and the focus is definitely on portability – but it’ll also sound a lot sweeter than your standard microphone. It’s almost pocketable at 95mm-square and, because it’s powered by your smartphone, there are no weighty batteries to worry about.
So if I’m recording my mates having a jam, I can just plug them straight in?
You certainly can. Despite its palm-top size, the Go:Mixer packs an array of input ports for all sorts of gear. Stick in a guitar, keyboard and mic, as well as a backing track, and you’ve got a music video waiting to happen. It’ll play nice with a couple of standard 3.5mm jacks, as well as hosting three 6.35mm plugs.
What about those twiddly bits? What do those do?
Like a proper mixer, the little black knobs mean you can balance the audio inputs on the fly. It might take a few fluffed videos to get right, but it should mean Facebook-friendly clips without a pounding bass overload.
Do I have to hold it all the time?
That, or build a little chest shelf for it. Because it’s wired, it might be a little tricky to get sweeping shots while all your kit’s plugged in – but that’s probably a price worth paying for listenable audio. Want one? The Go:Mixer costs US$99 in the US, with the UK price likely to be similar.
Chris Rowlands
Freelance contributor 
