Summer's not far off, and soon I'll be attending my favorite place, the dragstrip. I was first thinking a shotgun microphone, but from what I've read, I'd be missing out on the rumble of the burnouts.

This is what I recorded of my car with the GL2 built in microphone, but I wonder what would be a better alternative:

http://homepage.mac.com/messnerk/Idle.wav
(sorry, I don't know the format here for links).

Thanks!

Hello Kirk,
Well it looks like nobody's taken a stab at this yet, so I'll lead.

All I know of drag racing is what I've seen in films and sports broadcasts. I'm not really sure what the "...rumble of the burnouts" is, either. (I don't imagine it has anything to do with lower gastrointestinal tract disorders following unusual meals, does it?)

Off-hand, however, I'd be inclined to use a super-cardiod shotgun (such as the Sennheiser ME-66) to follow the runs. I might use the on-board mic to grab ambient sound (on separate sound-only shots) and maybe for shots of crews working on the cars and similar supplementary shots.

If you plan to edit this stuff together be sure to get plenty of cut-aways of the crowd and personal reactions.

Hey, sounds like it would be great fun for a guy with a GL2!

Agreed Ken! - OOOOohh me and my XM2 out at Santa Pod!

Kirk, do remember that as soon as I have my Senni 66 XLRed it closes down the ambient Canon mic - yes? Sooooo when doing cutaways, I'd have to remove the Canon MA300 shoe - bit messy.

Have fun

Grazie

If you want to get the stereo pan effect of passing cars, along with the doppler, consider a single point stereo mic. The AT-822 may be a good option. It has good deep base response and should tollerate track sound levels reasonably well. The left and right elements do have a cardoid pattern so if at the rail, crowd noise will be reduced a bit. The AT822 has unbalanced mini-plug connector so it can go directly into the camcorder, it is a lot lower cost then the ME66.

I'll second Don's vote. I've not had my AT822 for long, but it's really a wonderful stereo mic!