Digital mics - need some helpful info

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Some here with real world experience with Sony digital mics via the multi interface hot shoe? I am looking for solutions with on-camera mounted mic, and also wireless mic. They will not be used at the same time. The intended use is lower end documentary and short format reportage style work.

I am not interested in XRL solutions since we already have this at work.
 
I have an old Sony on-camera gun/zoom mic that I used with an SR-11 handycam, and it's either the same as the Sony ECM-GZ1M or very similar. It's really only good for scratch audio, as it doesn't sound natural, has high self noise, and despite being tuned with a high-pass-filter, it's very susceptible to wind noise.

I looked into the Sony ECM-W1M Wireless Microphone 14 years ago, but ruled it out, due to the poor reviews and short range of Bluetooth, and these days you can get a Rode Wireless Go II for $10 more.

These multi interface mics are for consumers, and just one step above the built-in mic.
 
Some here with real world experience with Sony digital mics via the multi interface hot shoe? I am looking for solutions with on-camera mounted mic, and also wireless mic. They will not be used at the same time. The intended use is lower end documentary and short format reportage style work.

I am not interested in XRL solutions since we already have this at work.
This is Sony's newest digital mic:

https://electronics.sony.com/imagin...PO2LZFy32p8y6WjRQ4MaAifkEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

I am sorry I don't have experience with it. I have used Canon's newest digital mic and it is very good. One advantage of these newer digital mics is that you have a choice of degree of directionality.
 
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Some here with real world experience with Sony digital mics via the multi interface hot shoe? I am looking for solutions with on-camera mounted mic, and also wireless mic. They will not be used at the same time. The intended use is lower end documentary and short format reportage style work.

I am not interested in XRL solutions since we already have this at work.
This is Sony's newest digital mic:

https://electronics.sony.com/imagin...PO2LZFy32p8y6WjRQ4MaAifkEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

I am sorry I don't have experience with it. I have used Canon's newest digital mic and it is very good. One advantage of these newer digital mics is that you have a choice of degree of directionality.
I am looking for real world experience. The products are just a quick search away. But thanks for responding. ;-)
 
I have been using the analogue SONY ECM-XYST1M for several years and I find it to be a very good microphone. I have also been listening to some tests of the digital SONY microphones but I find the sound a tiny bit artificial. Maybe it's just me, but for now, I'll stay with the analog XYST1M.
 
I have been using the analogue SONY ECM-XYST1M for several years and I find it to be a very good microphone. I have also been listening to some tests of the digital SONY microphones but I find the sound a tiny bit artificial. Maybe it's just me, but for now, I'll stay with the analog XYST1M.
I have the XYST1M, I'm pretty happy with it, although at least on most bodies, if you want to disable AGC you have to use the 3.5mm jumper, MIS appears to force AGC which is why I'm kind of against MIS mics.

Maybe the digital ones are different in this regard. I like the concept of a phased array mic, but all of Sony's phased array mics have a front/back array that allows the directionality to be adjusted but won't support stereo separation, I'd love to see one with a left/right array that allows for stereo steering.
 
I have been using the analogue SONY ECM-XYST1M for several years and I find it to be a very good microphone. I have also been listening to some tests of the digital SONY microphones but I find the sound a tiny bit artificial. Maybe it's just me, but for now, I'll stay with the analog XYST1M.
I have the XYST1M, I'm pretty happy with it, although at least on most bodies, if you want to disable AGC you have to use the 3.5mm jumper, MIS appears to force AGC which is why I'm kind of against MIS mics.

Maybe the digital ones are different in this regard. I like the concept of a phased array mic, but all of Sony's phased array mics have a front/back array that allows the directionality to be adjusted but won't support stereo separation, I'd love to see one with a left/right array that allows for stereo steering.
 
I have been using the analogue SONY ECM-XYST1M for several years and I find it to be a very good microphone. I have also been listening to some tests of the digital SONY microphones but I find the sound a tiny bit artificial. Maybe it's just me, but for now, I'll stay with the analog XYST1M.
I have the XYST1M, I'm pretty happy with it, although at least on most bodies, if you want to disable AGC you have to use the 3.5mm jumper, MIS appears to force AGC which is why I'm kind of against MIS mics.

