[Bobby Hall]

I’m using an old Sony Vaio laptop. It’s not very fast and playback stutters frequently when I’m watching something in the timeline. I thought maybe it had to do with the files being h.264. I’ll check out that link you gave. Thanks!

[Bobby Hall]

I meant that the noise I was hearing (hiss, motor) was when I just used the internal mics on the camera. With the zoom it sounded fine.

[Bobby Hall]

I’m not sure what you mean by my misuse of the Zoom. I was explaining the process that I used to record pretty good audio from the Zoom into my T3i. It worked for me, so I don’t know how I’m misusing it.

I was just looking to get a mic in addition to having the Zoom, and was asking about two different mics I was interested in.

[Bobby Hall]

That’s a good review, but he didn’t review the VideoMic Pro, just the standard VideoMic compared with the Audio-Technica. Between those two I’d choose the Audio-Technica, but since the VideoMic Pro has the +20 dB feature, I think I’m going to get that mic. I’ve been watching some other reviews about using the VideoMic Pro with a DSLR, and most people talk about the hiss you can hear using the camera’s internal mic. And to reduce the hiss, you reduce the camera’s audio to just 4 or 5 clicks from the lowest setting and then always use the +20dB on the Rode. This sounds like a safe bet for what I’m doing. The AT is attractive because it’s smaller, has the option to record in stereo, and takes a double A battery, whereas the Rode takes a 9 volt. But that +20dB is what sells it for me!

[Bobby Hall]

Thanks for the Advice Al. I might be thinking about this the wrong way. When I first got my Zoom, I watched some tutorials about using it with a Canon T3i (the camera that I have), and most people were saying to turn the audio way down on the camera and up on the Zoom, and you’ll get better quality. Maybe this is different from how a mic works. Or maybe the obsession with turning the camera’s audio way down is unwarranted. I’m still debating whether to get the Rode or the Audio-Technica because I like that the Audio-Technica has the ability to record in both mono and stereo. I might just get the Rode though, because the +20 dB boost seems very attractive. Thanks again for the advice!

[Bobby Hall]

I’m not experiencing a “too loud” condition on the camera. The reason I turn it way down, just a few clicks away from the off position, is because DSLRs don’t record sound well by themselves. You can even hear the motor sometimes. So I turn it all the way down, and to compensate for that, I boost up the recording level on the Zoom. When I do that, I can monitor the levels on my camera because I have the Zoom plugged into my camera. I know people say don’t record audio directly into the camera, but I’m just making videos for youtube and it sounds fine for what I’m doing.

But I also want to get a mic to use instead of the Zoom sometimes. And I don’t know if it works similarly to the Zoom, where it’s better to turn the camera’s audio almost all the way down, and then boost up the levels on the mic, if possible. Since the Rode has a +20dB boost, I thought that would produce similar results as the Zoom.

But if I use the Audio-Technica, will it sound good if I turn my camera’s audio down a lot? Does the mic record at its own default volume? It has -20, -10, and 0. So I was wondering if I set it to 0 and lower my camera’s audio a lot, will it still be loud enough? I don’t want to have to turn my camera’s audio up too much.

[Bobby Hall]

Right now I’ve been using a Zoom H4n with my DSLR and in order to get good sound I have to lower the camera’s built-in audio to almost the lowest possible setting since DSLRs don’t record audio well, and increase the recording level of the Zoom. This gives pretty good quality.

Since I’d like to get a mic too, I was thinking of the Rode’s +20dB boost as being similar to increasing the volume on the Zoom. So that i could lower the camera’s audio significantly and rely on the increased recording volume of the Rode, since it records sound better.

I was just wondering if the Audio-Technica’s recording level was loud enough so that I’d be able to lower the camera’s audio.

[Bobby Hall]

Al, do you have a DSLR? And if so, when you use your Rode with it how low are you able to set the camera’s built-in audio and still have the sound loud enough? And do you find it necessary to use the +20 dB boost?

[Bobby Hall]

I’m just shooting silly videos for youtube. I don’t necessarily need professional quality. I’ve been using a Zoom H4n mounted on the camera and the audio sounded fine to me. Most of my videos will have dialogue and the camera will be close to the subjects. I just wanted to also get a microphone to use too. And I was wondering if the Rode mic’s +20 dB feature would make it a better choice than the Audio-Technica. Or is it possible that the 0 dB level on the Audio-Technica is loud enough to let me lower the camera’s built-in audio quite a bit?

[Bobby Hall]

I have 7.0.3.