Sony DCR-HC18E - Microphone options

[standishgeezer]

Hi,

I'm a newbie on this Forum so please forgive me if my search technique has failed me and this subject has been covered before.

I've just bought a Sony DCR-HC18E (secondhand) with a view to recording the charity theatrical performances my wife and her mates stage (I'm the humble sound and lights bloke).

Anyway the video quality is fine but the sound from the built-in mic will not be good enough (the stage is about 10-12 metres away). I bought a cheap Audio Technica ATR55 which I hoped would improve matters but frankly, if anything the sound volume is lower (and, yes I have got a fully charged battery in the mic!). I noticed that the camcorder has a stereo jack socket and as the mic has mono plug, I thought that may be the problem so I bought a mono-stereo jack adapter but that does not help. A couple of questions really:

• could there be something I a doing wrong in use of the external mic?

• can anyone recomend a reasonably priced compatible mic that will be better?

• would a boundary mic (with its own phantom power) placed closer to the action and connected by using an XLR to jack adapter be a better solution?

In fact any advice (other than swap the camera or buy a really expensive mic) would be appreciated.

[redsox_mark]

I don't know why the mic you have itsn't working well, or how cheap it needs to be. I can recommend the Rode Videomic, the mono version is around £90. Using an XLR to mini-jack adapter is fine if to connect a mic which has XLR connections, but that in itself shouldn't improve things (you only get the advantage of the XLR if you have balanced XLR connections on each end... but you only need that for a long cable run).

[standishgeezer]

Thanks Mark, the Rode Videomic may be an option (that is the max I would want to pay though). The reason I was asking about XLR-jack was that the boundary mic I have (a good quality Shure mic) has an XLR connector. I was thinking I could perhaps run a long lead from that and then convert to jack to attach to camera. I realise that I would lose the 'balanced' aspect and therefore may introduce noise. The improvement I thought might come from having the microphone near to the sound source.

Edited: Just noticed that the Rode Videomic spec tallks about 'hotshoe', whereas the camcorder I have only has a 'coldshoe'. Will that matter?

[redsox_mark]

If you already have the XLR mic then it's worth trying.. if the noise is an issue you can use a balanced converter like a BeachTek, but these cost more than the Rode mic.

[senu]

The Rode will probably do it
Another suggestion is to use a microphone attached to say a minidisc player near the source and get a separate Audio.
this can be used (if quality is better) over the audio on the original tape where needed
In the past I have used a second camcorder nearer the source and used only its audio as a backup for use in editing especially for a singing scene where syncing up is much easier
Certainly a better Mic like the Rode is far less hassle but just to share a few more possibilities especially as decent audio in a theatrical performance is a big deal
Good luck!

[standishgeezer]

Thanks people!

Think I will try out the boundary mic (not much to lose trying) and if that doesnt work will play around with recording separate audio onto minidisk as suggested (that could be fun for a beginner like me syncronising audio to video footage ). If all that fails, I guess I'll be hunting down a Rode mic.

I'm grateful for all the advice.

Cheers

[felix2]

Just one other thought, as I would have thought the ATR55 really ought to be able to do a pretty good job (unless it's broken)... does the HC18 have a manual audio input level adjustment (should be in the manual somewhere, if it came with a manual)? Make that 2 thoughts, does the ATR55 offer a choice of near or far (normal or telescopic)? Actually, make that 3 thoughts - how far away have you got the mic, and could you use a longer cable to put the mic nearer the stage? (Although if it's more than around 10 metres -ish, you might then need to go to balanced XLR instead)