Stereo microphone with VOLUME CONTROL or mixer too?

H

heavenlychoirs

New member
Hi,

I have a dv camcorder, panasonic nv-gs120 and just bought a quite cheap audio technica stereo microphone atr25. Unfortunately my gs120 has no internal volume control when the mic is plugged in, so the mic picks up the sound really loud and amplifies the motor noise of internal camcorder and I have no way whatsoever of turning it down to a more reasonable level where it can pick up sound clearly but without the hum of the camcorder.

So, what to do? I have searched the internet for stereo microphones with volume control to no avail and so I imagine what I will have to do is purchase a microphone and some sort of mini mixer to go with it.

I mostly want to use it to record my voice 5ft away or outdoors with background noise record my voice too. I don't need a shotgun particularly, I would like to just clamp this mic onto the mic stand or tape it or something. I don't want to spend more than $120 on a mic and I don't know what sort of mini mixer - just anything with low hum/hiss. Could you give me some recommendations? Thank you.
 
I'm not familiar with your camera...so this is all an assumption on my part. If there is no external gain/volume control than more than likely your camera has an automatic gain control built in. Which means it amplifies everything it captures. This includes camera noise. I think even if you used a mixer to control the level from your microphone the camera would still boost it to unacceptable levels. You might want to try an external audio recording device and than sync everything in post by using a clapboard while filming.
 
Hi there,

Yes, that does sound like a good idea, but then I would just rather buy a new camcorder with manual volume control. I got this camcorder ages ago and the next camcorder I wanted to buy would be a beast like an ex1. So, I have to stick with this camcorder for the moment. That method sounds just a bit too risky for me, I don't know how confident I would be dealing with separate audio and dubbing over.

I suppose then the only alternative is to put up with some humm/internal noise but try and get as good a mic and mixer as possible to minimise that. Many thanks for your reply.

By the way I just did a search on my camcorder for 'automatic gain control' and nothing came up so hopefully it doesn't have that!
 
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Hi,
actually I've had a think about it and I think dubbing over is a very good idea. Would I just use a mic straight into an audio recorder. Can you recommend any good mics recorders, I've seen the edirol RH09 recorder. Don't know about a mic though.

I have looked at audio adapters for the camcorder but I think it's a bit of a waste of money. At least if I got an audio recorder, I could use it for collecting samples too.
 
....But isn't dubbing difficult to do say in final cut pro - how do you match up with the sound of the clapper is that accurate?
 
heavenlychoirs said:
....But isn't dubbing difficult to do say in final cut pro - how do you match up with the sound of the clapper is that accurate?
Click to expand...

It's incredibly easy as long as you're diligent about slating. The sound of the slate creates a spike in the audio waveform that's easily seen and matched up.
 
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