shotgun mic for cars/road racing??

I take my car road racing from time to time. I have a camera mount in my car, but usually get A LOT of wind noise due to the fact that I have to leave the windows down for safety reasons.

I also film a lot of cars/street races/NHRA drag races.

I'm looking for a shotgun mic that will tremendously cut down on wind noise while road racing/street racing, and will still be able to capture the idle of a high horsepower car up close without the sound appearing to be "blown out" or distorted.

From what I've seen so far, the RODE VideoMic seems to be a popular choice. The VideoMic Pro looks like it has sevaral more features than the standard version, but that's getting a little pricey. I'm looking to spend no more than $150 for this. It's strictly a hobby for me. I just want something to produce cleaner audio for my videos when I upload them to YouTube. Trying to be youtube famous! haha (currently at 430,000 views btw )

anyways, thoughts on the RODE compared to others in the same price range?

I also came across the opteka vm-100 when searching for the RODE. It looks identical to the RODE, very similar specs, with just a different name slapped on it, and half the price tag which is very appealing.

RODE

http://www.ebay.com …-11e2-a959-005056a83d63_0

Opteka

http://www.ebay.com …ain_0&hash=item​3f1a918bc7

This would be for my T2i DSLR. Any info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Because you are trying to catch ambient sound you would be better of with a remote recorder. A Zoom H1 or Tascam DR05 will be cheaper than the Video mic and give you stereo sound. You will have far better control over recording levels and have more freedom on where you mount it.

I sort of agree with John on this, but taking it one step further... How about both of these tools. The camera mounted shotgun mic with a good wind screen and a a Zoom H1 set to its lowest recording level and then taped under the hood and in the engine bay of the car to capture just those sounds? The Zoom H1 is small, light is a decent recorder for the money.

But if you can't afford both, I'd get the Zoom H1 and then just get a set of these:http://www.bhphotovide​o.com …78922&Q=&is=REG​&A=details
I have one of these that I use for my daily work (sound mixer) on my 7D's mic. It works really, really well and has stayed on my camera for a long time. I cut a hole in the center of sticky part and then placed a cut down fuzzy part over the mic. Basically a windscreen for the built in camera mic. Cheap and effective. You'll want to test it some to make sure you are totally covered. I'll see if I can find that picture I have of the one I have on my camera.

Between those two sound sources that will be very different, you can make some pretty decent edits. Then you can later mount the H1 on top of your camera and have a different type of mic. But make sure you have a windscreen on the H1.

Good luck!

ChasWG wrote in post #15452458
The camera mounted shotgun mic with a good wind screen and a a Zoom H1 set to its lowest recording level and then taped under the hood and in the engine bay of the car to capture just those sounds?

I don't think exposing a H1 to the temps under the hood of an road racer would be too good for the device not to mention what might happen to it should it become unmoored.

I would recommend if one wants engine compartment sounds to grab a used beater dynamic microphone, Ty-Rap it everyway to sunday to something that doesn't heat up or vibrate under the hood and cord it back into the cabin to the DAR.

That method keeps the DAR in a somewhat better location and one can read the VU meter as well.

Also I have done a bit of NHRA video and the dynamics of racing don’t go well with any kind of tape it just doesn’t have the balls to hold up, conversely however real Ty-Raps such as the Thomas and Betts 540 or 640 series will do the job without fail.

The 640-41172’s will actually survive a train wreck, back in 2002 I did a video titled Racing The Rail where we as a part of the production Ty-Rap’ed a small handheld camcorder inside of a mini-van and then whacked the mini-van with a freight train doing 35 mph, the camcorder was destroyed by the g forces but stayed in place and once we got the tape out of it did provide some interesting footage.

Wayne

mikealicious wrote in post #15449278
I'm looking for a shotgun mic that will tremendously cut down on wind noise while road racing/street racing, and will still be able to capture the idle of a high horsepower car up close without the sound appearing to be "blown out" or distorted.

Truthfully you will not find that type of performance in a shotgun microphone as its diaphragm is too small for the job, because you are dealing with a high level of sound pressure and a large dynamic range that needs to be captured you really need a large diaphragm microphone to do the job and make it sound good.

In addition based on my experience in racing (which I have been invloved in since the 60's) is you want a microphone that is tough as nails and for that job you want a dynamic microphone.

My personal favorite for such work is the Electro-Voice RE-20 which while commonly thought as a broadcast or voice over microphone is also a great kick-drum microphone and is the only microphone I have worked with that can faithfully capture the earth pounding sound of a nitro dragster launching from the starting line.

If you cannot swing the cost of an RE-20 you might consider the RE-320.

Wayne

looks like I'll be helping a friend film her wedding, so I ended up going with the RODE videomic. Found a good deal on a used one on ebay.

Did a little bit of research and also downloaded/installed Magic Lantern on my camera which has already made a tremendous difference with being able to adjust gain and turn off AGC.

Thank you guys for your help.