XLR to 1/8" Mic Question??
 

Hi,
I have a Sony DCR-VX2100 which has an optional 1/8" mic input.
I would like to use my Shure SM58 microphone which I use for DJ work. The cable used for the mic is XLR.
I've seen some cables that are XLR to 1/8". Does anyone know if I could use this type of setup on my camera? I would also like to use this setup for voiceovers for my video editing through my computer.
If you have a simular setup, please let me know if it works well for you. Your input and/or suggestions would be most appreciated! Thanks, Ray

I suggest you investigate Beachtek, and choose a model appropriate for your needs - e.g. does your mic require phantom power? + I assume it has a balanced output?

http://www.beachtek.com/products.html

Be a little careful in choosing: the DXA-4 is "recommended for the VX2100" but it doesn't provide phantom power. For that, you need the DXA-6, DXA-6VU or DXA-10.

Simple XLR to 1/8" adapters will not work well, especially if you want to use long XLR leads. HTH.

I believe the VX2100 has an external mic connector which is wired tip=signal, ring=+5v "plugin power", sleeve=ground when the input is in mic mode, tip=left, ring=right, and sleeve=ground when it's in line input mode. The simple XLR to 1/8" TRS adapter cables usually aren't wired properly for either configuration. Ray's suggestion of a Beachtek box is a good one. Other options might be to put the camera into line input mode and use an inexpensive mixer between the mic and the camera. I was looking the other day at Behringer's Xenix 802 or 1002 to use as a demo mixer for a class I'm teaching. Either of them would work well for this as long as you have AC power handy and they both sell for under $100 US. Their "tape out" terminals are unbalanced stereo and using simple double RCA to stereo mini plug cables from Radio Shack would be right to feed the camera's external input when it's in line input mode. You could also use a pair of the same cables to plug the mixers "tape out" to your computer sound card's line input and the sound card's line out to the "tape in" on the mixer to interface your mic, CD player, stereo, etc to your computer for recording VO etc.

Actually the VX2100 mini jack input is stereo in either mic or line mode. My SM-57 works fine with an XLR to dual mono adapter cable plugged into the mic jack.

You might want to use a mic impedence transformer like the one Sure sells for $36. While a cable wired correctly will work, the impedence probably won't be matched. The transformer is also wired so that it'll record on both channes of your camcorder.

The transformer is not necessary.

Ty Ford

I could have sworn I recently saw in the manual during another discussion on phasing problems that the mic jack was wired as I described - I could be mistaken. None the less, a dual mono adapter wired XLR2 to both tip plus ring, XLR3 and XLR1 both to sleeve will certainly work fine. Unfortunately a lot of the regular off the shelf XLR to TRS adapters are wired XLR2->tip, XLR3->ring, XLR1->sleeve, intended to convert a balanced mono XLR to a balanced mono TRS, and will result in dual mono with the channels in opposite phase to each other. I suspect that too often people will try to stack XLR to 1/4 TRS plus a 1/4-1/8 stereo adapters to avoid having to make up an adapter cable and that's almost certain to result in the phase reversed wiring. While I'm sure there are others available, Hosa sells both as I recall, the only XLR to mini adapter I know for a fact off the top of my head that's wired properly is the one from Rode. Certainly the typical music store blister-pak adapters that are intended to connect balanced XLR to balanced TRS definitely are not wired correctly to send a mono XLR mic into a stereo mic minijack.

What we are using...
 

I don't know all the wiring specifics but we are using the Hosa MIT-156 to run a Rode NT-3 to our GL-2 camera with 50' XLR cable. We get great sound.

Hope this helps.

Randy

Randy, have you tried mixing your tracks down to mono to see how they sound? (replicating what happens in some broadcast chains, or in some TVs... more than you might think.)

The issue here is that with an adaptor wired as Steve described everything will sound great in stereo in the edit room, great for you with your stereo tv, but some people at home hear no dialog due to mono incompability.

Maybe the Hosa adaptor you have is wired this way, maybe it isn't...

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=78636