Some tech-talk, you missed it, didn’t you?

First things first: This post is not sponsored or paid for by any company, Godox was generous enough to send me one of their units though.

Some time ago (shortly before the second hard lockdown here), Godox approached me and asked me if I would want to test their newly released VD-Mic. The VD-Mic, like microphones from Rode and others gets put on top of the camera you record with and doesn’t even need it’s own battery, since it’s powered by the camera itself.

Having looked at Godox‘ products for the past couple years, and already owning some lights, I said „sure, send it right over!“ and shortly after a parcel arrived. Small, handy and quick to unwrap.

I will say this straight up: I’m not an expert in audio, nor am I a sound recordist or sounddesigner – I only use microphones myself for quick interviews or smaller projects with clients that don’t have a big budget.

What’s in the box?!?!

Putting it together for the first time took me a little bit of time because the mic really sits tight inside the spider – but it HAS to, so that it doesn’t wobble around – so everything normal there. It also comes with 2 cables, TRS and TRRS if I’m correct. The Microphone also comes with a normal microphone „foam“ and a deadcat-attachment which you can easily fit onto it, should you record in windy conditions (also especially handy if you’re filming by yourself and not with a bigger team).

Taking the mic out for a walk at the windy beach

I took the mic and the 5D IV for a small recording out to the beach where it’s been super windy and frosty at around 1-2 C°. I found that the windbreaker/deadcat works really nice in those conditions (way better than I expected tbh), while the „normal“ cloth still works fine, and the in-cam mic…well, is the in-cam mic 😉 See and hear for yourself, I did nothing but amp up the volume in these takes so you can hear the „raw“ sound. For me I think there’s a clear difference to hear between in-cam and foam and the deadcat (of course) is by far the best in these conditions. The In-camera-Mic sounds super metallic and tops out at the high peaks, although there’s no wind directly hitting the Mic (as it came from the side/back of the camera). I don’t know how much you could improve the sound with the foam-attachment but I feel besides the wind blowing it’s still a clear sounding voice recording.

Comparing it to indoors

I did another quick test in my office, recording with the same settings, but indoors. Again nothing done to the sound in post, I think the Godox is kinda nice for everyday use and smaller shots/productions or vlogs. It’s super compact and also fast to set up, I might use it for some smaller productions later on when the pandemic is not that hard on us any longer (because right now it’s tough to put together an indy production under those circumstances).

All in all I think it’s a nice mic for smaller productions where you don’t have the money, time or space to get someone for sound on set and also for vlogging and as a travel companion I might chose this over some other options I would’ve considered.

Quick edit with adaptive noise reduction

So when recording I can’t help but notice a lower noise which the mic pics up, I didn’t have anything with fans in the room, so I would guess that’s the „room noise“ and did a quick edit in Audition. Hear what it sounds like when I just do a very quick noise reduction, quite okay for smaller things or vlogs I’d say, what do you think?

And a couple screenshots of the parts, before and after adaptive noise reduction.

And now with a little conclusion in the end. for those who don’t like to read much but rather watch videos 🙂