Re: lavalier microphone to a female officiant
 

Peter Rush recently recommended these:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

A lot of people use lavs from Giant Squid. Very good value, not very pretty, they do the job:

Miniature Microphone Specialists Stereo - Mono - Cardioid - Omnidrectional Giant Squid Audio Lab

Not sure but aren't the Rode lavs wired in such a way that they may not be compatible? I may be thinking of one particular lav, maybe the iphone one.

Pete

Re: lavalier microphone to a female officiant
 

thanks guys I'll read up on those and buy a load of one type. They all look pretty ugly compared to my ATR3350's but that might be because all the pics have the wind screens on!

My Rode Lavalier does work with my H1 no problem Peter.

One concern is having to rely on the Zoom H1's plugin power. I dont know if this will make the H1's any less reliable (reliability has always been an issue for me until I was advised to not use recharables but now I only use alkaline batteries they have been 100% reliable.. so far..) and also how it will affect the battery life as my current mics have their own in line power. On a single AA I can now get 2hrs recording without having to get twitchy (in my tests at home they actually last 3 or 4 hours sometimes) but this will obviously be reduced by using the plugin power.I suppose I could test using the Rode thinking about it.. but I currently use that for ceremonies anyway (as it seems to pick up a wider area which is more handy for capturing the bride as well) and I know it can go 1hr plus with no battery failure, they're usually on full or half when I remove them.

Just had a look through all of those mics, the Pronomic LA-30 seems great value and potentially would have been a MUCH cheaper alternative to my Rode Lavalier. I paid more for the screw on XLR connection for use with my H4N than the mic itself costs with 4 different connectors! However.. to buy 5 of them and because I'll certainly never need the additional connectors unless I decide to sell my Rode, they're a bit pricy. That leaves the 503 which a couple of you guys recommend but I can't find a photo of it even on google images without the wind screen thing. It is removable, right? The silver clip looks a bit ugly but it's a great price. Most important thing for me after sound quality is quality of the cable, I think I'd like quite a thick cable to make sure it doesn't end up breaking inside with my regular winding and unwinding into a neat ball for storage.

Re: lavalier microphone to a female officiant
 

David you are quite safe to use rechargeables :- ) I have used nothing but for years. Some equipment has a menu setting for the type of battery e.g. the Zoom H4n.

Just make sure you get a good genuine brand. My favs now are the high capacity Eneloops:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

They retain their full charge for ages so you don't have to constantly top up unused cells. I use chargers that can analyse and recondition cells as well. The Maha C9000. I have 4 of those.

Not sure if plugin power used on an H1 would lead to excessive drain as I seldom use anything other than the H1's onboard mics - the pick up pattern being a slightly narrower more appropriate one than a typical omni lav. Its phantom power than can be a hog on some devices. If I'm using a lav its usually with a G3 transmitter, if I'm using an H1 its usually hidden close to the couple.

Pete

Re: lavalier microphone to a female officiant
 

The reliability issue isn't down to the power running out but the H1 locking up. I had maybe 5 lock ups in 3 years and lost the file each time, an absolute nightmare. Since switching to Alkaline on Zoom's recommendation I haven't had a lock up. Expensive, but the only way I'll use them now for critical audio.

Re: lavalier microphone to a female officiant
 

Gosh, I have 4 x H1's and have never experienced a "lockup". I seem to recall that if the power runs out whilst recording then that file may be lost. A new file is created every 2gb but since 48/16 WAV files are relatively small 2gb would mean losing an entire recording I guess. Zoom were probably alluding to reliability issues with cheap rechargeables or over-use of rechargeables without reconditioning the cells - they don't last forever.

I also use rechargeables for numerous flashguns, gun battery packs, H4n, shotgun mic, wireless triggers, 3 x G3 radio kits, etc with no issues.

Pete

Re: lavalier microphone to a female officiant
 

I'd be careful Pete, Zoom themselves advised I use alkaline batteries. I thought it was silly when they said it but I suppose they know their products more than me and so far it's been ok..

Re: lavalier microphone to a female officiant
 

It's a common problem - most rechargeable have lower terminal voltage, but the worst feature is that with them, the terminal voltage dies off very quickly, which often gives misleading time left on displays, and the sudden death at the end means that the usual shutdown procedures might not have a chance to complete before they go dead. Radio mics do the same thing - turn them on, the display tells you there is plenty of charge, yet suddenly, they just go. All the different rechargeables perform differently - only proper testing will tell you how they behave when nearly dead in a particular device. Personally, I use alkalinise, and just treat them as consumables.

Re: lavalier microphone to a female officiant
 

the terminal voltage dies off very quickly, which often gives misleading time left on displays, and the sudden death

Once they get near the single bar of three I swap them out, but with all my equipment except heavy duty flashguns and H4n on phantom power they seem to go on forever. I do regularly recondition them as well.

Pete

Re: lavalier microphone to a female officiant
 

OK so I've bought a mic for testing now trying to decide on a small recorder. Is the olympus 733 the same as the 731 except colour? Also does anyone know if the case that comes with these has a clip on it? Bit surprised to see no clip on the actual unit. Any other recommendations welcome.. £70 max!

Ah just read the 733 is the only one that has low cut filter and noise reduction so I'll go with that. Just need to find a decent clip case for attaching to registrars folder now as suspect the one provided doesn't have a clip..

Re: lavalier microphone to a female officiant
 

My 733 case does not have a clip on it, plus the case is slippery so the unit would not stay inside it securely when tilted. You might get away with taping it to the folder using no-residue gaffer tape that is secure but also just peels off. Looking at mine you could gaffer tape it to the underneath outside of the folder back cover very securely and it would not be overly visible. I guess a mobile phone case with a strong belt clip would work but phone cases tend to be too large now; a case for a small ipod might do the trick. You can stop gear sliding out by putting a small piece of velcro on the inside of the case and the outside of the recorder - I do that with my shotgun foamy and windjammer.

Pete

Re: lavalier microphone to a female officiant
 

received my VN-733PC and EZ503 mic today.. now for some tests!

Re: lavalier microphone to a female officiant
 

Wow.. the H1 is so much nicer to the ear :(

The practicality and portability of the Olympus cant be beat, I suppose it'll be a setup solely for clipping onto the registrars folder but I wont be replacing my zoom's with olympus recorders for speeches.

Similarly the Azden mic is a bit tinnier (and much more sensitive) than the Audio Technica's I use. I love the idea of a mic with no soldered joins or battery packs to worry about so I'm going to let the search go on for a decent mic, I may give the Azden a real life test at the next wedding I do as it might just be sufficient, but if I can find a mic that at the same sound quality as the Audio Technika but the build quality of the azden I'll be happy.

Suggestions for that mic welcome before I end up wasting money trying every mic I can get my hands on!

Re: lavalier microphone to a female officiant
 

if it helps anybody here I've done a comparisson of the Rode Lavalier Mic, Audio Technica ATR3350, Azden 503 and the Olympus ME-15 which arrived today. I think the olympus is probably the worst in my opinion. The Azden seemed to have bad handling noise on the cable where as the others (especially the Rode and Audio Technica) were silent.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hbA...ature=youtu.be

What do you guys think sounds best?