Sennheiser AVX Dynamic Range and Outdoor Distance Tests

https://youtu.be/uUSd_ulXdno Sennheiser recently introduced their new digital wireless system called the Sennheiser AVX. There are various kits available and in this episode I used the kit with the transmitter, receiver, and MKE2 lavalier microphone (their higher-end pro lavalier microphone).

We did a few tests to see how well the AVX does in terms of outdoor distance (keeping its signal without dropping out), and the dynamic range feature Sennheiser touts as preventing clipping and distortion when the sound gets much louder.

The outdoor distance test was as expected: Solid up to 50 meters, and my first dropout occurred at around 75 meters. You need to pretty much be in line-of-sight to get a solid signal at 50 meters. I never shoot this way, but it is good to know the limits of one's tools.

The dynamic range feature was way more impressive than I expected. It really works and sounds good! I feared it might be like Automatic Gain Control like they include in many of the DSLRs and that AGC feature is awful in those cameras. It stupidly pushes the gain up through the roof during silent sequences and that just makes an unbearably noisy mess of the audio. But on the AVX, it sounds very transparent and clean. I really like it!

Final review should be here later this week. Let me know if there are other things you'd like me to test before I have to send it back to my friends at B&H Photo.

Sennheiser AVX Wireless Microphone System: Battery, Distance, Interference Tests

Sennheiser recently introduced their new digital wireless system which they call AVX. There are various kits available and in this episode I used the kit with the transmitter, receiver, and MKE2 lavalier microphone (their higher-end pro lavalier microphone). Here we did a few tests to see how well the AVX does in terms of distance (keeping its signal without dropping out), managing WiFi and RF interference from phones, and how long the included Li-ion batteries last for the receiver and transmitter.

Sennheiser is clear to note that the AVX does not replace their G3 analogue wireless system (because it has more flexibility for professionals) but that AVX is aimed at videographers that are running solo and want to feed the audio directly into their camera.  It is aimed primarily at those using pro-level camcorders with XLR inputs but also comes with an XLR to 3.5mm adapter for those shooting with DSLR or mirrorless interchangeable lens cameras.

In this video, we compared it to the RODELink in the distance and interference test and found that the AVX was able to hold on to a signal a little bit longer than RODELINK. Though admittedly, I never shoot with my talent out of sight of the camera or audio recorder so they're both fine.

Full disclosure: I own two RODELink kits and have the AVX on loan from the good people at B&H Photo.

Countryman B6 Lavalier Microphone Review

We’ve had plenty of requests for a review of a more professional grade lavalier microphone so let’s have a listen and a look at the Countryman B6. This mic was used in the recent Hobbit movies on Martin Freeman as Bilbo and Ian McKellan as Gandalf. On Martin, two B6s were placed on him, one on each side of his tunic. On Ian, the B6 was hidden in his hat.

I’d like to thank B&H Photo for providing the mic for us to test over the last month. They’re always great to work with!

The Countryman B6 not only sounds great, it is a very versatile option for miking. It comes with three different protective caps that fit over the capsule to provide protection from moisture, but also allow you to sort of fine-tune the sound of the mic. The most common case for this is when you want to hide the mic under the shirt of your talent. In these cases, the shirt will cut some of the high frequency sound. Countryman provides a crisp and super crisp cap to help compensate for that. Of course they also include the flat response cap if you’ll have the mic outside of the clothes.

RODELink Wireless Lavalier System Review

It's been a lot of work, but here it is, finally: My review of the RODELink Filmmaker Wireless Kit. What do I think overall? This is a good balance of quality for the price (launched at $399 USD).

Pros:

• Digital signal does not drop when working within 50 meters in any of the tests I did, even outdoors and in WiFi heavy offices (because WiFi uses the same frequency in many cases).
• Battery life - lasted 7 hours and 10 minutes on a set of eneloop AA batteries (and this set is about 3.5 years old and has had a lot of use in photo flash units and audio recorders). This is much better than I expected.
• Very simple setup
• Can use up to 8 kits simultaneously
• Good audio quality
• No annoying external antennas
• No latency issues so audio stays perfectly in sync with the video captured by your camera

Cons:

• Plastic body and receiver packs (though it is good quality plastic, it is still plastic)
• Body and receiver packs are a little larger than most others in a similar price range (Perhaps this is the tradeoff for no antennas). Not a problem when mounted on someone's belt behind them but potentially a little more tricky for mounting on brides

One thing that took me a while to figure out is that the mic that comes with the kit sounds a fair bit better when hidden under the shirt of your talent. It seems that it really was made to be hidden vs worn on the outside of clothes. That would explain why they call it a filmmaker kit and not an ENG kit. I just use the RODE Invisilav to make it super simple to mount the mic under the talent's shirt.

