Azden SGM-1x and Cheap Recorder?

askclifford

askclifford

Member
Hey guys!
I have the Canon T2i and I am getting the Azden SGM-1x shotgun mic tomorrow. I was originally planning to get a $20 adapter and use the DSLR Cable to get good audio into my cam, but decided not to. Someone recommended me to get this Olympus Recorder: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002DSHMA8/ref=olp_product_details?ie=UTF8&me=&seller= and plug my mic into it to get good audio. I cannot afford the Zoom, but do you think I would get decent audio doing this?
 
I see you list your occupation as middle school student, so I take it money is an issue. So, depending on what kind of projects you are planning on doing, I'd say the Azden will work just fine. I'd avoid the Olympus though. It's no better than recording right into the camera, so the adapter will be a better, and cheaper, solution. When you have the money, a Zoom will be quite an improvement. Again, depending on what you want to do, a Zoom H1 or H2 might work. I think either will get you better sound than the camera. In any case, do what you have to in order to get your projects done and if that means an Azden right into your T2i then so be it. Just go for it. An imperfect movie is a thousand times better than no movie.

Good luck, and please let us see the result.
 
First What are you shooting and what do you expect to do with it.

Folks are going to assume your shooting small indi films. For narrative films you hope to get into festivals I wouldn't recommend either if the products you are talking about.

The Azden is a noisy mic that is going to have zip resale when you move up and the recorder is recording in some compressed format. It has AGC and may not have a manual control since it's a voice recorder. It also may not take an external mic? I doubt it's much if any better than the T2i.

$200 doesn't get you much in sound. I would probably, assuming that that is your budget, look into the Rode Video Mic pro. It may be a bit higher (don't know the street price) and go straight into the T2i

Shoot some stuff and see how it works for you. If your still serious about filmmaking then you should look at hiring someone with equipment. The reason you would hire is the entry level decent sound setup is probably in the $2,000 to $5,000 range, and I am talking really bare bones.

I wouldn't go double system till you have shot some films and are comfortable enough with the process to not have the added complexity be a big problem.
 
Good catch I didn't notice the occupation. I would still recommend the Rode VMP. It looks like it can be had for $229 and it will mount in the hot shoe of the camera. If you can get a boom op you can extend it with an 1/8" extension cable. You should be able to go 25 - 50 feet with out picking up too much hum etc. I think the VMP is a better investment and is a better fit for what you want to do. The Azden is going to be so long that you are going to have to boom it to get it out of the shot. And while booming is where you want to end up I suspect your just starting out and I would keep the complications to a minimum.

I would again say that double system sound is probably not worth the work and problems at this point.
 
Ok, let me tell you a story

There once was a time where I owned a HV30 and a Rode Videomic. I plugged it right into the camera, and it worked fine. Mount on a boompole? No problem, right into the camera and I got extremely clear audio. Then I sold both to buy myself a T2i. I was originally going to buy myself another Videomic, and then I couldn't find any in my price range. I need one ASAP, so I was going to buy myself a H1 and use the onboard mics, but then I didn't like the sound quality. So Finally, I found a New in Box XLR Azden SGM-1x on Craigslist ("The Poor Man's NTG-1) for $100. I only have about that, so I listened to some audio recorded with it on a camera without AGC and it sounded great to me. So, now the logistic is getting the audio turn out with my camera affordably.

I have very little money, and I am also into Model Railroading and would like to start diverting more of my money there soon. I also need to save for college. I do short films with my friends, and will be doing an interview professionally in three weeks.

Do you think I will get somewhat decent audio with the mic plugged into my camera with a DSLR Hack Cable? Will it sound as good as my VideoMic into my HV30? I personally think this mic is of far more quality.
 
The azden isn't all that bad, I have one I use on occasion, as long as you get it in close to the talent, you can get good audio with it. The key word being CLOSE. Proximity is everything when it comes to audio, the closer the better. Believe me, for middle school your setup will be fine. Scratch the olympus, and save 100.00 bucks to get the zoom h1, awesome little recorder for the money.
 
Hardware is not going to "make it sound decent". How you mic it will make it sound decent after than you want hardware to degrade your good work as little as possible.

But to answer the question. The cable your talking about is doing basically what the Juice Link boxes do and feeds a strong signal in one channel to get the AGC to go to it's lowest gain setting. That will get you the best you can get from the T2i's audio section. And that should be decent. You are however going to have to get the Azden adapted to an unbalanced signal for this to work and depending on how hot it is you may find that it's hard to get it loud enough. But you probably can't find that out till you get it hooked up and try it out.
 
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