Audio-Technica ATR-55: Should I buy it?

I have a question. Actually two questions. First, why are shotgun mics so expensive? Are they difficult to make or what? They're just microphones!

Second, Why is the Audio-Technica ATR-55 so cheap? Does it suck? It is on sale all over the internet for around $60. I'm very close to buying it, but I want to make sure it's not a horrible piece of equipment first. Does it sound completely different from the $200 mics?

If anyone knows about this mic, then let me know if it's a good one...thanks!
 
Audio Technica 835B is the good one. Similar to a Sennheiser. I don't own though, I rent, and was happy when my sound mixer used this mic.
 
I've read that the ATR-25 has very low signal strength. The 55 had no flaws, was actually very good quality, but one place said it had a mono only signal. This may or may not be true. If you find out please let us know. I am in the market for a good inexpensive mic, and I don't need XLR yet.

I should add that one time I did find a shotgun mic shootout where they compared the 55 to some more expensive models. It was excellent quality, but the more expensive mics were better. The author said if you have the money go for the more expensive ones, if you dont, rent or buy the 55 or an equiv.
 
WideShot said:
The 55 had no flaws, was actually very good quality, but one place said it had a mono only signal.
I hope that's not true. Stereo is one of the only things I really want from a mic...if that mic only does mono, then that sucks, because the mic on my camera is even stereo (it's just multidirectional).

...All I need is a mic that is stereo and sounds professional to the untrained ear. I just need to pick up peope's voices better. I want people to see my future films and not know right away that I'm just a college kid. ya know? I'll try to look up if the 55 is stereo or mono.
 
I have this mic. Poke and I used this on our short Magnamameous Bark & Gigante Chupycabras. I guess you could watch it and get an idea of it's quality.

http://www.indietalk.com/showthread.php?t=4558&highlight=Bark

We just mounted the mic on camera shoe, it wasn't on a pole. Poke's lines didn't come through so well because he was behind the camera, so we just had him read this lines into the mic later and I pulled his audio from there(poor man's ADR). I'm sure we would have gotten better results if we had a pole and had been closer. We added the backgroud noice with a wild track too, so a lot of the background ambient you hear was added. Sounds good to me, but yeah...no stereo.

I picked it up at Best Buy on the clearance rack for like $30 or $40 bucks. Not a bad price for what it is.
 
Of course, you realize that most mics are inherently mono anyway... which really isn't an issue, since you're gonna (hopefully) do all the positioning of the audio in post anyway.
 
Listen to Will Logan! :)

All pro mics (well dialogue shotgun mics) are mono. They create the stereo effect in post where they have more control over sound mixing and orientation.
 
I never knew that about all shotgun mics being mono...My camera mic is stereo as well as my hand held mic, AND my clip mics...I just figured the expensive shotgun mics would be too. Alright, well, when I get my next check I think I'll buy that Audio technica...

...by the way...I will have a treat for you guys this weekend (in the screening room). Prepare yourselves!
 
LOGAN L Productions said:
I will have a treat for you guys this weekend (in the screening room). Prepare yourselves!

Would it happen to be a sequel?
smiley_dance.gif
 
Unless a microphone has two elements, it will always be mono. Even when they do have two elements, unless they're seperated by a significant amount it will essentially be working in mono too.

The confusion you're having is that rather than audio only showing up on one channel (left or right) it's being recorded to both left and right. That doesn't mean it's a stereo microphone, but rather that the mono signal is being fed into both left and right channels. When I plug any (mono) mic into my mixer unless I adjust the pan left or right, there is a even signal on both left and right channels.

Hope that clears up your confusion. The only thing that would be of importance to you would be that you get the right adapter to feed the signal from the shotgun mic to both left and right channels ... assuming you're recording the audio on the camera. If you're recording on another format it shouldn't matter. it is most likely though that the mic input itself is mono...

Any other audio questions/mysteries I need to shed some light on... ? :D
 
right. Usually if you're recording in mono on a stereo system, the signal will either be on both channels, or most times just the left channel. Which doesn't matter either way.

As Shaw said, you can duplicate the channel in post, and you ideally should "move the location" of the dialogue around in "space" to better simulate character locations.. nothing drastic of course, but if you have a two shot, slightly weight the dialogue of the character on the left to the left & right fir the character on the right.. If you go too far it would sound a bit strange on a large system (like that in a theater)

If you don't have a good studio monitor setup for doing the audio post, headphones would help. Here's a tip, don't delete the source files you use for the final mixdown, just in case you need to go back and tweak. :)
 
Will Vincent said:
If you don't have a good studio monitor setup for doing the audio post, headphones would help.
Yup. Studio monitors are a must for a clean mix. Genelec monitors are the BEST. If you mix on home speakers or computer speakers, there are sounds and frequencies you won't hear that are present in the mix.
 
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