Sound

Zoom R8/R16/R24?

fetzu — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 07:21:14 +0000

I see a lot of people are using Zoom's H1/H4n to pickup sound on their shoots, but I have never seen anyone mention the R8/R16/R24 anywhere. The R16 especially, since it is a not a lot more expensive than the H4n, but has the ability to record up to 8 tracks simultaneously via "phantom powered" XLR inputs and can double-duty as a simple midi mixer on post-production.. has anyone tried it or you think its overkill?

Tascam US-800 as standalone mic preamp with monitoring

Vitaliy_Kiselev — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 22:03:05 +0000

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_trksid=p5197.m570.l1313&_nkw=tascam%20us-800&_sacat=0&_clu=2&_fcid=168&_localstpos&_stpos&gbr=1

Can be pretty useful if you run many 48v powered mikes and need to monitor sound (it has two outputs and form factor is quite good).
You can run it in standalone mode. And even use any cheap digital recorder, as it also output signal in digital.

Diy mic pre-amp

zcream — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 20:43:35 +0000

First a background. I wanted to mic my actors for my film using a lav on each actor and some portable recorder. Some scenes had 5-6 people talking. I first started with iriver ifp recorder with the Giant Squid mics - about 35 bucks per setup. This gave me pre-amp noise as the iriver uses cheap pre-amps. It was recorded as 160kpbs mp3 mono 44.1khz sampling. Then I tried a bunch of used Sony Hi-MD recorders, about 50-75 each. These default to AGC, and I had to buy a MZ-RH1 (M200 actually) in order to transfer the recording using USB2.0 (the older Hi-MDs come with USB1.1). The pre-amps on the older NetMd and MD were crap. Now I have the Tascam DR-05, which fixes all the problems related to pre-amps and gives 96khz sampling. However, it is still too big to carry in a pocket.

I found that the biggest problem for human conversational voice is not sampling (44.1khz vs 48khz) or compression (PCM vs 160kbps mono mp3) but pre-amp noise. Resampling can be done easily via command-line using soX.

I also found the form factor of the iriver ifp series to be most convenient for micing actors.

So I looked around for circuits for a simple battery powered electret mono pre-amp for a iriver ifp. BTW the iriver was found to have very low distortion using the line-in setting. http://bartus.org/akustyk/ifp-899/index.html

I found these DIY battery powered mic pre-amp kits.

http://www.canakit.com/electret-microphone-pre-amp-kit-ck495-uk495.html - 11.95/-

http://www.quasarelectronics.com/preamps-mixers.htm#Mono-Preamplifiers-General-Purpose ~ 10/- each

http://www.vakits.com/product_info.php?cPath=43&products_id=260

Has anyone used these, any comments ?? BTW I am looking for something to be powered from a 9V or a AA battery, a portable device.

Best mikes

Vitaliy_Kiselev — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 06:31:56 +0000

Topic to discuss pricier mikes ($300 and up mostly).

Zoom H4n and Bluetooth Monitoring

jweeke — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 22:31:11 +0000

I'm heading off on a one-man doc trip. Audio is a Zoom with NTG-2 on a miniboom and a wired lav.

I can't afford a wireless setup that compares to the lav I've got, BUT I wonder: possible to add a bluetooth transmitter to the Zoom to monitor through an Android phone and just put the Zoom on the subject's body? That could be a cool setup.

Thoughts?

Olivia and mikes, hadrcore

Shaveblog — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 16:13:26 +0000

..Robert from JuicedLink, for biting his tongue while our hero Olivia schools him that a shotgun mic has "a microphone here (pointing to the solid, non-perforated top of the metal mic body) and there's mics here (points to row of slits on side of mic body) but then this part actually has metal (points to solid side of mic)".

Watch his eyes widen ever so very slightly as they dart to Olivia at 2:32, looking for signs that perhaps she's just kidding. But alas, she's not.

