Digital Voice recorder or Wireless Mic

[Michael Simons]

I just a wireless mic but another videographer I know uses a Digital Voice Recorder/MP3 player. Just wondering any thoughts concerning the 2. Thank you.

[Monday Isa]

Just remember this, you will never have drop outs with a digital recorder.

[Michael Simons]

Is the sound quality equal?

[Monday Isa]

In my opinion depending on the type of recorder it can exceed the audio quality of a wireless mic audio quality. The H4n's are really nice recorders, the H2 is very nice as well. The reason why I prefer my wireless mics is that the audio is automatically synced with the video. Where as you have to sync the audio of the recorder in post. One other thing is that with a audio recorder that is one more thing to lose :'(

[Chris Davis]

Digital Recorder: less expensive, no dropouts, but you have to spend time syncing in post.
Wireless: costs more, could have dropouts, but audio is always in sync.

Personally, I'd rather use a wireless because of the syncing issue - that's a big hassle. But you probably need to spend 5x-10x more for a good wireless system than for an acceptable iRiver mp3 recorder.

I've never had a dropout with my Sennheiser wireless, but my first Azden system was terrible.

[Michael Clark]

I use both during the ceremony, but I have been very happy with my digital recorder. I don't find it difficult to sync and it just gives me peace of mind (the no drop-outs part). Another benefit of using a DR rather than a receiver/transmitter is that it frees up one of my cameras to pick up other audio with a shotgun mic. Of course, with a wireless, you can monitor things. Might just come down to my own personal preference though.

[Ben Moore]

I think its nice to have both, I use a wirless mic on the officiant and a digital recorder on the groom. Gives you two options and sync is easy when you have two mics so close togther.

[Jim Snow]

A subconscious "punishment" has been the tedium of synchronizing audio from a recorder to the video. PluralEyes from Singular software has greatly simplified this. It synchronizes multiple tracks for you. I recently edited a five camera plus two audio recorder production of a stage play. Three of the cameras were HDV tape with three tapes per track. The other two cameras were tapeless. A job of this size and complexity would take quite a while to manually synchronize the tracks. With PluralEyes, it was easy and painless.

PluralEyes makes it easier to make the decision to use a recorder because it makes track synchronizing easy. Currently, it only runs on Final Cut Pro and Vegas Pro although I believe they are working on support for other NLE's. I lean more to using recorders now that I use PluralEyes. My concern with wireless is the possibility of interference at a bad moment. The worst is, "Do you Mike take Sue as your wife?" - - "Hiss, pop, crackle." People sometimes say they like to use wireless because they can monitor it on their camera. But if you are shooting a wedding ceremony and hear interference on your camera, what are you going to be able to do about it!? Wireless still has its place but for me, just fewer places.

[Travis Cossel]

Michael, do a quick search as this topic has been discussed A LOT on here. There are some great threads with lots of info out there already.

To answer your question, we use digital voice recorders. We've been using DVR's in place of wireless mics for like 6 years now. When we started doing it everyone was telling us we were crazy since we couldn't monitor the audio. But it just works so well.

Yes, you have to sync the audio in post, but we find it only takes us maybe an extra 10-15 minutes total per wedding to do all of the sync work (manually, mind you). We'll take that extra 10-15 minutes of work to have perfect audio to work with.

Oh, and DVR's are much less expensive than a nice wireless set.

[Michael Clark]

I forgot to mention - We've got a couple H4Ns that we use and are very happy with, but we've also actually used the newest iPod Touch on occasions as a back-up as well. Anybody else experimented with this? I just used a lav mic (requires adapter to work with iPod) and the Griffin iTalk Pro app. No limit on record time, records in AIFF, and the iPod can be locked, which means it shouldn't unexpectedly stop recording. Probably not a great idea for your primary recording device, but it works ok.

Adapter:
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/611808-REG/Griffin_Technology_3016_SMRTLKB_SmartTalk_Headphone_Adapter_for.html

[Scott Brooks]

All my wireless mics are being retired this year. I'm going with multiple Yamaha PockeTrak CX recorders (now on sale because of a new model) and Giant Squid microphones. Along with my Zoom H4n and Zoom H2 for musicians I'll have a minimum of 4 DR working.

I just picked up PluralEyes and it works great ... well worth the $150.

[John De Rienzo]

Have to agree with Travis. We have been using the Marantz PMD 660 for audio at the ceremony and speeches. We also use Sennheiser Wireless Mics, but we find the Marantz trounces the sennheiser!

No problems with synching in post, frame accurate every time.

Here is a short clip with the voiceover from the marantz. It may take a while to view as it's converting now!

PASSWORD: test

This is a password protected video on Vimeo

[Monday Isa]

Originally Posted by Michael Simons

I just a wireless mic but another videographer I know uses a Digital Voice Recorder/MP3 player. Just wondering any thoughts concerning the 2. Thank you.

Well Michael for the first time in my years of filming events, I had massive dropouts and static with both my wireless system at a gig in a catholic church. I don't know what was causing both systems to go on the fritz but had those two been digital voice recorders I'd had no problems.

Monday

[Taky Cheung]

I have been using voice recorder at ceremony for years. Works great for me.

Wireless Mics vs Voice Recorders | L.A. Color Blog

I never find synchronizing is a problem. It's really easy by matching the waveform display in timeline. I just look for the "you may kiss the bride" moment follow with applause. it's really easy to sync.

[Vaughan Wood]

I have a similar story to Mondays.

After 15 years of weddings 1 am convinced that the frequencies for our mics (here in Australia) are getting too crowded, and i'm getting more and more intermittent dropouts, which I put down to overcrowding, as I've spent several nights watching TV with my camera next to me, and no matter how much fiddling I do, can't get any dropouts there.

Anyway, several weeks ago, a beautiful winery outside Melbourne, late bride, plenty of time to set up groom's lapel, test with the lay preacher and his mic.....then the service!

All went perfectly until the vows when he reached over with his large hand held transmitter P.A.mic within a few inches of the lapel for the groom's response.

All hell broke loose in my headphones! The signal was about 400% overmodulated and nearly blew my head off. I had to literally pull the mic cable out of the camera to stop it leaking through.

(and I do my weddings on a mono pod! Imagine the picture shake for a moment!).

When I checked it in the computer it was so loud the limiter flattened both channels so far I lost the good sound from my Senheiser shotgun as well, so I went from excellent sound to STUFFED in one foul swoop, and ONLY when the preacher reached out his microphone to either the bride or groom. When he talked into it for the rest of the ceremony it was perfect. (I'll have to get them into the studio to fix it).

Thats the first time in 15 years doing events I've had the hand held PA mic literally "take over" my lapel transmitter, so I'm thinking its time to join most others here and move to using my H2 instead.

Cheers,

Vaughan