Reddit reviews Rolls MX124 Portable 4 Channel Stereo Mixer
We found 2 Reddit comments about Rolls MX124 Portable 4 Channel Stereo Mixer. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
Mixes four microphones to stereo XLR outputsOutput level controls for mic or line-level outputTransformer isolated outputs - Battery and AC poweredPhantom Power and Low-Cut switches for each Mic input1/4 inch and 1/8 inch TRS stereo Phone/Aux Outputs - Switchable Low Cut filter (100 Hz high pass) for each channel
Use the USB. It should register as a single input audio device which you can select in your live stream program.
Good quality true omni boundary mics are somewhat expensive. Cheap ones tend to be rubbish.
Your biggest concern would be the distance between your mics and the people who are talking. They will possibly lack in mid/bass response and sound thin and unpleasant. This could be mitigated by experimenting with the boundary surface size and shape (the table you put the mics on) as well as the mics position on the surface but there's no guarantee that this will help significantly enough to improve the quality.
You would have to gain the mics fairly hot which brings in the problems of ambient noise, indirect sound and increased noise floor. Your room having less reflective surfaces may help to mitigate the ambient noise and indirect sound enough to make them acceptable, but if your mics noise floor is high then you will have a hiss that will be very noticeable and possibly make the already thin voices harder to hear.
If you do go the omni path, I would be figuring out which ones you want and looking at trying to get some to demo before you commit to purchase them. You may even want to demo many different brands and models to see if there's a particular one that works for your situation over all of the others. It could even be that boundaries are not the best solution for your needs and there may be a product more suited.
If I was going to use boundaries though this would be the setup I would go with:
-Put a table halfway across every 2 tables hard up against them. Like this. With the 3 main tables at the bottom of your drawing just put a single table line up with the center table.
-Put a half-cardioid boundary mic on each table (5 in total) AudioTechnica's Pro44 would be good for this. They're decently price and do a pretty good job.
-Position the mics far enough back so that everyone on the 2 tables are within the 120 degree pickup of the mic. You may have to drag the mic table slightly back to achieve this depending on how many people are at the 2 tables.
-Use a small mixer like this to mix the 4 mics on the longer side together into a single output. Feed the small mixer output into the first xlr input of the behringer then feed the 5th mic on the main table into the second xlr input.
-Experiment with the size and shape of the tables the mics are on to see if something else works better.
The Pro44's being cardioid mean that you are rejecting sound from the rear which will dramatically reduce the pickup of ambient noise and indirect sounds. Having the mics closer to the people means better mid/bass response and less gain needed for each mic which will also help with the former as well as decreasing the noise floor.
Obviously this blows your budget out a fair bit, but I think you would achieve a far better result. It very much depends on what you want to achieve and what level of audio quality is acceptable to you and the people who are watching the live stream. It may be that the omni's are sufficient enough for your purposes despite the flaws they could bring into the mix.
Again, you should see if you can demo some products before you purchase anything.
/u/aflocka - you might want to add new [Sony PXW-Z450] (https://pro.sony.com/bbsc/ssr/mkt-nab2016/mkt-nab2016acquisition/product-PXWZ450/) to your list.
It is the first 4K/60p purpose-built shoulder mounted ENG camera. It has a 2/3" sensor and native B4 mount for compatibility with a wide range of fast, parfocal power zooms.
It has great connectivity, with a built in wireless module and Ethernet jack.
It also records at slow motion frame rates up to 1080/180p.
The Z450 was shown at NAB this year, but won't be available until later this year or early next year (when Sony says "winter", that could be as late as March '17).
Nice introductory video from Dan Chung at newsshooter.com [here] (https://vimeo.com/163475462).
From [this picture] (http://www.xdcam-user.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/DSC00656-1024x684.jpg), it looks like it has plenty of XLR inputs, but the specs don't say.
If not, you can easily add more inputs with a [$150 battery powered Rolls MX124 4 channel mixer] (https://www.amazon.com/Rolls-MX124-Portable-Channel-Stereo/dp/B001030Z6U/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&linkCode=ll1&tag=battleforthew-20).
Sadly, this camera does not have a "compact form factor" - so your "stabilizer" would have to be the camera op's shoulder.
Hope this is helpful and good luck with your upgrade!