Rode ntg-2 vs built in mic on the zoom h4n

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djtacoman

Member
I recently shot a wedding on dslr. I record my audio on the zoom h4n. I record 3 channels. One channel is my rode ntg-2 with the high pass filter on the mic on. I do not use phantom power as I put a battery in before shooting. The other 2 channels are from the built in mic on the zoom h4n recording in stereo. Because churches are so echoey and there is usually a band playing I have the zoom h4n handle the levels throughout recording. (I shoot them on my own with 2 cameras so I don't have an extra person to handle the levels.)

The audio from the last wedding I shot sucks from my rode but the h4n is crystal clear and awesome. Why? Is it the high pass filter? I can't figure it out. Any advice would be much appreciated.
 
Generally interference tube shotgun mics often sound odd in reverberant spaces. The Zoom's internal recorder mics are stereo, which is usually preferable for room mic'd music. Neither would sound very good on dialog unless they are in close proximity to the sound source.
 
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What Rick said, plus "sucks" doesn't really give any info on what you think is wrong with the sound. Shotguns are very directional, ie they only pick up well what they are pointing straight at. So from your description of our shoot the mic may well not have been pointing at what you wanted.

And a really echoey and thin sound is a common problem with interference tube mic in a bouncy room so could have been that also.
 
If it were a hot mic you maybe could have been over loading the input but the NTG2/ Zoom combo is supposed to have the opposite problem. My first suspect would be dying battery in the NTG2. Second would be bad cable, or dirty connectors. I'm assuming it wasn't too loud for the mic or you would have had similar problems with the built in mics.

So third suspect would be a blown mic. 1&3 are easy to check, 2 is probably easiest to check by swapping for another cable.

Fourth would be loose connection in the mic connector. Basically if you can wiggle the pins, maybe, if not very unlikely.
 
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