Which Microphone for Wedding shoot

[Mark Owens]

I am in a video club and only a hobbyist doing my first wedding by myself for a friends daughter, the question is I am using my Sony HXR-NX3 camera I need to know what on camera microphone should I use on the day, I have Rode Videomic Pro and the Rode NTG 3 any help would be fantastic I don't want to bugger it up. I am also using a sony icd recorder and lav mic on the groom for the vows.

[Malcolm Debono]

The Rode VMP is excellent for ambience and reference audio. I typically use it for shooting of preps. Never had experience with the NTG3 however so perhaps someone who used both can shed some light on that!

What style of shooting are you looking at (as in short highlights clip or a long-form edit)? The reason I'm asking is because you might be able to get away with that setup for the former but that's a rather minimalistic setup to cover more than that.

[Peter Riding]

I use a Rode NTG2 on the main cam. Its like the NTG3 but not as weatherproof. I always put an AA battery in it so I don't have to think about phantom power. I have the NTG go to one channel and use the other channel either for the cams onboard mics or for a wireless receiver from a lav on the groom etc.

If you do that you need to know how to separate the two channels in your post software NLE. But its always a good idea to have as many alternatives as possible as things seldom go according to plan at weddings plus you can make silly mistakes under pressure. This arrangement ensures you have two audio sources rather than one.

Don't expect the shotgun quality to be great once you are more than a few feet away from your source but I expect you know that anyway, and the main thing is to have something usable if not perfect.

I don't use Rode Videomics as the pickup pattern would be too wide for my purposes.

Get a little stand for your audio recorder and for the speeches move it on the table to be in front of each speaker before they start. That should only take a few seconds (tell them beforehand and don't rely on them to remember to do it for you) and should be far superior quality compared to any onboard arrangement.

p.s. you're in a club. Could you borrow any extra gear?

Pete

[Michael Silverman]

The Rode NTG-3 is a VERY good shotgun microphone. I don't know as much about the Rode Videomic Pro but I have heard good things about it as well. In looking at your camera's specs it appears you have XLR inputs, so for that reason alone I would go with the NTG-3 because you can just plug in a short XLR cable from the camera to the NTG-3 and get a balanced, high quality connection. You will need to enable phantom power for the NTG-3 but that's pretty typical with shotgun mics.

In my experience, the quality of the shotgun mic on the camera will not make as big of a different in the quality of your video as the mics that are on the groom and officiant. I have a Rode NTG-2 that I place on my camera and when I edit I typically just use its audio to add some ambient sound. From your description it sounds like you are not miking the officiant so I would recommend making that more of a priority than worrying about the on camera mic. If you get good ambient sound from the NTG-3 but the officiant's audio doesn't get picked up by the groom's mic then you're not in a good position. You can search this forum to find dozens of threads on miking the officiant as there are LOTS of good options.

[Noa Put]

double post

[Noa Put]

Unless you can get very close to the source those rode mics will only give you good ambient sound, you have got the groom covered with the sony but depending on where the priest is standing the entire ceremony he might be in a better position to attach the sony to, depending if he stays up close to the couple like I see in many US weddings, not sure how the couple and priest are standing at a Australian wedding. If the priest is too far away during the vows then it would be better to mic the groom, the vows will be the most important spoken part so be sure you get that right.

To make it easy on yourself, and if it's possible, just put a small separate recorder in front of a soundspeaker so you always get sound no matter where the person who is giving a speech is standing, placing a mike on a table before they speak only works if you are 100% sure they won't move from that location but if you don't want to take riscs and if the soundspeaker is not build into the ceiling and reachable it's safer to record from there.

[Adrian Tan]

Originally Posted by Mark Owens

I have Rode Videomic Pro and the Rode NTG 3

Hey Mark, do a sound test to be sure, but I'm pretty sure NTG3 wins. The price tag should tell you that if nothing else.

Issue is less which microphone than distance from sound source. If you're relying on on-camera, you want that camera as close as possible.

If it's any consolation, I'm pretty sure you'll be fine whatever mic you use. If all you want is to record sound, I'm sure you'll hear it. They usually have amplification in the church. If you want really clean sound, get at least two more lapel mics. Put one on priest and one on lectern they do readings from.

[Mark Owens]

Thank you everyone for your help in pointing me in the right direction your experience is worth bottling. In regards to using extra gear, “do I have other recorders”
2 of the Sony ICD recorders with lavaliere microphones
2 sets of Sennheiser G3 wireless with lavaliere microphones
1 Tascam DR-100mkII
1 Tascam DR-60D
Should I be using any of this as well?

[Adrian Tan]

Hey Mark, you're spoiled for kit.

Ok, idea one. Go to ceremony rehearsal, check what the sound sources are and where/if you can plug in anywhere, and do as thorough an audio setup as you can. Eg: one wireless on groom, one on lectern, both running into Tascam DR-100. Third wireless on priest running into camera. One recorder for band, one recorder to place in front of soundspeaker, final recorder either placed sonewhere near altar for ambience or plugged into church sound system.

Idea two: the above takes a while to set up, you're missing shots as you go through the process, you'll be under time stress, and you're new to weddings. Might be a recipe for disaster. Probably best to keep it simple as possible. One lav+recorder on groom and one lav+recorder on lectern, levels manually tested beforehand. One wireless on priest running into camera.

Simpler still: lav+recorder on groom, rely on on-camera for everything else. There are plenty of companies that do exactly this.

[Noa Put]

Simpler still: lav+recorder on groom, rely on on-camera for everything else.

Even more simple, place one recorder in front of a soundspeaker and you get all sound, that is, if they use a mike for all spoken audio. I use this approach more then once if I don't have any set-up time, the groom also always gets a lav mic with a small recorder in his pocket, I never know if the church has a wireless handmicrophone to capture the vows and it happended more then once that was not the case.

[Peter Rush]

Here in the UK the priest often has a lav mic for the church PA but it rarely picks up the vows suitably - definitely go with a lav on the groom.

[Chris Harding]

Hi Mark

You never said where the ceremony is going to be held (or I missed it) If it's with a celebrant just be careful as they often will step away from the couple but if they have their own mic I have got out of jams by rigging a shotgun on a light stand and pointing it at the celebrants PA speaker ..still keep the groom's mic though and put the shotgun into Channel 2

Going to the rehearsal is a must!! Then you can see what is needed.

If it's a Church wedding then remember you also might have readings from a lectern off to one side so another lav is needed there too

Chris

[Taky Cheung]

RODE NTG-1 mic is for XLR balanced input. It is phantom powered. NTG-2 adds AA battery operation and can be used with 3.5mm input too. NTG-3 is weather proof. RODE NTG series is considered high end shotgun microphones.

VideoMic Pro is made for DSLR use. It is for 3.5mm input oonly and need 9W battery to operate.. The special feature made for DSLR is the +20db switch. In DSLR volume control, dial all the way to zero then one notch up. This will minimize the DSLR noisey preamp
Let the VM Pro do the amplification work.

I'm a authorized RODE reseller. If you are interested in getting any RODE products, PM me. I can offer a discount for DVinfo members.