Specifications

25
CONNECTING TO CAMCORDERS
C
onnecting a microphone with an XLR connector to a mixer input with an
XLR connector is simple. Things can get more complicated when you
must interconnect balanced and unbalanced devices, mono and stereo
devices, or devices with different types of connectors. Connecting a
microphone to a consumer or semi-professional camcorder equipped with a
3.5 mm miniplug microphone input is a good example.
Camcorders use a variety of microphone input connectors and wiring
schemes. Unfortunately, there is no ‘standard’ to which camcorder
manufacturers must adhere, and the specifications provided with the
camcorder often say little or nothing about the microphone input. Most
camcorder microphone inputs fall into one of three groups, however; the
trick is knowing which group your camcorder is in. The key questions are:
•
Is the camcorder mono or stereo? If it is stereo, we assume that you wish to
record the audio from your microphone onto both the left and right channels.
•
If it is mono, does the microphone input jack supply DC voltage (sometimes
labeled “Mic Power” or “+3 vdc”) for the manufacturer’s own accessory
microphone? This DC voltage is not the same as the phantom power used
for professional condenser microphones. Microphones or wireless
receivers that do not require this power must be connected in such a way
Examples of a portable stereo mixer (Shure FP33 shown above), headphone monitor
(Shure FP22 shown bottom left) and mic-to-line amplifier (Shure FP11 shown).
FP11
FP22
FP33