[Richard Crowley]

I’m sure Mr. Nemeth is a nice guy and all, but I have never understood the fascination with Giant Squid microphones? Why would anyone pay $40 for a $1 mic capsule and a bit of plastic, wire, and plug? And in the quantities he is buying capsules, probably more like 40 cents each. And he must be using solid gold capacitors in that battery box to get $75 for it. But if he can get those kind of prices, good for him at least.

To be sure, Mr. Nemeth is not a professional manufacturer or vendor of audio gear, and he likely sells mostly to the “taper” crowd which is well aware of the power requirements for electret capsules.

The circuit for a battery box is extraordinarily simple, and there are likely several “how-to” videos on Instructables, etc.

Nobody here is suggesting that you spend “lots of money”. Rather the opposite we are trying to get you there on a shoestring budget.

I made the assumption that you had got your symptoms wrong. I assumed that the GS microphone IS working on the Zoom H2n, and it is NOT working on your DSLR. If that is incorrect, then we have a major mystery on our hands.

[Richard Crowley]

@Jason, I am assuming that Dane had it backwards because the H2n explicitly DOES provide plug-in power for the GS microphone, and the camcorder apparently does not. If this was an incorrect assumption, Dane didn’t correct it.

[Richard Crowley]

ALL electret microphones require power. That includes all GiantSquid products. They will not operate without it. The GS people apparently just assume that everyone knows that.

The Zoom H2n provides “plug-in power” to the 3.5mm microphone input. That is why the GS microphone works with the H2n.

From searching the D5300 manual for the word “power” there is no apparent indication that the D5300 provides “plug-in power” for the microphone input. This is rather to be expected from a DSLR. They were never designed to be video cameras, and they don’t play well in that area. Most DSLRs have really lousy audio performance and serious shooters use DSLR audio only to sync the video to the GOOD audio recording from the separate recorder.

GS make a “battery box” for an insanely inflated price. For whatever that is worth.

[Richard Crowley]

There are two sets of outputs from the SD302. Clearly, there are the L/R pair of XLR outputs which can be set for mic-level or line-level. One option is to take the XLR outputs, and SPLIT them to send L and R to both the camera and to the recorder.

The other option is to get/make a cable that takes the SD302 “MIX OUT” (3-pin Lemo). Then you can use the XLR outputs to the camera, and the 3-pin Lemo output to the recorder (or vice-versa).

[Richard Crowley]

If you had revealed what your “nice new laptop” is, we would know what options you might have.
It seems quite possible that you have simply painted yourself into a corner and you need to to replace your Presonus with something that has a modern interface. Firewire is all but dead. Which is why likely no modern laptop computers have Firewire anymore. Firewire is antique technology, replaced by USB3, Thunderbolt, etc. And of course USB3 and Thunderbolt will be antique in a few years, also. For better or worse, that is called “progress”.

[Richard Crowley]

Sounds like RF propagation/interference problems to me. The receiver is operating at the bottom limit of what it can extract from the transmitted signal. When it dips below the threshold, you get that characteristic noise.

You did not mention what frequency band you are using (or where you are)? There are certain locations and frequency bands that are notorious “RF Hell” Does the kit exhibit the same symtoms in a different location? At a different time? At a closer distance?

Assuming you have the antennas deployed properly (transmitter antenna is not folded over or against the skin, etc. Are you using the minimum distance you can get away with? Wireless mics are not magic. They are subject to the same (or even) worse interference as anything else.

That does NOT sound like cell phone noise to me. If you have ever heard it, there is no mistaking the Brrrrrr–Brrrrrrr–Brrrrrrr distinct digital noise.

[Richard Crowley]

Well, the most likely cause may be power.
But that is a wild guess because we don’t know:
What camera? What shotgun mic?
Assuming 3.5mm plug? XLR adapter?

[Richard Crowley]

There is nothing to indicate that the audio recording performance of your Canon c100 camcorder is any better than the H4n. Its only advantage being that it is automatically synced and integrated with the video recording.

Sure, using the H4n as a backup to the c100 (or vice-versa) is not a bad ideal. It just needs the appropriate cables to connect everything properly.

[Richard Crowley]

So are you SURE that you turned on the phantom power properly? Is your mic cable broken? That combination is not noted for working well, but it is also not known for being non-functional.

[Richard Crowley]

The Edirol R-44 is nice. I have one. It would do a good job recording the production, but there is one caveat you should consider. It is rather “old school” in that it uses a CF card (or internal hard drive which must be downloaded via USB). CF is rather an old medium and I would not want to commit to that if there are more convenient options.

For example, the new Zoom H-6 records to SDHC cards which are available everywhere and an order of magnitude cheaper than equivalent CF. I have used it for a couple of broadcast TV series and it performs quite well.

The show is 4 guys sitting around a table for 13 one-hour episodes. We used Countryman lav mics hidden in the guys’ shirt collars. Because the table was so small (~1m square) we get a lot of leakage between the mics which is problematic in post mixdown. https://vimeo.com/70030114

My choice would be to have them use headset mics. That would keep the mics in optimal position no matter whicn direction they are looking. Especially if they have no previous experience on-mic. Consider something like the Audio-Technica BPHS1.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003D87JI2