Sam Mallery
Forum Replies Created
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I store mine in the cases that they came in. I have Trams, Sanken COS-11, and Audio Technica BP-896 (Countryman B6-like lavs). They call came with little cases, and I use them all. I wrap the lav cable up the same way every time I use them. I basically wrap them the same way they were when they were new.
I take care of them because they were expensive little bastards.
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You can adjust the sensitivity on the Sennheiser EW100 on both the transmitter and the receiver. It sounds like you may have turned down the sensitivity in the receiver, but if the audio is still clipping in the transmitter, it will sound bad (even though the waveform isn’t out of control).
Did you adjust the transmitter as well?
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I doubt that Sony will come out with a PCM-D1-like-thing with XLR inputs anytime soon. Sony makes an XLR adapter for the D1 and the D50 called the XLR-1.
For sound quality, I would expect you would get better sound quality with a Sound Devices 702 and a good stereo microphone. The trouble is that a 702 is $1875, and a good stereo microphone like the Sennheiser MKE-44P is $700. You also need to buy additional wind protection for the mic, a case for the 702, additional batteries, etc.
The PCM-D1 is nice, but if I were spending the money I would get the Sony D50 instead. I don’t think the PCM-D1 has any sonic advantage over the PCM-D1. As far as I know the only difference is the really nice looking VU meters on the D1.
The D50 is more compact, which is good, and the microphones sound great. It’s true, the Sony D1 and the D50 have a lower noise floor than other portable digital recorders (not including Sound Devices’ offerings).
I’d get a D50 and the Sony AD-PCM1 windscreen for nature recording, and a pair of Sony MDR7506 headphones for monitoring. It’s a small kit, and it will kick butt. You can pay a lot more, and get a great sound too, but the results you can get with the D50 will likely be just as good. Plus, since it’s small and all-in-one, you’ll be able to pull it out and start recording quickly, as opposed to having a 702 with an external mic.
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Zak – The lowest I would go for an interface is the Steinberg CI1. It’s $99 and has balanced 1/4″ TRS outputs. It also has 2 XLR inputs with phantom power. Then you can record nice sounding voice overs.
My only question to you is if your rig sounds good to you now, are you really investing in the right gear? If it sounds decent, it seems like you would be better off saving up and buying more accurate studio monitor speakers. Sending your audio out from the mixing board and into a consumer stereo receiver may be your weakest link.
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🙂 Thanks for the link & pull quotes, George!
It’s good to hear that there is impedance matching going on there, but it’s still hard to make equipment suggestions for such a bare bones broadcasting rig. I mean, if they specifically matched the impedance in that cable for the Sennheiser MD46, it sounds like you’re better off not seeking second opinions and just buying exactly what they tell you to buy.
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It’s kind of hard to suggest hardware for such a new technology like this. The whole operation you’re putting together is solely dependent on a consumer mobile phone, so outfitting it with pro audio gear is kind of sketchy.
A microphone’s three-pin XLR output has a different impedance than a 3.5mm mini-plug jack. An impedance transformer is needed to correct the signal flow between these two connections, and I didn’t get the impression that the Y-cable you’re looking at has this. Also, it’s going to be cumbersome for the journalist to have a 15 foot cable between their headphones and mic and the iPhone. That cable shouldn’t be longer than 6 feet tops.
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Don’t use a Y-cable to plug two microphones into a single stereo mini-plug input. 99% of the time this results in unusable sound quality.
The cheapest way to plug two mini-plug microphones into a single mini-plug input is with the Azden CAM-3 (it sells for around $45):
https://www.azdencorp.com/new/product.php?productid=93302&cat=0&page=1
This tiny plastic mixer will actually allow you to plug up to 3 mics into your mini-plug input. You must keep in mind that this is the hand’s down cheapest way to do this, and you get what you pay for. The better way to do this is with a Camcorder XLR Adapter box (such as a Beachtek or a juicedLink). I’ll explain this later in the post.
In keeping with the theme of doing everything as cheaply as possible, if you decide to go with the CAM-3, the cheapest wireless lavs that I would recommend are the Audio Technica Pro 88W systems. You would need to buy two of these (they sell for around $150 each):
https://www.audio-technica.com/cms/wls_systems/f706c310ed826ec4/index.html
Each of your on-camera subjects would wear a clip-on mic and a transmitter beltpack. You need to mount the two Audio Technica wireless receivers and the CAM-3 mixer on your camera. You need to plug headphones into the headphone output of your camera to make sure everything sounds right when you’re shooting.