Also, it can be used with any mic with a 3.5mm mini stereo jack (TRS) like the RODE VideoMic Pro. So you can even have a wireless shotgun microphone!

RODELink's Lavalier Audio Comparison to Audio Technica AT899

**Status Update 17 June 2015** In further experiments, I've found that the RODE Lavalier sounds a whole lot better when hidden under the talent's shirt. Sounds like this mic was designed for that which is not surprising as this is how they are often used when shooting film (not as much with ENG/News/Doc). Now it makes even more sense that RODE calls this the RODELink Filmmaker Kit. Final review should be out later this week.

I’ve been testing the RODELink to put together a review and a few times paused while post processing and thought to myself, “hmm…this audio seems sort of harsh…” So I did several things to narrow down the issue. I think it is just the nature of the RODE Lavalier mic. Here we have a listen to a clip from the RODE Lavalier and then compare it to a clip from the Audio Technica AT899, a similarly priced lavalier (~$200 USD).

Neither of them are perfect. I would describe the sound of the RODE Lavalier as a little more “forward” or “in-your-face” and the AT899 as smoother in the mid-range but more sibilant. They’ll each complement other’s voices differently than mine. Which do you prefer?

RODELink with Multiple Transmitters?

The question has come up several times now, "Can you transmit from two mics and transmitters to a single receiver with RODELink?"

Short answer: No.

There are wireless systems where you can transmit from multiple body packs to a single receiver, but the receivers are large, usually metal case deals that would not be fit for rigging on a camera and they usually include an AC to DC power brick adapter. These are really designed for live sound and concerts.

The RODELink, just like all the other wireless systems designed for film, video, and ENG are designed to work in the field without AC power and to be small enough to rig on a camera if you're using one or two units.

So, if you're shooting an interview, you will need two kits, each with a transmitter and receiver. But then the question becomes, how do you get the signal from two receivers into your camera that only has one 3.5mm TRS mic input? (often these are referred to as stereo minijack inputs - same thing)

There are probably a lot of other ways, but I use my Tascam DR-60DmkII instead of my camera. But even this only has one 3.5mm input. Not to worry, RODE offers a 3.5mm to XLR adapter for this very purpose! They call it the VXLR adapter and it allows me to plug two RODELink receivers into the two XLR inputs on the DR-60D.

I usually just record the audio with the Tascam and then sync the sound with the video in post. But some people hate doing that and are willing to sacrifice 24 bit audio for 16 bit camera audio. And I get it, there's plenty of debate out there as to whether 24 bit is all that critical. For the record, I always record 24 bit. I'm not saying you have to but here's my reasoning: It uses up very little space relative to high bit-rate video and gives me more latitude to clean things up in post. And for those that argue it doesn't make a difference in post, I'd love to see a specific, compelling example you can show to prove that. Also, syncing in post is really easy. If you're doing a ton of clips, yeah, that's harder and maybe in that case you need Pluraleyes (software from Red Giant that automatically syncs all your audio and video clips from a shoot) to do that for you.

But if you just cannot bother with all that, you could just run the signal out of the Tascam's output to the camera's mic input and then you're all set!

Someone also asked if they could just use a 3.5mm splitter to get the signal from the two receivers into the camera. In theory that should be possible. Of course you're back to using the camera's preamp (which is pretty poor quality with most cameras that have 3.5mm inputs) and 16 bit audio for most cameras. So, your results may be less than optimal.

If this is your first exposure to the RODELink wireless mic system, we've done a couple of video episodes on it so far that you might find interesting:

RODELink Distance and Interference Tests

One of my biggest concerns when I first heard about the RODELink wireless lavalier system was how well they would hold up in environments with a lot of potential interference, like corporate offices with lots of wifi network activity. Also, I was curious to learn how well it would perform when you use two kits simultaneously. So in this episode we put the RODELink to the test in two scenarios: First, we have our actors walk around a corporate office away from the receiver unit until we experienced the signal dropping. We also recorded a mock interview with two kits in a wifi heavy office building. Let’s see how RODELink held up!

