Sabinetek’s SmartMike+ Lets You Talk

Audio too often gets a back seat to video — remember radio? — but the two complement each other. So having a bad audio track does nothing to call attention to what the video is doing. But many think that any quality of audio is good enough, which is why so many video logs and phone-created videos sound terrible. It’s not enough to just be able to hear what’s being said but to also fully understand it. The results have been inadequately responding microphones that neither fulfill their obligation for creating sounds nor make it a reasonable enough process. That’s why so many use the microphone in their phones, despite how inconvenient it is to do so. A better answer is to have a quality microphone that not only provides the kind of audio that makes it worthwhile, but does it in such a way that it allows the person to be creative with their smartphone (iPhone or Android), tablet (iPad, etc.), laptop, DSLR, GoPro or even powered speakers. Doesn’t matter whether they’re making a video or podcast or recording an interview or conversation or mimicking a PA (public address) system. That’s why there’s Sabinetek’s SmartMike+. Because it provides a simple way to have wireless, full band audio transmissions.

SmartMike+ is wireless because it uses Bluetooth 5.0 so no need to go into the fact that this iteration of BT provides a strong and stable signal over its reasonable range to work from (the standard 30+ feet in general). But how it all works can be a bit confusing because you’d expect it to be complicated but it isn’t at all. So if you open up the small box to sort out all the adapters cables inside — the first thing you see is that the microphone is flanked by what looks like another microphone. It is just that, however it’s going to be used as a receiver instead. And both are running off of a 6 hour rechargeable battery

But let’s deal with those adapter cables first: one end of all the cables is a 3.5mm audio analog plug with the other end being different as in also a 3.5mm plug or a Lightning for iOS or a Type-C. So that covers all those electronic devices noted above. And obviously one end of the cable goes into the specific device because it has the plug for it while the other 3.5mm end will go into the receiver. Note that having a receiver isn’t necessary with mobile devices because the SmartMike+ acting as the microphone can pair directly to the mobile device over BT and then work through an app (this means up to 2 SmartMike+’s can be used simultaneously as microphones and that also in some cases you can use the phone/tablet’s built-in mic to record as well as the single SmartMike+ that is in use - however you do need the two SmartMike+s for such 3rd party apps as Facebook Live, TikTok, Snapchat and others.

So this brings us to the SmartMike+ itself (being in size 2.3 x 0.4 x 0.6”/.49 ounces) and which has a clip embedded on it so that it can be “clipped” onto a person or object or placed down on or against a surface. There’s tech to consider and we’ll get to that, but continuing the inspection on the outside doesn’t yield much else other than there being a socket for taking the (optional) unidirectional VLOG microphone. This also works with any phone that has an analog audio socket (ruling out modern iPhones) and has a value for “pushing” at getting audio from tight quarters when there’s a lot of surface noise (example being trying to interview someone on a busy trade show floor).

But it’s the specs of the SmartMike+ that should concern us the only thing keeping one from using it with a variety of devices is pairing it with the other SmartMike”+ which is going to be the receiver. You press and hold the button on the SmartMike+ that is going to be the microphone for 3 seconds and it audio-pairs with the other and that’s that. The other SmartMike+ has had its button pressed for 10 seconds and so it’s now the receiver. Glad that is out of the way!

Back to those specifications. SmartMike+ registers audio between 44.1 - 48 kHz, which is tons more than just adequate when it comes to reproducing voice and other audio — you’re looking for a quality audio result of specific sounds (not music) and what you are getting does that thumbs up. Lag or latency issues that could result in lip-sync problems seem solved due to BT 5.0 and its unidirectionality helps focus the sounds coming to the microphone. There’s also “multilevel noise reduction” which seems an awfully fancy way of saying it works at reducing unnecessary surface noises that could pollute the audio being created and then transmitted — to take full advantage of this you need to use the SmartMike+ app which also gives you different recording modes. The mic records in stereo, by the way, although to be realistic there’s not much of a separation effect coming from between the two mics and the audio source heading its way. Still it can be effective at times and certainly contributes to a stronger audio signal.

The SmartMike+ provides a simple method for creating wireless audio. Plus that audio is of a high quality that doesn’t require being recorded in a controlled studio environment. The bevy of devices that it can be used with adds to its value, and it’s retail of $318.00 doesn’t hurt either (if you go instead with just the single SmartMike+ the retail is $159.00). It comes in black or white and for more details, go to https://www.sabinetek.com/products/smartmikeplus