Microphone headsets

[Laura Dimock]

Colleen,

I highly recommend headset microphones, especially omnidirectional ones.  They can get clearer sound with less bump and handling-noise than directional ones.  I don't know what your budget is like.  For my fieldwork in Vanuatu, I used a Voice Technologies VT700 which was wonderful (http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/427139-REG/Voice_Technologies_VT0073_VT700_Omnidirectional_Headworn_Microphone.html#features).  One thing to be careful of especially with headset mics is the connector.  They often need external power.  Many of them need 9 volt which is different from what computer-type jacks use and different from the 48V of standard XLR connection.  And for the actual connector, many headset mics use a 'mini-XLR' connector.  All of this is because it is common to use them with wireless belt-pack transmitters.  You might get a decently priced microphone only to find that you have to spend a lot of money on some kind of adapter and/or power supply.  

Laura



________________________________________
From: Colleen HOLT [cholt at unimelb.edu.au]
Sent: Wednesday, 20 May 2009 4:20 p.m.
To: Resource-Network-Linguistic-Diversity at unimelb.edu.au
Subject: Microphone headsets

Hi everyone
Does anyone have experience with using microphone headsets to record speakers? I need a high-quality version, on a student budget!

Cheers
Colleen

Colleen Holt
Research Assistant, PhD candidate

Please note new details:
Audiology, Hearing and Speech Sciences
(part of the Dept. Otolaryngology)
Dept. Linguistics and Applied Linguistics
The University of Melbourne
550 Swanston St Parkville VIC 3010
Ph: 9035 5329