Mic Barely Picks Up Sound

Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2008 3:45 pm

Ok, I have no idea what I am doing and was hoping someone who does know what they are doing can help.

Here's the situation: I am trying to make a short film, and want to record dialog and sound effects using an external mic attached to a boom pole. The mic I have right now is a Sony ECM-MS907.

What I'm doing is plugging the mic into a Macbook and then using Garage Band to record separate tracks. The problem? The person speaking has to be like 1 inch away from the mic, otherwise it doesn't pick anything up. If the person is a foot from the mic, and I record and play it back, it is extremely faint, if not completely silent. I tried messing with the gate and compreesor and all the built in filters. Speech Enhancer works the best, and when this is enabled I can record from about 1 - 2 feet away, but even then playback is still pretty soft, and I have to crank the volume to hear it, which in turn produces a lot of background static.

Does anyone know what I might be doing wrong? I know the normal answer would be to get a better microphone, but I've heard the Sony ECM-MS907 is fairly decent. I replaced the batteries, but that didn't help. Could it be Garage Band? Or the Macbook?

I appreciate any help I can get. Thanks!

Josh

Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2008 5:12 pm

Are you using a mixer or preamp before the Macbook?

Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2008 8:10 pm

No, I'm not using anything before the Macbook. Is a preamp or mixer necessary?

Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2008 8:14 pm

Though I have not RTFM on your mic, I can assure you that - yes, a preamp or mixer is necessary. Get one, the other, or both (you can connect a mixer directly to your CPU's soundcard in a pinch) and boost the mic's signal prior to it hitting the software.

Do that, and post your results.

-Ben

Posted: Tue Jul 22, 2008 1:41 am

You're quite correct you don't know what you're doing.

This is a toy stereo condenser microphone not meant for boom pole use. It sounds adequate for close proximity home recording of furious material. It's designed to record your music lesson or little Bobby's birthday party. Sure, an external preamp can certainly boosts the the level but that preamp is not designed to be plugged into a microphone input, on a camcorder. It's designed to be plugged into a line input which you probably have no idea what that is, either. It's probably not on your toy camcorder?

So the alternative is either purchasing an actual "shotgun" highly directional microphones of either the Mono or stereo versions. Which you probably don't understand either. But be prepared to spend upwards of $300 to $3500 US for a shotgun style microphone designed for boom usage.

Your other alternatives is to purchase a new wireless "lavalier" microphone transmitter, body pack. And matching camera mounted receiver. Azden & AT (Audio Technica) makes decent lower-cost wireless microphones. Don't bother with the toy Radio Shaft as those are not worth the money either.

So my real suggestion for you is to utilize the built-in microphone on your camcorder and modify the sound as best you can in postproduction. Your results will be better than that toy Sony microphones can deliver. A little upper mid range presence boost & some additional dynamic range compression will probably give you more of what you need.

For the right kind of sound you need to have the right kind of tools. You don't. There's only so much you can do with what you have. Right, most microphone preamps in any laptop will never have the amount of gain for your kind of application. Those microphone preamps are designed for little headset or desktop multimedia microphones. Not for anything serious. Your microphone by virtue of its 1/8" connector indicates it is not a professional item. So good luck on your Star Trek.

Riding with multiple shotguns
Ms. Remy Ann David

Posted: Tue Jul 22, 2008 1:37 pm

Thanks RemyRAD for your advice. I can use all the help I can get, regardless of how condescending it is.

Feel like dispensing more advice? Is there a shotgun mic you can suggest that would be ideal for putting at the end of a boom pole, that runs under $200? I know that's a small budget, but like you said, I have to work with what I got. Thanks.

Posted: Wed Jul 23, 2008 1:36 am

I think you'll find a couple of good ones between Audio Technica's, Rode, Azden will have some nice mono models in that price range. These are the real deals and stereo isn't a necessity for dialogue or other types of performances. Although stereo shotgun microphones are becoming more popular they are generally prohibitive in price. This is also because most stereo shotgun microphones are in fact MS encoded matrix stereo. That's additional equipment beyond just the microphones themselves. So a stereo shotgun microphones is actually a mono Uni-directional microphone coupled with a figure of 8, stereo ambience microphone that is aimed perpendicular, that is left and right to the front mounted directional Middle microphones. Those stereo part is actually the Side Microphone. It's Not like Most Toy Stereo Microphones, like Your Sony & Others, that aim a couple of directional microphones at a 45° angle to each other or, XY. Makes for somewhat nice, mostly mono compatible, narrow spread of ambient stereo. So not a microphone designed for dialog purposes. And certainly not anything further than a few inches away from it.

Don't get me wrong,, that Sony microphone could still make some adequate musical recordings under the right circumstances, i.e., not on the broom pole. You're getting it done.

It only keeps getting better.
Ms. Remy Ann David

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