Ok, I've read all the raves about using the IRiver IFP 700 and 800 series units with Giant Squids, so I bought a 1gb 899 and a 512mb 895 and a couple of Giant Squids. Been playing around with them and want some ideas as to what audio settings you IRiver fans have been using, and who or where you've been placing them with during the ceremonies and/or receptions. Already using my Azden 200ULH dual channel wireless to mic the groom and podium during the ceremony...I pick up everyone in the ceremony quite well. Maybe hook up the best man or a bridesmaid with irivers? How 'bout during the receptions? Perhaps place them near the placecard table to catch comments from people coming in? Any ideas from the IRiver pros would be appreciated.
Vin

these were discussed in this thread:

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=50147&highlight=iriver+settings


just a quick note....Giant Squid seem reliable and fantastic and all the rest of it, but ...

i bought one the other day, and it seemed fine...until that was i had the iriver in a groom's pocket...the jack plug connection was faulty and crackly audio was heard whenever the groom moved....so i had to send it back... i hope no-one else has had a similar problem.

Both the IRivers and the GS mics work really well for me, Richard. Tested out those settings and they seem like they would be just about right for ceremonies. Might have to adjust the rec vol down a bit for receptions, though, but I'll play with them this next wedding.
And I would think Darren took good care of you with the defective gs mics...he seems like a decent guy.
Thanks for the info.
Vin

no probs, and yes i agree, those rec levels might need to change...some receptions (and drunk speakers) can be quite loud!

good luck...

well, i just bought the iRiver 800 series too and just ordered the squid mic and it should get here by this week, and I was wondering...can the mic be use for far range or at a distance and would it pick up pretty good like in the back of the church or near the PA speakers? Thanks

-joe

Hi Everyone,

First of all I want to thank everyone who contributes to this forum, I have learned a lot just checking out posts as a guest since I found this site a couple of months ago.

I was looking for a good setup to record audio and the sales people at many electronic stores are no help at all, based on reccomendations from this forum I also picked up 2 irivers and 2 giant squid mics.

Durring my search I came across a great post that takes you through all the settings for the iriver, I've seen it copied a couple of times, as far as I can tell the oroginal post came from Mark A. Foley on Aug. 28th 2005.

I got my irivers and mics this week and set them up with these settings, everything seems to be working great when I tested it out, I will be shooting a wedding this weekend so it will be getting a real world test soon.

Here is a copy of Marks iriver settings from his post:

***SETTINGS***

Timer (manual section 5-17)

- Sleep power off - OFF / Beep OFF
- Stop Power off - 60 min

Control - (manual section 5-22)

- Line in recording mode:
Mono
44.1KHz
160 Kbps

Stereo
44.1Khz
320 Kbps

- Line In Rec Volume: 45 (Giant Squid Mic) 50 (MT830 mic) 50-55 (Azden 503)

- Line In Auto Sync: OFF

- Line In / Ext Mic: EXT MIC

***SETUP***

1. Connect mic to line-in jack
2. Set line in rec mode as above (SETTINGS)
3. Press and HOLD "Mode/Rec" button
4. Select Line-In mode
5. Press "Nav/Menu" button to go to PAUSED record mode
6. Press REC
7. Engage the LOCK!

***STOPPING***

1. Unlock
2. Press "Mode/Rec" button
3. Press and HOLD the STOP button

Expected record times based on 512 Mb model (256 will be half...1Gb will be double the record time below)
In mono:
44hz 32kbps = 23 hours: 27 minutes
" " 40kbps = 18 Hours: 54 minutes
" "" 48kbps = 15 hours: 45 minutes
" " 56kbps = 13 hours: 30 minutes
" " 64kbps = 11 hours: 48 minutes
" " 80kbps = 9 hours: 27 minutes
" " 96kbps = 7 hours: 52 minutes
" " 112kbps = 6 hours: 45 minutes
" " 128kbps = 5 hours: 54 minutes
" " 160kbps = 4 hours: 43 minutes

In Stereo:
44hz 64kbps = 11 hours: 53 minutes
" " 80kbps = 9 Hours: 31 minutes
" "" 96kbps = 7 hours: 55 minutes
" " 112kbps = 6 hours: 47 minutes
" " 128kbps = 5 hours: 56 minutes
" " 160kbps = 4 hours: 45 minutes
" " 192kbps = 3 hours: 92 minutes
" " 224kbps = 3 hours: 23 minutes
" " 256kbps = 2 hours: 58 minutes
" " 320kbps = 2 hours: 22 minutes

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I hope this info is helpful to everyone.

In reply to the question Joe posted, are you talking about about keeping the iriver and mic far away from whoever is speaking? that would not be any better than using the on camera mic, the point of using the iriver is to get the mic as close to the person speaking as possible.

If you can't get them to wear the mic on their lapel get it as close to them as you can, in the past I taped a wireless lapel mic to a mic stand that was used for the house audio and was able to get pretty decent audio, another trick I saw in a previous post was to hide the iriver in a glasses case on a podium.

If you can get a line out audio signal from the house you can also record that on an iriver (be sure your iriver is set for line level not mic level), but be sure you have a backup audio sorce, getting the signal to your recorder will not be their priority and something can always go wrong.

The great thing about using the iriver is that you don't need to worry about getting the audio signal to the camera while you are shooting.

Good luck with your shoot,
Ken Polleys.