To stick to the wireless lavs or not to stick with them...

[Sean Nelson]

The folks here who are using the dvrs, are you guys using them by themselves or do you guys mean your are hooking a wired lav mic to them?

The syncing for me is no issue, even with the xha1 and wireless lavs going to it, i am still using dslrs so i will always sync.

[Chris Bryan]

Originally Posted by Roger Van Duyn

There are worries with recorders like the Zoom. I have personally experienced the loss of everything on the memory card in my Zoom H4N. Something happened, I never figured out what exactly.

My camera records to the same SD cards that my Zoom records to, so if a blast of static electricity can take out the audio on the Zoom, then I guess it could take out all of my footage as well. I've never heard of that happening though.

There's a calculated risk with every piece of equipment we use, no matter how expensive or "professional" it is. You just have to figure out what works for you. I use a Sony recorder with a lav mic on the groom's lapel and hook my Zoom H4N into the soundboard or speaker as a backup. That along with my on camera microphones has give me 100% excellent audio quality.

[Warren Kawamoto]

Originally Posted by Corey Graham

With wireless, I have to worry about range, interference, the venue's permission, etc.

I'm an old school, wireless mic guy. I'm currently using 2 sets of Sony UWP-V1s. Before that, I had Lectrosonics. To dispel fears of drop outs or interference, let me say that I've NEVER had a dropout. Never ever. I'm talking about 3500+ weddings, and maybe 1000 other projects! I love the fact that I can simply drop my footage on the timeline and the 2 sound sources are always synced.

However, I do also use a H4n to capture additional sound sources, but not as a backup.

[John Wiley]

I am another who cannot shoot without being able to monitor my audio - which means wireless is the only viable option for me. To me, not monitoring audio is like shooting a whole wedding without using the LCD screen or EVF on your camera. If I can't monitor exactly what is being recorded (for example the audio from the 2nd camera) then I assume nothing at all is being recorded.

One thing I just discovered the joys of whilst switching to DSLR's is how liberating it is not being tethered to one camera by headphones. In a recent setup each camera had a Rode Videomic, and the wireless reciever was plugged into a Zoom H4 which stayed in my pocket the whole time. No matter where I went, I could monitor the main audio without being attached via a 4ft headphones cable to a camera on a tripod.

[Chris Bryan]

Hey John,

That sounds like an interesting setup, do you put a lav on the groom during the ceremony? Surely the videomics on the cameras aren't close enough to pick up the vows during the ceremony. I'd love to hear more about your setup!

[Ray Pegram]

Whilst I use a single wireless mic on the groom and a shotgun mic on my 'A' camera. .. I also try and get a line out of the church's PA system on my 'B' camera. That way all the mixing is done including that of the priest/minister, readings, choir etc and the priest always holds their mic to the bide/groom when reciting the nuptials....... overkill perhaps????

[John Wiley]

Originally Posted by Chris Bryan

Hey John,

That sounds like an interesting setup, do you put a lav on the groom during the ceremony? Surely the videomics on the cameras aren't close enough to pick up the vows during the ceremony. I'd love to hear more about your setup!

Yes Chris, I have a wireless Lav on the groom and that is what I monitoring via the Zoom H4. The on-camera mics are there for ambience/backup. Sorry, I don't think I made that clear in my first post.

[Roger Van Duyn]

Originally Posted by Chris Bryan

My camera records to the same SD cards that my Zoom records to, so if a blast of static electricity can take out the audio on the Zoom, then I guess it could take out all of my footage as well. I've never heard of that happening though.

There's a calculated risk with every piece of equipment we use, no matter how expensive or "professional" it is. You just have to figure out what works for you. I use a Sony recorder with a lav mic on the groom's lapel and hook my Zoom H4N into the soundboard or speaker as a backup. That along with my on camera microphones has give me 100% excellent audio quality.

I don't know what caused the Zoom to fail, but I threw that card away, figured it wasn't reliable in any device. That time the Zoom was plugged into the sound board at the gig. Maybe the audio guy messed with it. Who knows.

As for static just erasing footage, in the laboratory, static took the ENTIRE INSTRUMENT DOWN and the manufacturer had to send a service engineer to replace several circuit boards. That happened on numerous instruments numerous times. That particular lab is the only one I ever worked in that was carpeted. We also had to wear fluid resistant biohazard clothing. The combo of the clothing and walking across the carpeting generated static electricity. Thankfully, just the card in the Zoom got fried, not the Zoom itself.

We also were especially careful to wear the antistatic wrist device when doing maintenance on the instruments, just like you're told to wear when working on a PC. Modern technology is both powerful, and fragile at the same time. One time on the local TV news they showed footage of an explosion while someone was pumping gas into their car. The cause: static electricity.

Back to audio, I've also had to throw out a hand held microphone. Don't know what happened to it. It came with the wireless kit I bought used. It worked for a while, then went dead, don't know why. It wasn't dropped or anything. Maybe it got plugged wrong, like firewire ports on certain cameras getting fried if you plug in the cable when the camera is on. Don't know. Replaced the microphone. At the gig, I pulled another mic out of my bag. But I knew the microphone was dead due to monitoring the audio. Whatever the cause, power surge, static discharge, operator error, gremlins, monitoring the audio alerted me to the dead microphone.

Don't take anything for granted. Monitor as much as you can. Have as much backup as you can.

[Roger Van Duyn]

Oops, double post. "Magic fingers"