What is Soft Clipping
Discover the art of soft clipping in audio production: uncovering the balance between clarity and character.
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If you have an iPhone 11 (or iPhone 8, or iPhone 12), you may be wondering how many microphones it has and where they are located. The iPhone 11 has three microphones; one on the bottom, one on the front, and one on the back.
There are a few reasons you may need to know where your microphones are. Perhaps the phone needs repairs and you want to know which microphone is faulty. Or maybe you need to manually locate a microphone so you can direct sound into it properly.
Regardless of the reason, this article will dive a bit more into where the microphones are located on the iPhone 11 and what they are best used for.
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Bottom Microphone
The bottom microphone is the main microphone that will be used when you make calls. Since it is on the bottom of the front of the phone, it is the best microphone to pick up your voice when holding the phone to your head and talking normally.
The iPhone 11 has a small grill on the left side of the bottom. While most users might think this is a speaker, it is in fact the microphone’s location. There are two small holes to the right of the grill which are the speakers. These are used when listening to songs, watching videos, or listening to podcasts. Speaking of podcasts, if you want to know the best home recording studio packages/bundles for making podcasts, you might want to check our article about that.
Front Microphone
On the front of the phone, that is the side with the main display screen, you will find the second microphone. It is located next to the upper selfie camera and proximity sensor. This microphone is merged with an additional speaker at the top of your display.
This microphone is commonly used to pick up commands for Siri. It is also used for picking up audio when you are recording videos on your selfie or front-facing camera. Since this microphone is merged with a speaker at the top of the display, some people may forget that it is even there.
Rear Microphone
For the third and final microphone on the iPhone 11, you can turn your phone over and look at the back. The third microphone will be located next to the two cameras. If your iPhone 11 is the Pro version, it will have three cameras instead.
Regardless of whether it has two or three cameras, the third microphone is still located right next to the cameras. This is the main microphone used when you are recording video or live streaming with the main rear cameras.
Out of the three microphones on an iPhone 11, the rear microphone is the highest quality microphone. If you want to take a video and pick up clear audio as well, you should always use the rear camera and microphone.