At the $10 price point, I ordered one of these immediately. I had been looking to make my own from a mechanical kitchen timer, but there is no way I could make a finished and functional device for this price. I’ll post more when I get this in-hand. In order to receive the $10 price, look in the righthand sidebar of the Amazon page under Other Sellers on Amazon and select the first entry, sold by Amazon.com— Douglas
* A portion of each sale from Amazon.com directly supports our blogs
This great video showed up in my YouTube subscriptions and I wanted to pass it along for any New Media producers who might be looking for ways to improve their on-location audio. Tom Antos gives a great demo and run down the Rode NTG 4+ Shotgun Mic and accessories.
Check out his channel for more, great, production advice.
Review: Neat’s $99 Widget is a crazy-looking no-frills microphone, but it sounds awesome
With every passing generation, computers get better displays, processors, speakers, and more.
Microphones though? Not so much.
That means that if you have any interest in documenting anything involving sound – podcasting, vlogging, singing – you’ll need a serious upgrade. And while podcast mics exist aplenty, few are as immediately eye-catching as Neat Microphone’s Widget series, a set of vibrant condenser microphones.
An interesting link found among my daily reading
Shure MV88 iOS Digital Stereo Condenser Microphone
I discovered this microphone through, of all things, an advertisement on Instagram?!? What?!?! A useful social media advertisement. If all ads could be as targeted to me as this one, I might not complain about them so much. That said, the ad immediately made me want to check our the Shure MV88. I am always on the lookout for useful New Media Gear and this looks to be another device you might want to add to your arsenal. As I don’t have one in-hand, I have included some links below to give you an overview of how people are responding to this mic and some real world usage examples.
One dislike that crops up for me is the inability to use it with a cover. I know, making a device that works with any of the thousands of covered out there would be nearly impossible, but I hate having to pull my phone out of its cover to use it and I miss the protection it provides when working. I also worry about external devices plugged into the Lightning port, as I am always afraid I am going to break the port accidentally.
Beyond those fairly small quibbles though, the audio samples from the mic sound good and it can help to keep your recording kit a bit smaller. You’ll want an iPhone with a larger storage capacity in order to insure you aren’t constantly filling it up with audio. My 16 GB iPhone 6 already complains about being full much too often and I am sure I would run into even larger issues if I were recording audio to it regularly.
Check out the Shure MV88 and tell me what you think!
Amazon Reviews of the Shire MV88
* A portion of each sale from Amazon.com directly supports our blogs
Previously on New Media Gear:
An interesting link found among my daily reading
New Media Gear 23: KumbaCam 3 Axis SmartPhone Stabilizer
Mentioned in New Media Interchange Episode 14: Emmys, Apple Television Streaming and VR
* A portion of each sale from Amazon.com directly supports our blogs
Previously on New Media Gear:
A @GoSwivl Class Example #FlippedEd #EdChat via The Nerdy Teacher
I’ve written about Swivl on my site before here and here, but here is a great post on a how a new teacher has used it in her classroom to accommodate a student who misses school due to illness. This is a great reason to consider Swivl for your classroom.
Greetings!
My name is Katie Parent and I’m an English teacher in Michigan. I’m writing today about Swivl, a piece of technology that I recently tried in my classroom.
I have an honors student who is chronically ill and is hospitalized for treatment one out of every five weeks—we’ll call her Rebecca. Rebecca is a star student, always putting forth 100% effort and contributing to class discussion; school is a positive place where she can excel. As you can imagine, having a debilitating illness can get in the way of this. Rebecca’s mother contacted me before her first hospitalization this school year, wondering if I would be comfortable recording my classes so that her daughter can watch them while she is receiving treatment. I was eager to do so, but faced one issue: I am very mobile in my room, hardly staying in one spot for more than a few seconds. How would I be able to record myself as I moved around the room? Enter: Swivl.
“Noted” items are particularly good finds from my daily reading which I share via all my social media accounts.
Easily Take Studio Quality Smartphone Video with the iStabilizer via iPhone Hacks
There’s a lot going on out in the world. If you blink, you might miss it. That’s why the iStabilizer is so great. It helps you see everything that happens, capturing occurrences from all degrees and angles like your own personal extra set of eyes. To get shots that you could only imagine otherwise, you need the iStabilizer–and you can get it on sale right now from the iPhone Hacks Deals Hub.
“Noted” items are particularly good finds from my daily reading which I share via all my social media accounts.
