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Good mics to use with cell phones?
I work at a place that’s starting to use Facebook Live a lot, through cell phones, and the people running these sessions aren’t video people. So I’m just trying to provide them with a better mic they can plug into their phones, and maybe get them started. They want to run these events themselves. The events are usually interviews or informal panels of 3-4 people. Does anyone have a recommendation on a good, reasonably priced mic for capturing better audio for these events? I chatted with a B&H rep who pointed me to the products below. Does anyone have experience with this, and if so would you use one of these products or another mic?
Much appreciated,
Neilhttps://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1186598-REG/rode_videomic_me_directional_mic.html
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1282307-REG/saramonic_smartmic_flexible_microphone_for_iphone.html https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1020711-REG/ampridge_amp_mms_mightymic_s_iphone_shotgun.html https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/904328-REG/micw_ishotgun_kit.html John P: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1276974REG/ampridge_amp_mmg_pro_mightymic_g_gopro_iphone_sg.html -
4 Replies
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I suspect the issue won’t be the hardware, but the micing technique they’ll need to learn.
A single person interview can get by with a simple lightening connected lav like the Rode VideoMic. (Presuming they don’t want to spend $$$ for the much higher end Sennheiser MKE2 with the Apogee in-line converter)
But when you move to the panel configuration, all bets are off.
Three people into one lav microphone in a spread out panel configuration is a recipe for uneven (at best) sound. Whoever’s closest to the mic element might sound just fine – but, expect the participants farther away to sound much less so.
And there just isn’t a cheap and simple and non-pro friendly way to feed an iPhone from a small mic mixer that I’ve discovered yet.
You might be better off getting a trio of those small, cheapish Zoom H1s and putting one directly in front of each person on the panel, then use those files in post to even out the discussion audio.
More work, but likely MUCH better results.
My 2 cents.
Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery. -
I’ve had good luck with the iRig Pre..It lets you use any professional mic, dynamic or phantom powered. Using with an iPhone 5 and Rode software for recording separate files. Cheap too!
Not my monkeys. Not my circus.
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Thanks to you both, Bill and Tom, for these responses, and sorry for my very slow reply here. I got sidetracked by other projects, and to be honest this one kind of falls between me and several other departments here. But this issue is definitely still with us. I understand both your points, and I looked at that product link Tom recommended. Just to confirm I assume that wouldn’t work well for panel-type set-ups, with up to five people, right Tom? (or anyone else familiar with that irig pre?) As Bill mentioned, it’s the panel set-ups, which are pretty common here, that are the big challenge.
I also heard from another B&H rep that the following link is another good alternative for set-ups like that.
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1079898-REG/tascam_us_4x4_4_channel_usb_audio.html
Any quick additional thoughts anyone? One thought I had was something like this irig pre and a mic that’s good at capturing a wider area, rather than just what’s right in front of it. Any guidance at all is much appreciated!
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Could you use an iRig Pre with a boundary mic on a table to capture the group discussion?
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