AWARDS GEAR OF THE YEAR
AUDIO It’s been a big year for Australian audio expert Rode. Thanks to the company’s hard work, it has been recognised in two awards in our Audio category. The beautifully simple and effective Rode Wireless Go won the Wireless Mics award and the new Videomic NTG, designed to fit DSLR andmirrorless cameras, cleaned up in the DSLRmic category.
headphone level. The mic itself is shotgun style with a very directional super-cardioid polar pattern, and it uses the same acoustic design as the NTG5 XLRmic fromRode. One of the mic’s best features is the ‘safety channel’ option. This allows one track to be recorded at the level you have set, while a second track is recorded at the same time at -20dB. This means that if there is a sudden noise, you still have usable audio instead of it being distorted. The mic also has a selectable high-pass filter at 75 or 150Hz to filter out lower frequencies, such as hum from air conditioners and appliances. The NTG version has excellent clarity and picks up more bass for a more realistic sound. It is also very directional, cutting out unwanted noise from around the subject. “If there is a sudden noise, you still have usable audio instead of it being distorted”
The Shure VP83F is once again honoured in our awards, taking the Editor’s Choice for audio recorder/adapters. It works as a camera-top mic for audio into your camera, but also records directly to a microSD card inside the unit, so you have two versions of the audio to choose from. The sound is very natural and has a wide frequency range, and a three-position gain switch lets you compensate for different sources. A switchable low-cut filter reduces pickup of low frequency background noise and there’s an integrated Rycote Lyre shock mounting system to cut out mechanical noise. EDITOR’S CHOICE: SHURE VP83F
As well as on top of cameras, the Rode Videomic NTG can be used on smartphones, as a boommic, or as a USBmic for livestreaming or podcasting direct to your computer. And it even has a headphone socket. There is adjustable gain control and an auto-sensing output that automatically switches between TRS and TRRS to differentiate between cameras and phones, for example. The USB-C socket is used to charge the internal lithium battery, which lasts for up to 30 hours, and also provides the audio output to a computer for streaming. The mic comes with a Rycote Lyre shock mounting, with sliding rail to adjust the position, and a dB peak warning light, and the end of the mic has a nice, big stepless dial for changing the gain. This allows the level to be set for line, mic or
ABOVE The Shure VP83F is a mic and
BELOW The Tascam DR-701D recorder is feature-packed and will improve your sound recording unit in one package
22
PRO MOVIEMAKER
Powered by FlippingBook