Out of the blue today during a very long shoot I started getting a major league buzzing from my external Mic. This has happened a couple of times before but it stopped pretty quickly and I though it was just some weird interference. Now it has come back with a vengeance.

Here's the set up. I have a Beachtek DXA 6VU jacked into the mic input. The left channel was my wireless (Sennheiser) through the XLR. The right was my external mounted Sennheiser MKE 300 minijacked into the Beachtek (right). Hey this is what the client wanted...lav'd and ambient sound for a Q&A frm the audience. After about 20 minutes of taping the right channel with the external MKE 300 started major league buzzing. The left channel with the Sennheiser Wireless was fine.

It died out after a bit. My next set up was just using the MKE 300 through the Beachtek. Immediate buzzing. I pulled it out of the Beachtek and ran it directly into the mic jack. Still more buzzing. I finally had to go to the built in mic...which ain't great. any time I try the external MKE 300 minijacked in I get this buzzing!!!

Anybody have any suggestions. I have to do more shooting tomorrow!!!. Is it the MKE 300. Should I get an XLR output external Mic and run it through the Beachtek. Do I have a bad mic minijack? Any ideas...this is killing me.

The VX2100 is about 16 months old. Not overused to be sure. If it's a new mic...fine I'll get one. If I have a bad mic jac how the heck do I get that fixed?

MP

Test out your camera's mike jack by using a stereo mike with a miniplug directly connected and see how both channels come through. Try another mono miniplug mike, replacing the MKE300 on the XLR adaptor, along with the XLR wireless and see what happens. Also, when you plugged-in the MKE300 directly, did the buzzing come on both camera channels? Does the MKE300 still buzz, away from this location? The intermittent buzzing makes me wonder if there wasn't some interference in that place, that didn't affect the wireless mike. There have been some problems with the MKE300 on camcorders like the VX2100 and I believe it was due to having too high an output level and needing to be attenuated, but someone else may be able to describe that better. I've had a few mikes that performed well in most places, but caught bad interference in just a couple of spots around town.

Clients sometimes need to have their specific equipment requests overridden, by those making the videos and who likely know more about what's best.