suitable microphones for XL1 shooting

[Nathan Reece]

Hi. I have a question about the XL1. It's the camera that I'll be using to shoot a movie, and we've realized the camera mike isn't going to cut it. Does anyone have any suggestions for a good quality microphone that we can hook to the camera, that will be suitable for both indoor and outdoor shooting (most of the movie will be indoors)? And hopefully one without home video-type humming and that's at a reasonable price? Any help would be much appreciated.

[Austen Mathieson]

Sennheiser ME66/K6 shotgun is my weapon of choice.

[Don Palomaki]

Tell us a bit more about what you are shooting and your budget for sound.

There are many different types and qualities of mic available, and the best mic will depend on the situation. If you are on a very low budget, you could use the stock mic with extension cables to get it close to the talent.

For capturing dialog when you don't want the mic seen, and you can run wire, a shotgun such as the Senn ME66, the AT-897, or Rode NTG-2 are popular. But you need an XLR adapter to use with the XL1, and you need someone to manage the mc while you run the camcorder.

Note: an on-camcorder mic is not very good for capturing dialog, etc. A mic should be within a few feet of the speaking person to capture decent voice.

[Nathan Reece]

Basically I'm trying to shoot a feature-length movie for as small a cost as possible. I'm kind of learning about the technical side of things as I go, and I'd like a mike that's under 500 dollars definitely. I don't want to spend a huge amount of money, but I also want good sound. I'm assuming that with Final Cut Pro you can edit out any extraneous sound, right? But I still want something that'll record dialogue clearly, yet also get good sound for outdoors. I appreciate the suggestions; if anybody knows of any other good ones, or wants to elaborate on the ones already mentioned, please let me know.

[Nathan Reece]

Actually, a few more questions. Do those mikes you guys mentioned record outdoor sound as good as indoor? Also what's the price range for those? And when you say the stock mike, what do you mean? And do you need an XLR adaptor for any mike you use, or just certain ones?

Also, my brother was telling me about mikes called hyperchardoid mikes? Any info about those?

[Don Palomaki]

You can expect to need an XLR adapter with just about any any quality (professional class) mic. The MA100 was the standard OEM adapter for th XL1, but other are available from third parties including Beachtek, Studio1, and Sign Video.

By stock mic I mean the stereo mic that came with the XL1. It is stereo, cardioid pattern and a overalla decent mic for a camcorder mic.

The mentioned mics are in the $200 to $500 price class. THey are short shotgun mics, meaning rather directional. They will work both indoors and out doors.

I don't know the audio capabilities of FCP, but audio editing softwware can do a lot to improve sound, but there is a lot it cannot do. It cannot make a bad mic sound good. It cannot remove all noise, but it can remove some noise and make it less intrusive.

Visit the Shure web site, browse their on-line resources and support area. You can learn a lot about microphones are recording there.
http://www.shure.com/ProAudio/TechLi...cles/index.htm
Especially the Audio Systems Guide for Video Production.

[Steve House]

Originally Posted by Nathan Reece

...
Also, my brother was telling me about mikes called hyperchardoid mikes? Any info about those?

Hypercardioids are a type of directional mic that is especially well suited to recording in a reflective environment such as indoors, although they work well outdoors as well. The other type of highly directional mic, a super-cardioid shotgun mic, is more focussed but has a drawback in that it doesn't handle reflected sound bouncing off of walls or the ceiling indoors all that well. Neither one is very good when mounted on the camera itself, though. You need to get any mic to within a couple of feet of the talent to capture good dialog. Good hypers are usually fairly pricey but a good one that won't bend your budget too badly is the AKG Blueline series SE300B/CK93 modular combo ... < $500 from BH Photo. Another well-liked, entry-level hyper is the Russian made Oktava MK012A with hypercardioid head from The Soundroom, at ~$250. Of course, you need to add in a boom, mount, etc. as well but B&H has some budget kits that would suffice to get your feet wet. Oh, and bopth of these need an XLR adapter that provides phantom power.

[Don Palomaki]

Cardioid, supercardioid, and hypercardioid all have somewhat different pickup patterns, You have to look at the pattens for the mic of interest to see the directivity, where the pick-up lobes and nulls are, and what at frequency they occur, and its other specification as well. This gets in to the art and science of mic selection and placement.

No one else can tell you what mic you should use, and there is no one-size-fits-all mic. The best anyone can do is tell you what mic they would use (hopefully for a similar shoot if they have information about the intended shoot) based on their experience and preferences.

[Nathan Reece]

Thanks for the info guys. It'll help me a lot when I'm making my decisions.