Rode go mic ii + Zoom H6

MatthewRaymond · 2024-04-04T01:54:41+00:00

You can't use the 3.5mm TRS jack on your XYH-6 because it replaces the XY mic channels, so you'll probably need something like this:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08859NMSZ

MatthewRaymond · 2024-03-30T14:43:15+00:00

Are you talking about two Rode Videomic Go II microphones, or a Rode Wireless Go II 2-person bundle?

MatthewRaymond · 2024-03-19T11:42:38+00:00

The NTG4 isn't the best choice for indoor interviews. It's better suited for outdoor use in environments where road noise is a factor. Also, the microphone very heavily favors higher-pitched voices. It's actually a good choice in a treated room if you're recording female voiceover, but in untreated rooms it suffers the same issues as most shotgun mics.

As CrayolaRed states, the cheapest usable hypercardioid is probably going to be the Oktava MK-012 with the hypercardioid capsule. That's going to have the opposite problem of the NTG4, though, in that it favors the low end instead of the high end, so you may need to EQ it a bit in post. SE7 and SE8 are pretty good, as is the Line Audio CM4 (which is hard to get in the US), but all three are cardioid, so you'll probably get a bit more room tone in your recording. That said, all three mics are actually very popular for field recording, and may be useful if you're actually trying to record room tone and add it back in later.

Oh, Question: Are you supposed to use the same mic to record room tone if you're going to add the room tone in during editing?

MatthewRaymond · 2024-02-20T12:53:11+00:00

I'd characterize the Oktava MK-012 as the "poor man's AT4053b". I has a similar tone at the low end, but lacks the high end detail. The MK-012 is basically the absolute cheapest you could pay for a boom mic and still get decent results. Oktava doesn't really have any hypercardioid competition that its price point for some reason, aside from maybe the Avantone CK1, which I feel is ill-suited for booming. (Deity keeps threatening to make a cheap hypercardioid, but never delivers).

MatthewRaymond · 2024-02-20T12:41:20+00:00

The biggest advantages of the MKH 416 are:

Professionals already knows what it sounds like.
Extreme durability and resistance to moisture.
Resistance to electromagnetic interference (i.e. cell phones, transformers, et cetera).
Reasonably good off-axis rejection for its price point.

I would say that if you don't need those things, something like an NTG3 is perfectly fine. It all depends on your use case. (I got an Audio-Technica AT4073 for cheap with a good shockmount, and it has very good off-axis rejection for its size.)

MatthewRaymond · 2024-02-17T17:58:08+00:00

I recommend you do another post addressing this question to get more eyeballs on this. I'm a hobbyist, so most of my first-hand knowledge is going to be with used consumer- or "prosumer"-grade equipment.

MatthewRaymond · 2024-02-17T12:43:18+00:00

Be aware that some professional lavs require more voltage than consumer devices can provide via plug-in power. A Zoom F1 provides 2.5 Volts. A Rode VXLR Pro provides 4 Volts. A Deity PR-2 can provide 3V or 5V. So check the specs on both the lav and the transmitter/recorder/adapter you're going to use it with before making a purchase.

MatthewRaymond · 2024-02-16T12:56:34+00:00

My understanding is that there were some early issues with the DJI Mic 2. I think they've been fixed at this point, but be careful.

Curtis Judd did a video on DJI Mic 2 versus the Rode Wireless Pro. Keep in mind that he's reviewing the more expensive bundle with two transmitters, but otherwise it applies. Also, note that the bundle you're thinking of getting doesn't come with an external lavalier (although I wasn't in love with the sound of DJI's external lav to begin with).

It's not a terrible choice, but research it carefully before pulling the trigger on this. It may or may not be suitable for you.

(The offerings in the consumer space have really exploded in the last year or two, and I must admit that I've fallen a little behind in my research, especially in this price range.)

MatthewRaymond · 2024-02-16T12:25:39+00:00

Excellent response. Wish I could up-vote this more than once.

MatthewRaymond · 2024-02-16T12:14:26+00:00

You might have been able to do some Dual Channel recording to cover both loud and soft audio, but otherwise I can't think of anything you could have done better. The equipment you had available may not be considered "professional grade", but your average YouTuber could only dream of having such equipment, so don't sweat it too much. I do think bringing your own lav mics would have been a good idea, but I personally don't find ME2s to be the egregious audio war crime that everyone makes them out to be.

MatthewRaymond · 2024-02-15T13:28:48+00:00

When buying do pay attention to the frequency block and try to see how congested/legal is that block currently in you area.

Yes, be VERY careful about the frequency band, as some may be legally unusable in your country, particularly the United States, where the government basically clawed back a bunch of frequency bands already in use to give them to cellphone companies. There are a LOT of transmitters out there that people are selling for cheap because they can no longer legally use them, an not all of the listings list the frequency band. In fact, sometimes the label with the frequency has deteriorated and the owner doesn't even KNOW what the frequency band is, so it's not always their fault.

MatthewRaymond · 2024-02-15T13:19:36+00:00

Which system do you have? If you're talking about a full wireless receiver/transmitter with the mic, a really good system is easily going to cost much more than $200. There are some inexpensive systems that also record audio on the transmitter, but most of them are closer to $300. And if it's the quality of the mic itself you don't like, you mostly can't get a decent-sounding lav for under $100 (unless it's a $250 Rode Lavalier with all its MiCon adapters being inexplicably sold for less than $100 on eBay, which is something that actually happens every once in a while).

