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"Best lav mics on the market" list...um, no.


thenannymoh

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So, a student googled something like "best lav mics" and came across this article, and then asked my opinion on it.  My opinion was that there are "best of" gear articles that are only about Amazon links and $ kickbacks.  Check it out for the lulz, if only for what's missing... 😅😅😞

 

https://filmlifestyle.com/best-lavalier-mic/

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How to Differentiate Between a Real Skater and a Poser Skater

 

Study what they do at the skate park.[6] Do they spend time actually riding their board at the skate park? Or do they show up, ride around once, then spend the rest of the time standing around, chatting, smoking cigarettes, texting and getting in the way of actual skaters? Classic poser moves.

  • Real skaters will spend most of their time skating and practicing tricks when they’re at the skate park.
  • Real skaters pay little to no attention to the social gathering going on around them at the skate park.
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9 hours ago, thenannymoh said:

So, a student googled something like "best lav mics" and came across this article, and then asked my opinion on it.  My opinion was that there are "best of" gear articles that are only about Amazon links and $ kickbacks.  Check it out for the lulz, if only for what's missing... 😅😅😞

 

https://filmlifestyle.com/best-lavalier-mic/

This whole time I've been using the wrong mics! Movo > all huh? 

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I was sent a note from an associate letting me know that my site was mentioned here. Firstly, thanks for the constructive criticism. 

 

The list isn't meant to be a guide for pros (any pro worth his salt doesn't need an intro lav mic guide, after all), but instead a starting list for beginners. In large part, that's who Filmmaking Lifestyle caters for. Whilst you might not get much out of the list as it stands, I assure you that many other people do.

 

As for the comments about Amazon clicks. Yes, I do make $ through Amazon links, but that money is given to charity. I have healthy income streams through other ventures, so the suggestion I'm paid off by certain manufacturers is unwarranted. And the attack on my character is unnecessary.

 

Like I say, appreciate the mention and the constructive criticism. I'm always endeavouring to improve the site and what I do. 

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14 hours ago, thenannymoh said:

My opinion was that there are "best of" gear articles that are only about Amazon links and $ kickbacks. 

Millions of articles like that out there, just created by someone (or something not even a real person.... but just a bot!) slaving away at a keyboard. Needing to make heaps of them per day. Just randomly  hitting up google to whatever first shows up, or just ripping the best sellers list straight off Amazon without any further thought. 

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@Dalton Patterson if you are suggesting that people do a little more research than looking for a “best of” list then you are grossly over estimating people these days! The amount of “professional” sound mixers that I run into that have clearly never read a manual or done little more than to learn the rudimentary operation of a piece of equipment and nothing more outweighs what I could describe as an actual audio engineer by a large margin!

 

Those folks I lovingly refer to as “pretengineers” :)

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20 hours ago, filmlifestyle said:

Like I say, appreciate the mention and the constructive criticism. I'm always endeavouring to improve the site and what I do. 

 

ok, here some (hopefully constructive) criticism:

 

firstly, linking to amazon seems like a very a poor choice to me, even (or specially) if you don't pocket the money yourself. an ME-2 can be found at professional sound houses for 130USD instead of 200USD on amazon and you support people actually caring about sound. so people will get the mic cheaper and amazon will not wipe out people with real jobs they care about.

 

second, the whole article doesn't *really* help anybody to choose the right mic. it's a mix of manufacturer specifications (which are usually overstated in this budget gear) and useless phrases. 

 

third, the web design and amount of ads and pop ups for the ebook and social media links make it really feel like a commercial site with click bait.

 

I know it takes lots of time and energy to make a free site with genuinely useful information, but frankly this page on your site is pretty much useless even for beginners.

 

sorry for the harsh words

chris 

 

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20 hours ago, filmlifestyle said:

I was sent a note from an associate letting me know that my site was mentioned here. Firstly, thanks for the constructive criticism. 

 

The list isn't meant to be a guide for pros (any pro worth his salt doesn't need an intro lav mic guide, after all), but instead a starting list for beginners. In large part, that's who Filmmaking Lifestyle caters for. Whilst you might not get much out of the list as it stands, I assure you that many other people do.

 

As for the comments about Amazon clicks. Yes, I do make $ through Amazon links, but that money is given to charity. I have healthy income streams through other ventures, so the suggestion I'm paid off by certain manufacturers is unwarranted. And the attack on my character is unnecessary.

 

Like I say, appreciate the mention and the constructive criticism. I'm always endeavouring to improve the site and what I do. 

 

Your own articles opening statement:

 

"So what is the best lavalier mic on the market? This article outlines what we believe are the best lav mics out there and covers the best wireless lavalier mics for all kinds of filmmaking and video production projects."

