Giant Squid Mic-Powered?
 

Hi guys.I would like to pick up a Giant Squid but I noticed there r several choices n I kinda lost. I'm pairing it with a Samsung YEPP player.

1. Omi or Cardioid for vows (My guess is Cardioid)
2. Powered or Non Powered? (Non Powered for irivers?)

Thanks!

The only thing I know to tell you (aside from yes, omni for vows so you can have one mic if necessary to pick up all three people) is that Darren told me and I later comfirmed that the battery powered ones will NOT give you as hot of a signal......yes, you read that right.....I know it defies common sense logic, but it is true.

EDIT: To briefly expand on the omni thing....cartoid is going to be more or less directional for the one person it is on. Omni will try to pick up everything around it, so lets say you can only get a mic on either the priest or groom, one or the other, the omni will pick up the bride, groom and priest fairly well. I usually have to do a little pick me up in post, but thats no big deal at all.....normalize, add a little compression, perhaps EQ it a bit and all is rockin. With the varied and high pressure situation of wedding videography I say make it as easy on yourself as you can, and one way to remove a boatload of worry is making your vows recording as simple as possible....you never know when either the priest or groom will either refuse a mic or not be findable at a crucial moment......you can find one or the other early on, stick an iRiver with hours of both battery power and record time and know that if you cant work out any more than that youre covered. Dont forget to slide the iRiver lock down!

Gee the squid is really strange then! Thanks for the inputs, I'll pick up the omni den (thaz really affordable!). What is better than to listen to folks that have done it all. Thanks Daniel :)

Well, I've far from done it all, but the battery "anomaly of logic" is not exclusive to the Squids. As a matter of fact, it was with Radio Shack lavs that I latter comfirmed what Darren (maker of Giant Squids) had told me when I was asking the same question you were!

more mp3 recorder + iriver GS questions
 

sorry to ask again, but I am not sure if I understand correctly due to my limited English:
1 - so the omni no powered Giant Squid is the prefered choice to record line in with an mp3 recorder, yes? Actually the very model made for iriver, as it double recording time, yes?

2 - If the no powered is preferred, why would anybody want to buy the more expensive and heavy powered version? What would be it's advantage?

3 - Can I also plug this 'iriver GS' directly into my GS400? If so, could I use some extension cord, if so, which quality and how long max.?
Or would the other omnidirectional mono and stereo GS be better then the iriver Giant Squid if directly plugged into the cam?

4 - can anybody recommend any other mp3 recorders besides the irivers? Has anybody tried the iaudios, specifically the iaudio U2 and X5/XL5? Sean, how happy are you with the recordings of your Samsung?

5 - Somewhere I had picked up ( actually it was the very revered Guy Brunner right here: http://www.pana3ccduser.com/showthre...ghlight=iaudio )
that a preamp would be required.
Is that so? Rsp. when is the preamp necessary, when not?

thanks for any input

You will not be able to use that yep mp3 recorder without the powered mic. It's not that it won't work good, it won't work at all. At this point only the Irivers have the necessary pre amp to record from an unpowered mic. There was one other flash mp3 player/recorder I found on the internet that would do it but I haven't been able to find it again. I don't know what you mean about double recording time. Recording times are about 1 hour 45 minuts per 128k at the highest quality.

A person would want to use the powered mics due to the fact most mp3 player/recorders don't have the necessary pre amp required for an unpowered mic and that a powered mic may give a slightly cleaner sound.



Mike

In the meantime I got some answers from Darren, the producer of the Giant Squid Mics. He is so open and helpful I am sure he won't mind posting his answers:

that's what he had to say:

the last quote is the answer to my question:
'could the iriver GS also be plugged directly into my Panasonic NV-GS400? If not, which of your wired lavs would you recommend for that?'

which makes me ask here again, in this forum:
Would the iriver GS work well if plugged directly into my GS400?
and, though this may be a stupid question, but I am still curious:
could the stereo omnidirectional GS be a good choice for a stereo mic used on the road, when recording docu, concerts etc., instead of a more expensive ATs, Beyerdynamics etc. - the major advantages could be quality/prize relation, and it being so much smaller which is a real advantage for me as I shoot almost only while travelling. I would make a custom mic. holder with to pin one mic right the other left of my cam mounted on the hot shoe. ( just made a new thread for this there: http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=61477 though on second though it would have been better around here, as people here do have more experience with the iriver thing. - well, got the link here at least )

why double time? well, 'cause:
quote from John Bennett in this forum: http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthrea...ghlight=iriver

I'm trying to understand why you would want to use an Iriver jacked into your camera. Are you thinking the Iriver will record better sound then the sound being recorded on your DV tape? I don't think there is any magic bullet there. At the concerts if you were to have the sound man dump right into your Iriver you could get some pretty good sound. I don't think pluging into your camera is going to gain you anything over what is being recorded on your DV tape. It is true sound quality does very on different DV cameras. Sound is as much or more about getting close enough as it is to the quality of the microphone and recording device. In other words with a $25 dollar Giant Squid mike at 2 feet I could likely get better sound then with the best $1000 microphone at 8 feet in almost every real world case.

Mike

plugging the iriver GS into the cam might be a dumb idea -
however yes, I was wondering if anybody had experience with the iriver GS directly pugged into an GS400 and if the sound thus recorded, purely technically speaking, would be better than the mp3 formatted sound if plugged into the mp3 recorder.
Thank's a lot for your very valuable statement abt. the relevance of the distance between sound source and mic!
Why I want to buy a GS is first of all for a project where I will have my cam on the tripoid at a very minimal distance of abt 1,5 meter of a lady working in her 2,5x2,5 meter small kitchen. So even if I was getting the iriver GS + an iriver mp3 recorder I was wondering, since in this kitchen setting I could get the mic very close to the person recorded even if plugged into the cam, if that than would be preferable.
My other question is if the omnidirectional stereo GS could be a good substitute for other, more expensive stereo mics. because their small size and light weight appeals to me since I shoot mostly while travelling.

It's likely you would get better sound with the Iriver and Giant Squid on the womans blouse. In a small room you get a lot of echo so getting the mic close matters as this cuts down the room noise. Also you might want to unplug the fridge. Don't forget to plug it back in. In general stereo is no advantage when recording voice unless you have two people and can put one on his or her own track. If you have the Iriver track and the camera track you can mix them the way you want in post. Idealy you would use headphones to moniter your sound.

Mike

Thank's a lot Mike, ordered the iriver GS today.
Very good point with the fridge. - there also might be a ventilator ( location New Delhi )