Rode with H4?

[Leo Salazar]

Hello to all

I am very new to sound recording but shooting nature videos in the field.. sounds kinda make you think you want to record them as well.

I purchased a H4 and am very happy with it so far, doubt this will change.

I have some mics I use on my Pana, and would like to ask is there is anyway I can use my Rode Video Mic with the H4..?

Any help will be much appreciated.

Leo
www.leosalazar.com

[Steve House]

Originally Posted by Leo Salazar

Hello to all

I am very new to sound recording but shooting nature videos in the field.. sounds kinda make you think you want to record them as well.

I purchased a H4 and am very happy with it so far, doubt this will change.

I have some mics I use on my Pana, and would like to ask is there is anyway I can use my Rode Video Mic with the H4..?

Any help will be much appreciated.

Leo
www.leosalazar.com

The Rode mic is an unbalanced mono output sent to a stereo mini-TRS plug. The plug's ring and tip are shorted together so it will send signal to both the left and right channels when plugged into a stereo mic input on a camcorder.

A quick look over the H4 manual online suggests the easiest way to use the Videomic with it is to get the minplug-to-XLR adapter (~$20) that Rode makes specifically for plugging the mic into a mono XLR input and just plug it into one of the H4's external mic inputs. You could get fancy and build a Y-cable to split the signal to both inputs on the H4 but it's probably not worth the bother as you can duplicate the track easily enough or pan it to both L & R channels in post. Note that a mini TRS to mono 1/4" TS adapter probably WON'T work well because the phone jack part of the 'combo' input on the H4 expects line level such as from a guitar, not mic level, signals.