Iwanttoknowaboutsound

Nice find David. The price is right and from a reputable company. Can’t ask for much more than that.

OK. Update on my original post. The advice about having the mic close to the mouth via a headworn mic worked perfectly. Unfortunately for me I had a defective headworn mic and had to send it back. What I ended up doing was using a really nice Sony lav mic with an XLR connection into my Mixpre 3 ll. I took a piece of flexible springy wire stuff from Home Depot and put an alligator clip on one end and attached the mic to the other end. Then I just clipped the rig on my baseball cap and adjusted the mic so it was slightly to the side and back near my mouth and the sound quality of vocal audio the road noise was perfectly balanced for what was my original intended purpose. I also tried just clipping the mic to the front of my baseball cap and pointing it towards my mouth but too much road noise resulted in that technique. The mic was probably 7 inches from my mouth vs 1 or 2 inches with my current set up. I’m grateful for the assistance and advice. Many, many thanks.

Well......I thank you for the advice that was 100% right. That’s the important point.

OK. I recieved the headmount microphone. It did the job of reducing road and cabin noise in the car very well. Unfortunately for me I received a flawed unit and had to send it back. The package looked like it had been opened when I took it out of the shipping box and low and behold it suffered from static sounds that could be due to the place where it connected to the recorder. Now I know for sure that a headmount mic does reduce noise from the road and vehicle itself. I'm back to using the shotgun mic and I just need to figure out how to arrange it so it points up and is close to my mouth while maintaining driving safety. Getting the correct mount is a bit tricky.

Wow. This magic arm thing will work. I looked at the car just now and the area between the seats where you store things has a hatch that opens up and a section between where I can clamp this magic arm and easily adjust the mic to essentially any position I want. This is gold. I need a shock mount to finish it off. Folks.....I can’t thank you enough. I’m going to try the Rode HS2 headmount this week and see if that is preferable but if not then this magic arm opens up a world of possibilities.

This is interesting. I just did a test drive with my wife sitting in the passengers seat in the same car but she was being recorded on audio this time instead of me. She had the mic pointing up at an angle towards her mouth about 6 inches away. Remember I had the mic pointed down on an angle towards my mouth as it was in the sun visor. My audio picked up all kinds of road noise but my wife's audio had minimal road noise. Almost too little this time. David Waelder did mention that I point the mic up and I did some quick tests on my own but the test was not as precise because I was a one man band. With my wife holding the mic and recording her voice with the mic at the upward angle position things were MUCH quieter with regards to road noise. I have a headwore mic from Rode coming in this week and that will be very convenient due to it's form factor. If that works out I'll be all set. If not then I will need to somehow mount the shotgun mic near the cupholders near the shift handle in the center of the seats to point up to my mouth. Getting it that close to my mouth will be a challenge due to the need for driving safety.

I ordered a Rode HS2 Headset based on price and reputation. The DPA’s are very pricey. Double the price of the Rode. I’ll receive it Wednesday. I’ll make sure I use proper mic placement by carefully adjusting it’s exact location for the best performance. I’ll report back how it works out.

Folks.......the shotgun placed pointing up or down in my car is still giving me more road noise than I want. It's a pretty quiet large car but to me the shotgun mic in that environment isn't cutting it. I have tried a bunch of different placements but it's just not what I need for road noise isolation. The voice audio is good but the background sound is too distracting. I need some ambient sound but this is just too much. So I'm going to try a headset mic. I am looking at a Rode HS2 Headset, Countryman E6 and the DPA d:fine 4166. The DPA seems to sound terrific as does the Rode and E6 but there really aren't too many comparisons done on these. It seems the DPA is the industry standard. Any thoughts on those mics?

I appreciate the clarification Paul.

I'll do some experimentation with the shotgun mic pointed up as David suggested. I don't have a lav mic unfortunately so I can't perform test suggested by Paul. If the shotgun mic experiments don't work out I'll simply order the Countryman E6 and go from there. Grateful for all the information and ideas.

Yes. Excellent advice. Initially I did have some distracting sounds so I eliminated everything from the vehicle and now the cabin inside the car is rattle free. By the way, yesterday I placed a shotgun mic on the sun visor as an experiment. My voice sounded fine but the road noise was too loud for my taste. Again.....I’m a novice here but......I had the mic about 8 inches from my mouth and angled slightly above my head. I am thinking that if I can get it closer to my mouth and possibly angle it more directly towards my mouth it will reduce road noise. The mic is said to reduce noise from the sides and back. Of course I have to keep my driving visibility in tact. I’m a photographer. Delving into sound is difficult for me. My needs in this instance are simple to explain but difficult to achieve. Excellent voice audio with minimal road noise while recording a live drive in a car. Thank you for the ideas.

Thanks acdave and Paul F. At the moment I'm leaning towards the Countryman E6.

Thank you Allen. Very helpful. The E6 looks to be extremely popular. I’m leaning towards that right now. What you said here is a bit over my head. I’m a novice. If I am interpreting your post correctly you are saying that the mics suggested thus far are only to be used as a last resort? I’ll be inside a car with the windows up. No wind. Also......I have no idea what you mean by “sound reinforcement”. What do you suggest for my needs?

Try these: https://www.couponbirds.com/codes/sounddevices.com

I am really grateful for the suggestion Jim. I assume the sound quality of the mics Paul mentioned are excellent. I’ll need to plug the mic directly into a Sound Devices MixPre-3 ll. I notice those mics are used wirelessly. I won’t be on a wireless rig. It needs to be hard wired. Thank you very much for the information on this Jim.