Digital mics - need some helpful info

Magnar W wrote:

alantan wrote:

Magnar W wrote:

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.

thanks for the reply. I was naively thinking if I spend more money on the mic, the audio will become better. It seems to be the other way round as the B10 seems to pick up noise much easier vs my old rode video micro mic.

I find -10db a bit too soft. I also find the hot shoe mount very tight on my A74. it is very hard to take off the mic. Maybe the tight connection is necessary to ensure a good contact with the digital interface... but it kinds of makes it less convenient than my rode wireless go which slips on and off easily

Magnar W wrote:

alantan wrote:

Magnar W wrote:

alantan wrote:

Magnar W wrote:

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.

thanks for the reply. I was naively thinking if I spend more money on the mic, the audio will become better. It seems to be the other way round as the B10 seems to pick up noise much easier vs my old rode video micro mic.

These are sensitive mics. Better in some areas, like clean voice, but also be careful to pick the right sound pattern a nd db for the job

I find -10db a bit too soft. I also find the hot shoe mount very tight on my A74. it is very hard to take off the mic. Maybe the tight connection is necessary to ensure a good contact with the digital interface... but it kinds of makes it less convenient than my rode wireless go which slips on and off easily.

After a few timesofuse, themic will slide nicely on and off the multi interface shoe.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wla2G5MhYgY

do u see this problem? I also find the mic shock mount is very sensitive…. That I feel is a huge problem. I almost always use it handheld.

sludge21017 wrote:

alantan wrote:

Magnar W wrote:

I find -10db a bit too soft. I also find the hot shoe mount very tight on my A74. it is very hard to take off the mic. Maybe the tight connection is necessary to ensure a good contact with the digital interface... but it kinds of makes it less convenient than my rode wireless go which slips on and off easily.

After a few timesofuse, themic will slide nicely on and off the multi interface shoe.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wla2G5MhYgY

do u see this problem? I also find the mic shock mount is very sensitive…. That I feel is a huge problem. I almost always use it handheld.

I have both mics mentioned in ArthurRs video. I have not noticed it yet.

Easy fix. (Towards end of video).

https://youtu.be/aVNyUbdwQYE

I am not moving the mic quickly so I don’t think it is knocking on anything. It’s just so sensitive if I record it indoors quiet environment, just moving the camera has a chance of making a soft but audible noise…

it picks up everything… pressing the multi selector joystick results in a loud noise. Readjusting me grip introduce noise. I take care not to adjust any contact point when handholding the camera….

I have a rode videomic go and It does not pick up noise if I rub the camera grip lightly. It only picks up noise when I rub the red mount of the mic itself so the camera and the mic is not acoustic coupled together.

the Sony mic is diffferent. It picks up any touch on the camera… somehow the mount does not decouple the camera from the mic… I don’t think the rubber band will help. I can try later if I find one

are you sure yours does not have the problem? Did u try it with a pair of headphones plugged into the camera? Manual gain, 0 db att, level set to 6.

The Sony sounds much much better than my rode though, even with the handling noise. It’s just something to know and try to minimise “touching” the camera….

I am wondering if a gimbal like rs3 will help…

alantan wrote:

sludge21017 wrote:

alantan wrote:

Magnar W wrote:

I find -10db a bit too soft. I also find the hot shoe mount very tight on my A74. it is very hard to take off the mic. Maybe the tight connection is necessary to ensure a good contact with the digital interface... but it kinds of makes it less convenient than my rode wireless go which slips on and off easily.

After a few timesofuse, themic will slide nicely on and off the multi interface shoe.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wla2G5MhYgY

do u see this problem? I also find the mic shock mount is very sensitive…. That I feel is a huge problem. I almost always use it handheld.

I have both mics mentioned in ArthurRs video. I have not noticed it yet.

Easy fix. (Towards end of video).

https://youtu.be/aVNyUbdwQYE

I am not moving the mic quickly so I don’t think it is knocking on anything. It’s just so sensitive if I record it indoors quiet environment, just moving the camera has a chance of making a soft but audible noise…

it picks up everything… pressing the multi selector joystick results in a loud noise. Readjusting me grip introduce noise. I take care not to adjust any contact point when handholding the camera….

