Connecting wireless lavalier/handheld mics to camcorder

Maine-Man

Maine-Man

New member
Our group hosts presenters of interest to our group. We want to record the speaker and audience questions onto a camcorder. I did a little research for equipment that will work to connect a Wireless Microphone System (Lavalier/Handheld) to a Camcorder via a Mixer. I know the following gear is not high-quality but the $10 wired Lavalier has worked well for years. However, it does not capture audience questions. We want to upgrade to a wireless Lavalier/hand-held mic system. We already own the camcorder and mixer. The wireless mic system below costs about $200 on Amazon. We could spend up to $300. Any recommendations that will be within our budget?

Camcorder - Canon VIXIA HF M31
Mixer - Behringer U-Phoria UMC202HD
Wireless mic system - Samson XPD2 Handheld and Lavalier USB Digital Wireless System with USB Stick Receiver.

Mic Specs - 2. 4GHz USB digital wireless.
Works with any Samson product that features an XPD USB port.
RXD2 USB receiver 3. 5mm line output to connect to a mixer with analog input.
HXD1 handheld microphone transmitter with Samson Q6 dynamic microphone.

To connect the system - Connect each receiver, one Lavalier, and one handheld mic, to the mixer's XLR mic inputs with a USB to XLR adapter.
Connect mixer 1/4" output to camcorder 3.5mm mic input with 1/4" to 3.5mm adapter.
I think this will work for our needs and budget but would like some comment from this forum.

Thanks
 
The danger sign is a mic that is designed to match phones, and then have to source a third party (I assume) adaptor. In my experience, wireless is troublesome enough to require hand holding to get optimum performance - without adding latency and other issues with an adaptor. converting digital mics (that already have latency) by adding more to convert to analogue is risky. It will work - but quality in that adaptor's conversion is questionable. Samson, as a make are well known, so why not source one with a direct analogue output? Price seems similar.

I might be misunderstanding though?
You have an ancient SD camcorder, that has 3.5mm audio input that I assume in the past had the cheap lav plugged into it? You now have a mixer and are thinking of a lav with USB out, and a handheld with USB out? These two will be mixed? Live I suspect and put into a PA, or recorded and edited later?

Personally, for greatest flexibility, two analogue systems - but if it's an edit situation, then I'd have them go to at least a stereo/2ch recorder so you can edit them properly - or for live only, stick them into your mixer.

You also mention a cabled mic?

Remember that the most expensive and clever radio systems are nearly as good as a $10 cable.

I have just 11 in the production about to start, and we employ a dedicated person to look after them.

If you just need to record the speaker and the audience members - with a runner for the mic? Maybe the simplest system would be to use the camera with the old lav, if it works well - and buy a small zoom recorder for the audience mic, and then simply add in the audience question in whatever you use to edit the h264 files from the camera? Cut out RF alltogether. Alternatively, if you must use RF, then look at the Samson 288 all-in-one system that offers two radio channels and a mix of mics? Record the output direct to your mixer. What do you record the mixer on?

​

 
Maine-Man said:
To connect the system - Connect each receiver, one Lavalier, and one handheld mic, to the mixer's XLR mic inputs with a USB to XLR adapter.
Connect mixer 1/4" output to camcorder 3.5mm mic input with 1/4" to 3.5mm adapter.
I think this will work for our needs and budget but would like some comment from this forum.
Click to expand...
Yes it work fine - you have to be very careful on your levels to the camera - but you can get it done - I prefer going to a HardDisk Recorder - like a Atomos Aamurai Blade - then you don't have any issues - not to say that your method would have many issues - it would just be chancy all the time.
 
rob aylestone said:
The danger sign is a mic that is designed to match phones, and then have to source a third party (I assume) adaptor. In my experience, wireless is troublesome enough to require hand holding to get optimum performance - without adding latency and other issues with an adaptor. converting digital mics (that already have latency) by adding more to convert to analogue is risky. It will work - but quality in that adaptor's conversion is questionable. Samson, as a make are well known, so why not source one with a direct analogue output? Price seems similar.

I might be misunderstanding though?
You have an ancient SD camcorder, that has 3.5mm audio input that I assume in the past had the cheap lav plugged into it? You now have a mixer and are thinking of a lav with USB out, and a handheld with USB out? These two will be mixed? Live I suspect and put into a PA, or recorded and edited later?

Personally, for greatest flexibility, two analogue systems - but if it's an edit situation, then I'd have them go to at least a stereo/2ch recorder so you can edit them properly - or for live only, stick them into your mixer.

You also mention a cabled mic?

Remember that the most expensive and clever radio systems are nearly as good as a $10 cable.

I have just 11 in the production about to start, and we employ a dedicated person to look after them.

If you just need to record the speaker and the audience members - with a runner for the mic? Maybe the simplest system would be to use the camera with the old lav, if it works well - and buy a small zoom recorder for the audience mic, and then simply add in the audience question in whatever you use to edit the h264 files from the camera? Cut out RF alltogether. Alternatively, if you must use RF, then look at the Samson 288 all-in-one system that offers two radio channels and a mix of mics? Record the output direct to your mixer. What do you record the mixer on?

​

Click to expand...
Thanks Rob,

I too have heard that wired mics give the best audio quality for the money but we wanted to go wireless to capture audience questions. We are now thinking of a wired setup and asking the audience to come to a floor-stand-mounted mic. Right now I am thinking of combining the mics through a mixer and connecting the output to the camcorder 3.5mm input. I think recording the audio and video directly to the camcorder will eliminate syncing the A/V and make editing easier. But I could be wrong.

I think you are telling me I would get better results if I stuck with a wired system. We have a Samson Q2U XLR dynamic mic we could connect to one of the XLR inputs on the mixer and connect an XLR Lavalier mic (Shure CVL XLR Lavalier Microphone - Condenser Mic $41) to the other. The output can then be connected to the camcorder. The Sure CVL XLR Lavalier mic, a floor stand for the Samson mic, and a longer XLR cable will cost about $100. The Samson Concert 288 All-In-One Dual-Channel Wireless System you mentioned would cost $330, possibly at the expense of sound quality.

What are your thoughts on the wired mic system?
 
No, for some things, wireless makes sense, somebody running around an audience is impossible with cable, but when you can use cable, it’s more reliable. The thing that just makes it worse is dual conversion, digital coming out as usb? Probably perfectly fine because Samson will have made sure it’s done properly, but then usb to analogue? So that’s an interface. And we know these can be very variable in quality and performance. If you buy a Samson with analogue out, that is better than an extra item. If your lav mic with a cable works for you in quality and reliability reasons, and the cable doesn’t trip the person up, why swap it? Quality wise, that low resolution domestic camera would be on my upgrade list, and many have proper XLR connectors, so you get two audio channels, just what you need. Second hand HD cameras on ebay are plentiful. The viewing stats on SD images on YouTube reveal that ordinary people click off early on low res nowadays. Maybe not important to you, but the camera is likely to fail soon. Get your choice right now will help later. That kit I linked, it has two outputs, good for upgrading.
 
If I'm reading this correctly, you're interfacing TRS stereo headphone outputs to XLR balanced mic inputs, then XLR line (or mic?) output(s?) to a headphone input. I don't think it's going to work out as you hope.
 
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