the editman.com

I've had my Sennheiser EW112 G2 system for a year now and it is a good wireless system to use. Sometimes I've missed having a wireless handheld microphone and I also needed another wireless microphone. So I took the plunge and got myself a Sennheiser EW100 G3 Eng kit. You get one belt-pack, one receiver, one ME2 lapel and a plugin transmitter for hand-held microphones.



Besides a couple of Sennheiser microphones I also have some Audio Technica ones and I thought an AT8010 omnidirectional hand-held microphone might fit this system. It can be powered through 11-48V or one AA battery. Since the plugin transmitter has no phantom power I had to have a microphone that can be powered on it's own and the AT8010 does just that. It's also shock mounted inside so it doesn't pick up much from hand movement.



When doing run-n-gun stuff with my 5DmkII I like to just plug in a receiver into the camera and shoot and I'll use my new G3 system at first and keep the G2 as a backup and second channel audio. These are great value and the pick up pattern from the omni suits me fine in most cases.

I've been working with Genelec speakers these last fifteen years. Many different models has past by in various editing suits and finally it was time for me to get me a pair. I had a pair of D'feldt Audioengine 5 but the amplifier for the right channel broke down and even before that my mind was set to get me a new pair. The D'feldt sounded great as a hi-fi speaker but is not a reference for audio mixing/control.

Anyone having the pleasure of holding a Genelec knows what a solid feeling they have. These Genelec 8030A has a die cast chassis which just seams unbreakable. At the back a set of connections for XLR in XLR out and power. A row of DIP switches on the back rolls off treble or bass to match the speakers position. Grills are of metal and they are just meant to last.

Certainly a laptop like my new Dell Vostro 3700 can't match a high quality audio output so I opted for a digidesign Mbox Mini2 to handle audio. A great little box that sounds great and is runned by one of the USB ports.

 


These speakers are like an old friend at home. I know the characteristics of them and they sound very pure. High sensitivity means you can have low volume and still hear fine details. It's a joy to listen to old favourites like A-ha and they are a great tool to get excellent sound mixes. I hope my stroke of bad luck when it comes to computer hardware will stop and these speakers to stay a long time. Love them!

This is one of the smallest on-camera microphones for DSLR cameras. It will work fine on other video cameras also. My Audio Technica Pro24 is about the same size but it's a stereo microphone and has less features. I wanted a small one for my Canon 5D mkII when just having the camera and when I don't want to carry audio mixers and stuff like that. You have to turn down the level on the 5D mkII to about 25% to get a signal that is free of to much hiss. This microphone is hot enough when set to the "+" setting.



The Sennheiser MKE 400 has a small breath shield really and I opted to get the bigger wind shield at the same time. This packaged also includes a 3.5" to XLR adapter so I can plug this one in my JL DT454 or similar XLR capable mixers. When mounted on the hot shoe of the 5D mkII it feels like a nice combination. Small enough to avoid attracting to much attention. A run n gun microphone.



Between the hot shoe and microphone is a small rubber damping to avoid camera noise and the cable is just long enough to reach without any excessive cable hanging around the camera. It's battery powered and has a power switch on the side along with a sensitivity switch. The red LED will flash when switched on but there's no way telling it's on. If you run out of power it will just stop working.

I got another microphone from Audio Technica - the AT875R. It's one of the shorter shotgun mics and this one is more sensitive compared to the AT897 or PRO24. One undocumented feature of many DSLR cameras with video capability is that they do have plug in power to power a small microphone. What's great about these Audio Technica microphones is they can run on very low voltage and still deliver sound.



I admit I'm fond of how Audio Technica mics sound, I like them because they sound natural. They can run on low voltage and they are not super expensive. I'm planning to use this on mounted together with the JAG35 and Sennheiser G2 wireless lav to capture speeches at weddings or as a sync/backup mic when having a sound guy on set. But they even work mounted with the PRO24 hot shoe mounte which is rubber dampened to avoid to much pick up from camera operator sound.

