Please help. I'm stumped.

What mic(s) should I consider for recording a conference / event? Omni
or condenser? Or is it just plain foolish to believe using a
low-impedance pro mic with a high-impedance 1/8" input jack on a PDA or
MP3 player/recorder?

Also, can anyone suggest good articles or sites containing round-up
reviews of PDAs and/or MP3 players / recorders for podcasting? I'd
prefer a PDA, because I could use it for things other than podcasting
(gaming, pocket excel / word, WiFi, etc).

I am worried about PDAs and battery life.

Some of those MP3 players that claim a battery life of 14 hours
actually mean 14 hours of MP3 playback, and not recording - one I had
would indeed last at least 9 hours for MP3 playback, but died after
~1.5 hours of voice recording.

I would buy a Marantz, but don't have an extra $600 to spare. This is
for a non-profit event, and I don't know anyone who will rent me a
Marantz + pro mics in my area.

I could use my laptop, but laptops seem to introduce too much noise,
and they also have a tendency to freeze at inopportune moments. Hope
the same isn't true of Palm or Pocket PC / Windows Mobile PDAs...

Thanks.

On Sun, 26 Mar 2006 04:03:16 -0500, wrote
(in article . com):

Please help. I'm stumped.

What mic(s) should I consider for recording a conference / event? Omni
or condenser? Or is it just plain foolish to believe using a
low-impedance pro mic with a high-impedance 1/8" input jack on a PDA or
MP3 player/recorder?

Omni is a mic pattern. Condenser is a type of microphone.


Also, can anyone suggest good articles or sites containing round-up
reviews of PDAs and/or MP3 players / recorders for podcasting? I'd
prefer a PDA, because I could use it for things other than podcasting
(gaming, pocket excel / word, WiFi, etc).

I am worried about PDAs and battery life.

Some of those MP3 players that claim a battery life of 14 hours
actually mean 14 hours of MP3 playback, and not recording - one I had
would indeed last at least 9 hours for MP3 playback, but died after
1.5 hours of voice recording.

makes sense. I record some conferences on an AC powered laptop and back that
up with a dedicated audio CD recorder in case one burps.

I would buy a Marantz, but don't have an extra $600 to spare. This is
for a non-profit event, and I don't know anyone who will rent me a
Marantz + pro mics in my area.

where are you?

I could use my laptop, but laptops seem to introduce too much noise,
and they also have a tendency to freeze at inopportune moments. Hope
the same isn't true of Palm or Pocket PC / Windows Mobile PDAs...

Thanks.


hope not either.

Regards,

Ty Ford



-- Ty Ford's equipment reviews, audio samples, rates and other audiocentric
stuff are at www.tyford.com

Omni is a mic pattern. Condenser is a type of microphone.

Right. Sorry for butchering terms. Still learning.

Mic choices seem to be:

1) Omni or directional

2) Dynamic or condenser

3) Handheld or lavalier (lavalier seems to be universally loathed in
pro audio with a few exceptions)

4) Inexpensive or take out a second mortgage... :-)

5) Mono or stereo - why stereo for voice recording where I don't
require "ambience" like a roving BBC or NPR reporter?

makes sense. I record some conferences on an AC powered laptop and back that
up with a dedicated audio CD recorder in case one burps.

Doesn't the laptop not introduce hiss and hum? I know these can be
removed later with a good filter / editing package (Audacity is
probably the only thing in-budget for me though, being free, as in free
beer).

Or is this largely a concern when recording live music?


I would buy a Marantz, but don't have an extra $600 to spare. This is
for a non-profit event, and I don't know anyone who will rent me a
Marantz + pro mics in my area.

where are you?

Raleigh, North Carolina.

dananrg wrote ...
What mic(s) should I consider for recording a
conference / event?

Generic questions will generate mostly generic responses
which will have little practical value. You don't record
"conference/event"s.

You might record 6 people around a table. Or 6 people
lined up along a couple of tables as a panel discussion
with audience questions. Or a large keynote address by
someone at a podium with an audience of 100s or 1000s.

The micing requirements for each of these situations is
very different. If you would like suggestions (or critiques
of actual recordings) of *specific situations*, you can likely
get lots of good input here.

Omni or condenser?

Others have already commented on your mixed metaphor.

Or is it just plain foolish to believe using a low-impedance
pro mic with a high-impedance 1/8" input jack on a PDA or
MP3 player/recorder?

People do it all the time. There are several commercial
products which adapt pro mics (with XLR connectors)
to 1/8 inch input jacks on a wide variety of consumer
devices. Beachtek and others make these. But many of
us are too cheap for those things and just make/buy simple
cables to interconnect them. I have a rather popular page
on my website which shows how to wire the cables...
http://www.rcrowley.com/CamAdapt.htm

Note that the 1/8 inch mic input jacks on most consumer
products are not "high-impedance" (which is defined at
~50K). They are more like 3K, 5K maybe 10K at most.

