Giant Squid lav mic

[Fred Foronda]

Have a couple of questions regarding irivers and giant squid lav mics.
-Does it work with any iriver series?
-And whats the ranges (how close to the subject) in order to capture voices?
-How about capturing ambient or background sounds?


Thanks

[Jonathan Jones]

bumping this post up

[Ron Wildhaber]

I have just been though the process of obtaining an Iriver that will take an external mic hookup. An external mic will work through the line in connection on the 700 and 800 series. Audio lab makes an Iriver that is sprcifically made for the Iriver. An angle plug is better suited for the 800 series because the mic hookup is on the side. A straight connection is fine for the 700 series because it is on the top. I have an Iriver T30 also and it has an line in connection but a mic will not work with these newer units. The sound produced with the Giant Squid mic is incredible.

[Fred Foronda]

not many feed backs on this topic. Plus I think the earlier models of the irivers are discontinued. I guess sony mini disc is an alternative to look at.

[Mark A. Foley]

The IFP series iRIver, when feed with a good mic like the Giant Squid or the MT830, sounded incredible considering the price of the recorder...granted there are hundreds of better recording devices...but nothing compares at that price. It is truly a shame, especially for the wedding videography genre that iRiver has chosen to not continue with these models.

[Jonathan Jones]

I ended finally getting an iRiver from ebay last week. It arrived yesterday and seems to work great for playback and such....I haven't yet recorded using a mic, but I have a some Giant Squid mics arriving next week. (I bought 2 because I am getting a second iRiver when I find a good deal on ebay.

I had some trouble finding the GS mics made specifically for iRiver as I had read in these forums that GS adapts them to work with iRiver to accomodate the way the iRiver plugs are designed. I couldn't seem to find any such mention on the GS site, but someone in these forums posted a link to the item in the GS products pages:
http://www.giant-squid-audio-lab.com/gs/gs-mono1.htm

From what I have heard from other users, I expect to be quite impressed by what I hear from these little guys.

In my experiences of the last year, I think it is important to have a backup capture system that allows for some degree of audio capture for things like wedding vows, etc.

Primarily, I use a Senn wireless lav system to mic spoken audio for weddings, and I have had to make a choice as to mic either the Groom or the minister, depending upon their clothing, mannerisms, comfort level, and amount of content they expect to deliver. (sometimes the minister speeks for 45 mins and the couple says 5 words - sometimes the minister is brief and the couple recite long poems to each other - )

At one wedding, the groom was mic'd, but was very emotional and cried through the whole ceremony...sniffles and everything. Such that it covered up everything the minister said - all 45 minutes of it - I had to rely on a shotgun mic to capture the minister.

In a reverse situation, at another wedding, I had a mic on the minister - who sounded great, but when she wasn't speaking, she was nervously fiddling with her ceremony script, scratching and snapping the pages next to the mic - very irritating when I was focusing on the audio for the vows.

With the addition of the iRivers, I have a few extra options as to where I can add some discreet mics for very satisfactory backup options (mic both the minister and the groom and maybe even the wedding arch if present)

I also remember someone posted last year the idea of using an iRiver on a podium (ambo) for readings, etc during church service weddings. Hiding the iRiver in a standard eyeglass case and placing somewhere appropriate on the podium helps to ensure good capture - while usually no one ever fiddles with the glasses case as it may belong to the person reading next - and people generally respect that.

I will be keeping a spare eyeglass case in my equipment box for just such instances.
-Jon

[Fred Foronda]

Originally Posted by Jonathan Jones

In my experiences of the last year, I think it is important to have a backup capture system that allows for some degree of audio capture for things like wedding vows, etc.

Primarily, I use a Senn wireless lav system to mic spoken audio for weddings, and I have had to make a choice as to mic either the Groom or the minister, depending upon their clothing, mannerisms, comfort level, and amount of content they expect to deliver. (sometimes the minister speeks for 45 mins and the couple says 5 words - sometimes the minister is brief and the couple recite long poems to each other - )

At one wedding, the groom was mic'd, but was very emotional and cried through the whole ceremony...sniffles and everything. Such that it covered up everything the minister said - all 45 minutes of it - I had to rely on a shotgun mic to capture the minister.

In a reverse situation, at another wedding, I had a mic on the minister - who sounded great, but when she wasn't speaking, she was nervously fiddling with her ceremony script, scratching and snapping the pages next to the mic - very irritating when I was focusing on the audio for the vows.

With the addition of the iRivers, I have a few extra options as to where I can add some discreet mics for very satisfactory backup options (mic both the minister and the groom and maybe even the wedding arch if present)

I also remember someone posted last year the idea of using an iRiver on a podium (ambo) for readings, etc during church service weddings. Hiding the iRiver in a standard eyeglass case and placing somewhere appropriate on the podium helps to ensure good capture - while usually no one ever fiddles with the glasses case as it may belong to the person reading next - and people generally respect that.

I will be keeping a spare eyeglass case in my equipment box for just such instances.
-Jon

thanks for sharing your experiences. with that said i think it would be a better option to just record the speaker(s) seperately from the video audio. that way you can atleast turn down/off one or the other in post production. i am still in a rut to deciding what will work best with the sony mini disc i have yet to venture in that area.

[Tom Bolia]

I looked at the Giant Squid website, and they only make mono mics specifically for the i-River 700, 800, and 900 series. I'm not sure, but I keep reading postings about these units having to record in mono or something along those lines. I just recently purchased the Creative Zen Nano, and it records fine in stereo and I am not sure if it will even accept a mono plug.

