XLR / Lav for Canon XL2?

[garydriftwood]

I have searched and researched the forum and I wasn't able to come up with the information I am looking for.

Recently I just bought a Canon XL2 which is on the way but I'm all confused on the wireless lav setup. I'm still trying to wrap my head around how all this stuff hooks up and connects.

My application is for a semi-professional Internet TV channel that will have anywhere up to four people in an interview table type setting.

Question:

1. Is it true that for each wireless MIC I will need a separate receiver?
2. If question 1 is true, then how the heck would you hook up four receivers to one camera?
3. Do all lavs hook up to XLR ports?
4. What's a good model to look at? I see lot's of recommendations for the Senn. GL2's.

Thanks in advance for any replies.

GD

 

[mbwkrause]

1. Yes
2. You need a four channel mixer
3. No. They are either hard wired or wired for a specific receiver. There are adapters out there too that can let you use your lav both ways
4. On this board Sennheiser G2 is considered a decent entry level wireless system that does come with a sub-par mic. Lectros are highly recommended, favored lavs are Countryman B6, EMW and Sanken COS-11

 

[mikkowilson]

1) Yes, each transmitter needs it's own reciver. Each transmitter-reciver pair needs to be on it's own frequency.
2) Using either a camera with 4 audio inputs. Or a mixer to combine signals from multiple microphones down to tone or two tracks for recording.
3) Dependson the model of macrophone.
4) The G2 is a popular and very good options.



EDIT: I type slowly.

- Mikko

 

[ptalsky]

GD,

With regard to the four channel mixer (which you do need in order to make this work) you can get a board style mixer that will work perfectly. Since your situation is sitting around a table, you don't need a bag-style mixer (like the Sound Devices 442). You can get a Mackie or Alesis mixer and get good results. (And save about $2k in the process). If you're going to be doing "run-n-gun" then you need a bag-style mixer and those are much more expensive.

Phil

 

[garydriftwood]

Thanks everyone for the info.

Wow...now I can see how expenses can really ramp up.

Do the G2's come with XLR connectors?

I'm starting to get the feeling that with all this gear you won't be to far off from looking like Robo Cop when it's done.


Can I use a boom mic and get the job done?

 

[Steve House]

Thanks everyone for the info.

Wow...now I can see how expenses can really ramp up.

Do the G2's come with XLR connectors?

I'm starting to get the feeling that with all this gear you won't be to far off from looking like Robo Cop when it's done.


Can I use a boom mic and get the job done?

Welcome to the world of audio <grin>. It's not at all unusual for the cost of the audio gear on the set to exceed the cost of the camera gear by a large margin.

One point - you don't need to go wireless to use a lav mic on the talent. Since your interview has the subjects seated in one place and not moving around, you should easily be able to use hard-wired lavs instead of radio. A $50 XLR cable is a lot cheaper than a $500 transmitter/receiver pair and 25 or 50 foot cable runs are not a problem with balanced mics and cables.

The G2s do come with cables for both minijack and XLR inputs if you buy them as a kit. If you're purchasing the components 'a la carte' the required cables are available from Sennheiser or from third party vendors.

You can do it with a boom mic IF you have a boom operator that can follow the flow of conversation to aim the mic at the speaker of the moment. Booms are typically hypercardioid or shotgun mics and their pickup pattern is too narrow to properly cover more then one, or at most two, people at a time. Wider pattern mics need to be close enough to the talent that they'll almost certainly have to be in the shot.

A four channel or more mixer to take the lavs and mix them to stereo for the camera is likely to be the most economical option but you will need to be careful with what mics are combined with what. If mics that are too close together are mixed, there can be distortion due to the fact that both mics are picking up the same sound with a slight time difference between them. When mixed the two waveforms are slightly out of phase and a phenomenon called 'comb filtering' can occur. The best way to do it is to record each mic to its own isolated channel and do the mix in post but that means going double system and using a 4-channel recorder like the SD744 (rentable).