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I'm unlucky enough to have noisy neighbors above me (living in a flat). Yes, I tried talking to them like 10 times, but then I had to involve the landlord who eventually gave them a 1st warning. This helped for 1 month or so, then they continued where they left off, so I'd like to record them to have proof when I escalate the case.

First I tried to record them with my phone, no luck - the kind of noise they make is like banging on the floor (dropping a LOT of things / jumping?), sometimes there is shouting for a short period, or just chairs being pulled on the floor back and forth (11PM at night). My phone doesn't pick it up (too low volume for that / low frequency / often I am too late starting the recording).

I'm thinking about setting up something that records continuously, but I'll still have to get a proper microphone that actually picks up the noises. There are those "spy" gadgets that have 100+ hours of recording time, but their mic's performance is doubtful. I could set up a raspberry pi, but still need a mic...

One idea could be to use a vibration (contact) mic, but I have no idea if that works. Any suggestions / experience to share?

sfThomas
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    Recording low frequency transmission from a noisy neighbour is not a trivial task. Almost nothing at consumer-level will do it. See https://sound.stackexchange.com/questions/38504/how-can-i-record-frequencies-from-0-1-to-20-hz which starts with a totally different question, but the answers are appropriate to the situation. – Tetsujin Nov 28 '20 at 16:31
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    Usually disputes on noise from neighbours is about sound pressure level, at least from a legal perspective. Get yourself a sound pressure level meter. And legal advice. – Marcel May 02 '22 at 10:29
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    Prepare also to have a waterproof answer when the neighbour claims that you have made the recorded or measured sounds by yourself and you really disturb their living by making noise day after day and by generating accusations against peaceful and polite neighbours. I'm afraid you get nowhere without having allies and also 3rd party witnesses. –  Aug 29 '22 at 09:15
  • Speakers in mobile devices are a high pass for low frequencies: i.e. you hear less and less under about 400 Hz, depending on the device. Did you try listening to your recordings via headphones (in contrast to earphones)? – MS-SPO Apr 26 '23 at 05:13

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You could try something like the Olympus LS4. It has a function, "voice activated recording" where it only records when it hears sound. There are probably less expensive solutions out there (not that I know of them). Manual here: https://www.olympusamerica.com/files/oima_cckb/LSP1_LSP4_EN_manual.pdf

ghellquist
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