Great for videography, GarageBand on Mac

I have a Sony DCR-TRV900 camcorder, that I'm using on a biography project. I consider myself an amateur videographer. The camcorder is positioned on a tripod about 5 feet or so back from the people. The built-in microphone picks up a lot of room noise in this situation, and their voices echo quite a bit.

After reading a lot online, I chose this microphone. I like it because the cable is 5 feet long, so I can place it much closer to the people speaking. The cable ends with a stereo miniplug that Sony says fits DAT & MD players, as well as the camcorder, so I didn't need any special adapters or converter boxes to plug it in. I placed it on the floor on its included (removable) small plastic & rubber stand, in front of the two chairs where they sit. Echo is mostly eliminated, and sound quality is greatly improved. Now my voice (by the camcorder) is the one that echos, and their voices are clear & easy to understand.

I also looked closely at the Sony ECM-MS908C. It's basically the same as this one, except it has a shoe mount to connect directly to the top of a camcorder, and it has a short cable (just long enough to plug into the mic input). The TRV900 makes a good amount of camcorder motor noise, and from what I've read the 908C picks up some of that. In my situation, this was the better choice, although in a situation where you needed total portability the 908C might be better for you. That might actually be a second mic I pick up at some point.

The mic holder is interesting. It is mostly plastic, but has some rubber between where the base is and where the plastic cup is that holds the mic. I think the idea here is that by separating those two pieces with rubber, you're slightly isolating the mic from stray vibrations that would be picked up as sound. The mic cup swivels in a variety of ways that allow you to not only swivel the mic left and right, but up and down, and there's even a way to bend it that aids in handheld operation. Once again, since you hold the base & not the cup, there's less vibration. I guess the simple things impress me. There's also a hole in the base with screw threads; I guess that fits a standard microphone stand, although I've not tried this.

The mic takes an AA battery (not included), easy to get. It comes with a basic foam windscreen that can shield the mic from a bit of air noise, not major winds.

If I was a pro I'm sure I'd have lots of negative comments, but I'm not, so I'm happy. :) The only thing that feels slightly odd is that the screwcap where you put the battery in doesn't really screw tight like you'd expect. That's the only thing that feels "cheap." But since it's sitting in the mic holder most of the time, the only time you'll be messing with it is to put a new battery in.

Overall, I'm very satisfied with my purchase. It was inexpensive & does the job well. I didn't want to deal with lavalier mics, adapter boxes, expensive mics on booms (with someone to hold it), etc. This was the simple choice, and it yields an immediately noticeable improvement in sound quality.

UPDATE 2/25/04

I'm a Macintosh user; the video project I'm working on will be edited with a Mac. Apple recently released a nifty little application called GarageBand, which is like a word processor for music. Basically, it allows non-musical people (even if you can't play an instrument or read sheet music) to create their own music, using loops & synthesized instruments. Loops are pre-played instruments; you can group them together to create your own song. GarageBand has synthesized instruments, which can be played with an inexpensive USB MIDI piano keyboard, or played with the onscreen piano keyboard & your mouse. It also has the ability to record a real guitar or other musical instrument (if you have a talented friend) and do amplifier simulation to it; you can make a real guitar sound like classic Hendrix, or classic Police. The really neat thing is, since the simulation is applied to the original instrument being played, you can change the amp simulation later to get a totally different sound.

But something really magical happens when you get a Mac, GarageBand, a good sounding microphone, and an extroverted child. I was showing my nieces GarageBand, and one of them created her own song with loops. Then, one of the youngest ones (I think she's 3) decided she wanted to make a song. I had no idea if it would work, so I unplugged the mic from the camcorder, and plugged it into the mini jack on the back of my Titanium PowerBook G4 1GHz, which has a mini-plug sound in port. Not all Macs have this; if yours doesn't, you could always add a Griffin iMic (http://www.griffintechnology.com/products/imic/), which has the sound-in mini-plug and connects to your computer through a USB port.

I used the Sound preference panel in MacOS X to change sound in from the built-in mic on my PowerBook to the sound-in port. I turned on the microphone, and we recorded her singing. I applied the Gospel Choir effect to her voice, which made it sound like she was the only person in a huge auditorium. When we played it back, everyone laughed hysterically at her song, because she sang with such gusto, such desperation. And like the guitar, the effect can be changed at any time, because GarageBand records the original audio & applies the effect to it. But what impressed me is that this is a fairly inexpensive microphone that sounds great with GarageBand, and I didn't have to buy anything to get it to work. I exported her song to iTunes, then burned it to a CD-R for her parents to enjoy in a regular CD player.

How did it sound? Well, once again I'm not an audio engineer. But GarageBand's built-in presets do a variety of audio manipulations to make a singer sound quite professional. Everyone laughed at her song, not just because she was funny, but because GarageBand made her bad singing sound great, as if she was doing this in front of very expensive audio equipment.

Yet another use for my recent purchase. Hopefully I can persuade the little ones to create more music.