GL2 mic for wedding events
 

Hello guys, just got an ATR55 shotgun mike and learned that it is a mono microphone. and since i have it, i have to make it usable. I have heard from other threads that i can buy a connector like 2monon input and one stereo output connector, what i'm planning to do is put the mono shotgun on left and an iriver monomic (giant squid) on the right... will that be fine?

TIA for your comments, suggestions and recommendations.

Guys...anyone...any suggestions? violent reaction...? I need your inputs really bad. ciao

Leonardo, all shotgun mics are mono. It's completly fine recording audio in mono- you've gotta think, voices are all in mono. I don't, however, feel a shotgun mic is the best mic for indoor shooting...especially after attending Douglas Spotted Eagles seminar "Now Hear This". You can get better feedback regarding your audio needs in the "Now Hear This" forum right here at DVinfo. Best of luck to you.

I would probably stick with a shotgun for weddings. It won't work for the vows (nothing will) but for the reception the directional characteristics will be very helpful. Wedding receptions are noisy events. Also, you will most likely be shooting in a large hall (full of nice, sound absorbing people) where the problems that plague shotguns in interior situations aren't as pronounced. I don't understand why you want to mix the lav with shotgun either. Are you using the lav for interviews and want the shotgun for safety? How does the IRiver fit into all this?

If you are using the mic with an XLR to mini, get an XLR to stereo (dual mono)mini connector. On the GL2 I adjust 1 chanel -8 db from the other to avoid clipping during loud portions, then work with the 2 chanels in post to create a single 'best' track, and then duplicate it to produce a final faux sterero track.

Use the iRiver audio as a 2nd source to sync in post.

If you're working with a video cam that has one mini jack for input, what you said will work and it's a no brainer. Just go to Radio Shack and get a y-adapter that is 2 seperate mini mono females to 1 mini stereo male -- done deal. Now, you may have trouble balancing the levels on each, which is a different problem. You could try buying a little mini volume controller from Radio Shack too. It is just one female mini on one end and one male mini on the other end with a tiny volume control inbetween. You could put that on one of the mics before the y-adapter so as to balance the two mics to an even level, then use the levels on the cam itself to prevent clipping -- or you could possibly buy two volume controls and put one on each mic's cord. Remember though, long runs of unbalanced mini cable and adding additional connectors like the y-adapter and volume controls are all asking for more hiss and interference. If you've got a cam with XLR input, never mind...

thanks to all for your replies...

Glen, thanks for the info, i'll try to browse more on "hear this topics" indoor they said shotgun won't work fine, but there is a selector in the shotgun if it is a long range or short range...i may be wrong but i think in long range the characteristic of sound coverage is lengthened and for short is is like a cardiod...?

Marco my iriver is a separate unit with another lav mic. what i'll do is 1 lav mic for getting ambience (camera's left channel) and mono shotgun (baby jack connector) to the right channel.

chris i'll try that when i get a hold on a mic with XLR.

Bill thanks, just got a connector that you have said. and i will do a manual volume levelling to each channel to mix them well. thanks to all.

an update on this... using a y connector doesn't work with GL2, you have to have a powered microphone to do this. this is what noticed when i connected the shotgun mic(with batt) and GS lav on a y connector going to GL2 (it doesn't have audio) but when i disconnect GS lav...audio comes in the left channel (shotgun mic). have anyone else tried this? thanks

AT-897 and Sennheiser ew 100-ENG G2
 

I was just going through some footage I shot in January with my GL2 and I had an AT-897 and a Sennheiser ew 100-ENG G2 system plugged into a Y-connector made up of two female XLRs and a mini-stereo plug.

I was at an outdoor concert with booths lining the periphery, so I got ambient sound on one channel and the speaker in the booth on the other.

Sorry i've made a mistake on the statement before, y connector does work with GL2 if you have microphone with external power source (i.e. battery)

the y connector i've used was 2-input mono baby jack and 1 output stereo baby jack.

I'll echo a couple of other comments and say "Why bother?" with splitting the mono mic into both channels on the camera soundtrack. We're so used to stereos, CD & MP3 players, etc being designed as stereo for music reproduction that we forget that spoken voices come from one spot in space and are mono by nature - dialog is not like an orchestra on a stage that spreads out across a stereo field. For dialog all you need to record is a single channel (though it doesn't hurt to record the mono signal on two tracks at different levels about 8dB apart as protection when you can't have any retakes or ADR, giving you a choice of using the better track in post). When you mix in post you would use the audio pan control to send the mono track to your choice of one or both channels and balance its position in the stereo field. Dialog recorded stereo at equal volume on both channels can sound very strange to the audience except when the character is a "talking head" dead-centre on the screen, it's especially weird if you have a character far screen left and his speech is audible on the right channel as well as the left