Shotguns; Rode, AT, Azden, vs the indoors??

[Ainslie Davies]

I'm wanting to buy a secondary shotgun mic that will be good (acceptable) indoors. Before you go on and tell me that shotguns are crap inside, It will be used alot outdoors too. This is only a secondary shotgun so the price is limited. Basically I have been looking at: Rode NTG2, AT 835b, AT897, Azden SGM-2x. Which will give the best indoor result?

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[Douglas Spotted Eagle]

The only one in that list I'd recommend against is the Azden. Just listen to one. That's all it takes.
The 897 was built for some indoor use, as AT's engineers knew it would be used for indoor application.

[Ainslie Davies]

What about the RODE vs the AT in general?

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[Joe Barker]

I use the AT897,its a nice sounding mic but the distance between subject and mic has to be consistanct and on target, otherwise the sound recording drops off to a whisper. I was wondering if anyboby else noticed this with the AT 897 ?

[Steve House]

Originally Posted by Joe Barker

I use the AT897, ... but the distance between subject and mic has to be consistanct and on target, otherwise the sound recording drops off to a whisper. I was wondering if anyboby else noticed this with the AT 897 ?

Just a general comment - shotguns and hypercardioids don't "reach out" and magnify distant sounds like a telephoto lens does for light. In fact they may be no more sensitive to sound than other mics but their pickup pattern makes them *less* sensitive than cardioids or omnis to sound coming from other than the direction they're aimed. As a result you may be able to turn up the gain and back off the subject-mic distance a bit without background sounds intruding too much. In general though the optimal working distances of a shotgun mic aren't going to be all that much greater than those of any other mic, like perhaps 2 to 3 feet for a shotgun compared to maybe 12 to 18 inches for a conventional cardioid.

[Douglas Spotted Eagle]

Originally Posted by Ainslie Davies

What about the RODE vs the AT in general?

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Personally, I much prefer the AT in this situation. Rode has a wonderful stereo mic I like a lot, but on the shotgun front...the nod goes to the AT line, from my view.

[Michael Wisniewski]

I'd recommend getting a hyper-cardioid like an AT4053a to compliment your shotgun. It will perform like a shotgun in the majority of outdoor scenarios and give you more recording options in the field.

[Ty Ford]

Originally Posted by Ainslie Davies

I'm wanting to buy a secondary shotgun mic that will be good (acceptable) indoors. Before you go on and tell me that shotguns are crap inside, It will be used alot outdoors too. This is only a secondary shotgun so the price is limited. Basically I have been looking at: Rode NTG2, AT 835b, AT897, Azden SGM-2x. Which will give the best indoor result?

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http://www.inasinglemoment.com - The premiere feature film in HDV from d|p

Shotguns are crap indoors.

Ty Ford

[John Hewat]

Hello all,

Can someone tell me why Shotguns are crap indoors?

I was about to buy an NTG-2 for what will be a mix of indoors/outdoors work.

What would be a good indoors mic?

Do people recommend buying the Sennheiser Power Unit and getting two Sennheiser mics to go with it (one for indoors & one for outdoors)?

And what do people think of the wireless Sennheiser mics?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,
-- John.

[Ty Ford]

John,

Listen for yourself. Go to my site. Click on the Online Archive. Open the Video Folder and download the mic tutorial.mp4. Plug in headphones and you'll understand more in five seconds than anyone can tell you in 1000 words.

Regards,

Ty Ford

PS: Talking about audio is like swimming about architecture.

[John Hewat]

Thanks for that Ty, that's an excellent little tutorial.

I might get a shotgun for outdoors, a super carioid for indoors and a wireless setup for wide shots.

I will only be recording through the camera straight to tape though - on the Z1p or the new Panasonic - is that going to be too detrimental to the quality?

Thanks again,
-- John.

[Ty Ford]

Merry Xmas John,

The benefits of a good mixer are many; better preamps, good limiters, EQ, easy adjustment during takes, phantom power.

I don't know the cameras you're using. If they don't have XLR inputs and only a stereo mini in jack, the you'll need cables that will allow you to input balanced mono mics into that unbalanced stereo input.

Regards,

Ty Ford

[John Hewat]

I'll be using either the Sony, Panasonic or Canon HDV cameras, all with XLR inputs - on that note, I was listening to two people debate whether the XLR ports on these cameras provide phantom power for mics.

Having no experience myself, I could not comment but as far as I knew, XLR ports did provide phantom power. To which this responded "then why do Sennheiser have a powering kit?"

And I wasn't sure. So do these cameras with XLR provide phantom power? To a Rode NGT-2 mic specifically?

Thanks again, and Merry Christmas!

-- John.

[Ty Ford]

The Sennheiser K6 is often misunderstood. It is sold as a power supply (not a microphone) and is required to power the ME66 capsule. Both are required to make the system work and they do require phantom power unless a battery is used.

If you order just the K6, you won't have a mic, you'll have a power supply. If you order just the ME66 capsule, you won't be able to use it. It requires the K6 or KP6 power supply.

You may easily do the research regarding these cameras and whether or not they offer phantom power. If they do, you have options. You can use both mics that do operate on batteries and those and those that have no batteries.

I have a small book about location audio. It may be heloful to you. There's a bit about it on my site.

Regards,

Ty Ford