A friend of mine has a Sennheiser MKE400 on his 5D mkII and this is the smallest mic I've seen on a DSLR. But I don't think you can power it from the camera and it's so easy to forget to turn it on. The AT875R has no switch. As long as it's connect and has plug in power it works. Compared to the PRO24 I can turn down the gain inside the 5D mkII half way and still have the same volume with much less hiss from the cameras noisy pre amps. I guess once plugged into the DT454 I will get very good sound quality.

Last week I got another microphone. I already have an AT897 and a PRO70 from Audio Technica and I like the quality compared to the price. They are all decent and are useful in various situations. Since my Canon 5D mkII has manual control of audio I wanted to try a small on camera microphone and the PRO24 CM seamed to fill the void.

I got a fury wind shield and a smaller foam shield but the fury one is way better so I'll stick with that one. It's a powered microphone but the 5D mkII does have plug in power and it works to power the PRO24. The only downside to this microphone is the rather low sensitivity. If you use this one with a noise free pre amp everything is fine but the 5D mkII has a noisy pre amp when you turn it up. Around 15% it's very good but turned up towards 75% there is a constant hiss. Not a fault in the microphone but a bit disappointing never the less.

The fury wind shield is excellent! I shot some tests and it's very resistant to wind. No ugly pick up from the housing of the microphone thanks to the fury shield. I would not hesitate to use it even if there is a heavy breeze.



PRO24 has a power switch but since you can use it with plug in power there is no need to fiddle with it. Just leave it on at all times. This is a stereo microphone and I like the sound quality. It sounds natural and picks up a broad area both in front and at the back which makes it easy to hear both the person behind the camera and the one in front.

I will try it with my Juciedlink DT454 and it's low noise amplifiers and later on with another Audio Technica which might work as a great on camera microphone for a DSLR camera!



As you can see it's a small microphone that suits a DSLR nicely.

I did an interview this weekend with my 5D mk II, Canon 100L, DT454 amplifier and a AT PRO 70 lav. The DT454 was mounted on top of a JAG35 cage. I really like this configuration since it's so easy to see levels on the DT454 and adjust the knobs. Downside is you can't access the bottom DIP switches.

Audio quality was really good. Calibrated the signal first and could turn down the signal to the 10-15% mark on the 5D and turned the volume all the way on the DT454. Very clean sound without any noisy. I was a bit sceptical to the DT454 at first but it really is an extremely good amplifier and it's so great to be able to monitor what goes into the camera. I actually felt comfortable doing interviews this way. One just have to check afterwards that what's record is good. The playback monitoring works just as it should and the headphone amplifier is better and has little noise if compared to the older CX231/DN101 combo. I didn't expect this but Robert at Juicedlink has done a good job improving his already excellent amplifiers.

What I found out is my macro lens, the Canon 100L, is great to do these interviews with. The IS function looks so great and smooth. All of the little jitters your hands can introduce when handheld are all gone. I still recommend a tripod but it works great even for handheld stuff.

I didn't see a clear use of the JAG35 cage but this seams to be just the thing for it! I like the added attachment points on the top and bottom and the side rods around the cage is a great cable holder. It's not until now I feel a DLSR can be used for serious audio jobs. It wasn't more cumbersome than to use a camcorder and it sounds great!

Today I got a Juicedlink DT454 minimixer/AGC-disabler. I tried to get hold of a sample from Robert at Juicedlink but with no luck so I got it from another vendor.

The solution JL offered before the DT454 was the add-on DN101. You can find my article about what I thought of that one. It had some drawbacks and I addressed Robert at JL with these and I guess other users have done the same and hence he released a one-in-a-box mixer.

A thing Robert dismissed at first but finally did incorporate in the DT454 was a tone AGC defeat along with the noise method. Both of these inserts a high level signal into the right channel to trick the AGC to have their gain at the lowest. This makes for very nice sound from the left channel. Clean and without the AGC ugliness. A thing that JL didn't do was to fix the feedback from right to left channel that, with Canon cameras, makes the headphones noisy before you hit record the first time. The problem lies in the Canon cameras which somehow short circuit right-left audio input. But I think JL could have fixed this by cutting the signal from the right channel to the headphones when AGC is enabled.

