Remember I said I have expensive equipments coming in? This has finally materialized on yesterday. To be fair these equipments are expensive for me; they are no where near expensive side in the spectrum of video and audio equipments. So what did I received? 2 microphones, 1 mixer and 2 light bulbs in total. I shall ignore the 2 light bulbs for the time being since they contribute only a fraction towards the total cost I paid for the 5 items.

1. Rode Videomic
The critically acclaimed pro-sumer microphone. It looks like what you see on TV station camcorders, and there is some truth to this–Videomic is a mono shotgun microphone excel in isolating dialog in front of the camera.

2. Nady CM-2S
While nowhere as famous as the Videomic, Nady CM-2S is a reputed stereo microphone with a pretty flat response for a wide range. It’s primary purpose is for live music recording. I originally pondered if I need the CM-2S on top of the Videomic. After some quick testing it is clear that it is necessary–Videomic is not designed for recording music and indeed it does not do very well in that arena.

3. SignVideo XLR-PRO
XLR-PRO is a mini-mixer that screws to the bottom of any camcorder. It adds two extremely useful features to the camcorder it is connected to: First it allows input and mixing of two independent mono channels and second it accepts XLR plugs. XLR plugs are those 3-pin microphone plugs you see everywhere except your home; they are virtually unsupported in any pro-consumer-or-below camcorders, probably due to space and cost concerns. Mini mixer like XLR-PRO allows the connection of widely used microphones like Shure’s SM series to the host camcorder.

This is probably the worse picture I have taken in years but it demonstrates how my GS400 looks with the Videomic attached on top and XLR-PRO beneath.