New Media Gear 22: Blue Microphones Spark Digital Studio-Grade Condenser Microphone for Apple iPad and USB 2.0
I don’t often currently have the need to record high-quality audio to my iPad or iPhone, but I know a lot of podcasters who record to their mobile devices as a matter of course. The Spark would certainly add a level of quality to mobile recording while removing the need for mixing boards, phantom power and other encumbrances that make location recording difficult. The Spark plugs directly into the data connection of both older iPads using the 30-pin connector and also newer units with Apple’s Lightning Connector.
I have always liked Blue’s products, including a Blue Snowball that I currently own, and the Spark looks like it could be another great product.
Listen to audio samples from Blue Microphones web site
From Amazon.com…
Click for more information and reviews on this product.
Previously on New Media Gear:
Zoom H6 6 Track Portable Digital Recorder
While this item is a bit pricy for a holiday gift, it is an amazing device. I have used several of the Zoom recorders in the past, including the H1 and H2, but the Zoom H5 looks to be the recorder I have always wanted. If you have a podcaster, YouTuber, or other new media creator in your, extra special, gift list, this might just be the ticket to make them very, very happy.
Features:
The ground-breaking Zoom H6 handheld recorder will change the way you think about portable recording. With interchangeable stereo X/Y and Middle-Side microphone capsules included, plus Shotgun and Dual XLR/TRS Combo input capsules available separately, the H6 is the ultimate chameleon of the audio world — and its advanced preamps make it the best-sounding one too. Whatever your application — live recording, professional film/video work, or broadcast ENG (electronic news gathering) — the H6 can handle it with ease. The H6 offers four main inputs (1-4), plus two additional inputs (L, R) that are derived from whichever capsule (X/Y, MS, Shotgun, or Dual XLR/TRS Combo) is plugged into the unit. The supplied XYH-6 X/Y capsule also provides a secondary input for connecting an external mic- or line-level signal via a stereo 1/8″ Mic/Line In mini phone jack. When a connection is made to that jack, signal from the X/Y microphones is muted. The H6 Line Out is an unbalanced stereo 1/8″ phone jack, located on the bottom of the H6, beneath the LCD display. It carries the analog stereo output signal, as determined by the H6’s internal mixer. The H6 USB port, located on the side panel to the right of the LCD display, provides a digital output of either a stereo mix or the six individual input signals, depending upon the setting of the “Audio Interface”function in the USB menu. In addition, the H6 provides a headphone output with a dedicated volume control, located on the side panel to the left of the LCD display. Connect your headphones to the stereo 1/8” mini phone jack for private monitoring of the stereo output signal. The H6 even has a built-in speaker, located on the underside of the unit, for fast monophonic monitoring of the recorded signal without the need to make any connections whatsoever. This speaker is automatically disconnected when connection is made to either the Line Out or Headphone output.
More 2013 Gift Guide Items:
More 2013 Gift Guide Items:
New Media Gear 21: Fancierstudio 3000 Watt Digital Video Continuous Softbox Lighting Kit
A few months ago we had need to purchase some equipment for a testimonial project and a series of interviews. First on our list was a basic set of video lights that would provide nice, basic illumination and still be easy to transport, as we would be shooting the interviews at the client sites. As we are just starting to move into the video production business (beyond my own personal productions) and not exactly knowing how far this line of work will take us, I didn’t want to invest thousands of dollars only to have to sell the equipment later for a loss.
Click for more information and reviews on this product.
I did quite a bit of searching online and came across this kit on Amazon.com. I made a point of reading nearly every review available, both positive and negative to see how this kit might fit our needs. Overall the kit has a 4 star rating over 77 reviews. The one item I kept seeing in the reviews was the fact that this was, indeed, a “cheap” kit. That didn’t mean it didn’t work well, only that you had to be careful when setting up and tearing down and you couldn’t necessarily toss it around. Knobs are plastic, although the screws themselves are metal, the nylon bags holding the diffusion boxes are poorly stitched and things like that. Almost all the review said, though, that if you are looking for a good, entry-level kit, this could be it.
Based on these reviews, I ordered the kit and crossed my fingers that it would work out well. Once it arrived, we did a test setup here in the office so we understood how everything went together before we tried to do this under the time constraints of an actual shoot. It took a little time to learn exactly how to best put the lights together, but now that we have down 6 setups and tear downs, we are pretty good and can set up two lights in about 15 minutes.
Since we had the warnings from the reviews, we have been very careful to treat the kit with a light hand and try to keep the abuse to a minimum. These seems to have served us well, as nothing has broken or been damaged over the course of the last 2 months of transport and shoot.
Everything — stands, light bulbs, fixtures, diffusion boxes and screens — fits back into the original carrying case and allows us to move around quite easily from car to location to car. The kit is small enough that it easily fits in the trunk or back seat of all but the smallest vehicles.