One thing I commented on was how to provide for playback monitoring. Using the CX231/DN101 it was cumbersome to monitor. Now the DT454 does have two XLR inputs just like the CX231, but they have added another stereo input via a 3.5" plug that is meant to be for playback purposes. Since you have dual knobs, one for each channel, it's easy turn down the AGC (right) channel and just hear the clean channel when monitoring. How well it works I'll know during next shoot.

DT454 also has dual VU-LED meters. One for each channel. Despite only four LEDs it's helpful determine how high or low you really are. You can even have two different settings for cameras that have AGC and cameras that don't. Underneath the unit is a field of small DIP switches and I think the CX231 had a better solution to have the most used controls on the back and front of the unit instead of under where you have a tripod mounted...

Another new feature is a level knob for the headphones. The headphone amplifiers are still noisy as they are on the DN101 but at least you can turn them down. The last thing that I dislike is actually the form factor! The DT454 is wide when mounted under i.e the Canon 7D. It look kinda odd because of the shape of the camera and the DT454 somehow just goes into another direction instead fo following the lines of the camera. But then again it doesn't intrude where the battery lid is so I'll let this pass.

Doing a quick test with my AT897 shotgun mic I got clean sound and it felt good to handle.

I'm rigging one of my Canon 7Ds for some interviews tomorrow and since I got a JAG35 cage this week I wanted to try it out. To be honest I don't know if I'll need the JAG35 cage but it might come in handy when doing these jobs were you don't want to use a rail system and still put some stuff onto the camera.

On top is a Sennheiser EW112 G2 receiver and on the bottom a Juicedlink CX231 and DN101 for AGC defeat. The tricky part is to monitor what actually goes into the camera. I've found out that if you use the headphone output and it's distorted, the recording is also distorted. So I'm probably safe to adjust volume this way. My experience of recording with this setup is that you get clean audio. But I would still like to have a headphone output on the camera. I could get a 5D mk II and use the Trammel modified firmware to get by without the DN101 and be able to monitor.



A great thing about the JAG35 cage is that it's light weight. Like I said, I'm not sure how to utilise it best but I guess it will work fine for tomorrows shoot.

I have a Juicedlink CX231 minimixer which is great to use attached to my Sony PCM-D50. One drawback with the Canon 7D and Panasonic GH1 is their AGC for audio.
It sounds crappy with lots of hiss and noise. Juicedlink made the DN101 to address several issues. One, defeat AGC, two add headphones monitoring and three to have a visual meter.

The way they solved this (rather than releasing a new mixer with this function built in) is the DN101 which bolts outside of the mixer and uses the same battery.
You simply take out the battery drawer, remove the spring.
Cut away some plastic from the drawer and attached the battery connector which then goes into the battery tray.
Problem is it doesn't fit! Bad design from the start and it doesn't work as advertised in the instruction video.

(A user on dvxuser.com got an email from Robert at Juicedlink and he said that the tray should be forced into position.
But I think this is a bad excuse for a bad design)


I am beginning to regret this purchase... But as usual I don't just sit and cry. I opened the lid on the CX231 and figured out a better solution.

A small hole was drilled with my Dremel to the right of the battery compartment.
I cut the wire from the DN101's battery connector so I got two wires going through the hole and soldered these inside the mixer directly on the other side of the battery compartment.
I used a bit of tape to get the cable away from the tripod screw inside and put everything together.

 


Now I don't believe this will affect anything inside the CX231.
Only difference is that the DN101 has a better connecting and that the wires inside goes a few millimetres to the side of the battery tray.




After this modification the battery tray now can be closed firmly in position and as you can see the DN101 is powered up as it should!

