Shure Motiv MV88: A great stereo mic for your iOS device

So, for the longest time iPhones have only been able to capture audio in mono. That all changed with the iPhone XS, XS Max, and XR. The catch is, you can only get stereo audio when recording video. This has it's cons and pros. For one, the stereo mics on these phones aren't lined up with the camera, so you get an inaccurte stereo image compared to the actual image. But on the good side, they exist, but that's not what I'm here to talk about. I am here to talk about the Shure Motiv MV88. This is a stereo condenser microphone with two capsules. It's made by Shure, a well known company in the audio industry. It is well built in comparison to the other mic I have had experience with, the Blue Mikey. This device is about as thick at the top where tthe actual microphones are as a standard piece of bubble gum or a tootsy roll. But with the pop filter on, it's about as big as a mediu, sized rubber ball. It sits on a small rectangular base with a lightning connector at the bottom. If you use a case, you will want to buy a lightning extender, but I advise that you not buy one that is a cable because you don't want your mic flapping around as you move. I fund a two pack on amazon for like two bucks US, and I just leave one connected to the device at all times. It's small enough that you won't need to worry abut it breaking. It does come with a little hard case to put it in, but if you use an extender it won't fit in the pouch as it's been designed just for the mic. I honestly don't know why they give you the case anyway, because most people are going to have an extender on it and when they want to use it all they have to do is pull it out of their bag or pocket and connect. They do have an app that you need in order to change settings like stereo degrees, decebel level of recording, wind reduction, etc. The app is very accessible. Everything is labeled and the settings and other feayures of the app are in tabs. You can also record in the app as well as listen to past recordings. When recording you can monitor your output if you have a headset connected, byt sense this uses lightning and there is no headphone jack, you will only be ableto use bluetooth. The problem with that is the monotoring is very crackly and doesn't sound right. Note, your recordings don't turn out like that. Of course you can use this with pretty much anything that records, Voice Memos, Camera, GarageBand Ferrite, Just Press Record, and Backpack studio have been tested by me, but it should work with anything as it uses the default microphone API so any app that uses the microphone for capturing audio and or video will work. Obviously it doesn't work for calls and voice chats on services like Messenger, WhatsApp, FaceTime etc, because they use a different mic that apple has placed in the device for noise reduction. As for the audio that this does capture, there's almost no low end, so if you try to record drums or anything that naturally has low end bass frequencies that won't be in your recordings. But overall I've been using mine sense Christmas 2018 and think it's a great choice. Mine was ordered from Guitar Center online, and cost about 150 US bucks.