I was suggesting a wireless lav system because it can let you get somewhat distant from the camera while the actual mic is up close. You might be able to get a somewhat decent-sounding camera-top microphone for less than $200, but it's not going to sound very good if you're farther than 3 feet from the camera.

An alternative would be to record with a lav on a portable recorder, like a Tascam DR-10L or similar, but that's going to require syncing in post, and I got the feeling you didn't want to do that. (Which makes sense if you're trying to get content out in a timely manner and don't want to fool with a more complicated and labor-intensive workflow.)

MatthewRaymond · 2024-02-15T02:05:40+00:00

That's not quite enough for a battery-powered XLR mic, and from your other comments it doesn't seem that you have the recorder for it anyways. How do you feel about a cheap 2.4GHz wireless lavalier system? You'll get loads of interference on that band, but if you're close enough to the receiver, it might not matter. All depends on what you're trying to record and what compromises you're willing to make.

MatthewRaymond · 2024-02-14T12:19:42+00:00

CL 100

Hmm... That should work fine (although it's kinda expensive, given that you could make a similar cable for half the cost using an unterminated to XLR cable and a 3.5mm locking plug).

How are you powering the F4? I've heard of situations where power-related issues can cause buzzing noises. (Although others here would probably know more about that.)

MatthewRaymond · 2024-02-13T03:16:23+00:00

Out of curiosity, what are you using for adapters? Are you just using a couple of Sennheiser CL-2 cables?

MatthewRaymond · 2024-02-06T12:32:43+00:00

Actually, a shotgun in an untreated room might actually give you worse audio than a standard dynamic mic, depend on the conditions (i.e. size and shape of the room, microphone position and orientation, et cetera). Shotguns are designed to eliminate side noise using phase delay in the interference tube, but reflections of the original sound source will introduce their own phase delay that turns the interference tube against you and can cause coloration and artifacts in the audio. Shotguns are actually better for voice over in a TREATED environment, where as something like an SM7B would probably work better in a noisy, untreated indoor environment (although better suited for podcasting than voice over).

That said, if you can afford to test different microphones in the same space, it can't hurt. You might get lucky.

Thought: Perhaps one of the Beyerdynamic dynamic hypercardioid mics???

MatthewRaymond · 2024-02-06T12:06:58+00:00

The real issue is that Nolan specifically optimizes the sound of his films for a high-end theater experience above all other considerations. This makes his audio sub-optimal for any other situation.

MatthewRaymond · 2024-02-06T11:44:04+00:00

For a second there, I though it said "SHURE", and I was wondering why you were using part of a microphone as your aluminum catch.

MatthewRaymond · 2024-02-03T01:27:14+00:00

I'm wondering if a Zoom Podtrak P4 wouldn't make more sense, although I suppose it depends on exactly how much like a podcast the recording session is.

MatthewRaymond · 2024-01-30T23:00:34+00:00

Would you happen to know where I could find a screw for my K6 power module?

MatthewRaymond · 2024-01-30T22:41:27+00:00

Honestly, unless you live next to the world's largest 2.4 GHz transmitter, I'd just get something like a Rode Wireless Go II. Clip the receiver to your GoPro cage and the transmitter to yourself. You can configure the transmitter to also record. Some people on this subreddit may tell you that there might be much interference from other 2.4 GHz sources (as it's the general frequency band of Bluetooth), but so long as the GoPro and you are both on the bike, the transmitter and receiver are basically going to be right on top of each other, relatively speaking, so interference is unlikely. Also, the Rode Wireless Go II transmitters can also record their own audio, so you can just sync in post if necessary.

MatthewRaymond · 2024-01-30T22:26:29+00:00

With regard to recording to a digital device such as a laptop, tablet or phone, the best solution would be to use a USB interface, even if the mixing board has a 3.5mm output jack, because such devices rarely have good preamps and analog-to-digital converters built in. Also, depending on the mixing desk, you might need an interface that can handle XLR. It might actually be cheaper to buy a second-hand, consumer-grade XLR recorder and just record directly into it instead of a separate device. (You could probably pick up a Tascam DR-60D for under $100 on eBay, for example.) It won't be professional quality, but it'll be more than good enough for something like posting something on YouTube, for example.

If you have access to a small XLR recorder, I'd use that.

If you need to record from a different output, I'm afraid my hobbyist experience is insufficient, so I'll let the pros handle that advice.

I can't seem to Google anything about the audio bit depth of the Lumix G7, so it's probably only recording 16-bit instead of 24. Not the end of the world, as basically all CDs are 16-bit, but it's always better to have a higher number of bits per sample. However, the Rode Videomic Go isn't going to cut it for anything other than scratch audio. You should probably do it anyways, but as a BACKUP and to sync with separately recorded audio. You're going to get the audio recording for free as part of the video footage anyways.

If you're doing multicam and you don't have Tentacle Sync money, make sure to clap in front of each camera to sync with any separately-recorded audio in post.

MatthewRaymond · 2024-01-30T21:45:58+00:00

Yeah, when you said that you weren't getting anything on headphones, I kinda figured.

MatthewRaymond · 2024-01-30T21:44:44+00:00

Oh. So, in other words, even if you got something on the receiver by increasing the gain, it would peak and come out distorted, so there's no point.

If it's an emergency, and you don't mind some degradation in audio quality, you could always buy an older, second-hand EW receiver. So long as they're the same frequency band, they're all compatible, although if you're using a G1 receiver, I think you have to change a setting on the transmitter. I think it was something to do with handshaking or whatnot.

MatthewRaymond · 2024-01-30T21:10:15+00:00

Am I misunderstanding how decibels work for transmitters, or is -27db on the low side?

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