Maybe the digital ones are different in this regard. I like the concept of a phased array mic, but all of Sony's phased array mics have a front/back array that allows the directionality to be adjusted but won't support stereo separation, I'd love to see one with a left/right array that allows for stereo steering.
Thanks for the heads up about MIS mics forcing automatic gain control.
It might be better in newer cameras, but the last time I used an XYST1M, to have manual gain I needed to use the 3.5mm jumper - without it, the manual gain would be greyed out. I haven't tried it in MIS mode in a LONG time, in fact I'm not sure if I ever did with the A7M3 (vs. A6500), and the digital MIS interface may be a completely different story.
 
Isn't a "digital mic" just a mic with an A/D converter built-in? Is it correct to assume the only advantage would be if the converter is better than what's in the camera?

As long as the mic/interface can be powered by the camera and pass audio through the shoe. I briefly had a Sony XLR-K2M and it was great in these regards, though I don't think it was digital.
 
Isn't a "digital mic" just a mic with an A/D converter built-in? Is it correct to assume the only advantage would be if the converter is better than what's in the camera?

As long as the mic/interface can be powered by the camera and pass audio through the shoe. I briefly had a Sony XLR-K2M and it was great in these regards, though I don't think it was digital.
1. No cable, which can pickup noise.

2. No mic battery to die - power is supplied by the camera, so only one battery to watch.

3. The digital mic has both a microphone preamplifier and a A/D converter. Either one could be better than what is in the camera.
 
Isn't a "digital mic" just a mic with an A/D converter built-in? Is it correct to assume the only advantage would be if the converter is better than what's in the camera?

As long as the mic/interface can be powered by the camera and pass audio through the shoe. I briefly had a Sony XLR-K2M and it was great in these regards, though I don't think it was digital.
1. No cable, which can pickup noise.

2. No mic battery to die - power is supplied by the camera, so only one battery to watch.

3. The digital mic has both a microphone preamplifier and a A/D converter. Either one could be better than what is in the camera.
That's what I am looking for, so I ordered an ECM-W2BT set, plus a lavalier microphone. Hopefully I can get a first impression at the end of next week. ;-)
 
Isn't a "digital mic" just a mic with an A/D converter built-in? Is it correct to assume the only advantage would be if the converter is better than what's in the camera?

As long as the mic/interface can be powered by the camera and pass audio through the shoe. I briefly had a Sony XLR-K2M and it was great in these regards, though I don't think it was digital.
1. No cable, which can pickup noise.

2. No mic battery to die - power is supplied by the camera, so only one battery to watch.

3. The digital mic has both a microphone preamplifier and a A/D converter. Either one could be better than what is in the camera.
That's what I am looking for, so I ordered an ECM-W2BT set, plus a lavalier microphone. Hopefully I can get a first impression at the end of next week. ;-)
That one in digital mode will have a hiss since there's no way to set the audio rec level in camera while in digital.

To get around that, use the cable and set the audio rec level in camera a little bit lower.

Of course, if you are outside and not in a quiet setting, you might not hear it.
 
Isn't a "digital mic" just a mic with an A/D converter built-in? Is it correct to assume the only advantage would be if the converter is better than what's in the camera?

As long as the mic/interface can be powered by the camera and pass audio through the shoe. I briefly had a Sony XLR-K2M and it was great in these regards, though I don't think it was digital.
1. No cable, which can pickup noise.

2. No mic battery to die - power is supplied by the camera, so only one battery to watch.

3. The digital mic has both a microphone preamplifier and a A/D converter. Either one could be better than what is in the camera.
That's what I am looking for, so I ordered an ECM-W2BT set, plus a lavalier microphone. Hopefully I can get a first impression at the end of next week. ;-)
That one in digital mode will have a hiss since there's no way to set the audio rec level in camera while in digital.
For real world work you rarely get the ideal solution when working fast at a lower level. I am not producing for Netflix. ;-)

Probably subtracting a take of room noise or using other filters can help to reduce unwanted noise.
To get around that, use the cable and set the audio rec level in camera a little bit lower.
Tests will show what we get from fully digital input. At least there are three Db levels for input.
Of course, if you are outside and not in a quiet setting, you might not hear it.
Some schools even accept and appreciate some "unwanted" noise, especially for reportage and info media style work, since such flaws will strenghten the impression of realism and anthensity when listening to the message. Of cause too much will be over the top, but I don't think this is a major problem with digital sound capture.
 
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Isn't a "digital mic" just a mic with an A/D converter built-in? Is it correct to assume the only advantage would be if the converter is better than what's in the camera?

As long as the mic/interface can be powered by the camera and pass audio through the shoe. I briefly had a Sony XLR-K2M and it was great in these regards, though I don't think it was digital.
1. No cable, which can pickup noise.

