minidisc and microphone

Post by **S8 Booster** » Sun Jun 09, 2002 1:22 am

The Sharp "Sounds" great too.

For your inf: The MZ R700 & 900 is almost identical in size except for a "bump" on the rear making room for the difference in battery type.

I believe that mike quality is generally more important than preamp quality. well, at least my impression.

Phil L · Post by **Phil L** » Sun Jun 09, 2002 2:30 pm

A good microphone for this kind of recorder is Sony S 959 C, and not so expensive : stereo XY (but work cardio mono if you record mono, and XY stereo is compatible to mono when two tracks are in addition). Sound is very good for the price (less than 300 E.), not too much bass (no big troubles with wind), no big problems with contact noise.
Unless it is unbalanced microphone, i currently use it with a boom and two or three meters wire (not more).
I also use lavallier microphones like Beyer MC5, for exemple, because of phantom power is currently supplied on Sony recorders and DV. Price is about the same (but mono omnidirectionnal). In this case, you have to transform balanced to unbalanced plug (just join cold pin with ground)
One important thing is to get a MD with good preamp (i use two MZR 35, old an big, but good preamps) so you have to buy the top of sony, or Sharp (Denon is very good too). Either i currently use professional preamp and plug it in line in (with a 15 dB down).
AGC is surprisingly good with MZR 35, and i currently use it now, when i cannot control it (when i film, for exemple).
I enter in analog PC in (KORG 1212 sound card) because i have no digital output on my MD. If necessary i use denoiser and it sound good.
Phil L

Post by **cameraguy** » Sun Jun 09, 2002 5:52 pm

S8 Booster wrote:The Sharp "Sounds" great too.

Yes, both Sony and Sharps sound great. I listened to both

For your inf: The MZ R700 & 900 is almost identical in size except for a "bump" on the rear making room for the difference in battery type.

Guess it depends on the individual tastes. The R700, to me, is considerably thicker than the Sharp 877 or the Sony R900(909).

I believe that mike quality is generally more important than preamp quality. well, at least my impression.

Noisy scenes are gonna sound fine with any mic. Picking up quiet sounds is where a seperate mic preamp or high quality mic (or both) will improve the sound.

Post by **mattias** » Mon Jun 10, 2002 2:14 pm

el don, you're kidding, right? using a good mic is *much* more important than anything else. a great mic used with a casette recorder from 1974 will sound *much* better than a lousy mic and a dat recorder. as for getting the sound into the computer, that's probably the last thing you have to worry about quality-wise.

if you want a directional mic, prepare to pay at least $200 or so for it, or at least $50 for a non directional one. i would recommend renting though. i usually record my audio with a sennheiser shotgun that i rent for $10 a day, complete with blimp, fur and pistol grip. i think it's $2000 or so to buy, so renting is really the only way. sounds too expensive? considering that you probably spend at least $50 on film per day when shooting, and that the sound is often just as important as the images, it's really not expensive at all...

/matt

Post by **el don** » Mon Jun 10, 2002 4:51 pm

i agree with you mattias. I just had a look on prices and if you want to have a decent sound, you need different mics that will suit to the different situations you'll meet during the shoot, and i don't think that any of us is ready to spend kilo-euros on mics, so i'm simply going to rent them. That's one problem solved!

Post by **S8 Booster** » Tue Jun 11, 2002 9:39 am

It appears that some of the Sonys do have a auto switching device for the headphone output jack that detects a "line out" connection and switches the output settings accordingly.

Ref: http://www.sony-europe.com/view.x?prod= ... &loc=en_NO
The MZ G750.

The same utility is available for the MZ R700 model.

There are some difficulties in keeping all details straigh because the model designations changes all the time and may differ from continent to continent.

An advice before buying a MD:
Contact a professional supplier with technical staff for repairs/maintenance. I did so when I bought my MD and I also got printed copies of the internal curcuits because I wanted to redesign the remote control system to fit my cams auto start system MD/recorder.

Great service I got there really.

Make sure all your requirements are met before you buy and if the staff is not immediately and precisely capable of sorting out your details, check out more suppliers.

mike · Post by **mike** » Mon Jun 17, 2002 7:24 am

Can anyone share your technique of syncing the sound with the film?

Are you using the clap stick method?

Do any of the mini discs take a micorphone input and a sync pulse input at the same time?

Post by **jessh** » Mon Jun 17, 2002 9:56 am

mike wrote: Do any of the mini discs take a micorphone input and a sync pulse input at the same time?

The minidisc needs a stero mic jack (which I believe most have), and you need to split it out and record your mic on one channel and your sync pulses on the other, you must use manual gain control when doing this. And this reminds me, I need to get around to ordering the parts to build a couple of sync pulse generator thingies.

~Jess

Post by **mattias** » Mon Jun 17, 2002 3:08 pm

mike wrote: Are you using the clap stick method?

yes, at both ends so i can calculate the drift and compensate digitally.

mike wrote: Do any of the mini discs take a micorphone input and a sync pulse input at the same time?

not really, but they all use stereo input, so if you only need one channel of sound, a simple "y-splitter" is enough. i'm not aware of any that can record more than two channels at the same time, although i believe the latest md specs allow it, much like dv...

/matt

Post by **studiocarter** » Wed Jun 19, 2002 7:29 pm

The MZN-707 Sony MD recorder player is currently on sale in the Pittsburgh PA area. It has a mic in plug. http://www03.bhphotovideo.com/default.s ... Work.class
It's for sale -$30 cheaper on line at B&H for $199.95 plus shipping. I used the search function to find it and mics.
Condenser Mics listed in the manual for the recorder are also sold at B&H:
ECMT 145 is a mono tiny clip on for $50
ECM-717 is a small stereo clip on for $60
ECM-MS907 is medium sized stereo with Big sound for $80 takes AA
ECM-MS957 Pro Stereo big mic with stand for $200

It looks like the recorder is best used one on each actor with a lav or clip on mic.
If it is on a camera the manual says that the recorder will pick up its own noise if the mic cord is too short and add to that the camera noise. None of the mics are of the shotgun type; they are omnidirectional or Cardioid.
All of the mics do plug directly into the recorder, the last has an optional xlr plug.
Sales recomended ? :
AT 822 a big stereo hand held Cardioid at $240.00 and would need an adaptor.

Lots of hand claps would be needed while shooting scenes at head and tails of shots; the recorder could just be let running most of the time.

It's still less than $300 with a mic of choice with shipping included to outfit one digital recorder on one actor or on one camera.

Tempting.

Filmshooting

minidisc and microphone

MD

Re: MD

MD - LINE OUT

MZN-707