Recording Speeches

[Peter Riding]

Originally Posted by Tariq Peter

I have spoken to the DJ, he said he has a phono out and my zoom h1 has a line in which the site says , this jack accepts stereo line-level inputs to be used in capturing audio from cassette decks, record players and other analog sources.

Would I be able to capture from his deck as I am not to familiar with audio and what connectors I would need?

Thanks

Careful as you are probably going to need a pad cable as well to step down the signal going into the H1's jack. They call it a "mic/line input jack" in the manual (page 8) but don't say which it is or if it is switchable. I usually use an H4n for that and it is "mic" meaning that it doesn't take much to overload it. The pad cable's purpose is to reduce the signal so that it does not overload. I'm pretty sure the H1 is the same - I have 3 but don't use them for recording straight off the deck etc as they are more suited to hiding near the participants as they are so small.

You can get a pad cable from Pinknoise Systems. Needless to say the price has shot up since dSLRs made their appearance:

Pinknoise -25db Curly Pad Cable | Pinknoise Systems | Location Sound & DSLR Equipment

One end of the pad cable will connect direct to the H1. The other end needs to be connected to the deck. You'll probably need a 3.5mm to phone convertor of some description. Mine have two phono male plugs on one end - one red and the other white to go in the deck, the other end finishes in a single 3.5mm stereo male jack. If your pad cable has males on both ends you'll need a female to female connnector.

Confused? If you visit your local Maplins they will have all the connectors and put you right - but they probably won't have pad cables.

You will need a pad cable eventually even if not for this job because as soon as you connect many mini recorders direct to sound decks and play muisc they are overwhelmed even at very low Levels setting.

As mentioned earlier the easy way out is to put the H1 on a lightstand a short distance from the speaker. The audio will then likely be as good as the audience is hearing (so long as you get the Levels right) plus you can get an appropriate amount of ambient sound without having to add it afterwards. Easy to monitor as well :- )

Pete

[Asvaldur Kristjansson]

H1 can be used to record line level signal going to the mic/line input. You have to select manual level and set the recording level to 8 (1-100). All you need is a sterio jack-phono cable.

[Rob Cantwell]

Where I am, i couldn't depend on DJ's or venues own systems, way too many variables existing. So i expect to use my own stuff all the time, my current audio setup is a Sennheiser ew 135-p G3 wireless mic and a XLR ECM-XM1 shotgun mic on one cam and a ECM-PS1 Mic on another.

I usually tape the wireless mic to the venue's one,. this has worked out pretty much ok except for I got caught out recently when the priest moved to a lectern but left the mics behind which resulted in a terrible echo for that portion of the ceremony!

So i've been looking into getting something like the H4N, is it overkill for what i want here? I've looked at the H1 as well which is a lot more cheaper (probably could get two or three of them for the price of the H4).

Has anyone got any opinions on any of the digital recorders as shown on this website - Digital Voice Recorder Review 2012 | Best Voice Recorders | Handheld Digital Voice Recorders - TopTenREVIEWS the first two look to be real good, Philips LFH0655 and a Sony ICD-UX512 probably cost a lot more on this side of the ocean tho!

[Nigel Barker]

Originally Posted by Rob Cantwell

So i've been looking into getting something like the H4N, is it overkill for what i want here? I've looked at the H1 as well which is a lot more cheaper (probably could get two or three of them for the price of the H4).

If you have no need for XLR input or phantom power then he H1 is much better suited to needs. The H1 is much easier on batteries too as one AAA battery lasts all day whereas the H4N chews through 4xAA batteries at an alarming rate (2-3 hours).

I own a couple of H1s & they are great little recorders but I have also more recently bought a couple of Yamaha C24s which are half the size & match for quality. For use on the groom or other speakers with a cheap lav mic they are less bulky & easily fit into a pocket.

[Rob Cantwell]

thanks for that, I priced the H1's here in ireland and they were working out dearer than the Yamahas from Amazon, so i ordered two, pretty good price at £76.70 each, cheaper than on ebay.
They should work out fine for me.

Rob

[Noa Put]

Originally Posted by Nigel Barker

but I have also more recently bought a couple of Yamaha C24s which are half the size & match for quality.

Have a yamaha c24 as well and use it with a a lav mic and the c24 easily fits into a pocket but lately I have strapped it onto the handle of a wireless handmicrophone as well with excellent results. I apply a small piece of rubber (cut from the inside of a bicycle tire with the same dimensions as the c24) between the mic handle and the c24 so it won't slide and then strap it firmly to the mic handle with some black velcro bands. The c24 is still small enough that it's easy to grab onto the mic handle with the c24 attached to it.

Have done this in situations where getting proper sound from the venue sound system was not possible or to big of a risk and where the speaker where attached to the ceiling. Also because the microphone would be handed over from person to person I had no time to mic everyone with a lav.


