13Feb Samson Airline Micro Tested with the Rode Videomic
The audio I recorded during the Samson Airline Micro test seemed to add a little bit of bass making the audio sound a little bit muddy. The system also seemed to have a slight audio hiss to it when I was testing. Neither of these things were bad enough to be a deal breaker, but I wanted to see how much of it was caused by the included Lavalier microphone.
For this test I’ve attached the Rode VideoMic to a BARSKA Accu Grip Handle using a cold shoe adapter. The audio from the Rode is then fed into the Samson Airline Micro. The unit is so small that it still leaves you plenty of room to use the handle. This could be a great option for hand held audio.
The audio is then recorded through the output of the receiver into the Tascam DR-05. For this audio test I’ve recorded the Rode VideoMic through the Airline Micro and directly into the Tascam DR-05 so that you have something to compare the wireless audio to.
Download the Samson Airline Micro with Rode audio test here
The test file was encoded to MP3 format at 320 Kbps, 44,100 Hz, 16 Bit, Stereo so there shouldn’t be as much audio degradation as the compression applied when uploading a video to youtube. After listening to the audio several times, I could still hear a slight hiss in the audio recorded using the Samson Airline Micro but it seemed to be more subtle then the hiss I heard during the video tests. The noise is hard to pick out unless you’re listening through headphones but it is still there.
The good news is that the Rode VideoMic’s clarity and audio response didn’t seem to be effected by the wireless transmitter. With the exception of the slight hiss, the audio sounded pretty much the same to my ears. This means that the included lavalier mic is probably the major source of the muddy sounding audio, but the hiss might be inherent to transmitter itself.
Take A listen to the audio sample, my girlfriend claims I’m imagining the hiss. Let me know if she’s right.
February 14th, 2012 at 2:28 am
Use some decent headphones and there is a definite slight hiss from the samson wireless unit. But it is only slight, budget film makers could easily get away with it, or attempt to get rid of it somewhat in post.
February 14th, 2012 at 7:18 am
I could pick it out on my AKG K171 and my studio monitors(Fostex PM-1 MKII), but it is subtle enough that it could be covered up with a little bit of recorded room noise. If you run the audio through a 8% noise reduction in sound forge it pretty much disappears.