Noob audio question

N

N635DC

Well-known member
I picked up a new shotgun today (MC-200), I never really gave it much thought when I mounted them before, but with the wire mesh on both sides. When I mount this in the shotgun mount does it matter if the orientation is to have the mesh side to side on the left and right or with the mesh to the top to bottom?

What is the purpose of this mesh? I though the pickup pattern to this mic was to be directional from the front.
 
I read those pages but am still a little unclear. Are the slits in the tube covered with wiremesh supposes to face to the sides or to the top and bottom or does it not matter?
 
Since you are going with a camera mount, you would be concerned with reducing sound sources to either side of your subject. Orient them to the sides to make the most of side rejection and make sure they are not obstructed. On another note: mount your mic to your cam only if you have no other choice. Also check out the "Sound for Film and Television" dvd. It will enhance your understanding of what it is that you are trying to accomplish by using a microphone.
 
well the camera mount mic is more for wedding ambient and run and gun ENG than anything for what I'm doing. For voices, interviews and commercials I use a hand held with a Sennheiser wireless brick, G2 lav or boomed. Just trying to get the most out of my ambient mic seeing as I never utilize those pointless on camera mics that they insist on including on the camera body.

Thanks for the input, I'll check the camera's tonight to make sure they are oriented to the sides.
 
Why call it pointless? Shotgun mics have always served me well at the television station for news. I have been reading today that alot of people are recomending the NTG-1, is it really that much better that I should send these back to B&H and get those instead?
 
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you can do a whole lot better than the MC-200 or NTG-1. Do some searching in the Audio Forum and check out the yellow stickies at the top of the forum.
 
Let me reorient the question after doing some reading in the audio forum. Lets say that my work would be 60% weddings 15% ENG and 25% everything else. Now for miking someone I have G2 lavs, for ENG and wedding interviews I have a handheld with a G2 brick and for actual production work I *WILL* have a decent setup with a few mics, boom pole, mixer, breakaway, blimp, shockmount and all that jazz.

What I was trying to accomplish with the on camera MC200G was to get better ambient audio than I would normally get with the built in mic for situations that do not warrant or allow miking. Wedding dancing, B roll, ENG B roll Etc.

Also too I would like to be able to record quality ambient at all times when rolling, If I am miking to XLR2 on the camera with a wireless or boom I still want room audio on XLR1 as it might help with fuller sound in post.

Now Normally I would just go with it and buy an awesome mic and call it a day except for the fact that I outfitting 3 camera's (HMC-150) with kit and want a decent mounted mic on all 3. Note that those 3 on camera mics will be separate from my actual audio kit. If I were to give you a max budget or approx 900 bucks total (300 per mic) to accomplish the mission what would you add? The MC-200G's from B&H were $295. Can you do better while staying on or under budget? I already have a pair of MDR 7506's for audio monitoring in each bag.
 
The AT-875 is a good deal - under $200. Perhaps someone on the board has played with both and can give an evaluation.
 
N635DC said:
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What I was trying to accomplish with the on camera MC200G was to get better ambient audio than I would normally get with the built in mic for situations that do not warrant or allow miking. Wedding dancing, B roll, ENG B roll Etc.

..g.
Click to expand...

Using the on-camera for general ambient sound, fine. But any dialog indoors is going to sound like it was shot standing in a metal culvert. I don't have any first-hand experience with them but I would expect the mics you got would be as good as any in that budget range.
 
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I bought the Panasonic mic with my dvx because I did not know any better at the time. Thankfully, I was able to return it. As Steve said, the on-board mics are fine for ambient---at least on the DVX and HVX they are fine. However, if you want to go with a shotgun, check out the Shotgun mic stickie by PureDrifting. The AT875R sounds like a real sleeper for the money.

Here--check out the sound samples listed under Test #5, about 3/4 down the page. For the cost, I don't think you can find better info.
 
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