What's a Rode MT2?

Regards,

Ty Ford

Another way to use two mics in a situation like that, is to have one on the speaker and one aimed at the audience. This one could be used to add a bit of ambiance, laughter, questions and audience comments.

I went to the local 'Dick Smith' store - NZ/AU RadioShack equivilent - and the guy put me onto a 'two female RCA (mono) > single male stereo minijack' connector, accepting two 'female Minijack > male RCA' connectors, to accept the leads from the two mics. Cost $NZ12. Should work.

If you use a Y-adapter to combine the signals of two microphones, the mics will load down each other, and you'll get a low level signal, possibly with distortion and weak bass. A better solution is to use a small mixer.

When connectiing 2 different microphones it is also important to match the impedance and only a mixer can do the job.

It will work if one of the leads goes to the left channel and one to the right channel.

Mixing 2 different mics into one input
 

"It will work if one of the leads goes to the left channel and one to the right channel."

You are right if the mics are the same and use a 3.5mm mini plug (1/8 here in the USA)

You are wrong... when you mix a XLR input mic and a 3.5mm input mic(1/8 here in the USA).


Here are the 2 microphones he is trying to mix:

The camera is a GS 500. It has a 3.5mm jack.
The Mics are a
- Rode VideoMic - Manual says power (Supplu voltage) is 9v battery, Current 5 mA
and a
- Rode NTG-2 - Manual says power is 1.5v (alkaline) or P48 Phantom

If the cable DOES work, you'll still be in a situation where you only have one gain stage. If one mic has higher sensitivity than the other, that one will be loud and the other will be soft. Again, a Beachtek or other mic mixer with 1/8" out will help.

deleted...

The SignVideo XLR-Pro should work. It has XLR and mini inputs. It outputs to a single stereo male miniplug.

XLR-PRO XLR adapter

This thread has been very helpful and pointed me to XLR adapters. I have checked three out, the Beachtek, JuicedLink, and Sign-Video. I read an extensive discussion going back to about 2003 on various adapters.

Just wonder if anyone had done a comparsion of these lately. The Sign Video looks good because of the 2x XLR and 2x minijack ports. Juicedlink has good reports. Beachtek seems the most widely used.

Renton,

BTW, the classic use of two mics for one person speaking is to put both mics in front of the person speaking and angle each one somewhat left and right so that when they turn their head to speak they remain "on mic." Keep the capsules as close as possible to each other.

In effect, it's a way to widen the pattern (or coverage area) of two directional mics. You still benefit to some degree from the directionality as compared to an omni, but you lose a bit of ambient background.

Speaking of ambi...The new Audio Technica BP4025 stereo mic is really quite nice. Not for you but for others. I did some nature recording with it recently and was very impressed by the stereo image and how quiet it was. I can frequently hear the selfnoise of mics like this, but due to the larger capsules, the selfnoise is relatively low.

Hear's one of the tracks. http://idisk.mac.com/tyreeford-Public/ambi08.wav

Regards,

Ty Ford

Thanks Ty. I've had my two mics more or less as you suggested, but above the mouth by about 350mm and pointed down at the mouth. During one recent filming, I dropped my head to read off some paper and I noticed that the voice clarity was affected slightly when I did so. It seems in such a situation the mics need to be lower. As I understand it, it is standard practice to point mics down towards the mouth so as to minimise extraneous sound.

In the video world, we point 'em anywhere they'll let us get near. In some cases we mic from below, but mostly booming from above. Hats with brims are a pain when booming from above. They block the sound.

Regards,

Ty Ford