Wireless Lavalier Mic
- Thread starter TheCase
- Start date
First suggestion, do a couple minutes of work with the "search" function in the forums. Wireless mics are discussed daily, and the nearly-exact same question is asked time after time.
Second, you're not going to find much for £200. Might need to bump that up to about £300. ($500-$600 USD is the minimum range for decent wireless lav systems.)
Second, you're not going to find much for £200. Might need to bump that up to about £300. ($500-$600 USD is the minimum range for decent wireless lav systems.)
Waw, I thought they where cheaper. The problem is I use a wired lavalier mic plugged in to minidisc but it takes forever to sync up and sometimes it doesnt even record when we think it is, or it switches off half way through.
Wireless lavalier mic is are only option right? The talent will be close to the camera though
Wireless lavalier mic is are only option right? The talent will be close to the camera though
paulears
Veteran
Nope - cabled lavs are quite common - BUT - your lack of xlr+phantom will limit you a bit, however, there are some budget ones that use quite ok sounding capsules, so worth experimenting with.
http://cpc.farnell.com/monacor/ecm-3005/tie-clip-microphone/dp/MP33027
Stupidly cheap - worth it just to see if you like the sound.
However - this one
http://cpc.farnell.com/yoga/em-016/electret-condenser-lavalier-microphone/dp/MP33850
has a very common condenser element on the end (used by people like Trantec) and I've had a few of these - they're made by the Chinese Yoga company - and they actually sound pretty good. They are disposable, though. The kind of issues I've had were physical ones. STripping on the cable, can snap it, or you can 'wiggle' the solder connection off the end of the housing.
Those issues to one side, I've been buying these to cut off the battery box and use on some older radio systems I have still lying about that I use on student shows where damage is common.
Sound wise - they are fine. Not exactly Sennheiser quality, but for less than the postage on a Sennheiser - nothing to worry about!
http://cpc.farnell.com/monacor/ecm-3005/tie-clip-microphone/dp/MP33027
Stupidly cheap - worth it just to see if you like the sound.
However - this one
http://cpc.farnell.com/yoga/em-016/electret-condenser-lavalier-microphone/dp/MP33850
has a very common condenser element on the end (used by people like Trantec) and I've had a few of these - they're made by the Chinese Yoga company - and they actually sound pretty good. They are disposable, though. The kind of issues I've had were physical ones. STripping on the cable, can snap it, or you can 'wiggle' the solder connection off the end of the housing.
Those issues to one side, I've been buying these to cut off the battery box and use on some older radio systems I have still lying about that I use on student shows where damage is common.
Sound wise - they are fine. Not exactly Sennheiser quality, but for less than the postage on a Sennheiser - nothing to worry about!
Why do people still insist that cheap is acceptable when it comes to audio?! Its more expensive in the long run. After you've destroyed 10 of these disposable (?!) lavs, you've spent just about as much as purchasing one, sturdy professional lav. So you just keep buying more and more of the cheapies, and the cost adds up.
And looking at those lavs, the cheap construction includes a very bulky capsule, which will be difficult to work with should you want/need to bury the lav in clothing or hair.
First of all, the Sennheiser lavs that come with a G3 system aren't the best to begin with... so a lav that isn't even up to that level? The other expensive part of cheap audio is the headache in post of trying to make it sound good. Not making it sound okay, but good. (You can polish a turd all day long, but... )
To the OP... do yourself a favor and invest in a decent system. Buy it right the first time. And, if you find yourself doing more and more, upgrade the lav to something from Countryman or Sanken.
You might also benefit from an XLR converter box like Beachtek or Juicedlink. That will give you XLR inputs with tactile level control, and depending on the converter model you can get phantom power. This box mounts under the camera and plugs into your 1/8" input.
unclebob6958
Well-known member
Hear! Hear!
If you're going to cheap out on audio why bother making a film at all?
I got an email the other day from a guy who just spent what I guess is about $20k on a camera and accessories (Panasonic AG-HPX) and wanted my advice on what to buy for his production sound kit - mics, lavs, wireless, mixer, etc. - that would make his stuff sound like a Hollywood film. He wanted to spend about $300. I emailed some ideas for a package assuming that he had left off a zero. He emailed back that three hundred dollars was his budget. WTF!?!?!?!?! You spend $20k on a camera and then want to spend $300 on sound gear?