Bravo, sir. Bravo.

pseudo audio monitoring tool for U$1

lolo — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 14:14:20 +0000

looking for something cheapo to monitor the audio, you can go to your local electronic store and buy this adapter:

of course the av out ain´t live, that´s why is a pseudo,
but during playback, at least with the factory settings it works,
with hacked settings a haven´t tested it, but as Vitaliy said on the ptool that the audio avobe 192kbps will not playback in camera, probably this cheapo workaround ain´t going to work (my battery is running low to test this)
hope it helps someone

Listen to seven different mics into a GH2

Sam_Mallery — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 20:05:52 +0000

I just tested out seven different mics into my GH2. I tried to get a cross-sampling of all of the mics out there, from a $35 Audio Technica mic, all the way up to the $1249 Sennheiser MKH 8060. Here's a link to the article & video:

http://www.sam-mallery.com/2011/10/the-great-on-camera-mic-shootout-2011/

Most of the video was shot with the regular GH2 firmware (and the 20mm Lumix G lens), but the very last shot was done with the GH2vk hack, using the cbrandin's 66mb patch. I hope you find it helpful!

Sam

Juicedlink dt454

Ecoleica — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 15:02:21 +0000

Hey all...I just got myself a juicedlink dt454 (its being sent to me now) for my gh1 and I was wondering if anyone could suggest some settings they have used for their GH1 and yes I do realize that a double system would give me better sound quality but Im often shooting by myself and this seemed like the best option for me.

Cheers

The only Zoom H4N bag - PortaBrace

Blackout — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 00:45:32 +0000

Well I spent the ridiculous amount for the portabrace bag for the h4n

It works... but it should be half the price.

FiiO E3 and E5 amplifiers

Vitaliy_Kiselev — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 13:31:16 +0000

Simple way to reduce audio noise/hiss from an external microphone:

Beachtek XLR issue or is it my GH2--HELP!

No_SuRReNDeR — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 18:45:36 +0000

--delete-- fixed

Mic adapter cable for GH2?

jimtreats — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 19:33:14 +0000

I am going to do a bit of a shoot tomorrow and was setting up my gear tonight. For the first time i was testing out my Zoom H1 for use with the GH2. Sadly my adapter cable, standard sized that worked with my Canon 550d doesn't fit the Panasonic GH2. I wondered what this port was. Is it just a standard 2.5mm cable instead? I'd like to find an adapter to let me connect it into the standard mic and line outs that are available.

Sadly I also discovered that my recorder hotshoe mount wont work well with my Zoom H1 as its cheap plastic tripod mount hole just stripped itself as i tried to screw it in, very frustrating!!

Cheers

SuperLux Headphones

Vitaliy_Kiselev — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 20:27:41 +0000

One of my two main headphones.
Model name - Avelvox HD242 (this is Russian brand), widely known as Superlux HD668b.
I'll tell about second phones later.
But this are quite good.
Cheap, quite comfortable (but I wish they had been larger), with good full sound.
Really low price - usually below $60, you can find sometimes for as low as $30.
My only complain is that they lack clarity common for open designs (they are semiopen with much higher isolation).
Primer of review - http://www.headfonia.com/superlux-hd668b/ (you can find plenty of others)

Other models are also not bad.
You can look at slightly cheaper Superlux HD681 also.

http://shop.ebay.com/i.html?_kw=superlux%20headphones&_clu=2&_fcid=168&_localstpos=&_sop=15&_stpos=&gbr=1

Cheap supercardioid mike

Vitaliy_Kiselev — Mon, 09 May 2011 00:34:03 +0000

Supercardioid mikes are not very common.
Powered mikes are even more rare.

Here is interesting Chinese mike ($43 shipped).

http://cgi.ebay.com/HD-DV-Stereo-Microphone-Canon-7D-60D-5D-II-550D-/110668199161?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item19c456b4f9

Manufacturer page : http://www.cn-shanhe.com/en/product_d.asp?id=1042

Juicedlink DS214 Review

Vitaliy_Kiselev — Wed, 18 May 2011 00:48:32 +0000

Made by DSLR FILM NOOB.

Some words and photos also at:
http://www.dslrfilmnoob.com/2011/05/16/juicedlink-ds214-full-review/