Low Shotgun Audio
 

Hello all...

I tried my new Rode NTG 2 shotgun mic today along with a wireless lapel mic. When I went to playback what I recorded in Avid, the lapel sounded great, however the shotgun was really low even though the levels going in looked good while recording. Any suggestions why?

If you had your selector switch in the ch1+ch2 position, the level meter would show the mixed audio level for both lines, making it look like ch 2 is humming along. If your audio is mixed, this may have been the problem, if you have two discrete and separate channels then you were in the ch1 position and the channel you had your shotgun in should have shown its own level.

But --- consider that your lav is close up, and clean. The quality of the shotgun is likely hampered by whatever ambient room tone it's picking up while you are recording...by which I mean, you have a good level of audio on that track but the voice you wanted to record is only a small part of it and thus seems lower than the lav..... just my guess... //Battle Vaughan/miamiherald.com video team

How far was the shotgun from the person speaking? If more than a few feet the sound of interest can have a poor ratio to ambient sound and it will sound a bit thin in comparison.

I have been doing some tests around the house today and I think that it's just that I was far away and expecting the mic to have a farther range than it does. I guess it's more for room noise and ambient sound.

Plus it's a NTG 1, not 2. Thought it was a 2 but but I looked at the box and was I was mistaken. Is there much of a difference between the two?

The mic only hears the sound that reaches it, it does not "stretch out" and grab sound that is far away. What gives it the apparent reach is the fact that it attenuates sound reaching it from the sides and rear making the sound from the front stand out more. The amount of attenuation depends on the sensitivity patten of the microphone and varies with angle and frequency. This can color sound, especially in spaces with high reverberation. Shotgun mics used in serious production are usually located just out of the visible frame and within a few feet of the person speaking.

While not identical, the NTG1 and NTG2 have very similar published characteristics, except for the battery power capability, and should sound very similar.

NTG-2 has a battery compartment and can run on battery or 48v phantom power. NTG-1 is phantom only. I was about to ask whether you were running your NTG-2 on a flat battery, but it's obviously not that!

I have the NTG-1. It's a very good mic, though it's output is not quite as powerful as the Senn K6+ME66 (I've tried both side-by-side). This can be helpful in noisy situations, but means you need to turn the preamps up a little more than the Senn the rest of the time.

If you use two very different mics in different locations, then you should use manual audio and adjust each channel independently. If you use auto audio levels, then both channels will be adjusted together (IIRC) and so the mic giving the stronger signal will dominate the other one.

HTH