 

Sorry, but either that is entirely deliberately misleading and definitely not worded to inform the beginners for a starting list...or it is the intro to a lazily researched article from a 'professional' that will result in your readership making poor choices.

 

The ME-2 on that list is the dead giveaway that this is poorly researched: it is a terrible mic for the cost...An Oscar TL40 is a much better and cheaper mic.  (the only respected mic on that list might be the Sony ECM). If you had asked any working sound pro to provide recommendations to help strengthen your article, they would likely advise your readership that cheaply made radio and lav gear costs so much more...it just doesn't scale well.  Unreliable lav/radio gear will have enough dropouts, hits, cable noise, delay, and simply poor quality sound to actually cost you money in frustrated clients or the inevitable gear upgrade (to kit you didn't include).  The money spend on a $300 radio/lav channel will go much further on other gear that scales better (improved shotgun mic, shockmounts, wind protection, boom poles etc).  In the world of lavs and radio, there is no real 'entry' vs 'pro' gear:  there is "unreliable POS" vs "varying degrees of much better'. 

 

A way to greatly improve the article is to plainly and clearly state the scope and audience at the beginning ("I'm recommending low-end gear that might work for a beginner ie nobody charging clients any $"), and then if you insist on saying "best" anywhere at least being accurate in listing the true industry standard kits, even if it is a side mention.

 

I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt here and assuming this isn't simply a list created to generate income with your links.

 

Of course, people making money doing exclusively sound work don't actually care about this much...when one-person videographers use crappy sound gear, the rest of us end up making money in the end.  But presumably it's your videographer audience, who have to concentrate on the camera work and hope that the unmonitored audio is working well, are the ones who may be most influenced and mislead by articles like this.

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21 minutes ago, chrismedr said:

 

ok, here some (hopefully constructive) criticism:

 

firstly, linking to amazon seems like a very a poor choice to me, even (or specially) if you don't pocket the money yourself. an ME-2 can be found at professional sound houses for 130USD instead of 200USD on amazon and you support people actually caring about sound. so people will get the mic cheaper and amazon will not wipe out people with real jobs they care about.

 

second, the whole article doesn't *really* help anybody to choose the right mic. it's a mix of manufacturer specifications (which are usually overstated in this budget gear) and useless phrases. 

 

third, the web design and amount of ads and pop ups for the ebook and social media links make it really feel like a commercial site with click bait.

 

I know it takes lots of time and energy to make a free site with genuinely useful information, but frankly this page on your site is pretty much useless even for beginners.

 

sorry for the harsh words

chris 

 

 

On top of that, it’s poorly constructed sentence structure and grammar and full of typos and straight up misinformation. This truly is useless for beginners. Some of the items on here are wireless systems (which include mics) and some are just mics!

 

That you didn’t include the G3/G4 line (probably the most commercially successful option among amateurs, beginners and single operators) let alone any of the newer options like Sennheiser XS digital or the Deity stuff shows nobody actually did any real research at all. Shit, searching Adorama or B&H would have given you more and better information, and both of those places I believe offer affiliate links to achieve the same result as linking to Amazon.

 

This “article” is truly useless and IMO will do more harm than good, leaving prospective users with no holistic understanding of what a lav mic or wireless system is, what the parts are, and what makes a good product from a bad one. It’s a mindless collation of manufacturer specs with no actual analysis or opinion of its own. Like Chris, sorry for the harsh words, but...

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On 3/13/2019 at 1:18 PM, Dalton Patterson said:

How to Differentiate Between a Real Skater and a Poser Skater

 

Study what they do at the skate park.[6] Do they spend time actually riding their board at the skate park? Or do they show up, ride around once, then spend the rest of the time standing around, chatting, smoking cigarettes, texting and getting in the way of actual skaters? Classic poser moves.

  • Real skaters will spend most of their time skating and practicing tricks when they’re at the skate park.
  • Real skaters pay little to no attention to the social gathering going on around them at the skate park.

 

Did they pour one out for the Phelper at Dolores?

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It might be helpful to discuss the operational differences between 'wireless' and 'lav'. They're not the same thing, and in the price range you're covering, a wired lav can give you a lot better sound than a wireless.

 

If you can spend a few grand on a wireless rig (plus the mic), it'll probably be useful in most situations. But if you've only got a couple of hundred, and you can possibly run a cord, you'll get much better results spending the money for mic rather than mic-plus-cheap-radio. And if the talent is staying put, or ideally sitting down, there's usually no reason to use a cheap wireless other than convenience. It's a bad bargain.

 

 

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