Recommend a Mic?

Michael Carter

Michael Carter

Veteran
Hi Folks - for starters, I have little-to-no interest in doing my own sound on a serious level. However, my teen daughter (and aspiring comedy writer) is eyeing my DVX for her school film festival.

I've got plenty of boom-friendly gear, but I also have a lav setup - AT Pro 88W. (Pro in this case being a consumer-lure I imagine). I bought it for the officiant at my wedding, in case we needed to put him through the PA. It worked surprisingly well reception-wise.

My question: I'd like to get a decent mic for it, should my daughter need it for her projects. The transmitter uses a 1/8" mini plug; the mic that came with it is an MT830mW, but it doesn't sound that hot. Basically, I'm assuming any dynamic high-z mic will work with it. I just don't know enough about lavs to choose one.

I don't mind spending up to a hundred bucks or so, my kid has done some cool stuff. Thanks for any advice -- MC
 
Michael Carter said:
Hi Folks - for starters, I have little-to-no interest in doing my own sound on a serious level. However, my teen daughter (and aspiring comedy writer) is eyeing my DVX for her school film festival.

I've got plenty of boom-friendly gear, but I also have a lav setup - AT Pro 88W. (Pro in this case being a consumer-lure I imagine). I bought it for the officiant at my wedding, in case we needed to put him through the PA. It worked surprisingly well reception-wise.

My question: I'd like to get a decent mic for it, should my daughter need it for her projects. The transmitter uses a 1/8" mini plug; the mic that came with it is an MT830mW, but it doesn't sound that hot. Basically, I'm assuming any dynamic high-z mic will work with it. I just don't know enough about lavs to choose one.

I don't mind spending up to a hundred bucks or so, my kid has done some cool stuff. Thanks for any advice -- MC
Click to expand...

Actually the stock mics are condensor mics. I doubt you'll find a sub-$100 mic that's really going to be any better than what you already have and it's likely that the sound quality issues you note are due to the budget wireless system itself and not just the mic capsule you're using with it.
 
I am with steve on this, but if I had to replace the mic I would go for a countyuman EMW $130. I bet the whole setup sounds miles better!
 
Hi Michael,

Not being aware of the AT Pro 88W, I googled it and - low and behold, I found I have one myself from many moons ago (stashed away with surplus stuff that I loan out to my non-serious buddies). The signal to noise ratio is so-so at best so you'll probably want to clip the baseline noise in post. The range is also less than spectacular, probably okay for under 100 feet with pure line of sight and no interference. So like the others suggest, the internal mic is actually quite good considering the lackluster quality of the transmitter/receiver. For its price, it's certainly a nice entry level unit. If you're daughter will be filming outside, I'd recommend buying her either a foam protector or mini-windbreaker. And hopefully between the two of you, you can clean up the baseline noise in post and perhaps tweak the compression and equalization.

Good luck, Michael
 
Thanks for the replies, guys. I'll see how it works out - I have decent booming gear, but for the kids a lav may be handier. Most of my budget these days seems to be going into my protools setup, but whatever my girl does across the next year will likely be her college portfolio, so I'm trying to find a good balance (especially considering she's focused on writing, not filmmaking). Cheers - MC
 
Just a thought but if the need is just short term, you might consider getting a decent new kit with good resale value that you could sell in a year. It might strain your budget for now but the net cost would work.

Also, you obviously know your daughter best but I would think that teenagers would find using a boom kinda cool and have plenty of friends willing to help out. I know I have to guard my gear from my teenage son and his friends. :laugh:

-Dan
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top