Since this is my first Maker Faire video this year, I want to talk about the recording rig I used to get the shots this year. Last year I basically had my crappy old phone and a lav mic. This year I got a new phone which takes excellent video, even in 4k. But the sound on it was so-so. Fortunately, I had a Rode mic that came with my camera. Unfortunately I discovered that it was the element that was introducing static into my audio, and not the cable I had bought. Darn. So I had to buy a new mic at the last second facilitating my first ever trip to Fry’s.
Aside about Fry’s. I always kinda considered a trip to Fry’s as a sort of geek Mecca. But most of the people I know who have actually been there tried to steer me away, saying it’s not what it used to be and was kinda ratty. Well, I went anyways, and I was impressed. It’s like Gearbest, on the shelf with no shipping or wait time. And they did have the mic I was needed. It was a better mic than I expected in fact. So it definitely left a good taste in my mouth.
So now I had the camera and the mic, and I just needed a way to hold them all together. All I really needed was a phone clip that holds a cold shoe on one side and maybe a 1/4 nut on the other. I figured with as many vloggers are out there, surely someone else has make this. However, search as I might there was no existing 3d model I could find. There were some phone clips, and some cold shoes out there. So I did what I do. I mashed them together and called it good. And good it was. You can download my phone holder with cold shoe and 1/4 nut holder on Thingiverse. It’s a remarkably simple model, but does something vital. I love that.
Of course I ran into another problem while in California. While testing the new mic (successfully), the audio jack on my phone went out. I can still use it outgoing, like to listen to music, but it no longer accepted sound in-going, like from a microphone or even the mic on my headphone jack. This makes hands-free calling a pain, but it makes using my fancy new TASCAM mic also a pain. Fortunately, the mic I bought has a function on board to record to an SD card. In fact it won’t even pass though audio without an SD, even tho it didn’t have one in the box. Fortunately, my friends at Crash Space came through and got me running while I was there. This meant that I had to keep track of the audio and video files separately and sync them up in post, which is kind of a pain. But the pendulum swings back again because it also meant I could the audio and run it through audacity and sweeten them up a bit.
I may try fixing the phone myself one day.
So that’s how I recorded this footage, and I must say I’m pretty happy with the final result. A definite step up from last year.
I’ve got at least 3 other videos coming out of MFBA2019, and I need to decide if I want to do a commentary about what it might mean if this is the last Maker Faire. However, I’ll probably just spill that in a future blog post, to make room for other videos.
