Question re recording on a VCR

[Rudy Troike]

For a long time I've assumed that recordings made with VCRs would provide
some of the best quality, since they record in "hi-fi", so long as good
microphones are used. About 20 years ago we did some recording using a VHS
video camera and bought some good quality microphones (about $150 then) with
the intent of being able to record a speaker at a distance. This turned out
not to work well, so we wound up using small radio microphones, which gave
excellent quality and allowed great flexibility. I haven't checked out Bill
Poser's links yet, but he may discuss some of these issues there.

I have assumed that it would be possible to attach the microphones directly
to the VCR, and even take advantage of the stereo recording capability to
record two speakers on separate tracks, with the added advantage that, from
what I had read, the hi-fi quality of the recording remained the same at
all speeds, allowing up to 8 hours of continuous recording on a single
casette, certainly ideal for recording language use in natural settings.

However, when I tried this week to put my assumptions to the test, I found
somewhat to my surprise that there was no direct input for a microphone on
the two VCRs we have, only audio inputs using RCA plugs. Neither was there
on the tuner-amplifier I have with all sorts of bells and whistles on it.
So I dug out an ancient 1970s-era Pioneer tuner-amplifier with a banana-plug
microphone input on the front, and with an adapter, plugged in each of the
microphones in turn, connected the amplifier output to the VCR audio input,
and tried recording, with no audible result in either case. (I did put a
new battery into each of the microphones, and found that they gave very
clear recordings when using a small Radio Shack cassette recorder, but of
course the audio cassettes are limited to 45 minutes per side, and the
quality, while it sounds good and clear, is presumably not "hi-fi".)

I am guessing that the problem in trying to use the VCR via the amplifier
is that there is a mismatch in the impedence of the microphones, while the
cassette recorder matches the input impedence. (Unfortunately, there is
no surviving information on the impedence of the microphones themselves.)
I'm wondering if anyone has any suggestions for how to use such microphones
to record on a VCR?

     Thanks,

     Rudy Troike