[William Witsell]

Oh, nice one Mark. Thanks, I’ll check it out.

Jon

[William Witsell]

Micon, so almost everything. I have 3.5mm TRS and 3.5mm TRS with Sennheiser lock ring. Would get two micon XLR if I go the 661 route.

William

[William Witsell]

I asked Rode about that, and they said it wasn’t a good idea. Not enough juice in the Plug-in Power port. And, I’m still back to not being able to control each lav independently. However, I’m going by DVeStore today and I’m going to get one to try out anyway!

[William Witsell]

Umm, how does that get me a track for each of two lavs? I’m back to the same issue with the LS-11: a single 3.5mm stereo mic input. Also, the menu system on the Olympus makes the Sony look pretty bad. Even worse, the Sony takes proprietary memory sticks. I gave up on Sony products a long time ago for that very reason. My camera, recorder, and laptop all take SD, so I’m sticking with that.

It looks like my best options are the Tascam DR100 or the Marantz 661. Anyone that has used either of these care to comment on them?

[William Witsell]

Hey Ty,

That’s what I figured–not much use if two interviewees speak at different volumes.

The LS-11 is a recorder from Olympus. I really like it, good sound (not from the ext. mics), plenty of built in RAM, dedicated mono recording feature, etc., etc. Here is a review:

https://www.wingfieldaudio.com/portable-recorder-reviews.html

I think you must mean the H4n? I don’t think the H2 has two inputs. It’s cheap, but I really want something with an physical dial for adjusting levels–I don’t want to go into a menu for levels when things get hectic. And, I’m really trying to buy the best gear I can afford. So, I’m looking at either the Tascam DR100 or the Marantz PMD661. Have any experience with either of these? I’d love Sound Devices, but I think that’s overkill for web use. And the Tascam/Marantz are more budget friendly.

William

[William Witsell]

Hi Ty,

Thanks for the pointers! Been working with optics and cameras for over 20 years, but audio is a bit new to me. But, I’m really enjoying it and wishing I had learned more earlier.

Another question: I have a set of Giant Squid mics from an old podcasting project–it’s two lavs wired to one 3.5mm TRS, one lav on R and one on L. Is there a reason why you don’t see higher end lavs wired like this? Is it just because you can’t adjust levels independently? Until I get a 2/3 channel recorder, I might play with this a bit.

And, I would love to hire a sound engineer. However, these are interviews on a blog I’m building on my own–and the lighting guy, the camera guy, and the audio guy are all me. And, the entire kit fits in my backpack–when I’m going through checkpoints in Cambodia and Laos, the option of hiring a sound engineer is not realistic. Each piece of gear either has to be indispensable, or serve multiple purposes. I just need to learn how to get solid audio in a variety of locales–I’m not talking they kind of audio you guys deal with for cine/tv, but audio that is very good for web use. Right now the Rode Lav > G3 wireless > LS-11 works wonders for my application (and is light/small enough for a handheld rig). I just need to expand to handle two lavs–a single track recorder is not enough. I just got a Sennheiser MD46 so I can be on camera and interview one or two people. Juggling things, juggling things.

Thanks for taking the time, and any other suggestions I’d really welcome!

Willian