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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

How to mount a consumer microphone on the scarlet

Is ANYONE out there successfully using an onboard microphone... like a button mike... on an Epic? If so, it would be helpful if you shared your working solution.
 
Elsie,

Regarding your earlier question about lav mics. It depends. Some are phantom powered. Some are bias powered.
There is no way to plug a bias-powered mic directly into the RED jack and make it work. The RED jack is set up to provide phantom power (when enabled), not bias power.

Examples of bias powered mics: consumer dictation/lecture mics, computer mics, wireless lav mics, including Sennheiser, Countryman, Tram. All of these are available with miniplugs, but they won't work if plugged directly into the RED audio jack. The pro wireless lav mics could work if they had a power supply, which is generally built in to the transmitter, but phantom--> bias converters are available.

What I think you and a lot of people are hoping for is a button mic that uses phantom power, or maybe a cheap condenser mic powered by a button battery. I don't know of any examples of the former (though that doesn't mean it doesn't or will never exist). Of the latter, most I remember ever seeing are stereo, so you'd probably need an adapter to kill channel 2 (the ring).
 
Steve,

Great explanation. being a little lazy (or overwhelmed with all the details of preparing to shoot) I was hoping someone like yourself could post some choices that are known to work and then I could make the best decision for my situation. Again, your post has clarity, even to me, but I was hoping for a shortcut.:smiley:
 
The only advice as to where to put a mic on Scarlet is not to put it on Scarlet at all. This will guarantee the mic will always be in the wrong place all of the time. Sorry to be negative. Buy a short boom pole, pref Panamic it should serve you well. Unfortunately its thought there will be 1/8 jack on Scarlet, I hope not but I think it will, purchase a good XLR convertor for this input. If your wanting a scratch mic ie not for programme use just for guide track then its not so much of an issue.

If your set on this idea though I was looking at other mic mounting options, theres the usual 1/4 20 type mounts but also it may be possible to use a mount such as this.

http://www.amazon.com/TACTICAL-JETBeam-JET-III-Diameter-Flashlight/dp/B002ZYRV2E/ref=pd_sim_sg_5

There seems to be a move towards nato rails and there are good but perhaps unconventional inexpensive kit to support mics and odd ball kit we use on cameras.

Given the mic is in completely the wrong place to start with it would help if its got some form of anti vibration mount on it, there are a few Rycote soft mounts that could eithe ruse the flash light type mount of just use a 1/4 20 type mount for the mic.

Make the best of it you can but don't count on using any audio for real from the on camera mic....
 
I confess I'm not clear why as a DP, I need to worry about "managing" anything but my own department. When I was a production mixer I never worried about how to "manage" the focus or what scrims to use, etc. The person who hired you as the camera guy will have also hired someone to "manage" the other departments, including the other half of the project: sound.


JosefGatti said:
Still haven't quite figure out how I'll manage audio with Scarlet yet. Seems it may be easiest to record separately. I don't think I'll do much casual shooting with the need for nice or any sound.
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Arnold F. said:
I confess I'm not clear why as a DP, I need to worry about "managing" anything but my own department. When I was a production mixer I never worried about how to "manage" the focus or what scrims to use, etc. The person who hired you as the camera guy will have also hired someone to "manage" the other departments, including the other half of the project: sound.
Click to expand...

You don't. I think you're missing that you're talking to people that are trying to do it all by themselves. For whatever reason - budget, convenience, or because sometimes people will just want to shoot with their camera without making a big production out of it - there isn't a sound person working the project.
 
Not all of us are shooting commercials, or movies. At least not yet. I'm making my money with weddings, and therefore I'd definitely need an easy on camera sound capture solution too. I'm aware there could be different configurations we can put together using arms, and other components, but for people who don't have the experience with the RED, or perhaps say Wooden camera components, it is not easy to figure it out what I'd need, just by looking on the pictures on the websites. Now I would also like to add, that just because some of us need this type of run & gun setup, it doesn't mean that we don't understand that there is a better way to capture the sound. But for one what I do, I couldn't have someone else running next to me the whole wedding day.
 