Now when I had a decent function I found another thing that is extremely irritating. If you try to put a GH1 on top of this it doesn't work.
The DN101 extrudes above the mixer and either the lens can't be fitted or the swivel display can't be opened.
I think this product was rushed and Juicedlink should introduce a mixer with this functionality built in. Not this tacky add-on!

How does it work then? If the camera (Canon 7D) isn't powered and you enable the AGC disable function all that noíse goes into the headphones.
Even if the camera is on but not recording you get noise.
Only when you start recording the noise goes away and you only hear the left channel without noise.
Again bad design. If the 7D is somehow looping audio from right left and back to the DN101 there should be a feedback filter inside the DN101.
It seams this is not the case. The headphone amplifier is also noisy in it self so it's hard to judge if the recorded audio is of pristine quality.
Compared when I monitor using the Sony D50 I have a very clean monitoring via headphones. Bad design all around.

If I use a GH1 it does work without noise when the camera is off or don't record, but when unplugging/plugging I get a short burst of noise in my ears.
Also, why is the supplied cable so long? The connector for the CX231 output and the DN101 input is next to each other.
And when you connect the output cable it is hard to pull out the battery tray to swap battery... think again JL.



But if you don't mind all these shortcomings the recorded left channel is free from AGC and no noise from the right channel is apparent.
How useful is the headphone output? I can't be sure to get a noise free recording and really the only thing I'm sure of is that audio is inside the DN101.
The meter on the side seams to be just bling since it tells me nothing more than there's some sort of signal inside the DN101.

So to conclude. One of three issues was solved. But to be sure I still have to use my Sony PCM-D50 for dual sound recording...

I like my Kata DR-465 backpack and was looking for something to hold my audio equipment.
There are the portabrace bags and they are really good but I wanted to have a bag that could double as a smaller camera bag and I found a Kata DC-445 shoulder bag.

From left to right I have a 6m XLR cable (in the far left side pocket), next is a 10m XLR cable,
top center is a charger for 1.5V and 9V batteries and on top a pair of Sony headphones.
Bottom center I have an Audio Technica AT-8415 and a hot shoe mount also from Audio Technica,
a small Gorilla pod and above the bottom compartments is an Audio Technica AT-897 shot gun mic.
Top right is an Audio Technica PRO-70 lavalier with power module, a Sony PCM-D50.
Bottom right is a Sennheiser EW112-G2 wireless lavalier set. (You can see the antennas).
In the right side pocket I have a couple of cables and windscreens for the different mics.
The lid has pockets for batteries and some adapter cables.

Included is a weather coat so it will survive some rain. Another good thing it's a light bag so even thou it's stuffed inside the weight is under control.

I really had to find a solution since my main camera bag, a Lowepro Computrekker, is to heavy and I can't fit all lenses.
Looking at a macro lens and I have to make room for one so this Kata bag was a welcome addition!

Neither the GH1 or the 7D has good audio capability so external devices is a must.
I've looked a lot on different solutions for audio recording and bit by bit it falls into place.

Several factors were important to me. Portable, clean sound, easy to use and not to expensive.
I like the sound of a shotgun mic more so than a lavalier mic. I tried a cheap shotgun ($35) and the sound quality was
ok but construction quality another thing. The first time I removed the XLR cable the whole bottom part came loose!
After some soldering and putting in a beefier cable it works again but I do not trust this one. Instead I settled on an Audio Technica AT897.
It's a shotgun mic with really good rejection and low noise. You can power it in several ways. AA battery, 48V or even 12V will work.
It's also smaller than the cheapo mic I first got. Price including shipping was $240.

I have a Sony PCM-D50 which I wanted more than the Zoom H4N which is very popular. D50 is cleaner sounding and has a really good limiter so sound quality
was the deciding factor. It's a solid piece and runs really long on the batteries. Prices from $400.

A small headphone and foldable to fit in my backpack steered me towards Sony MDK-V300.
They get the job done are foldable and are light on the head..



The next step is to try out a Juicedlink CX231 ($299) connected to either camera.
I'm eagerly awaiting the Magic Lantern firmware for the 7D.