Katrina Spires
September 16th, 2007, 09:36 PM
I've spent the last few months building my kit one piece at a time -- a microphone here, a boom pole there. Finally, all the pieces came together this month, just in time for a shoot I had this afternoon. I had a Rode NT3 that I'd bought on eBay and a Gitzo carbon-fiber boom pole I'd bought from FullCompass; the eBay seller had thrown in a long (25 feet, I think) XLR cable for the NT3.
My one mistake? I didn't test the cable. I knew the mic worked; I'd used it with a short XLR cable and an on-camera mount earlier this summer for a quick intro to a customer service video (before I got the boom pole, which took six weeks on backorder).
So I got to the shoot this afternoon, set up the boom pole, did a sound check -- and got nothing. After a couple of tries, I narrowed down the problem to the cable -- I put the NT3 into the on-camera mount, plugged in the short XLR cable, and I had sound. Not the ideal setup -- fortunately, this was a volunteer job for a friend, and the sound was still pretty good (just a bit echo-y from bouncing off the walls).
But now I'm on the lookout for a good XLR cable. B&H and FullCompass both have LOTS to choose from and a wide range of prices; any recommendations?
My one mistake? I didn't test the cable. I knew the mic worked; I'd used it with a short XLR cable and an on-camera mount earlier this summer for a quick intro to a customer service video (before I got the boom pole, which took six weeks on backorder).
So I got to the shoot this afternoon, set up the boom pole, did a sound check -- and got nothing. After a couple of tries, I narrowed down the problem to the cable -- I put the NT3 into the on-camera mount, plugged in the short XLR cable, and I had sound. Not the ideal setup -- fortunately, this was a volunteer job for a friend, and the sound was still pretty good (just a bit echo-y from bouncing off the walls).
But now I'm on the lookout for a good XLR cable. B&H and FullCompass both have LOTS to choose from and a wide range of prices; any recommendations?