How to use USB microphone with Android

September 7, 2017

I recently discovered the Sing! Smule Android app. Sing! is like a music social network of sorts - you can sing karaoke, either alone with others. Best of all, the app comes with a (limited) set of audio filters, which you can use to make your recording sound better. That being said, no software filter can substitute a good mic. In this post, I’ll describe how I used my USB microphone with my Android phone to make better quality recordings. You don’t need to root your phone or use other shady software because Android now supports USB on-the-go (OTG).

What you’ll need

  1. Android Phone (Mine is a Oneplus 2 running Android 6.0.1)
  2. USB Microphone (I own a Blue Snowball USB Microphone)
  3. USB OTG cable (I got this and this from Amazon, because Oneplus 2 has only a USB type C port. If you have the regular micro-USB port on your phone, you can buy a normal OTG cable.)

How to set it up

There are two main steps.

  1. Connecting the mic to your phone
  2. Enabling OTG to make it work

First, connect the mic’s USB cable to the OTG cable, and then connect it to your phone. If your mic switches on, then you can be sure that its connected. On the Snowball, the red indicator light switches on when I connect it to my phone.

Next, you need to enable OTG on your phone. Go to Settings -> Storage & memory -> Enable OTG storage.

That’s it! Now, open Sing!, and try to record audio. If you’re able to save the recording, then you’re good to go.

How to use USB microphone with Android - September 7, 2017 - Tanmayee Narendra