PinMic - warning

[Renton Maclachlan]

This maybe elementary but I have just learnt it the hard way.

I have over the past couple of weeks finally begun filming a major project and have done about 3 hours out of 7. I've done it in my home studio and am doing everything: filming, audio, presenting, etc, so when filming I can't monitor audio.

I have just discovered that I had the connection between the PinMic cable and the MiCom Adapter slightly loose and so have static periodically throughout the recording caused by movement at the connection. I'm recording with two mics, a Rode PinMic and a Rode NT3 and unfortunately the static is on both tracks.

The best spin I can put on it is that I can take the 3 hours filming to date, and download time of about 7 hours (4 cameras) as a practice run!!! Hmmm...

[Daniel Epstein]

Everyone has had equipment failures but the best procedures catch the problems as early as possible.
Not monitoring the audio is a big risk to take. You probably won't do that again. Get some help.

[Renton Maclachlan]

I had monitored the whole setup in a couple of dry runs, but this didn't occur in them. The connection must have worked loose by itself during miscellaneous handling, and was worse on my second lot of filming. I picked it up this morning while downloading the second lot of video with the primary audio tracks...

Audio from the earlier download has it far less. I had listened to sections of this earlier filming but not the bits with the static...

[Colin McDonald]

I don't understand why a bad connection on one input would cause noise on both channels unless maybe it affected the phantom power supply.

I have no experience of Micon adapters but after looking at them on the Rode website I would have thought they would be pretty reliable. Are they not normally OK?

[Renton Maclachlan]

It's not the reliability of the adapter. It's that I had not ensured that the cable was wound tight into it, and so it unwound a bit and wobbled causing the static. I am about to start filming all over again. The connection is tight!!

The pinmic is through phantom power on a Juicedlink and the NT3 is also through the Juicedlink but running on battery.

[Dan Ostroff]

I'm not familiar with how the Juicedlink is set up, but were you recording the lav and boom to both channels (panned to center)? Probably best to ensure you a clean recording of each mic by panning one to the left channel, the other to the right channel, that way if something goes wrong (in this case your connector), you have a clean boom track to fall back on.

Not sure if that is what happened, but if so...

Good luck!

Originally Posted by Renton Maclachlan

It's not the reliability of the adapter. It's that I had not ensured that the cable was wound tight into it, and so it unwound a bit and wobbled causing the static. I am about to start filming all over again. The connection is tight!!

The pinmic is through phantom power on a Juicedlink and the NT3 is also through the Juicedlink but running on battery.

[Andrew Smith]

Is it possible to confirm that you no longer have this issue when the micon connector is tightly connected to the pinmic cable?

Also, I wasn't aware that we needed phantom power to run a pinmic. Must double-check that one. Where's Chad when we need him ... :-)

Andrew

[Renton Maclachlan]

Well I tightened the connection up real good and monitored it for tests, wiggling the connection - and no static. I've recorded another hour and a half and will shortly download and will know for sure then, though I'm confident the loose connection was the issue.

Yep, a PinMic needs 48v phantom power through Rode XLR adapter...or 2v > max 5v through Rode wireless adapters. (from manual)

[Renton Maclachlan]

Originally Posted by Dan Ostroff

I'm not familiar with how the Juicedlink is set up, but were you recording the lav and boom to both channels (panned to center)? Probably best to ensure you a clean recording of each mic by panning one to the left channel, the other to the right channel, that way if something goes wrong (in this case your connector), you have a clean boom track to fall back on.

Not sure if that is what happened, but if so...

Good luck!

Yes Dan, I was panning them left and right - to separate channels, which is why I thought I should have had a clean track from the boom.

[Colin McDonald]

Which makes me wonder again if the problem with the connector was somehow affecting the phantom power supply to the other mic as well.

[Renton Maclachlan]

The other mic was on its own battery power...not being powered by phantom power...though it could be...

[Chad Johnson]

There is no excuse for not monitoring with cans the entire time. You've heard why now. It's a total bummer, and I'm sorry your audio is messed up. But you simply must have cans on the whole time, always. Even the most pro set-up can encounter a glitch.

[Chad Johnson]

PS - It may nave been another connection if it's in both tracks.

[Dan Ostroff]

Originally Posted by Chad Johnson

PS - It may nave been another connection if it's in both tracks.

I agree w/ Chad here, odd it would be on both tracks, doesn't sound to me like the PinMic connector would be to blame.

[Renton Maclachlan]

Originally Posted by Chad Johnson

There is no excuse for not monitoring with cans the entire time. You've heard why now. It's a total bummer, and I'm sorry your audio is messed up. But you simply must have cans on the whole time, always. Even the most pro set-up can encounter a glitch.

Well...nice ideal, but simply not possible in this case.

I'm easy about having to refilm. Good practice to make me more fluent in the presentation...