I get this all the time; "well, we blew our budget of $25k on the production of our feature so we want you to do the audio post for $200. After all, it's only sound. But we'll give you a credit and buy you dinner." ONLY SOUND?
I'm very polite in turning these folks down and explaining to them some of the audio facts of life - after all, todays a$$hole is tomorrows producer - but where does this attitude come from? What are they teaching in film schools these days?
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... until you put it up against a quality lav, or play it on mixing-quality studio monitors. "Amazing" in this instance really begs a frame of reference.
There are certainly some very nice, lowER-cost mics out there. But the adage still holds true that you get what you pay for. The bottom end for a lav that will do any real good is about $150. The bottom end for a reliable wireless system to go with that lav is about $550.
JordanBlock
Well-known member
Some cheap stuff can be supprisingly good. I bought a £10 wired lav mic and the results are amazingIf only it was wireless
Amazing compared to what? The camera mic from 10 feet away?
Richard Crowley
Veteran
1) Cheap does NOT mean low-quality.
2) Not every application needs a $500 lav.
If you are saying that you don't have any experience working with careless users (students, et.al.) in predictably harsh environments, then we're happy for you. But some of use have been there and done that. After you've destroyed 10 expensive lavs, you can't afford the rent anymore and you have to live in your car.
Agreed. The ability to use pro mics with XLR connectors is indispensable.
JordanBlock
Well-known member
1) There's a big difference between 'cheap' and 'inexpensive'.
For example: Azden's shotguns are cheap, Rode's are inexpensive.
2) We're not talking about $500 lavs. We're talking about $500 transmitter/receiver pairs. A decent lav can be had for $150-200
Chamber005
Carbonite Member
I just used wired lav mics (Countryman B3s) for a shoot this weekend. I didn't mind the wires at all. They just hook onto the back belt, you make a little circle with the wire and the tape it accordingly. Also with wired lavs you can hide them under things like plants or on plates and stuff -- which I did for the "wild" tracks.
If I needed to show the talent moving about below the waste, I either filmed them so that the wire wouldn't show, or I just unhooked them and filmed so that the synch would be pretty easy to match (head turn, etc -- like when one of the characters stood up from a table he was sitting at and walked off down a hallway. There's a line of dialog there, but I've got like 50 takes of him saying the line, so one of them will synch, or I'll just cut in when it does!)
I'm SUPER low budget on my webseries because it's the first time I've ever tried filmmaking -- thus I'm super wary of anything wireless. Usually if you go wireless and don't buy/rent the BEST, I've heard tell that it's a pretty miserable experience.
Cost-wise, I was able to get the two B3s for 40 dollars for four days from a rental place here in Chicago. Because I do the make-up and everything for the webseries I can only shoot one day (thus each episode is shot in one day, hit or stick), but having the lavs for an extra couple days gave me the opprotunity to get some nice ambient and foley stuff, which was cool (instead of having to use my crappy CAD 217 high top drum mic -- which I used on the first two episodes).
Since the rental place is only open for a few hours on Saturday and are closed on Sunday, they gave me the mics from 1PM on friday to 12PM on Monday for the price of one day.
If I needed to show the talent moving about below the waste, I either filmed them so that the wire wouldn't show, or I just unhooked them and filmed so that the synch would be pretty easy to match (head turn, etc -- like when one of the characters stood up from a table he was sitting at and walked off down a hallway. There's a line of dialog there, but I've got like 50 takes of him saying the line, so one of them will synch, or I'll just cut in when it does!)
I'm SUPER low budget on my webseries because it's the first time I've ever tried filmmaking -- thus I'm super wary of anything wireless. Usually if you go wireless and don't buy/rent the BEST, I've heard tell that it's a pretty miserable experience.
Cost-wise, I was able to get the two B3s for 40 dollars for four days from a rental place here in Chicago. Because I do the make-up and everything for the webseries I can only shoot one day (thus each episode is shot in one day, hit or stick), but having the lavs for an extra couple days gave me the opprotunity to get some nice ambient and foley stuff, which was cool (instead of having to use my crappy CAD 217 high top drum mic -- which I used on the first two episodes).
Since the rental place is only open for a few hours on Saturday and are closed on Sunday, they gave me the mics from 1PM on friday to 12PM on Monday for the price of one day.