External Mic awful quality.

[grino]

Hello! I just bought a mini shotgun mic (Boya BY-MM1) to use for recording narrated outdoor footage. I also use a USB C to 3.5mm dongle to plug the mic's cable into the phone.

However, whenever I would record footage, the audio from the microphone is terrible. However, when I try the dongle and the microphone on my laptop, it sounds fine.

I'm using a Samsung S20FE. Anyone know how I could make the microphone sound decent?

 

[Mr. Lucky]

The MM1 is an electret condenser mic. These units require a bias voltage, usually supplied by the connected device. Since the microphone works with your laptop, that rules out a mic or cable problem. The thing is, attempting to use an electret condenser without bias results in no audio, not distorted audio. Your sound quality issue suggests that your phone is supplying a too-low bias voltage (in which case, you're out of luck), or the BY-MM1 is actually a dynamic microphone (despite being advertised as electret condenser). Dynamic mics definitely distort if there is bias voltage on the audio lead. If it really is a dynamic mic, a series blocking capacitor would solve the problem. You'll likely have to experiment with the capacitor value, but .01 µF (non-polarized) would be a good starting point.