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Connecting Sennheiser G3 with PC to record audio
Hi everyone,
I just want to make sure before I make any purchase. I’m going to use Sennheiser G3 with Nikon D5300 to shoot good quality videos, but I would also like to record background audio for videos with powerpoint slides
Will Rode SC4 3 inches Microphone Cable suffice to connect Sennheiser G3 with my PC and record good quality audio?
Or do I need a preamp?Thank you in advance for your help, appreciate it!
Best,
Maciek -
4 Replies
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[Maciek Bindas] “I just want to make sure before I make any purchase. I’m going to use Sennheiser G3 with Nikon D5300 to shoot good quality videos, but I would also like to record background audio for videos with powerpoint slides.
Will Rode SC4 3 inches Microphone Cable suffice to connect Sennheiser G3 with my PC and record good quality audio?
Or do I need a preamp?”I don’t believe you need a TRS to TRRS adapter to record audio to a PC. A single G3 set is a single channel (mono) device. Depending on how the Rode adapter is wired, it might pass the single channel to either left or right, or it might copy the channel to the other side so that left=right. But it’s still just a single channel of audio. And you can take the single channel and copy it to as many channels as you wish in any decent NLE or DAW. I’m just saying you don’t need an adapter to do that for you.
To the question of “do I need a preamp”, you probably do. The output from a G3 receiver is mic level. The receiver (EK 100) has a fair amount of gain available and you can turn it up quite high — maybe to the bottom end of consumer line level. But certainly not to pro line level. If I were in your shoes, I would certainly want a preamp between my D5300 and/or my PC and the EK 100 receiver but I’ve got one — a Sound Devices MixPre-D. The MixPre-D would work a treat for you, it will even give you a digital output (AES on right XLR, or over USB). They are fairly easy to find on the used market also, at least last I checked. Outstanding sound (likely way better than the preamps in your D5300 or your PC), excellent limiters (which might save your tail as it has mine on a few occasions), excellent meters and excellent control. And of course, it’s a mixer, so you can easily put your single channel input wherever you want it in a stereo field, there’s even a pan switch with a center option so you can put your mono signal exactly center of a stereo field if that’s what you need (which I find particularly useful when recording with a camera).
For more on the MixPre-D, the manual is here.
BTW, powerpoint slides are the devil’s spawn, you know that right? Just sayin’. 😉
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The microphone input on ALL computers is barely competent for crude communication (Skype, et.al.), gaming, etc. The internal mic preamp in a computer is probably not even as good as the mic preamp in your cell phone.
Even the most inexpensive XLR input USB audio interface will be orders of magnitude better than any computer internal mic preamp. There are competent USB audio interfaces with XLR inputs even down around US$50. I see the Behringer U-Phoria UM2 on Amazon for US$35
And I have even been seeing (on Amazon) cable/adapter/preamp “cables” with “XLR to USB” for around US$10 (and with free shipping for Prime). Might be worth trying at such a low price.
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Recording audio without metering and monitoring is exactly like framing and focusing without looking at the viewfinder. -
Great! Thank you Bruce for this thorough answer, I will buy Sound Devices MixPre-D then.
Seems like problem solved ; )
Best,
Maciek -
Edit: And thank you Richard for you suggestions too : )
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