Advice needed on external microphones

[Paul L]

Can anyone give some advice on where to buy external microphones (either handheld or lapel mikes) and associated dat recorders?

Cheers all

Paul

[BillBXD]

It would help if you said what the final out put was for?

Audio Video?

Audio Media?




Bill (BXD)

[Paul L]

Sorry, should have been more clear. Currently we shoot for the web only using Canon XM2 cameras. We do use the the additional Canon directional mike on the cameras, but these do not cut out all the background and wind noise, so ideally am looking for a wireless external mike that I believe will record to a DAT recorder.

Hope this makes sense?

Any suggestions.

Cheers

Paul

[BillBXD]

If you just want to reduce hiss why not use your 2/3.5mm mic input?

Maplins do an XLR to 2/3.5mm adapter so then you could use studio full range balanced mic's and capture it all.

You could even use a multi channel mixer with EQ and mix away the hiss with multiple balanced mic's.

Of course 2/3.5mm inputs aint perfect but you'll get far better sound with balanced mics


Bill (BXD)

[SexReel]

Audiotechnica is a very good one for an external shot gun. I have done a research, trying to buy one for myself. Results are here.

Best mics (my choice!)
with phantom AT4073A
without phantom AT897
lavalier AT899/AT831B (also senheiser)

There is a cheaper version available. I have a ATM 33A mic, which is a "two person!" microphone (it's slightly wider then a normal shotgun but does cut out the noise at your back).

The DAT recorder is good for audio nuts. However, if you use an external mic with Canon you will be able to hear the difference straight away - Canon is very low on mic quality, yet DAT might come as unnecessary.

[ecucamman]

If your still looking, my advice would be to try your local music equipment store, they should have a selection of mics suitable for voice and/or instruments. My local dealer let me bring the camcorder in and try the options

You may also find they do a cheap range of stands etc too

[kiNky erOtica]

If you're in london goto TinPan Ally off Charring X road, music city from pro Musicians.
TurnKey Shop in Charring Cross Road (probably more mike choice than people named Mike!)
If I read you question right, You'll also need to be able sync the DAT to your Cam or you could run into timimg problems, that would be a nightmare to sort out if you cannot sync.

I have a Tascam DA20 MKII dat, there's only digital inputs on that... Bloody good DAT though! I also Hav a Casio Mini DAT that FUCKS UP recordings every now and then LOL!

[Steven]

DAT is all but dead these days. MiniDisc has advanced to the point where it meets the quality of DAT but provides much better editability.
I, like most pro video producers these days I guess, use a DENON DN-M1050R MiniDisc recorder, for which you can get a timecode card installed to sync it up with your video productions.

In the main though, its unnecessary and expensive to record the audio on a seperate recorder. There is nothing wrong with that quality of the audio that the Canon XM2 is CAPABLE of recording when a decent mic is plugged into it. In fact the XM2 is very good for audio, as it has manual level adjustments, unlike the XM1 that I still use.

If you want to attach 2 pro XLR mics, or a tie-clip mic, I recommend a wonderful adaptor (with individual level controls) from http://www.signvideo.com
You can record each of 2 mics seperately in the left and right channel, then edit them individually in the editing software, cutting unwanted sound from one while leaving the other there, or adjusting the levels individually, then simply do a mono mix when you render.

[kiNky erOtica]

[quote]DAT is all but dead these days. MiniDisc has advanced to the point where it meets the quality of DAT[/quote]
Never in a million years will Mini disk exceed the quality of dat - I have 2 dats and a minidisc - anything that is compressed - or as in Minidisk - "masking" - is inferior quality to uncompressed digital or the DAT.

As for editing, I can edit from my dat directly into PC via Optical into soundforge and edit perfectly and straight back onto dat.
Try finding a mini disk that will record at 96khz...
the only true format in the recording world that is dead is ADAT cos everyone moved onto HD recording. Hence my rack of ADAT Tapes were ripped via Cubase SX to CD sometime back.

[Steven]

gital Audio Tape is better, but how much better? As long as we are not discussing the audio fidelity standards of someone who will happily spend several hundred dollars on a set of cables, I think the quality differences between modern MD equipment and DAT are vanishingly small. MiniDisc sound quality is already excellent, and the compression algorithm is apparently being improved further still. There are now even cases where MD quality can be said to exceed 16 bit linear PCM (it has higher potential dynamic range).

http://www.minidisc.org/mj_ja3es.html#mdquality