[Ty Ford]

Ty,

That particular box reminds me of a Rubics Cube. Lots of buttons and menus.

Don’t be too hard on yourself. It has caused more than one person to scratch their head and utter, “WTF?”

Regards,

Ty Ford
Cow Audio Forum Leader

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[Ty Ford]

Hello Ty and welcome to the Cow Audio Forum.

Yes, it should be possible to have a two channel stereo file.

Page 50 of the manual confirms that two channel recording is possible.

Does that make two separate files?

Regards,

Ty Ford
Cow Audio Forum Leader

Want better production audio?: Ty Ford’s Audio Bootcamp Field Guide
Ty Ford Blog: Ty Ford’s Blog

[Ty Ford]

Hello Tom and welcome to the Cow Audio Forum.

“a mic to sit atop an automated video cart” Sounds odd. Can you please explain more?

With 8 people standing around a hospital bed speaking extemporaneously, I’d figure on two people booming with supercardioids.

Regards,

Ty Ford
Cow Audio Forum Leader

Want better production audio?: Ty Ford’s Audio Bootcamp Field Guide
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[Ty Ford]

Kirk,

Thanks for the clarification.

My Sennheiser G3 receivers came with 1/8″ to XLR cables.

Yours didn’t?

Regards,

Ty Ford
Cow Audio Forum Leader

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[Ty Ford]

Hello Kirk and welcome to the Cow Audio Forum.

“I’m investigating adapters to convert various mono mic sources (including both Rode and Sennheiser) from 1/8 TRS to XLR.”

If you’re ready for a “real mic’, I would think you’d be better served by buying an appropriately made mic with an XLR connector rather than trying to McGyver a 1/8” (probably) unbalanced mic connector hardwired to a “DSLR Mic” mic to an XLR connector.

The difference between the cheap DSLR mics and a real mic can be quite audible.

Regards,

Ty Ford
Cow Audio Forum Leader

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[Ty Ford]

Hello Nathan,

two solutions:

Give your boom op a Sound Devices MM-1.

https://www.sounddevices.com/products/portable-audio-tools/mm-1

Connect your favorite transmitter to the output of the MM-1.

The responsibility to make sure the audio makes the trip then falls on the Camera Op, who must ALWAYS listen with headphones to confirm there are no dropouts.

Or Get a Zaxcom TRX 742 plugon transmitter that records right at the transmitter. If the RF link fails, it doesn’t matter.

Regards,

Ty Ford
Cow Audio Forum Leader

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[Ty Ford]

Hello Sophia and welcome to the Cow Audio Forum.

Podcast audio quality is always a challenge. The irig gear can work.
I haven’t used any, but were I to, I’d probably get this one:
https://www.ikmultimedia.com/products/irigpre/

Allowing me to use any mic I want. On the street, an ElectroVoice RE50 is the gold standard.

If you are doing on the street interviews where you need both sides of the interview, you should use an omni directional mic and move it decisively back and forth. A cardioid pattern mic will hear less noise but you’ll probably lose parts of the conversation unless you’re REALLY good with moving the mic, or unless you don’t need the interviewer portion.

I’m not thrilled by the idea of recording on smart phones unless you have a set of headphones on to make sure your mic placement is correct and that you actually hit the record button. ALso 24-bit wav files are best for noise reduction back in the studio. That eats up smartphone storage pretty quickly.

So you’re hoping that light weight consumer phone gear will work for you. Maybe. Maybe for a while until the daily wear and tear makes the jacks and plug not connect properly.

Please let us know what you choose and how happy you are with that.

Regards,

Ty Ford
Cow Audio Forum Leader

Want better production audio?: Ty Ford’s Audio Bootcamp Field Guide
Ty Ford Blog: Ty Ford’s Blog

[Ty Ford]

Ray,

as long as the camera is quiet and has a quality preamp, yes. DSLRs, in general, are not known for their audio fidelity and low noise.

Regards,

Ty Ford
Cow Audio Forum Leader

Want better production audio?: Ty Ford’s Audio Bootcamp Field Guide
Ty Ford Blog: Ty Ford’s Blog

[Ty Ford]

Hello Ray and welcome to the Cow Audio Forum.

Brian and Richard have given you solid gold advice (thanks guys!)

Regards,

Ty Ford
Cow Audio Forum Leader

Want better production audio?: Ty Ford’s Audio Bootcamp Field Guide
Ty Ford Blog: Ty Ford’s Blog

[Ty Ford]

Hello Clyde and welcome to the Cow Audio Forum.

Size does matter, but not in the way discussed here so far.

Larger diaphragms move more than smaller diaphragms. In doing so, they generate more voltage; more signal. As a result, you don’t need as much gain to get a usable signal. Smaller diaphragms suffer from increased self-noise simply because they aren’t big enough to generate the same voltage of larger diaphragmed mics.

Best thing you can do is try another lav and see. Everything folks have said before this are true. Azden is not known for their quality of sound. The best wireless lav system I’ve every heard is the Audio Ltd. 2040. At $5000.00 a set, it better be. Here’s a link to a voice and a music track I recorded with the 2040 back in 2007 while the 2040 was here for review.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/0pjmdcb8u2wcc1t/AAClMu-UvyUa-AndWPLI_p_fa?dl=0

As mentioned, wide frequency response is not always your friend. I found that my countryman mics, combined with Audio Technica U100 wireless resulted in some problems. WHen I was in an environment with low frequency ambient noise, that noise would modulate the compander and I could hear that.

I had some lectrosonics here and compared them to the Audio Technica U100. I clipped both lavs on my chest and without looking at meters, adjusted levels to be even in each ear. Each mic was panned to a separate ear. After I got them “balanced” I looked at the meters. The Lectro level was about 4-6 dB below the Audio Technica.

I think Lectro was using an approach similar to that used by AM radio engineers; cut the low and highs and compress or limit the remaining signal a bit. In doing so, you get a track that is more persistent, even though it’s lower.

Then too, mounting any lav has a dramatic effect on how it sounds due to body resonance.

Hope this helps,

Ty Ford
Cow Audio Forum Leader

Want better production audio?: Ty Ford’s Audio Bootcamp Field Guide
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