GH2 Listen to 7 different mics into a GH2

Sam Mallery

Sam Mallery

Well-known member
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For giggles and grins....the on board mic would have been interesting to hear, added to that mix.

Nice job with it !!!
 
Great test and thanx for the effort in doing so.

All mics seem to suffer from proximity to subject but I rated the last Senheisser as best. (ie. it eliminated a lot of room effect). The first Senheisser as 2nd best.

The GH2 does not have a lot of audio input control. Keen to hear from you how one truly should manage this.
 
Chip - I intentionally didn't shoot a take using the GH2's built-in mic. The built-in stereo mic on the GH2 is so vastly superior to any Canon, Nikon or any other kind of DSLR that it would've incorrectly skewed the opinion of the users of those other cameras. They would come away from the video thinking that their onboard mic was pretty decent, when in reality their mics are terrible sounding. And besides, the built-in mic on the GH2 is good, but it's still a built-in mic, and it still suffers from the same problems that all built-in mics suffer from (too far away from the sound source, pick up camera and handling noise, etc.).

peripatew - I don't own the original VideoMic, I only own the new VideoMic Pro. I agree that it would've been a more interesting video if I had that mic in there too. I contacted Rode and asked if they would lend me the original VideoMic and the Stereo VideoMic for the shootout, but they never responded.

Shooter - Using a shotgun in an interior will generally pick up more of that "room echo" sound. You just hear more sound bouncing off of the walls, floor and ceiling than you do in real life, and the end result is a less natural sound, and thusly, you end up with a less natural feeling video production. The solution to this issue is to use a hyper-cardioid mic instead of a shotgun for interiors. I agree that the MKH 8060 was the best sounding. It had the least reflective sound and the lowest noise floor. But it was a $1250 mic plugged into a $1300 field mixer that was plugged into the GH2.

How should you manage the input control of the GH2? The input control of the GH2 is super basic. There are three options, level 1, 2 or 3, and the AGC is present on all three levels. The best way to manage it is to always have your on-screen audio meters showing, and to always keep an eye on them. You want the meters to be bouncing up near the red, but not in the red. If the audio is too low (the signal is low on the meters- no where near the red), you'll need to boost the audio levels too much in post. You end up with a higher noise floor this way. This is not good. If the signal is too hot (too much in the red on the meters), it will sound terrible. You need to give the audio meters on the GH2 the same amount of attention you give the focus ring on your lenses. But, ideally you're using more than just the input control on the GH2. Ideally you have a field mixer that enables you to adjust the amount of signal that you're sending into the camera.

The best way to go is always going to be to get real mics and a real field mixer. These little mini-shotguns are just quick solutions for unimportant shoots. They're just a quick and easy way to get better sound than you do with the built-in mics. What you really need to do is to bite the bullet and invest some money in location sound gear. There are lots of good XLR shotguns (like the Rode NTG-3). For interior shots like the one in the video, you should really be using a hyper cardioid mic, not a shotgun. There are great hypers out there like the Audix SCX1-HC and the Audio Technica 4053b. You need those mics, wind protection for those mics, and you also need a decent field mixer. I have a Sound Devices 302, but the Sound Devices Mixpre-D is a nice great option for less money.
 
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Thanx Sam for the comprehensive advice.

I was hoping that there was a mini solution that would save me lugging my field mixer around with such a portable go anywhere camera.
 
So, I'm contemplating the 400 or the VMP. I'll mostly be using it with an H1. But also direct to the GH2. Not in terms of audio quality, but in terms of simplicity, which would work best? Meaning not needing extra cables to fiddle with the signal etc...
 
Thanks Sam. That's a great test.

I think I'm sold on the tinymic, to my ears it seemed to hold the high end without loosing the mid range and picked up minimal room noise.
 
It's interesting to see how different people interpret the sound here, as we have different users now wanting different mics, and I personally like the VMP the best. Interesting test Sam, thanks!
 
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