external mic ex1r

Jay Massengill · June 15th, 2013, 11:22 AM

I actually meant to post this full story in the Audio Section where the AT875r was being discussed, and then I was just going to mention my recommendation here for the AT875r as a very short mic to mount on smaller cameras. However if you're interested, read ahead:

I used my AT875r last night as the ambient mic on the XA10 wide static shot of our dance academy's first recital. It does require extra padding to fit correctly in the XA10 mic mount.

I rotated the mic 90 degrees to put the openings at the top and bottom. My theory is this reduces off-axis coloration by placing the openings in line with the less reflective surfaces of the carpeted floor and the fully-treated auditorium ceiling. This could be complete hooey, but the sound was beautiful. Granted, this was a pro-level acoustic environment. The XA10 was mounted next to me in the front of house audio mixer position with the Yamaha CL3 digital mixer which I was running. Quite an impressive facility for a HIGH SCHOOL! (Of course, it's very expensive to rent such a place and pay their TD and other staff, but well worth it!)

The XF300 was the active camera at the top of the stadium seating. Both cameras were receiving the program feed from the digital board on channel 1. The XF300 was receiving the AT4021 mounted like a boundary layer mic on the front of the stage as ambient on channel 2. I used the AT4021 because it's my most modern mic built with reducing the chance of cellphone interference, while all my boundary layer mics were made before cellphones were likely to be in close proximity to the mic by the dozens.
I did use two AT831 boundary layer mics on the stage for the tap dance numbers. I figured at the low gain they were set for and their intermittent use during the loudest numbers, any cellphone interference would be acceptable if it happened at all.

My AT 3000 series handheld wireless rounded out the mics used during the program.

The AT875r was the totally independent source of ambient audio connected directly to the XA10 at my position. The mic input attenuation was set to ON and the recording level was set to just above 4.

So I have two recording channels of program audio, two independent recordings of two different ambient sources, as well as the original stereo music files.

Last night while backing up the cards, looking and listening to the files and doing a quick Vegas edit of just one dance, I was extremely pleased with the results!

In the test edit, I simply combined the two audio channels on the XF300, adjusted the unified volume with a touch of EQ and rendered with a little USM sharpening on the video. It was easily acceptable as a finished product with no further work, but of course I will work on both audio channels independently and both cameras when editing for real. The XA10's ambient level was much louder, but simply reducing it to the proper relationship with the program audio channel gave great results and very pleasing sound.

And I promise I do own many other brands of mic! It just worked out to be an all Audio-Technica evening.

June 15th, 2013, 11:22 AM	#16
Jay Massengill Trustee Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Burlington Posts: 1,976	Re: external mic ex1r I actually meant to post this full story in the Audio Section where the AT875r was being discussed, and then I was just going to mention my recommendation here for the AT875r as a very short mic to mount on smaller cameras. However if you're interested, read ahead: I used my AT875r last night as the ambient mic on the XA10 wide static shot of our dance academy's first recital. It does require extra padding to fit correctly in the XA10 mic mount. I rotated the mic 90 degrees to put the openings at the top and bottom. My theory is this reduces off-axis coloration by placing the openings in line with the less reflective surfaces of the carpeted floor and the fully-treated auditorium ceiling. This could be complete hooey, but the sound was beautiful. Granted, this was a pro-level acoustic environment. The XA10 was mounted next to me in the front of house audio mixer position with the Yamaha CL3 digital mixer which I was running. Quite an impressive facility for a HIGH SCHOOL! (Of course, it's very expensive to rent such a place and pay their TD and other staff, but well worth it!) The XF300 was the active camera at the top of the stadium seating. Both cameras were receiving the program feed from the digital board on channel 1. The XF300 was receiving the AT4021 mounted like a boundary layer mic on the front of the stage as ambient on channel 2. I used the AT4021 because it's my most modern mic built with reducing the chance of cellphone interference, while all my boundary layer mics were made before cellphones were likely to be in close proximity to the mic by the dozens. I did use two AT831 boundary layer mics on the stage for the tap dance numbers. I figured at the low gain they were set for and their intermittent use during the loudest numbers, any cellphone interference would be acceptable if it happened at all. My AT 3000 series handheld wireless rounded out the mics used during the program. The AT875r was the totally independent source of ambient audio connected directly to the XA10 at my position. The mic input attenuation was set to ON and the recording level was set to just above 4. So I have two recording channels of program audio, two independent recordings of two different ambient sources, as well as the original stereo music files. Last night while backing up the cards, looking and listening to the files and doing a quick Vegas edit of just one dance, I was extremely pleased with the results! In the test edit, I simply combined the two audio channels on the XF300, adjusted the unified volume with a touch of EQ and rendered with a little USM sharpening on the video. It was easily acceptable as a finished product with no further work, but of course I will work on both audio channels independently and both cameras when editing for real. The XA10's ambient level was much louder, but simply reducing it to the proper relationship with the program audio channel gave great results and very pleasing sound. And I promise I do own many other brands of mic! It just worked out to be an all Audio-Technica evening.