Groom: Wireless MIC or Wireless RECORDER?
 

Quick background, my FX1000 used a Beachtek XLR adapter and was very handy as the large volume knobs faced me, very easy to adjust on the fly. My new NX3 has dual XLR inputs, however the small adjustments that are on the side of the cam make it very difficult to adjust on the fly. This leads to an audio setup question...

Do you use a wireless mic (to your camera) or a wireless recorder (independent of camera) for the vows audio?

May add a little work in post, finding and laying down the audio, but hopefully would remove the anxiety of adjusting/capturing via the lav mic.

Re: Groom: Wireless MIC or Wireless RECORDER?
 

Wireless recorder. Using Pluraleyes to sync the audio in post requires very little extra time and works perfectly almost every time.

Re: Groom: Wireless MIC or Wireless RECORDER?
 

Thanks Dennis, I have read about Pluraleyes but never used it. Do I run as stand alone or with my NLE? I am still a bit of a dinosaur, I use Corel VideoStudioPro for editing.

Re: Groom: Wireless MIC or Wireless RECORDER?
 

Hi Darryn,

I used wireless for many years, but had issues from time to time. I'd have perfect audio...until the vows! Something about the direction the groom turned, or proximity to bride and minister, maybe the signal gets boxed in between their bodies at that time. Issues were rare, but bad vows on one wedding is one too many! Maybe the Groom breaking into a sweat did it, I dunno ;-)

And the helplessness of listening in the headphones and hearing the problem, but not being able to do anything about it was frustrating! Outdoor weddings seemed more problematic - those were the ones with perfect audio UNTIL the vows, groom turns to face the bride and signal goes to heck.

So I switched to sticking a little recorder in the groom's pocket, with lapel mic of course, and never looked back. As long as I remember to switch it ON, works every time without fail and is absolutely crystal-clear!

I bought several of the iRiver recorders many years ago when they were popular, size of a pack of gum, but they quit making them a long time ago. And I can only retrieve the audio from them using a Windows XP machine (dated, proprietary software required), but I LOVE those little guys, have 3 of them to place around ceremony. Groom, podium, minister or musicians.

Thanks

Re: Groom: Wireless MIC or Wireless RECORDER?
 

Many people will use both a wireless lav system and then put a tiny recorder in the groom's pocket. Another option is the juicedLink Little Darling that is supposed to come out this year. It can be place in-line between the lav mic and the wireless transmitter so that you get a dual channel recording from the microphone while you can also send a wireless signal to your camera. This also is great because instead of having two different sounding mics (one from a pocket recorder and one from the lav) you will get two tracks that will sound very similar where one is wireless and adjustable on the camera and the other is wired.

Also, Rode just came out with their RodeLink system which is supposed to have significant improvements in wireless signal quality for a very reasonable price of $400 for the wireless system and the lav mic. They use a 2.4 ghz system that switches back and forth to always find the best signal.

So to be on the safest side, it's probably best to have some sort of backup in case one of them has some issues.

Re: Groom: Wireless MIC or Wireless RECORDER?
 

I used a wireless for years, and still like it, but prefer my zoom H1, it's just simpler. I use several voice recorders and really like them. The wireless is just one more thing to dismount from the cam, and I work 3 and 4 cams alone so I need to save time, every second I can.

I prefer the autogain on the cameras though, the auto gain on the zoom is very bad, you really need to set it to manual setting whereas with the wireless I can leave the cam audio on auto gain and it's fine.

Re: Groom: Wireless MIC or Wireless RECORDER?
 

Couple of quick thoughts. As always, your mileage will vary!

1. I use a wireless mic into a separate sound recorder. Main reason: this seems to give me the best sound. But whether the same is true for you depends on what particular gear you use.

2. Wireless mics in theory give you the opportunity to adjust the levels if you find, when it all kicks off, that you've got them too soft/too loud.

3. Wireless mics give you the opportunity to have a quick listen before everything kicks off to make sure the sound is still good (the groom hasn't taken his jacket off and dislodged it or whatever).

4. Around my area, I seldom get frequency interference (but sometimes do).

5. In general, wireless mics have more possible points of failure, from line/mic level switches that you accidentally bump, to batteries running low, to the antenna on the transmitter not being screwed in properly.

6. Wireless mics are handy to have if you're planning a same-day edit. I seldom organise projector screen/projector myself, and I've found, surprisingly often, that no one has thought about how to get sound from the laptop playing the video to the DJ's system or house speakers. In this case, a wireless transmitter/receiver might save your butt, if it's not possible to run a cable from laptop to DJ.

Re: Groom: Wireless MIC or Wireless RECORDER?
 

The sound quality of the Sennheiser G3 system always seems better to my ears than H1 Yamaha C24 or any other digital recorder I have used. Maybe it's the mic? There is always a richer fuller quality to the sound but then we were always using pretty cheap lab mics so perhaps our results would have been better with a Giant Squid or whatever is the favourite lab currently.

There is something immensely reassuring about seeing the audio levels when recording from the wireless lab into a camera & monitoring on headphones.

The audio is so important that it's always belt & braces so while we had a wireless mic on the groom there would always be other recorders hidden in flowers or clipped to the furniture so if the main audio failed then there was a backup.

Re: Groom: Wireless MIC or Wireless RECORDER?
 

I'm a fan of putting my wireless on the pastor and a recorder on the groom. I only need the audio from the groom for 2 minutes and don't find it useful to go wireless when I'll want a backup to that then.

Then, my wireless goes to my H1 recorder, along with an on camera mic, then into my camera.