Can someone else give me more details on why the Giant Squids are made with mono mics, and why they apparently "have" to record in mono?

[John Rofrano]

Originally Posted by Tom Bolia

Can someone else give me more details on why the Giant Squids are made with mono mics, and why they apparently "have" to record in mono?

Tom, they don’t “have” to record in mono. Here is the scoop. You only have one mouth so recording your voice in stereo makes no sense. The iRiver records in stereo just fine but there is a problem if you WANT to record in mono. The mic jack is wired backwards. So when you plug a mono mic into these iRivers, they still record in stereo even though you set them to mono mode. Giant Squid makes a mic that is wired backwards just for the iRiver. When you use these GS mics, the iRiver can correctly record in mono. Since your recording time doubles in mono, this is a very desirable mode for recording dialog. So the Giant Squid mics are correcting a design flaw in the iRiver 700/800 series. Since you don’t have one of these, you can get the normal GS mic for your Zen Nano.

~jr

[Tom Bolia]

Thanks John. I took the mono lavalier mic I had from my older Azden wireless unit and plugged it into my brother's iRiver 890 and had no problems recording. I currently use my Zen to record my church services straight from the main soundboard through a stereo connector, and have no problems at all. It is my belief that the Zen requires a stereo lavalier mic if you plan on using it for the line in input. I can confirm this tonight after experimenting with a stereo lavalier mic I took from my Sony wireless unit. :o)

I just did a wedding yesterday, and I used the Zen to record the event's sound directly from the soundboard. I hooked the iRiver with the mono lavalier mic (from my Azden WM-PRO tranmitter) up to the pastor, and then I had my Sony UTX-B1 wireless hooked up to the groom, sending sound to one of my cameras. I think that is sufficient sound back up. ;o)

[John Rofrano]

Originally Posted by Tom Bolia

Thanks John. I took the mono lavalier mic I had from my older Azden wireless unit and plugged it into my brother's iRiver 890 and had no problems recording.

Yes, but you cannot record in MONO with the Azden mic, correct? This is a terrible waste of memory. You are recording the exact same signal on two stereo tracks so, for example, instead of getting 3 hrs of mono recording you are only getting only 1.5 hrs of stereo recording. This is why the Giant Squid mic is important to have for the iRivers.

~jr

[Tom Bolia]

Originally Posted by John Rofrano

Yes, but you cannot record in MONO with the Azden mic, correct? This is a terrible waste of memory. You are recording the exact same signal on two stereo tracks so, for example, instead of getting 3 hrs of mono recording you are only getting only 1.5 hrs of stereo recording. This is why the Giant Squid mic is important to have for the iRivers.

~jr

The iRiver I used is the iFP-890 which has 256MB of memory. In stereo mode, it allowed me more than 3 hrs of recording time. I have NEVER had a wedding ceremony last that long, so it is not a "waste of memory" for me. I record the wedding service and go home and download it. It's not a big deal, really. No hard feelings John, but I simply do not need the Giant Squid mic. ;o)

[John Rofrano]

Originally Posted by Tom Bolia

No hard feelings John, but I simply do not need the Giant Squid mic. ;o)

No hard feelings at all. I was just trying give you clear answers to your questions. I did not mean the term “waste of memory” to be subjective. Recording a mono mic in stereo serves no useful purpose. It is the exact same information on both channels so the second channel is consuming memory without adding any benefit.

I respect the fact that you don’t mind “wasting memory” as a tradeoff for not having to buy a special mic to record in mono. I would do the same thing in your situation. I just wanted you to understand the tradeoffs and apparently you do ;-)

The fact remains, you won’t be able to record in mono unless you buy the special GS mic.

~jr

[Tom Bolia]

John, I understand that it really serves no purpose recording the same thing in stereo in this case. It just happened to be my solution, since I had an older Azden PRO wireless system that I was not using, and took the mic from there. I did notice that there is a difference between using the line-in and ext. mic settings.

Well, since Jonathan answered Fred's question, do you have any suggestions/experience with Creative's Zen Nano? It also has a line in, but I am not having any luck using any of my current lavalier mics. I know the line-in records fine because I hook it up to the church's sound board and record the services just fine. I have tried both a mono and a stereo lavalier mic, but the problem may be what you have previously stated, John. Maybe if I plan on wiring my Zen to the groom in the future, then I might have to buy a GS after all... LOL. Right now, I'll stick with using the iRiver wired on the pastor, the Sony wireless on the groom (hooked into line 2 of my DSR-250), and the Zen hooked up to the church's sound board. This setup, along with the sound I already get from both cameras should cover everything. ;o)

[John Rofrano]

Originally Posted by Tom Bolia

Well, since Jonathan answered Fred's question, do you have any suggestions/experience with Creative's Zen Nano? It also has a line in, but I am not having any luck using any of my current lavalier mics.

You cannot plug a microphone into a line-in so not even the GS mic will help you. Line-in is for line level input only (like the output from a mixing console) which is much higher level than mic input. The Creative Zen Nano does not have a mic preamp and so you cannot use external microphones with it unless you add a mixer before it.

That’s why the iRiver 700/800 series are so coveted. I don’t know of any manufacturer, not even iRiver, that makes MP3 players with external mic inputs anymore.

~jr