Røde shotgun mic barely picking up anything!

[Ace.of.Trades]

Hi, everyone,

I have to do a series of high-profile interviews tomorrow. I borrowed a Røde shotgun mic because the default audio on my Sony HDR-CX550 wasn't ideal.

Decided to do a test run beforehand. The mic won't fit in the shoe on my Sony Handycam, so I just lay it on its side on the table. I took a few shots of a friend and had him talk normally. In the headphones, I could barely hear anything but staticky background noise. Same goes for when I brought it into FCP: the fuzzy background noise is obvious, and the speaker is barely audible.

There are three settings: Off, On, and this little bent line. Neither On nor the bent line returned anything usable.

How do I get this thing to serve me as it should?

 

[Macman45]

My Rode Pros

Hi, everyone,

I have to do a series of high-profile interviews tomorrow. I borrowed a Røde shotgun mic because the default audio on my Sony HDR-CX550 wasn't ideal.

Decided to do a test run beforehand. The mic won't fit in the shoe on my Sony Handycam, so I just lay it on its side on the table. I took a few shots of a friend and had him talk normally. In the headphones, I could barely hear anything but staticky background noise. Same goes for when I brought it into FCP: the fuzzy background noise is obvious, and the speaker is barely audible.

There are three settings: Off, On, and this little bent line. Neither On nor the bent line returned anything usable.

How do I get this thing to serve me as it should?

Require phantom power, not sure about yours, but they are xlr input connections chances are they need it too. You would need a phantom pus from Rode, Roland etc. To get the proper gain you need.

 

[musique]

Which Rode shotgun are you using? If it's the NTG-1, 2, or 3 what are you using to convert the audio so your camcorder can accept it?

 

[Ace.of.Trades]

There doesn't seem to be a place to plug in phantom power. The bottom of the mic says Røde Microphone VideoMic N3594.

I guess I'll just have to stick with my camera's mic and put tons of filters on after that. Would you guys have any advice about that?

----------

Oh, and also, I wasn't using a converter. I just plugged the mic straight into the camera's jack.

 

[cgbier]

If it is the Røde Videomic, you need this hotshoe adaptor.
The NTG-2 (battery powered) needs a transformer.

For the other Røde mics, you'd need a pre-amp from Juicedlink or Beachtek with phantom power.

 

[cgbier]

Don't forget that you are talking about a shotgun here - very directional. You have to aim it directly at your victim and get as close and personal as possible.
Check if you have turned on mic ATT in your cam (if it has this function), and turn it off.

 

[Sylonien]

The VideoMic just uses 9V battery. Should be a flap on the slide that you can open and see?

Could be the camera sometimes. my 60D requires me to manually turn up the mic input level quite a bit to get the sound through, but also increases a lot of noise from the camera. Not very good audio (camera).

 

[legreve]

Hm, and there's no where to adjust the amps on the camera? Ofcourse that would just increase the noise as well, just sounds weird that it should be so weak...?

 

[Artful Dodger]

I have that mic and it uses a 9 volt as others have mentioned.
I use mine on my Canon HF-S21, set the input to external mic and it has picked up really good audio in many conditions. No hotshoe needed but just like cgbier has mentioned, you have to have it pointing directly at the source for audio.

I also have mine on a bracket as you mentioned that for a test you had it on a table which it should have worked but check the levels of adjustment in the camera. I have mine set on manual at about 70% but will dial it down to about 65 in a smaller room say 25x40 and it picks up just fine. There has been some info about using this mic with Canon dslr's because there is a good deal of audio adjustment that can be done in camera. Some mention that's why they went with Canon over Nikon and so on.

I have used this mic on an older Panny camcorder with great results as well so you could if everything is how it should be, have a bad unit but again make sure the basics are there like a fresh battery and settings checked.

Good luck

 

[apw100]

Have you tried replacing the battery? I know it sounds simple...

 

[Sylonien]

I have that mic and it uses a 9 volt as others have mentioned.
I use mine on my Canon HF-S21, set the input to external mic and it has picked up really good audio in many conditions. No hotshoe needed but just like cgbier has mentioned, you have to have it pointing directly at the source for audio.

I also have mine on a bracket as you mentioned that for a test you had it on a table which it should have worked but check the levels of adjustment in the camera. I have mine set on manual at about 70% but will dial it down to about 65 in a smaller room say 25x40 and it picks up just fine. There has been some info about using this mic with Canon dslr's because there is a good deal of audio adjustment that can be done in camera. Some mention that's why they went with Canon over Nikon and so on.

I have used this mic on an older Panny camcorder with great results as well so you could if everything is how it should be, have a bad unit but again make sure the basics are there like a fresh battery and settings checked.

Good luck

Do you get wind noise problem? I'm using the Rode deadcat but doesn't seem to do much regarding picking up wind noise.

 

[legreve]

Do you get wind noise problem? I'm using the Rode deadcat but doesn't seem to do much regarding picking up wind noise.

You sure that it's really wind noise? That is what the deadcat is for in the first place Of course within reasonable limitation...
Could be regular noise because you have your levels too high.

 

[Sylonien]

Naaa... if i set it any lower I can't pick up the subject. I was just walking fast inside a tunnel following the subject and it still picked up the rumble for the light breeze. With HP it works a bit but still not ideal. Doesn't seem to work for me.