Just tape it with gaffer-tape, so the producers and director will all ways know what are you talking about them. ;)
 
I wonder when RED will enable phantom power again? Perhaps they could have the camera detect when a microphone is unplugged when the phantom is on (measuring the current flowing to the microphone should do it) and disable phantom until a new connection is made. When a mic is connected, it could bring up a popup allowing the operator to confirm that the microphone is phantom compatible and explaining the risk of damage to equipment if not.
 
thats also a good product from Innocinema for Epic and scarlet:

epic_accessories_003_square.jpg


But yup, I'm looking also for the mount configuration where I can put a 416 Sennheiser on the scarlet for a "one man Shot" doc config.


Is there any mic mount compatible with the Tactical RIB, will be great to put the Mic on the side as on the top you already have the LCD.

DSC_0030.jpg
 
Graeme Hay said:
1/4"-20 is a standard screw size, you can easy make one from a cold-shoe (hotshot without contacts).

Just saying...
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So yes, with the Top Tactical Top plate, the problem must be solved.
 
Arnold F. said:
I confess I'm not clear why as a DP, I need to worry about "managing" anything but my own department. When I was a production mixer I never worried about how to "manage" the focus or what scrims to use, etc. The person who hired you as the camera guy will have also hired someone to "manage" the other departments, including the other half of the project: sound.
Click to expand...

Have you never shot something by yourself, or are you just trying to be obtuse?

I see this attitude a lot on here, and it's not very helpful...

I too want to find out the best way to mount a basic mic on the camera for a scratch track and synch purposes, and then how to run in an XLR mic as well. Ideally, getting some automatic gain control in there somewhere would be great, since I don't fancy having to open menus to mess with audio levels a lot.
 
Felix Steinhardt said:
Hi,

I was thinking about an audio solution for the scarlet for documentary work. The camera has to mini-jack inputs so I thought the Rode Videomic Pro would be a good choice. The reviews are very good and it´s not XLR.
But it has to be mounted on a hot shoe...

I didn´t find any solution for that. All I found were Hot shoe adaptors, the male part, but no real shoe that has a 1/4" screw on the opposite side.

What do you guys think about (cheap) solutions for recording audio directly in-camera ?
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Im planning on using a http://www.woodencamera.com/hot-shoe and This http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produ...e_DUSM_1_DUSM_1_Universal_Shockmount_for.html to hold the mic, and use an 1/8 to XLR adapter like http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produ...nology_XVM_102F_XVM_102F_Angled_3_5mm_to.html.
 
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I own a Sound Devices 788T, which is like the Epic of audio recorders. What camera can I put on it to shoot my movie?
 
Barry Bishop said:
Just so im clear as im no audio expert; I can buy this http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produ...nology_XVM_102F_XVM_102F_Angled_3_5mm_to.html and plug my battery powered lav mic, as well as my shotgun mic?
Click to expand...

Barry - that should work. The key things are that they are self-powered (as I believe phantom power is not currently enabled) and that they are not wired for stereo, as each input on the Scarlet is mono.

EDIT: I think folks are getting all balled up here for no reason. RED used the smaller jacks simply to save space - big XLRs would mean the camera would have to be significantly larger. The "pro" aspect of it is a) a lot of "pro" uses record synch sound (separately), thus no real on-board need for high quality audio (just reference) or, b) the coming I/O modules will enable high quality XLR i/o and allow access to all 4 tracks of audio recording. In the meantime, folks like Wooden Camera have an awesome and inexpensive solution in the A-Box (safe and easy). That pretty much takes care of it.

Of course, there are good reasons to record sound directly to the camera (although a camera-mounted mic has it's own challenges - one being fan noise). If you don't want to spend $200 for an A-Box (don't forget, you just put out $15K; what's another $200?) then you can go for various cables and adaptors but stereo mini-plug mics definitely won't plug straight into the Scarlet input and work out of the box. If it works in your GL-2 or your Canon DSLR, chances are pretty darn good it WON'T work straight into your Scarlet.
 
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