RODE Microphones STEREO VIDEOMIC PRO User manual

VideoMic Pro

Instruction Manual

www.rodemic.com

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Thank you for investing in the VideoMic Pro.

When released the original VideoMic in

2004 it was the only microphone of its kind on the

market. Just like many great innovations it was born

from a personal need. At the time MiniDV cameras

were the latest technology, offering consumers and

independent ﬁlmmakers unprecedented freedom

and creativity for their video, but neglecting audio

quality. I went shopping for a solution but found that

the only offerings were either cheap inferior quality

or high cost shotgun microphones not designed to

integrate easily with the cameras.

Thus the VideoMic was born. Six years on and its

broadcast audio quality, integrated shock mounting

and accessible price tag has made it the world’s

largest selling microphone for consumer cameras.

However in this time there have been numerous

innovations in video cameras, from hard drive,

solid state and network cameras, through to high

deﬁnition Digital SLR and onwards to large sensor

video cameras. The technology has gotten larger

but of course the form factor much smaller, thus

the decision to create the high performance, yet

conveniently compact VideoMic Pro.

Creating a high performance microphone as

lightweight and manageable as the VideoMic Pro

was quite a technical challenge. Other companies

have attempted and failed, simply because a

directional microphone depends on the length of

the microphone barrel to reject the surrounding

ambient noise that you don’t want to pick up.

Leveraging the technology developed alongside our

award winning NTG-1, NTG-2 and NTG-3 shotgun

microphones we’ve ﬁnally realised a professional

microphone with a much smaller form factor.

Please take the time to visit www.rodemic.com and

Peter Freedman

Microphones

Sydney, Australia

Introduction

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Acoustic Principle: Line Gradient

Polar Pattern: Super-Cardioid

Frequency Range: 40Hz ~ 20 000Hz

Frequency Range:

(High Pass Filter)

Selectable HPF

@ 80Hz/12 dB/octave

Variable Level: 3 position switch

(-10 dB, 0 dB, +20 dB)

Output

Impedence:

200

Signal to Noise

Ratio:

74 dB

Equivalent Noise: 20 dBA SPL

(A- weighted as per IEC651)

Maximum SPL: 134 dB

Maximum Output: +6.9 dBu

(@ 1% THD into 1K load)

Sensitivity: -38 dB re 1V/Pa

(12.6mV @ 94 dB SPL)

± 2 dB @ 1kHz

Dynamic Range: 114 dB (as per IEC651)

Power

Requirements:

9V alkaline battery

(Current: 7.8mA)

Output

Connection:

3.5mm stereo mini-jack plug

(dual mono)

Battery Life: >70 hours

Weight

(No Battery):

86g (3oz)

Dimensions 43mm x 150mm x 95mm

(1.69” x 6” x 3.74”)

Speciﬁcations

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Speciﬁcations

Frequency Response

Polar Response

dB re 1 V./Pa

-10

-20

-30

-40

20 Hz 100 1000 10 000 20 000

0˚

90˚ 270˚

180˚

-2.0

-20.0

-10.0

0.0

-2.0

-4.0

-6.0

-8.0

-10.0

-12.0

-14.0

-16.0

-18.0

-20.0

-22.0

-24.0 -25.0

dB rel. 1V/Pa

+5.0

Frequency:

500 Hz:

1000 Hz:

2000 Hz:

8000 Hz:

14000 Hz:

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*Online product registration required.

Features

• Compact, lightweight body

• Broadcast recording quality

• Condenser microphone

• 9V battery powered - over 70 hours use (alkaline)

• Integrated shock mounting

• Integrated foam windshield

• 3.5mm stereo mini-jack output (dual mono)

• Two step high-pass ﬁlter (0, 80Hz)

• Three position level control (-10 dB, 0 dB, +20 dB)

• Rugged construction

• Flexible and lightweight cable to minimise handling

noise and ensure isolation

• Integrated camera-shoe mount, with 3/8” thread

for easy boompole mounting

• Australian designed and manufactured

• Ten year warranty*

*Onl

ine

prod

uct

regi

stra

tion

req

uire

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Powering the VideoMic Pro

• The VideoMic Pro operates on a standard

9V battery (ANSI:1604A or IEC:6LR61).

We recommend you use either Alkaline or Lithium

batteries for the longest continuous operating

time.

• The VideoMic Pro will run continuously for over

70 hours with a good quality Alkaline battery. It

is however important to understand that battery

performance can vary dramatically with ambient

temperature and shelf life.

Actual operation times will vary, and we suggest

you always carry a spare battery.

If the application is critical and where there is no

opportunity to ‘re-shoot’, we suggest that you use

a fresh battery.

• Always remember to switch the VideoMic Pro off

when it is not being used.

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• To remove the cover, hold the sides of the cover

with your thumb and third ﬁnger, and push up on

the indentation with your index ﬁnger, then pivot

the bottom of the cover away.

• Insert the battery with the “-” negative terminal

on top as shown above. The correct battery

orientation is also shown on the inside of the

battery cover.

• Replace the cover by ﬁrst hooking the top clips in,

then press the bottom clips into place. The cover

will push the battery against its spring terminal

during installation.

If the battery orientation is incorrect the

cover will not close fully.

Installing the battery

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• The VideoMic Pro incorporates a standard camera-

shoe mount on the underside of the suspension

shock mount.

Designed to reduce motor and handling noise

being carried through from the camera to the mic,

the camera-shoe mount also has a 3/8” thread

at the bottom to allow mounting on tripods and

boompoles.

• You will ﬁnd older model and low cost cameras

produce more motor noise, which the VideoMic

Pro can pick up. If so, switch on the High Pass Filter

(HPF) to reduce this (refer to page 10 for more

details).

The very latest cameras incorporate low noise/

vibration making them relatively silent.

• Before sliding the camera-shoe into place, turn

the knurled tightening ring anti clockwise to make

sliding the camera-shoe into place much easier.

Now turn the knurled ring in a clockwise direction,

gently tightening it so the VideoMic Pro base is

seated ﬁrmly in place.

Standard camera-shoe mount

Mounting the VideoMic Pro

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The VideoMic Pro has a small cable clip on the

underside of the shockmount to secure the cable

in place and prevent any unwanted movement

noise.

• The VideoMic Pro delivers a mic level signal to the

video camera via a stereo mini jack audio lead.

The mini jack should be connected to the camera

via the camera’s “Audio-In” socket - refer to your

video camera user manual for the location of the

socket on your camera model.

• Now that you have the VideoMic Pro securely

fastened to your camera and the audio output lead

connected, you can switch the mic on.

Secure your cable on the clip on the underside of the

VideoMic Pro shockmount

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On/Off & High Pass Filter Switch

• The power/HPF switch is located on the back of

the mic body.

The High Pass Filter (HPF ) is a low frequency

cutoff setting, which you can use to remove rumble

or other low frequency noise while recording. It will

affect the tone slightly but in some situations it

may be required.

LED Power Indicator

• The power indicator LED ﬂashes RED brieﬂy when

the mic is ﬁrst turned on. This changes to GREEN

indicating the battery has adequate charge.

• When the battery runs low the LED will remain

RED and you should replace the battery.

The mic will work for approximately one hour once

the RED indicator is lit, however with reduced

performance.

Level Control

• The VideoMic Pro features three settings to control

the output signal to your recording device. These

are set via the bottom selector switch on the back

of the microphone.

Power/High Pass Filter Switch

Mic ON (FLAT) Mic ON (HPF)Mic OFF

VideoMic Pro Controls

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