Directional microphone installation: How? Share your opinion

What microphone would you use?

  • Omni-directional

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Stereo

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Other

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    1
  • Poll closed .
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Hello!
Disclaimer:
I am aware of the regulations and laws in a lot of countries regarding civilian rights to record both audio and video. I am not interested in legal advice or destructive comments. Thanks in advance.

So, have you successfully mounted a shotgun microphone/stereo/omni and if so, how did you do it or where did you find the appropriate gear for it?

I figure as much that it wouldn't be worth jacking in a microphone with the live stream, nor the recording. I am thinking in terms of "bugging" the drone, and keeping it light. I mean, anyone could tape a recorder with internal or line input microphone which you could either shotgun toward camera direction or stereo, if you create some distance between the microphone and the drone body. This is why I believe the shotgun is a much better approach. But hey, I've never tried it and I bet some of you have, so please, share your ideas or blueprints!

P.S To clarify:
I am asking for solutions people either tested or have seen making it possible to record audio on a phantom drone. I am NOT asking about the physics of waves trough matter. I am interested in products, blueprints of a product, images, links, descriptions of ideas that worked, or didn't work.

I am a cameraman and I am using these microphones on a daily basis, I am not certain however if this question has been asked before and solved, which would save me the trouble of creating one myself.



Awesome, thanks for your reply!
 
Last edited:
Not sure this can be discussed except to be 'destructive', or in other words critical...

Found this a while back when doing some researching:

Myth: A shotgun microphone is like a zoom lens on a camera.

Fact: Using a shotgun mic is like taking a photo with the lens aimed down a cardboard tube. The image being photographed is not brought any closer, but the unwanted images to the sides are reduced or eliminated. A shotgun mic seems to bring the desired sound source closer because the unwanted sounds from the side and rear are attenuated. It is tempting, but misleading, to compare light with sound. Light waves and sound waves do have similarities, but many more differences. The most important difference is in wavelength. The wavelength of light is measured in millionths of an inch. The wavelength of sound is measured in inches and feet. For a zoom lens to be effective, its diameter must be hundreds of thousands times larger than the wavelength. A typical camera zoom lens is approximately 3 inches in diameter. But a "zoom lens" for sound waves (using the same ratio) would have to be tens, even hundreds, of miles in diameter. There is an acoustical device, called a parabolic reflector, that can be combined with a microphone for distant pickup. However, it will be limited by unwanted ambient noise. To be effective at lower frequencies, the parabolic reflector must be six to eight feet in diameter. It is the extremely long wavelengths that make sound so difficult to control, manipulate, and focus.

Best of luck to you but not too optimistic you will be successful with an aerial device as small as a Phantom.
 
I found this video quite educational concerning basic principles and things to keep in mind when it comes to shotgun microphones:

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Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots mobile app
 
I am a producer and I have successfully recorded in cars, made interviews during concerts and so on. I claim it's quite possible to record through noise, not to mention once you have a noise baseline you can easily filter out the worst. Directional microphones could be equipped with a satellite dish (even small ones work) to further isolate the noise from the propellers and engine before you reduce in post.

Further more if you land the drone and turn the propellers off, which is quite nice depending on the terrain but as an example I've landed in places where I absolutely would love the possibility to land and simply record video/audio, even for a short while. This is specially true for observing certain wildlife but also catching the sound of water coming down a stream.

Long story short:
Let's presume it's quite possible to make use of audio on a drone - even more so if it goes two ways! Wouldn't that be a fun way to greet someone :)
 
Not sure this can be discussed except to be 'destructive', or in other words critical...

Found this a while back when doing some researching:

Myth: A shotgun microphone is like a zoom lens on a camera.

Fact: Using a shotgun mic is like taking a photo with the lens aimed down a cardboard tube. The image being photographed is not brought any closer, but the unwanted images to the sides are reduced or eliminated. A shotgun mic seems to bring the desired sound source closer because the unwanted sounds from the side and rear are attenuated. It is tempting, but misleading, to compare light with sound. Light waves and sound waves do have similarities, but many more differences. The most important difference is in wavelength. The wavelength of light is measured in millionths of an inch. The wavelength of sound is measured in inches and feet. For a zoom lens to be effective, its diameter must be hundreds of thousands times larger than the wavelength. A typical camera zoom lens is approximately 3 inches in diameter. But a "zoom lens" for sound waves (using the same ratio) would have to be tens, even hundreds, of miles in diameter. There is an acoustical device, called a parabolic reflector, that can be combined with a microphone for distant pickup. However, it will be limited by unwanted ambient noise. To be effective at lower frequencies, the parabolic reflector must be six to eight feet in diameter. It is the extremely long wavelengths that make sound so difficult to control, manipulate, and focus.

Best of luck to you but not too optimistic you will be successful with an aerial device as small as a Phantom.


I am quite familiar with the physics of sound trough air. This is in no way useful to me but if you aim toward educating potential readers, well then I salute your post. Education can never be destructive. But in this case madness... Someone is doing it over and over again, expecting different results. I am still interested in other peoples take on attempting/succeeding in executing the idea of recording sound from a drone.
 
Confused?
First you ask for advice or 'ideas or blueprints' then you tell us how you know how to do it.

But like you mentioned it's illegal to eavesdrop in some places. The U.S. is one of them.
 
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If you're confused please stop killing my post.
If you are asking me I understand where it went wrong; I am asking for solutions people either tested or have seen making it possible to record audio on a phantom drone. I am not sure how you took that I were asking about the physics of waves trough matter from that, but again, I am interested in products, blueprints of a product, images, links, descriptions of ideas that worked, or didn't work.

I am a cameraman and I am using these microphones on a daily basis, I am not certain however if this question has been asked before and solved, which would save me the trouble of creating one myself.

Are you less confused now?
 
Yes.
There's not much I can add to my first post. Should have left it there.

Cheers!
 
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I'm also interested in this topic, but I have no technical skills to apply, so I'm just gonna follow and see if someone has tried anything, on a side note the one thing I heard before was to use some tipe of noise cancelling mics to omit the propeller's sound
 
I am a cameraman and I am using these microphones on a daily basis, I am not certain however if this question has been asked before and solved, which would save me the trouble of creating one myself.
I'm almost certain you'll have to create one yourself and I don't think you'll be able to hack it into the recorded image stream. The best you can hope for on a mic-less phantom camera bird is a self contained micro recorder, I would think. In any case, I don't think you'll be able to overcome the prop noise no matter how much you notch with eq and even if you lessen it to some extent, the audio you're left with will be terrible. It might be worth an experiment with your chosen recorder temporarily fixed on the bird or in close proximity to it and then turn on the bird and get a recording just to see if you can successfully notch out the prop noise. You could also search youtube for the solo drone which uses a gopro for the camera. Many people record the awful prop noise in their videos. Search for yuneec Q500+ videos too, as that camera on that drone has audio and it too is useless, imo. Record the sound of those videos and see if you can successfully notch the prop noise out or it's not worth going any further with ideas of recording if you can't come out with good audio quality after severe notching. But a mic on the phantom, lol? You'd have to come up with quite a rig just to balance it all out for proper flight characteristics. Get a solo drone and use a gopro for video/audio- done.
 
Anyone tried to have a light stereo audio recorder (like the zoom h1) hanging a few meters under the drone?

That’s how I would do it.
 
Anyone tried to have a light stereo audio recorder (like the zoom h1) hanging a few meters under the drone?

That’s how I would do it.
Makes sense to me. I've been looking for this comment and not one person has replied. I wonder how well it would work?
 

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