In this set up I lock the c24 so accidently pushing any buttons won't have any effect and just set the mic sensitivity on the c24 to low and switch the auto level controll on so very loud speakers don't clip the sound and the sound quality I get is very good.

[Tariq Peter]

How about using a few cable ties to secure the Zoom H1 to the Microphone and another H1 hooked up to the DJs sound board?

[John Knight]

I might get one of those Yamaha c24 units - look really nice. My iRiver's are getting pretty old now.

What lapel mic's are you using with the Yamaha?

[Nigel Barker]

Originally Posted by John Knight

I might get one of those Yamaha c24 units - look really nice. My iRiver's are getting pretty old now.

What lapel mic's are you using with the Yamaha?

We use these. They are very cheap but decent quality MP33751 - PRO SIGNAL - MICROPHONE, LAVALIER BLACK | CPC

[Kelly Langerak]

Too many times the DJ gave us crappy audio. The best solution to record the speeches is to buy some 1 inch black gaffer tape from Amazon.com and tape a H1 to DJ's mic. I set the level to 50 and I'm good. No matter where the mic goes it picks up the sound sooooo well. I don't have to bug the DJ to tap in and I'm good. I also drape a lav mic in front of the DJ's speaker, tape with the black gaffer tape and put the H1 on top of the speaker. I no longer need to bring the heavy H4n or my wireless G3's. I bring 3 H1's and 3 lapel mics and that's it for audio. You can plug your H4n in for backup too, but the H1 audio always sounds better.

Tape it their mic and be done with it.

[Noa Put]

I find my zoom h1 is too thick to attach to a mike handle, my yamaha c24 is better suited for this as it's smaller in size. My zoom h4 however always gets connected to the dj's audio table when possible or often they have speakers with a xlr connection on the back, only problem is that its very difficult to set the correct levels so the audio doesn't clip, not sure if there is an auto gain on the h4 for that purpose.

Since i work alone I do test the levels first but once I"m filming I have no way checking if it's still ok, but I set it quite low so I can have a good back up if needed.

[Noa Put]

Originally Posted by John Knight

What lapel mic's are you using with the Yamaha?

Don't recall which type they where but they where cheap ones :) not sure if it matters that much since the different pair I use now give excellent sound when plugged into the zoom h1 or yamaha c24. The yamaha also has a clamp which makes it easier to attach it to a soundspeaker f.i.

[Donald McPherson]

Just a thought. I have two very cheap wireless lavs. You guys sound as if you have more expensive stuff.
But anyway why not use both. You can prepare them youself. Then offer one of the recievers to the DJ inplace of his mic.

[Adrian Tan]

Originally Posted by Noa Put

...only problem is that its very difficult to set the correct levels so the audio doesn't clip, not sure if there is an auto gain on the h4 for that purpose.

I think this whole thread is brilliant. Maybe it should be a sticky. Some great ideas on how to get good sound.

Noa, one trick I use is to split the RCA out from the DJ's mixer into two channels (or, if you like, simply use two RCA to XLR cables). You can then set one level a little high in case they speak softly, and the other a little low. And, yep, get the DJ to do a sound check beforehand, both for microphone and for music levels.

I normally use a Tascam DR-100, which has an auto limiter. I'm giving thought to something like a Tascam 680 + multiple lav mics.

When attaching a free-standing shotgun microphone on a stand to one of these sound recorders, though, you'll burn through the battery in less than an hour. I usually don't rely on internal batteries in a Tascam or Zoom; I'll have something like a Tekkeon battery or a modified laptop battery hooked up to the DC-in port so it can run all day.

One more random thought: I hate the Zoom H4N. I don't own one personally; but the ones I've used seem to take a ridiculously long time to boot up. Half an hour once! I don't think they're very reliable for weddings...

[Noa Put]

My zoom h4 (first gen) died on me, well, it still worked but decided to record anyting to card when it felt like it :) so I got a tascam dr40 and used it last Saterday connected to the DJ's mixer, I set it to rec mode: dual with the dual level set to -12db so it recorded 2 serparate files which I think is a great as I only had a cable for one xlr channel.

I was only not sure if it was better to set the level controll to "peakreduction" or just leave it on "limiter" with -12db reduction.

I was still figuring out how to set the levels right, the signal I got from the mixer was quite hot, even when I turned the input level all the way down (with the knobs on the side) I still got a signal that was allmost clipping. The DJ was not able to reduce the level of what was goling out from his mixer so I had to deal with it. It did turn out great though but got me a bit worried.

I also used it on a lightstand in church in front of a loudspeaker as backup and eventhough the output volume of that speaker was low it picked it up just great. What I do like most about it is that the record time on the display is nice and big while on my h4 it was tiny and even with my glasses on I had to look real carefull to see it was recording (I know that once the rec button did not flash it was recording but I always liked to have a second confirmation.)

For my use it's great, just need to spend more time going through the options and test to see what it actually can do.