VideoMic only recording to left side

[Scott Hamilton]

It records fine when plugged directly into the camera, but when I use the 10 foot extention cable (1/8 inch female to 1/8 inch male) for boom mic use, I only hear it through my headphones through the left channel. That's the way it plays back too. Not a huge problem since I just adjust the pan in Final Cut, just wondering why it does that.

Also, on the subject, I've heard that you should not use an unbalanced cable longer than 10 feet. Is that more of a guide line or hard fact? It can be difficult using the VideoMic on a boom pole with only 10 feet of cable. I'd like to get a longer one, but the next size up (that I could find) was 25 feet.

Scott

[Ty Ford]

Hello Scott,

the extender cable is probably not wired for that use. I'm guessing it wasn't the Rode extender cable?

Regards,

Ty Ford

[Gary Nattrass]

Dont know that mic but make sure that the ext cable has the same number of contacts on the male plug. The mic may need a three or four pin jack and you may only have a two pin on the ext lead.

[Steve House]

Sounds like the extension cable is a mono TS cable, not a stereo TRS cable. With a mono cable, only the left channel in the camera will record as that is the signal that is on the T(ip) connector.

The Videomic is a mono mic but its cable ends with a TRS stereo plug with the tip and ring shorted together so the mic signal will go to both the left and right channel in the camera. Using a mono extension cable will put the signal on the left channel only, shorting the right channel to ground at the camera.

[Allan Black]

I agree.

Scott, Videomics have a hot output, I've seen one run via 2x25' good quality unbalanced mic cables without RF interference. The top end was down a bit with some noise added but the recorded speech was useable.

Unbalanced mic cables have somewhat improved in manufacture over the years but stay well off the cheap nasty stuff, clean the plugs often and coil cables carefully. 1x25' should be fine.

But you can get minijack to balanced XLR connectors for long balanced mic cable runs.

Cheers.

[Steve House]

Originally Posted by Allan Black

I agree.

Scott, Videomics have a hot output, I've seen one run via 2x25' good quality unbalanced mic cables without RF interference. The top end was down a bit with some noise added but the recorded speech was useable.

Unbalanced mic cables have somewhat improved in manufacture over the years but stay well off the cheap nasty stuff, clean the plugs often and coil cables carefully. 1x25' should be fine.

But you can get minijack to balanced XLR connectors for long balanced mic cable runs.

Cheers.

FYI - even if one uses a pair of mini to XLR connector adapters so the long cable run is done with what would usually be thought of as a balanced cable with XLRs on both ends, the system still isn't balanced. Truly balancing a system requires transformers and/or other electronics going beyond simple plug adapters. In fact, there's really no such thing as a "balanced cable" per se - there's cable that's wired so it can be used to make balanced connections and to preserve proper balancing you need to use it but the balanced/unbalanced property itself is actually determined by the device the cable is plugged into at each end.

[Scott Hamilton]

Thanks guys, all great responses and clear things up for me.

Much appreciated!

Scott

[Allan Black]

Originally Posted by Steve House

FYI - even if one uses a pair of mini to XLR connector adapters so the long cable run is done with what would usually be thought of as a balanced cable with XLRs on both ends, the system still isn't balanced. Truly balancing a system requires transformers and/or other electronics going beyond simple plug adapters. In fact, there's really no such thing as a "balanced cable" per se - there's cable that's wired so it can be used to make balanced connections and to preserve proper balancing you need to use it but the balanced/unbalanced property itself is actually determined by the device the cable is plugged into at each end.

Thanks Steve, well aware of that. Should have put balanced as *balanced* :)

Cheers.