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Which Sennheiser G3 Equipment to Buy?


BillsBayou

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I'm the "documentarian" for our garden club. Used to shoot just photos of guest speakers, I now want video. I have a Canon Vixia HF G10, but like anything, if I want to get the speaker, I'll need a mic. Since we do hands-on work in our field (sometimes IN a field), I'm looking at a wirelessa lav mic kit.

Second, I'd like the presenter to also take questions from the audience, so now I need a handheld mic. Third, I have a Rode shotgun mic that I use for my children's school performances, I can use this for background. Lav, handheld, stereo shotgun: that's 4 channels.

Budget: $500 $1000 $1500 (firm)

This is MY mad money and I'm at the level of pain and doubting my sanity at this point.

Turns out, anything kit below $600 has just enough detractors to tell me that I need at least a Sennheiser G3 set-up. Some reviews even point to the Sennheisers specifically.

Here's where I am (at B&H):

Sennheiser ew 112-p G3 Camera Mount Wireless Microphone System with ME2 Lavalier Mic - A (516-558 MHz):

This gets me a Lav Mic, a transmitter and a receiver.

Sennheiser ew 135-p G3 Camera Mount Wireless Microphone System with 835 Handheld Mic - A (516-558 MHz):

This gets me a handheld mic with a built-in transmitter, and a reciever.

Rolls MX124 Portable 4 Channel Stereo Mixer

Converters for the 1/8" plugs to go into the XLR inputs of the mixer.

Questions:

1) Did I do okay with my shopping list?

2) B&H sells Sennheiser ENG kits with one receiver, a lav + transmitter, and a handheld XLR transmitter plug. That's two transmitters with only one receiver. Am I missing something? Wouldn't this just result in a pile of crappy clipping of the handheld plug and the lav are transmitting on the same frequency? I'd need to buy another receiver and a mixer if I wanted to use both sound sources with such a kit. Right?

I'll post links to all the products in question in a reply.

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I'm the "documentarian" for our garden club. Used to shoot just photos of guest speakers, I now want video. I have a Canon Vixia HF G10, but like anything, if I want to get the speaker, I'll need a mic. Since we do hands-on work in our field (sometimes IN a field), I'm looking at a wirelessa lav mic kit.

Second, I'd like the presenter to also take questions from the audience, so now I need a handheld mic. Third, I have a Rode shotgun mic that I use for my children's school performances, I can use this for background. Lav, handheld, stereo shotgun: that's 4 channels.

Budget: $500 $1000 $1500 (firm)

This is MY mad money and I'm at the level of pain and doubting my sanity at this point.

Turns out, anything kit below $600 has just enough detractors to tell me that I need at least a Sennheiser G3 set-up. Some reviews even point to the Sennheisers specifically.

Here's where I am (at B&H):

Sennheiser ew 112-p G3 Camera Mount Wireless Microphone System with ME2 Lavalier Mic - A (516-558 MHz):

This gets me a Lav Mic, a transmitter and a receiver.

Sennheiser ew 135-p G3 Camera Mount Wireless Microphone System with 835 Handheld Mic - A (516-558 MHz):

This gets me a handheld mic with a built-in transmitter, and a reciever.

Rolls MX124 Portable 4 Channel Stereo Mixer

Converters for the 1/8" plugs to go into the XLR inputs of the mixer.

Questions:

1) Did I do okay with my shopping list?

2) B&H sells Sennheiser ENG kits with one receiver, a lav + transmitter, and a handheld XLR transmitter plug. That's two transmitters with only one receiver. Am I missing something? Wouldn't this just result in a pile of crappy clipping of the handheld plug and the lav are transmitting on the same frequency? I'd need to buy another receiver and a mixer if I wanted to use both sound sources with such a kit. Right?

I'll post links to all the products in question in a reply.

Right. The system with two transmitters & 1 receiver is designed to allow you to use either transmitter as needed not both together at one time.

Eric

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Where are you located? Bayou? NOLA?

A new sound shop JUST opened in your neck of the woods. Your best bet is to walk into PSS and tell them what you're trying to do. They'll get you the gear and help you learn to use it. B & H will not. I know you're budget is limited, but why waste time and money possibly getting the wrong stuff that you may not set up properly.

I'd also consider buying some stuff used, like an MKE2 lav. Stock lavs on G3 systems are barely good enough for even the most casual work.

