Camcorders forum: Multiple mics & one jack

My lavalier box says they are 3.5 mm mini plug, but it came with a 1/4 inch adapter (would the adapter hurt sound?). They are indeed wired. It really doesn't need any portability, it shot basically in on location, so I can just lay the mixer down.

Now the mixers I've been looking up (thanks btw) I can find some 4 channel mixers that are around 50$. Would you stay away from these? It's only for voice, not music or anything. Is the Nady brand a good brand in the audio world?

How long are the cables on the lavaliere mics?

In my kit, the lavs have 3.5mm (1/8") plugs, too - and the cable is about 3 feet long. These lavs are designed to be plugged into a wireless transmitter. The audio is transmitted from the body-pack transmitter to a base station, the base station is plugged into the mixer, the mixer is plugged into the camcorder's audio input (or, better yet, into an external digital audio recorder. The external audio and video are synched during editing and the audio captured by the camera is muted by the video editor).

It is generally possible to connect these lavs to a longer, shielded, cable rather than go wireless. The shielded cable is needed to reduce the possibility of picking up interference on long cable runs... the long cables basically turn into an antenna and can pick up all sorts of electro-magnetic or radio frequency interference (EMI/RFI) eliminating the reason you wanted to use mics (improved audio quality). EMI can be emitted by studio lighting, florescent lighting, dimmers on incandescent lights, etc. RFI can be emitted by microwave ovens, garage door openers, wifi, certain cell phones and other RF devices.

What kind of connectors are on the end of the lav's plug? Are there two or three "metal elements"? If only two, these may be very basic mics. If there are three, these are TRS connectors and are treated differently.

If "two elements connectors", then a regular 1/4" connector will be fine. If three, then TRS adapters are needed. Some lavs need power - and the TRS connection provides for that (assuming the mixer can provide phantom power). Basically like XLR connectors, TRS connectors are able to provide phantom power connectivity.

If the correct 1/4" adapter is used, there will be no loss in quality - assuming the cable length is less than about 15 feet. Any more than that means shielded cable is likely needed.

I have no experience with Nady. A pro audio engineer friend told me to stay away from their gear. It is possible their stuff has improved since that time - I have not taken the time to find out. At bhphotovideo.com, there's a Nady MM141 4-channel mixer for $25. One must wonder what the difference is between it and any of the others that are more $. If your lavs have "three elements" (TRS connectors), they may need phantom power that the low-end Nady mixers likely will not provide. If your lavs have only two elements, phantom power is most likely not needed and the Nady you are looking at *should* work.

Like I said, I like Mackie (402-VLZ3) - In this case, I would also be looking at the Alesis MultiMix-4...

It would be a pity to have lousy audio paired with the awesome video from a T2i.