MA300 XLR microphone adapter

[Graham Bernard]

Apologies Alan - I did a search for my post - huh! Getting pre-senile here. I couldn't find it . .

And yes, the other screws work loose and are THE screws that keep the forward<>backward torque being transferred to the foot. These loosen up and the whole rig starts getting drunk and putting even more uneeded "whiplash" on the "del;icate" foot. I did "lose" a screw - yeah yeah yeah . . it's been said before! - and had to "locate" another from a specialist screw firm about 0.5 k from me so no problem. Oh, when I DID a "clean-out" of my KATA bag the little begger appeared! HAH!

Grazie

[Chris Hurd]

Keep an eye out for the little jeweler's screwdrivers; I found one at a drugstore one day in a neat little travel kit; cost about a dollar... a disposable item... no reason not to have two or three or more, for your kit, your studio, your junk drawer, whatever.

[Graham Bernard]

Chris - U R sooo rite!

I bought a group of them ranging from 1mm face to a MASSIVE 3mm . . cost back in 1974 - can't remember! I have them in my "Emergency" 50p zipped baglette.

Buy 'em forget 'em . .or rather REMEMBER where you put 'em !

Grazie

[Alan McCormick]

I dug a smally philips watchmaker out this morning and it is now in my Cam bag already.

[Pietro Jona]

Hi all, excuse me if this has already been asked but I couldn't find an satisfying answer to this.
The MA300 XLR adapter is not balanced, so why should i use it?
Why not just using a XLR to mini jack cable? With a stereo mini jack I could even record the signal coming from my ME66 into two different channels at different levels, as it has been suggested many times in this forum.
Actually I already have an MA300 but don't feel comfortable at all using my XM2with it: it makes the whole setup very fragile..
Thanks for any imput
pietro

[Darko Flajpan]

"The MA300 XLR adapter is not balanced, so why should i use it?"

It's cool lookin' :-)

I bought MA300 for my cam and were quite unhappy with all you mentioned, especially with longer cable runs. So I bought Beachtek DXA6 and looked "not so cool" but had everything I wanted including 48V phantom power. I still sometimes use MA300 for holding on-camera mic, but like you said it's VERY fragile. So that's what i got for 300 Euros - mic holder.

[Graham Bernard]

Now, let's see . . £170 off the "total" budget? Also, at the time I was starting out, I understood I could "adjust" each channel independently - yes, not GAIN - but I could adjust, and THIS was a big boon over the next camera step-up. And at the time there weren't any XLRs-in for the type of money I could afford. I put the "saved", £170, money towards my Senni K6M66.

Canon were clever/cute in "providing" me with an XLR-in option. Then as a Rookie, this really impressed me. Honestly! I didn't have to understand a lot to realise I could just buy this thing and plug in my Senni.

What would I do now? Do what I'm doing: Holding out for a Canon HD which could have XLRs as part of the body.

In the meantime I had/have used and got myself up and running with the MA300; use it on my DV RigPro to share Video via the BNC to a monitor; it takes balanced audio from my mixing desk; clamp 2 mics atop or/and use my PagLight with all this.

It is scary sitting on top, and yes it scares me still - but I HAVE and DID get going with making video and getting more than average audio into my miniDV tape.

Hindsight? I wrote the book .. . BUT I've never read it!

Best regards,

Grazie

[Pietro Jona]

Grazie, I was waiting for you!
I'll keep on using th MA300 because it is anyway the only mic holder that I can use on my XM2 -without buying another one. I managed to have a Y cable to split the signal into two channels and to record them at different levels, and bought a headphone set to monitor what's picked up by the ME66. No matter the fact that the MA300 it's not balanced, I'll use it as a camera mic or mounted on a boom with a five meter cable -a bit long but where I'll be shooting there are no radios-electric lines-cell phones.. Himalayas!
By the way Grazie, did you say that you always keep the in-camera mic attenuator on when using the ME66? At first I thought that the attenuator was cutting too many DBs compelling me to keep the volumes very high, nearly 12 o'clock, now I don't know.. The guy who made the cable for me says that splitting the signal might make it a bit stronger. ???
I'l set the mic ATT as a custom key and see what happens from time to time.
Thanks, and thell me about the mic ATT!

