Frequently Asked Questions

You may connect the Tula Mic to your computer using the provided USB cable and select the Tula as your INPUT in SETTINGS. If you wish to monitor through your Tula’s headphone jack, you may also select the Tula as your OUTPUT. If you’re using your Tula in Zoom, Google Meets, Teams etc you will also need to select the Tula as your INPUT (and output if you wish) in those programs.

1. NOTE- If your computer only has USB-C inputs, you’ll need to use a USB-C to USB-C cable or an adapter.
2. NOTE- The Tula will not begin working until it’s actually being used in a recording , Zoom call etc.

1. If your device has a USB-C input, you can simply connect the Tula using a USB-C to USB-C cable and your device will automatically select the Tula as both the input and the output source. Please note that you will need to use wired headphones in order to hear as phones and tablets currently do not allow choosing separate input and output sources.
2. If your device uses a Lightening connector (iPhones and some iPads) you’ll need to use an Apple Camera Connector. NOTE- Even an Apple approved USB-C to Lightening connector will not work as Lightening enabled Apple devices require the presence the chip that is present in the Camera Connector.

1. Turn the Tula on by short pressing the ON/OFF button (bottom/right).
2. Short press the RECORD button (center/right) NOTE-The RECORD button is the only one with a dimple in it for easy identification. The button’s LED will be illuminated.
3. You may adjust the gain by pressing the + and - buttons on the LEFT side of the Tula. If the sound source is loud, you may want to lower the gain by a few clicks. If the source is quiet, you may want to increase it. You can judge the gain level by observing the right LED on the front of the Tula. If the light is green when sound is present, that indicates a good level. If it’s yellow or red, you should turn the gain down. If it barely flashes green when sound is present, you should turn the gain up.
4. To PAUSE the recording, press the RECORD button again (the button’s LED will be flashing on and off indicating that the recording is paused.
5. To resume recording on the same track, press the RECORD button again. The button’s LED will be solidly illuminated again, indicating that the recording has resumed.
6. To stop your recording simply short press the STOP button (just below the RECORD button on the right side).

The Tula has a proprietary system for attaching and detaching. To remove the flip stand simply open it then turn the Tula 1/4 turn counter clockwise and remove the stand. To attach it insert the small post and turn the Tula 1/4 turn clockwise. NOTE- The shape of the post is asymmetrical so that it’s not possible to attach the flip stand backwards. Please check to see that you’re inserting the post in the correct orientation. NEVER force the stand. You can easily break it.

1. Plug the Tula into your computer.
2. When it appears as a hard drive, open it and you’ll find all of your recordings listed in order.

Yes, using headphones, you can listen back to your recordings using the Tula’s function buttons to navigate. The Tula’s buttons work exactly like old-school cassette tape controls. PLAY, PAUSE, STOP, FAST FORWARD, REWIND all work as indicated.

NOTE- Long pressing the FAST FORWARD or REWIND buttons while a track is playing back will allow you to “scrub” through the track. This is useful when searching through a long recording. NOTE- FF and RW buttons only work WHILE a track is actively playing. By default, the Tula will always play back the last track that was recorded.

No, the Tula has no speaker. You must use wired headphones or a computer to listen back to your recordings.

1. Turn the Tula on or plug it into your computer.
2. LONG press the NC button (second from the bottom on the left side) WITHOUT speaking so the Brusfri algorithm can learn what background noise you want to reduce).
3. If you’re mobile recording, simply short press the RECORD button (middle right). NOTE- When recording using Brusfri, the Tula will automatically save both a noise reduced file and a regular file so you can decide after the fact which you prefer. The noise reduced file will have the word BRUSFRI in the title.