Also, can anyone suggest good articles or sites containing
round-up reviews of PDAs and/or MP3 players / recorders
for podcasting?

This is a ongoing topic of heated discussion, both here and
on news:rec.arts.movies.production.sound Suggest using the
Google Groups archives and searching through the last 6-12
months of archived discussions. There are new products
coming out almost weekly. Many in response to the death of
the DAT format, the decline of the MD format, and the
dramatically falling prices of flash memory.

Note further that the NAB conference is coming in a few
days, and many of these sorts of products are introduced
there. So a month from now, the landscape will quite likely
be considerably larger.

I'd prefer a PDA, because I could use it for things other than
podcasting (gaming, pocket excel / word, WiFi, etc).

It is a two-edged sword. What you gain in versatility, you
forfeit in terms of reliability.

I am worried about PDAs and battery life.

A concern not limited to PDAs. There are a growing number
of external battery-pack products to attempt to mitigate this
issue.

Some of those MP3 players that claim a battery life of
14 hours actually mean 14 hours of MP3 playback, and not
recording - one I had would indeed last at least 9 hours for
MP3 playback, but died after ~1.5 hours of voice recording.

Yeah, that sounds typical.

I would buy a Marantz, but don't have an extra $600 to spare.
This is for a non-profit event, and I don't know anyone who
will rent me a Marantz + pro mics in my area.

There are many alternatives, but since we know nothing about
your recording circumstances, it is difficult to throw out ideas
in a complete vacuum. For example many people use laptop
computers for this kind of recording. Since many people already
have these, it is a relatively high-quality and near zero-cost
solution.

I could use my laptop, but laptops seem to introduce too
much noise,

Depends on the microphone(s) and how you are connecting
to the computer. Many of us use laptops for high-quality,
multi-track music recording. Recording speech for podcasts
is trivial by comparison.

and they also have a tendency to freeze at inopportune moments.
Hope the same isn't true of Palm or Pocket PC / Windows Mobile
PDAs...

Quite possibly (probably). But with PDAs, you have several
additional problems, not the least of which are record time
(memory space), security, operational convienence, etc. etc.

If you are using a PC laptop with a modern OS (like W2K or XP)
there are utilities like "End-It-All" which I have found invaluable
for killing off all those extraneous windows processes to leave
the PC free to concentrate on recording audio. Keeping your
hard drive open and defragged also contributes to smoother
recording.

dananrg wrote ...
Mic choices seem to be:
1) Omni or directional
2) Dynamic or condenser
3) Handheld or lavalier

These are each *perfect* and *ideal* in PARTICULAR
conditions. You cannot generalize here and end up with
any useful information.

(lavalier seems to be universally loathed in pro audio
with a few exceptions)

Dunno where you got this impression. The people doing
the big-budget hollywood productions (over on their news-
group news:rec.arts.movies.production.sound) quite
frequently use various types of lavs, some of which cost
over $500 and are to tiny you can't see them from 2 feet away
Thousands of lavs are used for reinforcement (PA) and
recording every weekend in churches across the planet.

4) Inexpensive or take out a second mortgage... :-)

Impossible to generalize, but unlikely that a mortgate is
necessary.

5) Mono or stereo - why stereo for voice recording where
I don't require "ambience" like a roving BBC or NPR
reporter?

Dunno. Do you need flashy production value to cover the
questionable content like they do?

Doesn't the laptop not introduce hiss and hum?

Not if done properly. (Assuming you didn't mean the double-
negative. :-)

I know these can be removed later with a good filter /
editing package (Audacity is probably the only thing in-budget
for me though, being free, as in free beer).

It is NEVER a good idea to intentionally record any kind of
noise or interference with the intent of removing it later. No
matter whether your budget is zero or millions of $$$.

Or is this largely a concern when recording live music?

Dunno why it would be any different, depending on what
your production requires (which you haven't disclosed)?

wrote in message
oups.com...

5) Mono or stereo - why stereo for voice recording where I don't
require "ambience" like a roving BBC or NPR reporter?

It's often useful to have two mics and a stereo recording. One mic is on the
podium for the main speaker, one out in the audience for questions.

makes sense. I record some conferences on an AC powered laptop and back
that
up with a dedicated audio CD recorder in case one burps.

Doesn't the laptop not introduce hiss and hum? I know these can be
removed later with a good filter / editing package (Audacity is
probably the only thing in-budget for me though, being free, as in free
beer).

Or is this largely a concern when recording live music?

A laptop with an outboard microphone preamp will make a clean, quiet
recording.

Peace,
Paul