[Graham Bernard]

Hiyah! - yeah . . throw out a piece of bait and just reeeeeelllll me back in! - Hey it was when I was starting out - yeah? - Things were different then! Kipper Ties; Flares; hipsters, dodgy haircuts and paisley . .. yeah, I am that old . . . seesh! - Ok ok ok ok it wasn't the '60s - it WAS Nov 02.

The Mic att? - Well, I once got well burnt by a dreadful live PA of a Gospel choir - I applied MIC att during this and on following "gigs" and will only release it when I feel safe. The M66 is quite "hot" and I could have a vasectomy executed on its .. er . .sensitivity - but it would be £25 and I think only in one direction. Sooooo... I've taken the position to MIC ATT what I do. However, I do have an inline ATT that I could substitute when I need.

The other "fiddle" I do is to go manual OR auto audio - this depends on the variation of the audio levels I need to contend with. Manual gets you more MORE often. Turing the dials back and forth in a variable sound mix environment is bothersome. If I'm in a "fixed" environment then I'll go manual.

Any good this?

Grazie

[Pietro Jona]

"Manual gets you more MORE often"
????
Italian speaking here.. What do you mean?

[Graham Bernard]

Switching from Automatic to Manual AUDIO control allows for the whole range of adjustment including the top end - that's all!

G

[Tom Elliott]

So, if the MA300 is unbalanced, then yea asside from getting to use a balance xlr system: mikes, cables mixer then into the MA300.
As I understand then that you only have a very short length/distance of unbalanced cabling before the camera sees/hears the sound.
I have been thinking of the beechtek thingy because I have a HI8 I use as a backup and just recently went through the whole "radio Cuba and 60cycle hum" problem.
For that problem I went 100% battery and got rid of the problem.
I sent an email to canon to ask them if I could use their MA300 on the HI8 (I really do want to be faithfull Canon) but they blew me off with the typical disclaimer of not even saying it can work with other cameras. Thus I have been thinking of the Beechtek for THEY say it will work with the GL2.
Now I guess the question still is: Is the audio signal out of the XLR Beechtek adapter balance or is the signal still unbalance for that short distance. And if that is the case then is the only way to get balance all the way into the GL2 is to just another camera that if you are prudent with the input then you can have balanced 100%
Did I confuse anyone? I know that I can barely follow the above.
For my basic system of 5 mikes it will cost me about $1,000 USD. So if I can't from the git go get balance all the way into the GL2 then I will use the money for a faster computer to edit my material and when in the field go 100% battery.
Thanks one and all for the assistance.
Yours,
Tom Elliott

[David Ennis]

The MA300 has its shortcomings, but are you sure it's unbalanced? I'd be surpised. Where did that info come from?

Tom, the output from the BeachTek is unbalanced, but for such a short run that doesn't matter in the least. It is only over long runs of more than 15 to 25 feet (depending on how electrically noisey the environment is, and who you ask) that the protection of balanced XLR cable is needed.

[Tom Elliott]

hmmm,
I did not go any further as to aspeck of balanced/unbalanced out put of the beechtek. Since I solved the radio interferance and 60cycle humm by going 100%battery I am not going to invest in xlr for video depostions since I have proved the past the standalone batter power gives me excelent results. Now if the project is more complicated that the depositions then I will look further.
I would think that since canon went to the trouble of making the xlr gizmo it would have a balance output to the GL2.
I will ask canon.
Yours,
Tom

[Tom Elliott]

I just checked on the specs of the GL2:
"Audio Terminal -10 dBV, less than 3 kohms, unbalanced "
So I would guess that the MA300 output is also unbalanced and that since it a VERY short distance from the MA300 to the input on the GL2 it doesn't make any difference, and just maybe ALL camcorders have unbalanced audio "Internally", and it isn't untill you output it that you need the balanced cables and mixer to maintain the audio quality that the camera produces. AND....AND if you want a camcorder with internal balanced audio you pay the extraprice.
I just do not know.
Yours,
Tom
PS: I did post the question to the Canon people on their tech support page, and will post here the results.