Analog mode allows you to use the Tula as an external microphone with devices that don’t have USB capability. For example, you can use two Tula Mics in analog mode with an audio interface to record in stereo. To enable analog mode:

1. Turn on the Tula by short pressing the ON/OFF button (bottom right).
2. Press the GAIN UP button (top left with + symbol).
3. You’ll notice that the right, front LED is working but the left one is off. This indicates that the Tula is passing audio through its 3.5mm headphone jack.
4. Attach the appropriate analog cable (3.5mm TRS on the Tula side and whatever your equipment requires on the other side).
5. Adjust the gain using the + and - buttons on the left side of the Tula.

Note: Brusfri does not work in analog mode.

Interview mode allows you to record a high-quality interview using nothing but the Tula and a lavaliere microphone. It records both the Tula’s main cardioid microphone and the lavaliere mic at the same time and saves the audio to two separate tracks. NOTE- you may use Brusfri noise reduction in Interview Mode but it will only affect the audio on the main microphone AND the Tula will only saved a noise reduced version of the audio, not a raw file as well, as it normally does when recording with Brusfri.

Here are the steps for recording in Interview Mode:

1. Turn on the Tula by short pressing the ON/OFF button (bottom right)
2. Plug the lavaliere mic (TRRS only) into the 3.5mm jack (top right)
3. Attach the lavaliere mic to your subject.
4. LONG press the RECORD button (center right) (front LEDs will flash green twice)
5. The front LEDs both function as gain meters in Interview Mode. The left one indicates the level of the Tula’s main mic and the right on indicates the level of the lav mic. 
6. You may adjust the level of the main mic using the + and - keys on the LEFT side of the Tula and the level of the lavaliere mic using the + and - keys on the RIGHT side of the Tula.

You can check the firmware version by opening the Tula drive on your computer. You may see a .BAK file with a number in front of it like TulaMic_D_2.5.4.BAK. This indicates that you have version 2.5.4. If you don’t see a .BAK file, you can open the syslog.txt file and look at “build info”. It will let you know which version of the firmware your Tula has installed.

You can download the latest version of the firmware from our Firmware Updates page. There you’ll also find clear instructions on how to install it.

A dead cat is a furry cover for a microphone which is designed to reduce the unpleasant wind sound. There are many standard dead cats available on places like Amazon that will work perfectly well with a Tula Mic. We also make our own version (available in our web store) which was designed to allow access to all of the function keys as standard dead cats will block many of them.

A pop filter is a barrier that reduces plosives (the unpleasant “P” sound) without drastically affecting the audio. There are a wide range of standard pop filters available that will work very well with the Tula. In addition, we’ve developed a small magnetic one that was designed to be less visible for people using their Tula for videos.

Yes. All Tulas ship with an adapter that allows you to use them with all standard mic stands and boom arms in the US. If you’re in the EU you may need to use a standard US to EU thread adapter. The same goes for tripods. Both of those adapters are available on our website.

Gain refers to the level of the audio that is reaching the microphone’s electronics. If you’re using the Tula with a loud source you will want to reduce the gain. If you’re using the Tula with a very quiet source, you’ll want to increase the gain. The Tula’s gain can be controlled using the + and - buttons on the LEFT side of the Tula. The gain meter is the front right LED. GREEN indicates a healthy gain. RED indicates that there is too much gain. If the LED is barely flashing GREEN when sound is present, that indicates that the gain is too low.

Volume refers to the level of audio that is coming out of the 3.5mm jock either when you’re using the Tula with headphones or in Analog Mode. You can control the volume using the + and - buttons on the RIGHT side of the Tula.

You can enable the lavaliere microphone by following these steps:

1. Turn on the Tula by short pressing the ON/OFF button (bottom right).
2. Plug a lavaliere mic (TRRS only) into the 3.5mm headphone jack (top right).
3. LONG press the mic select button (bottom left). The button’s LED should begin to flash on and off indicating that the lavaliere mic is the input source.
4. Adjust the GAIN using the + and - buttons on the left side of the Tula.

Yes, you can change the monitoring state of the Tula by LONG pressing the MUTE button (third up from the bottom on the left). This must be done while the Tula is in use.