I have a rode videomic go and It does not pick up noise if I rub the camera grip lightly. It only picks up noise when I rub the red mount of the mic itself so the camera and the mic is not acoustic coupled together.

the Sony mic is diffferent. It picks up any touch on the camera… somehow the mount does not decouple the camera from the mic… I don’t think the rubber band will help. I can try later if I find one

are you sure yours does not have the problem? Did u try it with a pair of headphones plugged into the camera? Manual gain, 0 db att, level set to 6.

The Sony sounds much much better than my rode though, even with the handling noise. It’s just something to know and try to minimise “touching” the camera….

I am wondering if a gimbal like rs3 will help…

I just wanted to chime in and say thanks for your detailed feedback. It helped me with some food for thought when it comes to future buying decisions.

Off The Mark wrote:

alantan wrote:

sludge21017 wrote:

alantan wrote:

Magnar W wrote:

I find -10db a bit too soft. I also find the hot shoe mount very tight on my A74. it is very hard to take off the mic. Maybe the tight connection is necessary to ensure a good contact with the digital interface... but it kinds of makes it less convenient than my rode wireless go which slips on and off easily.

After a few timesofuse, themic will slide nicely on and off the multi interface shoe.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wla2G5MhYgY

do u see this problem? I also find the mic shock mount is very sensitive…. That I feel is a huge problem. I almost always use it handheld.

I have both mics mentioned in ArthurRs video. I have not noticed it yet.

Easy fix. (Towards end of video).

https://youtu.be/aVNyUbdwQYE

I am not moving the mic quickly so I don’t think it is knocking on anything. It’s just so sensitive if I record it indoors quiet environment, just moving the camera has a chance of making a soft but audible noise…

it picks up everything… pressing the multi selector joystick results in a loud noise. Readjusting me grip introduce noise. I take care not to adjust any contact point when handholding the camera….

I have a rode videomic go and It does not pick up noise if I rub the camera grip lightly. It only picks up noise when I rub the red mount of the mic itself so the camera and the mic is not acoustic coupled together.

the Sony mic is diffferent. It picks up any touch on the camera… somehow the mount does not decouple the camera from the mic… I don’t think the rubber band will help. I can try later if I find one

are you sure yours does not have the problem? Did u try it with a pair of headphones plugged into the camera? Manual gain, 0 db att, level set to 6.

The Sony sounds much much better than my rode though, even with the handling noise. It’s just something to know and try to minimise “touching” the camera….

I am wondering if a gimbal like rs3 will help…

I just wanted to chime in and say thanks for your detailed feedback. It helped me with some food for thought when it comes to future buying decisions.

Ya, I watched like 10 YouTube reviews and only 1 mentioned this problem… and it is very obvious If u handhold it indoors. Kind of sad how useless YouTube reviews are these days.

sludge21017 wrote:

The rubber band would fix the weak spring mechanism and keep it from clunking.

It looks like the B1M is probably slightly heavier and lopsided - more prone to it happening.

Yeah, no rubber band is going to fix noise through the body or touching the mic.

I did setup and tried to do a test as you described. Yes, I could hear my rubbing the camera or mic like a genie or tapping the body though the headphones.

I can hear some, but not all of that through my speakers on playback.

On playback it is low freq. I hear it very clearly on my Sony sound bar with subwoofer.

if u have another shotgun mic, you can test it. On my cheap rode videomic go, the suspension is err… windy and long so I suspect the camera touch vibrations get dissipated. Something Sony cannot do with that stupid short mount….

Anyone knows of a bigger deadcat wind muffler for the b10? The Sony one still lets some wind in.

has anyone has a gimbal? I am wondering if using a gimbal might help, less touches on the camera….

alantan wrote:

Anyone knows of a bigger deadcat wind muffler for the b10? The Sony one still lets some wind in.

has anyone has a gimbal? I am wondering if using a gimbal might help, less touches on the camera….

I bought myself a Dji rs3 gimbal to try out. Nope, mounting it on a gimbal does not help. The mic picks up some constant Low freq noise which I expect to from the gimbal.

i guess this mic needs a tripod for quiet environment recording.

Sean Nelson wrote:

alantan wrote:

Ya, I watched like 10 YouTube reviews and only 1 mentioned this problem… and it is very obvious If u handhold it indoors. Kind of sad how useless YouTube reviews are these days.

YouTube reviews are great for giving you a literal look at the product and to understand it's basic operation. For reviews, I go straight to Amazon.com and seek out the 1- and 2-star reviews to see what they have to say.

https://youtu.be/QYvhEw-wmVk
another honest video showing the handholding noise. Interesting because it shows the difference in sound over distance.