(Pretty well, it turns out)

Sennheiser MKE 2 Digital Lavalier for iOS Devices

While at NAB last month, one of the interesting new lavalier microphones I saw was the Sennheiser MKE 2 Digital. They've had an analogue version of the MKE 2 lav for a long time to fill the niche as the higher-end lavalier mic in their lineup. This new digital version is unique in that instead of a 3.5mm plug, it has a Lightning connector to connect to Apple's iOS devices like iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch. That means that the signal needs to already be in digital format going into the Apple device. So Sennheiser partnered with Apogee, a well respected company that produces high-end audio gear, to design a very small analog to digital converter in a tiny box inline with the cable of the mic. Apogee is known for very high quality pre-amplifiers and analog to digital converters so this little mic from Sennheiser really piqued my interest.

Why not just put a 3.5mm TRRS plug on the thing? My guess is that with this new mic, they designed an analog to digital converter of much higher quality than is built in to any of the Apple or Android or other mobile devices out on the market. Does it really make a difference? My experience is that it can make a difference, if they did a good job of it.

I had a chance to experiment with it just a little there on the show floor and was impressed with the sound. Granted, one cannot properly evaluate sound quality on a noisy convention floor with over-ear headphones. I recorded a 30 second clip of my voice and played it back. Very balanced, uncolored sound, good strong signal, quite impressive in light of the limiting circumstances.

I did the same  with their new Clip Mic Digital, a less expensive "digital" version of their ME 2 lavalier microphone. It sounded a little too harsh in the higher frequencies and especially the sibilance range. But it will retail for about $300 less and might work well concealed under a shirt. But again, hard to make a final evaluation out on the convention floor.

And that brings us to the potential downsides on the MKE 2 Digital. It is priced, at least initially, at $500 USD. That puts this mic in the same price league as many of the pro-level lav mics (think Sanken, Countryman, etc.). Of course you can't record with those directly into your phone, but if you're doing pro-level work, you probably wouldn't consider doing that anyway. I'm not suggesting that pros shouldn't or wouldn't consider using the MKE 2 Digital, just that it seems it will appeal to a rather niche group of recordists.

And one nagging question I can't get out of my head is what if Apple goes and changes all their iOS devices to USB-C connectors? And while that might sound outlandish, it could happen. I sort of get the feeling that they made the Lightning connector because they were horrified with the USB committees first stab at micro and mini USB 3 connectors (they were quite bad and clearly designed by a committee that didn't quite see eye to eye). And yes, they'll probably have Lightning to USB-C adapters but that sort of messes with the convenience of a mic that plugs directly into the phone.

In any case, I applaud Sennheiser and Apogee for trying something different. If the MKE 2 Digital were closer to $200, I'd buy one right away. But since they're $500, I'll probably buy a Countryman instead.

Aspen Mics HQ-S: Yet Another Cheap Lavalier Microphone

http://youtu.be/hkLVtPksn2I Let’s have a listen to another affordable lavalier microphone! This is the Aspen Mics HQ-S. The “S” stands for stereo. But don’t let that give the wrong impression because this is a mono mic that sends the same sound to both channels on a stereo recorder or camera with a stereo input. That just saves you some time in post but also comes at a little bit of a cost. This mic is not quite as sensitive as some of its mono competitors that only record to one channel like the JK MicJ 044. In this case we’ll compare the Aspen to the Giant Squid and JK lavalier mics.

If you really want to reduce the amount of work you have to do in editing, you really probably need to look at better microphones. None of these mics are through-the-roof amazing. But they all are decent and far better than relying on your camera’s microphone.

So pick the one that suits your editing needs—one with a TRS plug if you don’t want to bother with dropping the silent channel in editing at the cost of less sensitivity. Or the other with more sensitivity but that requires you to drop the silent channel in editing.

If you’re not sure how to delete a silent channel, have a look at this previous episode where we quickly run through how to do that. Hint: it is very simple and costs you hardly any time which is why if I had to choose, I’d go with the more sensitive mic and delete the silent channel in editing.

Phone Video + Lavalier Mic

http://youtu.be/Q0dRVx_BmtQ Can you record video with your phone and at the same time, record the audio with an external lavalier microphone like the RODE smartLav+? Yes! And you can do this with pretty much any smartphone and almost any lavalier microphone that has a 3.5mm plug. Check out the episode on YouTube for links to the mics and adapters.