If you want to do this right, you should get a Beachtek or a juicedLink box. These boxes mount to the base of your camera and have a little wire that plugs into the mini-plug input on your camera. The box has two XLR inputs for better quality mics.
A much better pair of wireless systems to buy would be Sennheiser ew 112-p G3 (they sell for around $600 each):
https://www.sennheiserusa.com/professional_wireless-microphone-systems_broadcast-eng-film_ew-100-g3_503107Again, you would need to buy two of those systems.
If you can’t afford the Sennheisers and you want to go with the Audio Technica Pro 88W systems and a Beachtek or juicedLink box, then you should get special XLR output cables for the Pro 88W. This way you can plug into the Beachtek with XLR connectors. The speical cables you need to do this are Audio Technica CP8306 Adapter Cables. They sell for around $15 each.
And of course, if you hire an expereinced location sound person, you won’t have to buy any of this stuff or even have to think about audio when you do your shoots.
Every night I wish I could hire an experienced French chef to cook me dinner.
If you can’t afford to hire a pro, then you need to invest in this equipment to do what you want to do. If you go this route, you need to practice a lot with this equipment to get used to using it. Once you are comfortable with the gear, then you can start doing your shoots. Never get too comfortable with audio gear. You need to constantly monitor it with headphones during the shoot to make sure it sounds good.
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Typically when you connect a professional microphone with XLR outputs to a 3.5mm mini-plug input, you’re not going to get very good results. 3-pin XLR’s have a different impedance than mini-plugs. You may get better results with the ME66 if you use an impedance transformer like the Hosa MIT-156:
https://www.hosatech.com/product/0/MIT-156/_/Impedance_Transformer%2C_XLR3F_to_3.5_mm_TRS%2C_18_in
If you go this route, make sure you’re using the ME66 with a battery, and that you plug it into the external mic input, not the line input.
The Sennheiser 44p is a stereo mic with two XLR outputs. You definitely want a recorder with two XLR inputs for that mic. A good choice for a recorder would have been the Zoom H4n. It has 2 XLR inputs.
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Some consumer microphones require a little charge from the microphone input. It’s the consumer version of phantom power, except in the consumer world you never concern yourself with turning it on and off. It’s called “Plug In Power.” I assume that the Sony microphone you have requires plug in power, and that the H2 does not supply it. That’s too bad because Sony makes a decent consumer lav called the ECM-CS10 that would solve your problem.
Buying that Lectrosonics lav microphone is a bad idea. Any professional microphone that’s designed to be plugged into a wireless transmitter typically will not be compatible with consumer microphone inputs. Lectrosonic lavalier microphones aren’t very great sounding anyhow. They make some of the best wireless systems, however the lav microphones themselves are not the best. 99.9% of people who own Lectrosonics wireless systems use third party microphones like Sanken and Countryman.
I wouldn’t be comfortable putting that Audio Technica mic on a groom. It looks cheap and unreliable. You could get the Sony ECM-719. It’s a Sony stereo “lav” that runs on a battery, however, it’s a little too bulky and amateur looking for doing weddings.
I think your best bet is to get a different portable digital recorder. You need one with a mini-plug microphone input that supplies plug in power. Unfortunately, that’s not a spec that comes up very often, and I don’t know which models do and do not have it. However, I’d be willing to bet a box of fresh donuts that the Sony PCM-M10 does. Get one of those, and get the Sony ECM-CS10 lavalier to go with it and you’ll be golden. The two of those together will cost you $240, but you’ll be able to mic your groom with confidence.
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The 8020’s lack bass. If you’re primarily working on video, you want to be able to hear the sub frequencies because you pick up a lot of low end noise in video, and it’s good to know when you need to cut it, and when you don’t. For video work I’d rather use the 6010 system with a sub than the 8020’s without.
Also, M-Audio stuff is decent, but pretty low on my list of manufacturers that I’m excited about. People pay more for Apogee for the sound quality. You can call it smoke and mirrors designed to get “hipsters” to open their wallets, but I’ve heard good things about the Duet from enough qualified audio people to know otherwise. But then again, I don’t think this poster needs to spend money on an interface. That money would be better spent on his future Mac Pro.
Every Mac I’ve ever owned has had a great sounding audio output. It’s not uncommon for professional DJ’s to plug directly into a system with the headphone output on their MacBooks. Sure, it’s not optimal, but it works just fine. I just bought a new MBP and the output sounds great.