How to Record a Podcast on Your iPhone: 2 Mics, Fully Portable

This used to need a laptop or a standalone recorder. It does not anymore. Since iOS 17.4 the iPhone does full USB-C class-compliant audio, so a proper interface and a pair of mics plug straight in and just work, the same way they would on a computer.

Put a multitrack recorder on the phone and you have the rest. Reel gives you four tracks and records in 32-bit float, so two mics each get their own track with room to spare. No computer in the chain, nothing to boot up, nothing to carry but the phone and the mics.

A small, honest kit. No rack gear.

• An iPhone, plus a recording app. Reel is the one I make and use for this, but any class-compliant iOS recorder works.
• A two-input class-compliant USB audio interface. Anything with two mic inputs that an iPhone sees without drivers, which is most of them.
• Two mics. Dynamic mics like an SM58-style are the easy portable choice, since they do not need phantom power and shrug off room noise. Condenser mics sound great but need the interface to supply phantom power.
• The cable for your phone. A USB-C iPhone connects to the interface with one USB-C cable. A Lightning iPhone needs an Apple camera adapter in between.

This is the whole trick. Plug the interface into the phone, connect both mics and open Reel's Inputs sheet.

By default two mics come in as a stereo pair, one voice on the left and one on the right, recorded to a single track you can split apart later. That is fine and it is the fastest way to start. For full control, put each mic on its own track instead. In the Inputs sheet set the first track's input to mic one and the second track's input to mic two, then arm both tracks.

Hit record and both voices capture at once, each on its own track, perfectly in sync. Now you can balance the two voices independently, fix one person who leaned in too close, or edit a cough out of one side without touching the other. That is the reason to record a conversation on two tracks rather than one.

The best part is that none of this is tied to a room. The entire rig is a phone, an interface the size of your palm and two mics. Record an episode at your desk, then take the exact same kit to a guest's kitchen table, a conference floor or a quiet spot outdoors and record there. No studio required, no reset.

One practical note on power. Feeding the interface from the phone alone can be marginal, especially with phantom power running two condensers. A powered interface, or plugging a charger into the power port on an Apple camera adapter, keeps the connection steady and keeps your phone topped up while you record a long episode.

Conversations are unpredictable. Someone laughs, someone raises their voice, a guest turns out to be much louder than you. Recording in 32-bit float means a sudden loud moment does not clip and ruin the take, and you can pull either voice up or down afterwards with no penalty. It is a real safety net for a live conversation you cannot re-run.

Set sensible levels anyway, but you are not walking a tightrope. If you want the honest detail on what 32-bit float does and does not do, I wrote a whole piece on it.

Be clear on what this setup is. Reel is the capture end of the chain and it does that part well, two clean voices on two tracks. It is not an editor or a publishing tool.

Once the episode is recorded you take those tracks into an editing app to cut, add an intro, balance the levels and export the finished file, then upload it to your host. GarageBand is free and fine for this, and there are dedicated podcast editors if you want chapter markers and the rest. Capture on the phone, finish wherever you like.

This is a setup for people in the same room. Two mics, one interface, one phone. If your co-host or guest is in another city you want a tool built for remote recording instead, since that is a different job. For in-person shows though, a phone and two mics is genuinely hard to beat for how little you have to carry.

Reel is the recorder I make and use to capture these takes, so here is a quick overview of how it works.