Overall, we have been very satisfied in our purchase and while we may move up to more expensive (and expansive) equipment in the future, it has served us well as we grow. Go into this purchase with the full knowledge that is “cheap” and may require a little gentler care than most, but we have found it quite functional for, albeit limited, needs.
Previously on New Media Gear:
New Media Gear 20: Headphone Recommendations
My old — and rather inexpensive — set of headphones are on their last legs, and since I am moving into more on-location video production I decided I needed at least one new pair. I put out the call for headphone recommendations on both the Podcast Community Group on Facebook and the Podcasters list on Yahoo. As usual, I received a host of great recommendations.
For the time begin, I picked up a rather inexpensive pair of headphones at the local Radio Shack store as I had a discount coupon available and they are nearby. These will get me by for a while and I will continue checking out all the further recommendations for a more expensive set for the future.
Radio Shack: AUVIO® Foldable Headphones
Read the main conversation on the Facebook Podcast Community in this thread.
Headphone recommendations:
from Shawn Thorpe from Clay Dugger from James Gralian from Charles McFallFrom this list, I am leaning towards the Sony headphones. I have used them professional environment before and liked both their sounds and their fit. It was great to be reminded of them as a possibility.
Previously on New Media Gear:
New Media Gear 19: Premium microphone power supply with 9v power
Last week I posted a call for recommendations/answers for connecting my existing set of laveliere mics to my new camcorder (mentioned in last week’s New Media Gear post). While my Zoom H2 has a Plug-In Power mode, which boosts the signal from these mics, the camcorder does not provide this power and the mics did not work. Since I had purchased this camcorder specially because it had an external mic input, I needed to find the proper way to boost this signal without adding any noise.
Sound Professionals: Premium microphone power supply with 9v power
My audio expert friend, Michael, led me to this microphone power supply/pre-amp and it appears to work very well. Connecting this between the mics and the camcorder powers the mic and posts the signal properly and with very little noise.
This will now allow me to record lav mic audio directly to the camera, removing the need to record on an external recorder and sync the audio during the editing process. This sync isn’t really difficult, but it does make for extra work if it really isn’t necessary for the project.
Previously on New Media Gear:
New Media Gear 018: Canon VIXIA HF R400 HD 53x Image Stabilized Optical Zoom Camcorder and 3.0 Touch LCD
I produce a number of blogs and video series/podcasts, so I had been looking to upgrade my current video cameras to something with a few more features and better ease of use. While my micro-four-thirds SLR camera did well with video, it was limited to how long it could record as one video clip and also lacked a reversible viewfinder so I could shoot videos without a camera operator.
Recently, I also had several New Media production opportunities come my way and an upgrade to full 1080p video quality was needed. I asked for recommendations from my social media followers and one of the first recommendations was this Canon camera. I found it for purchase locally and after trying it out, I decided to buy.
This camera has several features that I was looking for in a new camera:
This camera has all of these features, along with decent quality in low light situations and ease of use. I have now used it in 2 projects, as well as my weekly podcasts, and I find it to be capable and produce good quality video. Sure, you could spend a lot more money for a much better camera, but for my own needs and finances, this camera has proven to be an excellent choice. You can see some examples of the camera at work on my YouTube Channel.
Canon VIXIA HF R400 HD 53x Image Stabilized Optical Zoom Camcorder and 3.0 Touch LCD
Product Features from Amazon.com:
Previously on New Media Gear:
New Media Gear 017: Blue Microphones Icicle XLR to USB Mic Converter/Mic Preamp
This is another piece of podcasting and audio recording gear that I have seen mentioned numerous times. It has been around for a while but could still be an interesting piece of gear for new podcasters.
The Blue Icicle allows you to convert any standard XLR connected microphone into a USB microphone that can be plugged directly into your computer. This a great way of providing some flexibility in where and how you use your microphones. It also allows you to start off with the more standard XLR mics so that you don’t have to upgrade from a USB only mic as your podcasting work grows.
Blue Microphones Icicle XLR to USB Mic Converter/Mic Preamp
Product Features from Amazon.com:
Previously on New Media Gear:
New Media Gear 016: Peter Lythgoe of Zzipp and Co. Podcast from Weymouth, UK (Part 3 of 3)
Peter is the producer and host of the Zzipp and Co. Podcast and uses a variety of equipment in producing his shows. He was kind enough to break out his equipment in 3 parts, including hist audio studio equipment, his video interview equipment and the equipment for the video studio he is currently building. Since her has so much equipment to share, I will present his New Media Gear in 3 parts, too. This posts details Peter’s studio equipment.
