Lavalier question
 

Can anyone recommend a good lavalier that runs off of plug in power from a Sony minidisc? All of the professional lavs I've seen require phantom power and would probably be too hot for my purposes. I want to put the minidisc in a groom's pocket and put the lav on his lapel to record the vows, so this means no room for pre-amp or attenuator cables or anything. Sony makes a lav for their minidiscs, but I don't have a lot of faith in them.

I bought a clip omni directional microphone from Radio Shack, it's a mono with battery, but I cut the switch with battery and replaced the connector with a stereo mini-plug and works really good with my new MZ-N707 mini disc recorder. I set the record mode to LP2, 160 minutes for 80 blank MD.

http://www.soundprofessionals.com

Have a look here.

I've been looking at the Sound Professionals microphones. Do you have any experience with them? I don't know of anyone who has used their stuff, but it looks to be pretty good quality.

Microphonemadness.com makes real good stuff. if you are looking for higher quality they also offer mics that are made with Sennheiser Capsules

Anyone know the exact voltage coming to a mic from a minidisc?
Is this something listed in the specs of the owners manual? I'm in the same situation of trying to use a minidisc with a mic requiring power, as I've been told by an audio guy that all dynamic lavs are terrible, atleast in comparison to condenser.

Marco I have no experience with the SP's mics but have been looking at them my self as well. I know the higher end use Audio-Technica capsules and all the mics seem to be well built.

I cut the wire going to the power module of my Sony ECM55 to make it MD compliant. After cutting it I put a mini-XLR connector at each end so I can use the ECM in two modes :
- Battery powered (XLR mode)
- Mini-Disc powered (MD mode)

It's been working very well
Dany

Sony makes a fairly nice lav that has a removable power module. The MD recorder (3 Volts, usually) will supply the power for the microphone. $45 at B&H.

Sony ECM-T145

Good for voice. Not great on level overloads like hanging one in front of a speaker.

Dany,
Really? That's wild! But maybe a little too adventurous for me. :)

I may give the ECM-T145 a try. At $45, it seems like a good place to start. Thanks Mike.

Marco,

It's really not that hard, you should try because that will enable you to use some pretty good lavalier.

Check out the PDF below. I'm preparing a couple of articles to present the different custom cables I've been building over the years for the microphone, light...

http://www.natzo.com/hardware/ECM.pdf

For other brand/models of lavalier you can go to Lectrosonic website. They have the pinout for almost all lavaliers.
Adding the mini-XLR connector gives you a lot of flexibility (Mini-Disc, Power module, UHF module).

Dany