Yes, as the Tula has no screen, it returns to its default setting whenever it has been turned off. By default, the gain is set to 6/10 and the microphone is set to the cardioid main mic.

Simply speaking, cardioid records what is directly in front of the mic and omni records in all directions (350 degrees). By default the Tula is in cardioid and it, by far, the most common way of using any microphone. Omni can be useful if you need to record a meeting and want to place the Tula in the center of the table. You can enable omni by short pressing the MIC SELECT button (bottom left). The button’s LED will be solidly illuminated.

You can set the time on your Tula by following these steps:

1. Plug your Tula into your computer.
2. Create a folder on your computer and name it tulatime.
3. Drag the folder into your Tula drive.
4. Unplug your Tula.

This will set your Tula’s time to the exact moment the folder was created.

1. Create a folder on your computer and name it  441khz
2. Plug your Tula into your computer using the USB cable
3. Drag the folder into the Tula drive
4. Unplug the Tula

To switch the Tula back to 16/48 simply delete the folder from the Tula drive and unplug/plug in the Tula again.

In the earliest version of the Tula’s firmware, there was a problem with the Tula becoming non responsive. This is normally very easy to fix by restarting the Tula and then installing the latest version of the firmware. Here are the steps to follow:

1. Perform a hard reset by inserting a pin into the tiny hole to the right of the USB mic until you feel a soft click.
2. Download the .bin file. NOTE- You do NOT need to double click or expand or open this file in any way. If you do, your computer will give you some kind of error message.
3. Drag the .bin file into the Tula drive.
4. Unplug the Tula (No need to eject. Just pull the USB cable out of your computer).
5. If the update was successful, the .bin file will have magically transformed into a .BAK file in your Tula drive.

NOTE- Occasionally, this procedure won’t be enough to revive the Tula. In that case you can try a deeper dive by following these steps:

1. Plug the Tula Mic into the computer using a USB cable
2. Hold down the power button and the mic select button (lower right and left) while inserting a pin into the tiny hole to the right of the USB port.
3. The battery indicator LED (left of the USB port) will begin flashing green and red indicating that the mic has been put into “upgrade mode”
4. You should see the mic appear as a drive on your computer. If you don’t, please repeat the process.
5. You may need to empty the Tula drive in order to free up space. Make sure to copy any files you want to save to your computer before you delete them. *Please note that you must empty your trash WHILE THE TULA IS PLUGGED IN or the deleted files will still be on the drive, even though you can’t see them.
6. Update the firmware using the steps listed above.

This indicates that the Tula’s memory is full. You can empty it by following these steps:

1. Plug the Tula into your computer.
2. Transfer any tracks you want to keep onto your computer.
3. Delete the tracks from the Tula’s drive.
4. Empty your computer’s trash WHILE THE TULA IS PLUGGED IN. If you don’t do this, the files will not be visible on the Tula drive but they’ll still be taking up space.

This indicates that your battery is low. Please plug your Tula in to charge. NOTE- occasionally, you may need to short press the ON/OFF button in order to initiate charging.

Mac users complain about getting error messages that say “Disk Not Ejected Properly”. This is something that is beyond our control as Macs do this with any type of storage device.

If the Tula doesn’t show up on your computer, please first try restarting your computer. If that doesn’t help, try a hard reset by inserting a pin into the tiny hole to the right of the USB port until you feel a soft click. If that doesn’t work, reach out to us at info@tulamics.com and we’ll schedule a call.

The Tula is a very sensitive microphone primarily designed to make high quality recording of the human voice. It’s not designed for very loud sound sources. Using it with such sources may cause it to distort.

The Tula is a very sensitive microphone and, as such, will pick up handling noise if you’re not careful. The easiest way to avoid this is to be aware of the fact and try to avoid any rubbing against the Tula’s body while you’re recording. Another way is to use a small mic arm.

First try short pressing the ON/OFF button.

If that doesn’t work, restart your Tula by inserting a pin into the tiny hole to the right of the USB port until you feel a soft click.