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BillsBayou, I'm a video guy as well but browse this forum for lots of very useful information.

I second the suggestion to deal locally with a pro audio store as they know what they're doing and can often save you money.

I was looking for two Sennheiser wireless kits (the G3 ENG kit) earlier this year and got a price from my usual audio supplier but decided to get a quote from Trew Audio in Toronto as well.

To my surprise, I got a call from the store manager who was not only able to save me money, he recommended some items I had not thought of because I was not aware of them.

Mike

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When I finally get all my gear, I don't want to have enough equipment to get paid gigs. Even crappy paid gigs. I just want to bring the audio quality up enough that viewers don't get distracted.

I don't know enough to have an intelligent conversation with anyone in a sound store. Sharman, I'm guess you're talking about "Professional Sound Services" on South Salcedo? I'm at $1500 on-line with B&H, so I guess for that amount of money, not knowing what I'm doing, I'm best going in there.

$1500 is where I'm topping out in pain. I'd rather not have them say "Oh, but you can't get anywhere for less than $3000". $1500 is not my introductory budget, it's the "what the hell did I just do" budget.

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Hi, and welcome...

"

1) Did I do okay with my shopping list? "

cognitive dissonence...

this is a professional production sound discussion group: " I don't know enough to have an intelligent conversation with anyone in a sound store. " Then you cannot afford not to take Robert Sharman's excellent advice.

" That's two transmitters with only one receiver. Am I missing something? "

no, but you can only use one TX at a time with only one RX, you have to choose which TX to use for each situation.

" $1500 is where I'm topping out in pain " then you should return to amateur video forums and Azden,, as on this professional forum, you are scraping the bottom!

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Your thinking is backwards. "If you don't know enough..." as you stated, then it would be greatly to your advantage to deal with professional audio people. Otherwise, it's the blind leading the blind and I can't possibly conceive why you'd consider that to be a preferable approach over dealing with someone who really understands what they're doing when it comes to audio.

While the people at B&H have a tad of knowledge, it sways heavily in the direction of simply being able to sell gear quickly. I had a friend who purchased over twenty thousand dollars worth of video gear from B&H and some of it wouldn't even work with the system she was buying it for.

Do yourself a huge favor and take Robert Sharman's advice. Even if you don't end up purchasing there, you'll probably be a wiser shopper for having talked with them.

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" $1500 is where I'm topping out in pain " then you should return to amateur video forums and Azden,, as on this professional forum, you are scraping the bottom!

Come on Mike, don't be so hard on the guy. After all you have your X-mas hat on.

BillsBayou,

Your budget is reasonable for what you are trying to accomplish. If you're going to just clip a mic on your speaker then I'd suggest looking into the G3 system with a tram TR50 or a Countryman B6. Believe it or not but you can sell the crappy lav that comes with the G3 system for around $90 on ebay (I've done it several times). This will help you recover some of your expense and keep things at an affordable price.

Or, you may want to rent the gear first to see if you like it. Pro Sound Services just announced that they will be giving everyone a $25 gift voucher that can be used for rental or service. You might want to take them up on this and use that money to rent the gear for your first time around.

Whichever path you choose good luck to you and welcome to JWSound.

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Please take Robert & John's advice and get over to Pro Sound (you have the correct address) and talk to them.

Don't worry about "knowing enough to have an intelligent conversation with anyone in a sound store". As I said, I'm a video guy who, after 30+ years, is still learning about audio,

Dan Izen, the manager, is a regular on here and seems to be a a heck of a nice guy and I'm sure he will do everything he can to help you get the most for your budget. After all, audio is what these folks know and love.

After I bought my gear from Trew, I was in Toronto for a day so I dropped into the store. While I was there, I looked around at all the gear I had only read about. I asked one guy (not sure if he was a sales rep or just a helpful customer) about hiding a lav. He grabbed a few things off the shelf and in less than 5 minutes, showed me 3 different (and inexpensive) ways to hide a lav and still get good sound.

Trust me when I say that buying from them will be a MUCH better choice than B&H.

Mike

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For the OP's needs, I would look for a USED G3 or even a G2 setup. Will work great for what he is doing. Lots of news crews use these sets every day with decent enough results.

If you really want to go with new gear, take your camera with you when you go over to Pro Sound. That way you can work out all the cables and adapters you will need to get the sound into the camera. Oh, and don't forget headphones.