2. No mic battery to die - power is supplied by the camera, so only one battery to watch.

3. The digital mic has both a microphone preamplifier and a A/D converter. Either one could be better than what is in the camera.
In addition, how Sony sets up gain controls could be completely different between digital MIS and analog MIS, the latter of which has been documented in the past as being different from 3.5mm on at least some Sony cameras.

I would hope it is different because analog MIS has some serious limitations such as forced AGC on many Sonys (although the same bodies that support digital MIS might have fixed this issue with analog MIS at the same time...)
 
Isn't a "digital mic" just a mic with an A/D converter built-in? Is it correct to assume the only advantage would be if the converter is better than what's in the camera?

As long as the mic/interface can be powered by the camera and pass audio through the shoe. I briefly had a Sony XLR-K2M and it was great in these regards, though I don't think it was digital.
1. No cable, which can pickup noise.

2. No mic battery to die - power is supplied by the camera, so only one battery to watch.

3. The digital mic has both a microphone preamplifier and a A/D converter. Either one could be better than what is in the camera.
That's what I am looking for, so I ordered an ECM-W2BT set, plus a lavalier microphone. Hopefully I can get a first impression at the end of next week. ;-)
That one in digital mode will have a hiss since there's no way to set the audio rec level in camera while in digital.

To get around that, use the cable and set the audio rec level in camera a little bit lower.

Of course, if you are outside and not in a quiet setting, you might not hear it.
Wow, this would indicate that the digital MIS has the same severe flaw as analog MIS - forced AGC! :(
 
After I posted here, I got the chance to work with two digital microphone solutions for the Sony Multi Interface hot shoe: The ECM-B10 and the wireless ECM-W2BT with an aditional lavalier mic. These small units are easy to carry, and discrete when in use.

Both solutions seems to work well for my lower end professional work. Setup is super-simple, and both mics offer clean voice recordings when used properly within the intended range. The signals are pretty robust when imported to Adobe Audition and Premiere Pro. Not much post processing is needed to get okay final results.

After doing simpler reportage style work for a few weeks with these mics, I decided to keep both, as they fill out each other nicely.

Thanks a lot to everybody who chimed in! :-)
 
Thanks for the update.
 
After I posted here, I got the chance to work with two digital microphone solutions for the Sony Multi Interface hot shoe: The ECM-B10 and the wireless ECM-W2BT with an aditional lavalier mic. These small units are easy to carry, and discrete when in use.

Both solutions seems to work well for my lower end professional work. Setup is super-simple, and both mics offer clean voice recordings when used properly within the intended range. The signals are pretty robust when imported to Adobe Audition and Premiere Pro. Not much post processing is needed to get okay final results.

After doing simpler reportage style work for a few weeks with these mics, I decided to keep both, as they fill out each other nicely.

Thanks a lot to everybody who chimed in! :-)
I just got the b10 mic on a74 and I have it set to auto 0db attenuation. I find it picks up noise very easily. If I press the joystick for af, I hear noise picked up from the mic. Is that normal?
I have to be very gentle in moving the camera else it’s just going to pick up noise.

--
my pics
 
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After I posted here, I got the chance to work with two digital microphone solutions for the Sony Multi Interface hot shoe: The ECM-B10 and the wireless ECM-W2BT with an aditional lavalier mic. These small units are easy to carry, and discrete when in use.

Both solutions seems to work well for my lower end professional work. Setup is super-simple, and both mics offer clean voice recordings when used properly within the intended range. The signals are pretty robust when imported to Adobe Audition and Premiere Pro. Not much post processing is needed to get okay final results.

After doing simpler reportage style work for a few weeks with these mics, I decided to keep both, as they fill out each other nicely.

Thanks a lot to everybody who chimed in! :-)
I just got the b10 mic on a74 and I have it set to auto 0db attenuation. I find it picks up noise very easily. If I press the joystick for af, I hear noise picked up from the mic. Is that normal?
I have to be very gentle in moving the camera else it’s just going to pick up noise.
I normally use -10 db for noise recording, and this works well when using wide angle and close distance to the subject. I try to avoidhandhelt for interview, except for walking and talking Then I use a wireless mic, bou this solution also have it's noise problems. The most challenging part is the environment you work within, unless you have a decent studio. Most of my work is at location, repotage style stuff. For most productions I need to add some noise cancelling at post processing.

After all, it is about avoiding the worst pitfalls, and then focus on content quality. This my take. :-)

Good luck with your journey into voice recording.
 

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