Things to Consider Before You Post
 

I know I'm relatively new here and cannot even call myself a "pro" at anything related to audio or video; however, I'd like to propose the following as a sticky for the top of the forum. I think it would help newcommers and avoid frustration all-around. I'm sure others have insights to add.

Welcome to All Things Audio. Whether you are a pro or serious hobbiest, the following tips will help you make productive use of your time here.

1) Please search the forum before asking a question, if for no other reason than to refine the scope of your question. Thousands of questions have been answered here. Chances are yours is not new. Reading other responses will serve as good "research" for your own question.

2) Details please! Asking "What mic should I get?" will probably yield a wide range of responses. Provide the following details:
a) Intended application: indoors, outdoors, room dimensions
b) Budget: be specific. "Reasonably priced" tells us nothing about what you deem to be reasonable. Eventually someone will suggest a $2,000 mic and that may be out of your league. Are you willing to rent? Can you hire a dedicated, professional sound engineer?
c) What gear do you already have that will impact on the question?
d) Is this a paying gig or are you a serious amateur just trying to make a very good quality product?

3) Expect that "Which is better?" questions will yield many different answers. The best way to identify the correct tool for the job is to experiment and hear for yourself. That's the advantage of renting; you can try different things.

4) The more detail you include in your post, the more likely you are to receive a detailed, concise answer to your specific question.

I put this here with the hopes that folks might read it before asking "Which shotgun mic should I get" questions over and over again, without having searched first. Forgive me if it seems foolish. I thought it might be helpful and reduce the frustration of those who try to thoughtfully answer our questions.

Hey Bob,
While your idea is a good one, it will be pretty difficult to educate everyone on the method in which they post. It's kind of like the client asking "why do you charge so much when the next guy charges 1/2?" Some people just don't get it. Some people never will. With emerging products daily as well as prices changing constantly, I think some questions are valid to ask every now and again, even if it has been asked before because the answer very well may be different or someone may have a different view on things.

Really, where would you put this that everyone would see and read it? For almost anyone to see it, it would have to be a mandatory page that comes up before you post something. I for one would get annoyed with that very quickly.

I think the better thing to do would be this: if someone asks a very obvious question, simply reply that they should do a search if it's not a quick answer. Sometimes open ended questions spark other things that may not have been asked in the past. Sometimes, people aren't very good with search criteria. Any way you look at it, those general questions are not mandatory for you to read or post to, so I would just skip over them entirely. It's a public forum and people are free to post what they wish as long as it is in the scope of the forum and is not offensive, which 99% of posts are. We leave it to the moderators to decide those things.

Several of the other forums have generic instructions like this up in the Stickies Section at the top of the forum page. It was just a thought......

Bob

Instant sticky. Thanks Bob,

Running a website and forum myself, I can understand your request for more details. So here goes...

1) I own a Canon XL1( yes it's old but in excellent shape). I shoot hi school football games for the local team in La Marque Texas. I record the footage to a Firestore FS4, do a post game edit, then replay the game each week on the local community access channel. I used to have a crew of 4, using 2 announcers, 1 stats man with the laptop and naturally a cameraman. I would run the rca audio cables from the sound mixer to the XL1 and then send the video/audio mix via firewire to the the FS4. I also use a Varizoom monitor mounted on the camera,I split the video signal and send it back to the broadcast booth via rca video cable so the announcers can watch what the camera is shooting during the game. Now after all of that, here is the situation. I now only have 2 crew members.

2) I plan to set up the XL1 as normal on top of the press box at any given football game. I will have one announcer standing beside the tripod with the cameraman also miked up as an announcer. Here is the question

3) What type of headset(with built in mic) should I get for both the announcer and camera man so the audio is recorded and the audio also can be heard by both out of the headphones jack on the XL1. I guess what I'm also asking, can headset mics be configured to work with the RCA audio inputs on the XL1 or does the audio need to be input thru the 3.5m mic jack? I am looking for the simplest solution in regards to the type of jacks already available on the XL1.

Hopefully I have described the situation. In a nutshell I am getting rid of the sound mixer I used to use to input sound into the XL1 thru the RCA audio (1 or 2) inputs.

thanks for any suggestions or leads.

Actually, I apologize about my previous post. I should have put it in the normal forum thread list.

To the moderators of this awesome forum, please forgive the rookie of this forum.