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Thanks for all the positive advice, guys. I went over to PSS at lunch. They're 8 minutes from my office. Dan Izen is a fantastic guy.

I walked in, told him exactly what I needed to do, but that I did not know what I needed in gear. He pulled a Sennheiser G3 set off the shelf and said I should start with that. The same set which I had added to my B&H wish list. I was feeling comfortable already. He's going to order the Sennheiser handheld kit and have his tech guy fabricate a 'Y' splitter.

He took the time to explore what I needed to do. Turns out, I don't need a mixer. I'm going to use a 'Y' splitter to pull in the lav mic on one channel and the handheld on the other. I can sum to mono later. He's going to hold off on the sale until we do a test of all the equipment together.

Getting the right help from an in-person interview is indeed the only way to go. I got to learn a few terms, some techniques, and look at the accessories on the wall to give me even more ideas on what to do next.

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I'm going to use a 'Y' splitter to pull in the lav mic on one channel and the handheld on the other.

I'm not following you here. You are going to get both a handheld wireless mic path and a lav mic path out of one receiver and use a y-cable to split it into the two channels on the camera???

I don't know how you are going to be able to use both TX's at once with one Rx. Double check your info, maybe I read something wrong.

BTW: I grew up in NOLA and go there often. I now live in MS. If you ever need pro sound guys in NOLA, I have a list.

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Yes, the camera's mic input is mini-TRS. The Sennheiser receivers send their output to the same type of connector. Dan's idea is to have his tech guy build a 'Y'-shaped cable to feed one receiver to the left channel, the other to the right channel.

As a test of his idea, Dan used a similar splitter that took two XLR connectors down to a 1/8" plug. He then connected a mic to each of the XLR connectors and did a sound check on the camcorder.

This is the kind of good stuff that happens only by going in to the store. He'll make sure it works before billing me.

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" I'm going to use a 'Y' splitter to pull in the lav mic on one channel and the handheld on the other. "

I'm guessing here that he means a Y from the mini-trs input of the camcorder...and using a wired HH ...

Gotcha, I wasn't thinking of a camera with a non-XLR input. Maybe so. I went back and see the camera model now.

They'll need to be leveled out of the receivers... I'd feel better with a Beachtek or something in-between to help level it out... but i guess it will work. I hope you can turn off "auto-level" on that camera, or that it at least is not linked for the two channels. (Don't think I've ever hooked up to a camera with only mini on it)

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Gotcha, I wasn't thinking of a camera with a non-XLR input. Maybe so. I went back and see the camera model now.

They'll need to be leveled out of the receivers... I'd feel better with a Beachtek or something in-between to help level it out... but i guess it will work. I hope you can turn off "auto-level" on that camera, or that it at least is not linked for the two channels. (Don't think I've ever hooked up to a camera with only mini on it)

I'm well into the realm of adapter-this-adapter-that. If I need some sort of external leveler, I'll have to pull that in later.

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I'm not following you here. You are going to get both a handheld wireless mic path and a lav mic path out of one receiver and use a y-cable to split it into the two channels on the camera???

I don't know how you are going to be able to use both TX's at once with one Rx. Double check your info, maybe I read something wrong.

BTW: I grew up in NOLA and go there often. I now live in MS. If you ever need pro sound guys in NOLA, I have a list.

I agree with this guy. I am NOLA based as well and deal with Dan on a regular basis and he is great to work with.

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I hope you can turn off "auto-level" on that camera, or that it at least is not linked for the two channels.

I have a similar Canon Vixia camera for taking video of the family and it DOES have a way to turn the audio input to "Manual" versus "Auto". So definitely do this. Otherwise you'll hear the audio level going up and down throughout your shoot trying to adjust for the different speaking volumes, which you would think might be a good thing, but trust me it sounds terrible!

The other big catch (with my camera at least) is that adjusting the input gain of the camera is global for both the left and right channels, so you can't mix the two independently. You would have to do any independent level adjustments on the receivers (which on the G3's, means you have to open the battery doors to access the menu button in order to change). Definitely do a lot of level testing ahead of time and leave some decent headroom for loud talkers, because you are going to want to try not have to change levels when you are rolling.

My camera is an older/cheaper one than the HF G10 you are using, so maybe these features are upgraded in yours. But just some things to be prepared to check ahead of time in your tests. Best of luck!

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