New Media Equipment:
If you have any questions about Peter’s podcasting equipment, please drop them in the comments or in the Facebook Podcasting Community.
Previously on New Media Gear:
New Media Gear 015: Audio-Technica ATR2100-USB Cardioid Dynamic USB/XLR Microphone
I first heard about this microphone from Richard Cleveland over at Naked Ape Productions during one of his Podcast U panel discussions. I mentioned this microphone to my personal friend, Michael Lawshe, who is an expert in all things audio (and multi-Emmy Award winner) and he happened to drop one by when we met for dinner last night.
The microphone package include the mic itself, a mic clip and small plastic mic stand, an XLR microphone cable and a USB cable. As you might notice from the cables included, the ATR2100-USB, has a special feature which I have not seen in many other microphones. Instead of being a USB-only mic like the Blue Snowball or Rode Podcaster, the ATR2100 includes connections and electronics so it can be used either as a USB microphone connected directly to your computer with out a mixing board or as a standard dynamic microphone connected via XLR to a mixer.
This dual connectivity makes this a great mic for those who are just getting started in podcasting or other audio recording and yet allows them to step up to a mixing board and other equipment while still using the same microphone. Additionally, when recording with USB-only microphones, real time monitoring of your recording can be a problem due to the USB induced processing delay. The ATR2100-USB works around this issue by including a headphone jack directly on the microphone itself, so you can easily monitor in real time even when connected via USB. Other USB microphones have included this much needed feature in the past, such as the Rode Podcaster, and it is great to see other manufacturers alleviating the monitoring issue with their designs. I know for myself that it is very important to be able to monitor myself as I record. It helps me to catch mumbled words, overly fast speech and poor pronunciations which I might not notice otherwise.
As a demonstration, I have recorded this blog post as an audio podcast, too, so you can hear the microphone in a real world situation using both the USB and XLR modes.
Listen to this microphone demonstration
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (4.5MB) | Embed
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Everything up to here has been recored using the USB connection on the ATR2100. Now I will switch to the XLR connection using my small mixing board.
As with any handheld mic, shock isolation js important. You don’t want to pick up any noise from your hand on the microphone itself. This is often where many less expensive microphones and recorders with built-in mic fail greatly. As you can hear, I am moving the microphone around in my hand and while it is picking up a bit of noise, if you hold the mic firmly you might not notice it at all. The included plastic mic clip and tabletop mic stand is enough for most beginners to get started, although most would probably want to move up to a more robust, metal, stand fairly quickly.
Unfortunately, the headphone level form the microphone was at a very low level for my own personal tastes. I would prefer much more volume when recording and playing back what I have recorded. The mic has a headphone volume control, but it did not seem to the effect the output volume much at all. Instead the volume control seemed to be trying to change the overall volume on my Macintosh.
The recording level was quite good even when placed on a desktop at some distance from my mouth. If you want more input level, of course, you can move closer to the mic although then you would want to use a pop filter cut down on the popping sounds of consonants and plosives like P’s and B’s. In this podcast I have used the mic at a fairly close proximity and included the use of a pop filter.
Based on my short time with the microphone, and recommendations from others, I would consider this a great microphone for its price. Amazon currently lists it for around $40 US. I have been impressed with the overall recording quality even here in this rough demonstration. I haven’t taken any time to really adjust the microphone in any way, but simply plugged it in, adjusted the recording level and made this recording using Apple’s GarageBand software.
If you’d like more information on the ATR2100-USB, you can find links not the web site as part of this blog post. Visit DouglasEWelch.com/newmedia/ to find them.
Audio-Technica ATR2100-USB Cardioid Dynamic USB/XLR Microphone
Product Features from Amazon.com:
If you have any questions about Peter’s podcasting equipment, please drop them in the comments or in the Facebook Podcasting Community.
Previously on New Media Gear:
New Media Gear 014: Peter Lythgoe of Zzipp and Co. Podcast from Weymouth, UK (Part 2 of 3)
Peter is the producer and host of the Zzipp and Co. Podcast and uses a variety of equipment in producing his shows. He was kind enough to break out his equipment in 3 parts, including hist audio studio equipment, his video interview equipment and the equipment for the video studio he is currently building. Since her has so much equipment to share, I will present his New Media Gear in 3 parts, too. This posts details Peter’s video equipment.
New Media Equipment:
Here is an interview I did with Peter about the special needs and specific uses of local podcasting:
If you have any questions about Peter’s podcasting equipment, please drop them in the comments or in the Facebook Podcasting Community.
Previously on New Media Gear:
