mic placement

[Kerry F]

I have been using the Martel $150 and a mic for my Diamante, too,  They are both placed on the side of my laptop nearest the witness.  What is the best mic placement when in a video and the witness is at the head of the table and the attorney on the side of me (so I'm between the witness and attorney) and the attorney is soft spoken at times and my mic doesn't pick up a word I need to re-hear?  I like to avoid having to go to the videographer's recording.  Is there a way to plug in any type of mic that would pick up well both positions?

[Michelle Bulkley]

Not sure why your recorder isn't picking up. That's weird. I hear Martel is good. I have a five-year-old Olympus digital recorder that I bought for also around $150, and it records great. Maybe it's the settings on your recorder? On mine, there's dictation, conference and lecture settings, and I've found that setting it to conference is best. The Diamanté mic is terrible!

I've got a gold-plated 2-footish cord that goes from my ear jack on my digital recorder to my mic output on my laptop so that it audiosynchs to my Eclipse and I can click on a word in a transcript, and the audio plays exactly at that portion. Sorry for the long-winded answer, but videographers can plug u in to their equipment if you have that cord I have, and it will be audiosynched and record from their microphone in the wit's lapel, etc. Ask them if u can hook into their audio.

Hope this helps.

[Stefanie Landa]

The Martel should pick everything up clearly.  It has to be your settings. I hook mine to the bunched up cable that hooks to my machine behind my laptop  and mine picks up people outside the room, especially if I'm near the main lobby of a law firm. If you were on Eclipse, I could tell you my settings.  The only time mine starts to go down is when my battery is getting old.  I've had mine for probably 4 years now, before they got outrageously expensive

[Kerry F]

The Martel picks up good when I'm at the head of the table and attorney on one side and witness on the other.  It's in videos when the witness is at the head of the table, I'm to their right, the attorney is to my right on the same side of the table.  My mic is on the left side of my laptop next to the witness.  The attorney will turn away from me looking at their computer and exhibits and if the attorney is soft spoken, I go to my mic to pick up the words I can't hear and the mic doesn't get it all because it's by the witness.  So that's when I have to go to the videographer's audio.  It's because of the different seating on video deps.  My settings I think are fine. 

Stephanie, so is your mic actually sitting opposite you behind your laptop?

[Stefanie Landa]

Yes, behind my laptop hooked in the bundle of cords and it picks up people at the far end of a conference room.  I sit at the head of a table for video depos too, with the witness on one side and the atty on other side of the table, so it's the same setup for me as a regular depo.  usually the videographer is behind me to my left or right monitoring.

[Kerry F]

Wow, I'd like that video arrangement, but I've never seen it done here.  I never get the head of the table in a video and I'm sure the videographers around here would not never shoot that angle.  They are always at the opposite end of the table from the witness.  Sometimes if my mic is in the area behind my laptop, it ends up with documents put on top of it.

[Stefanie Landa]

the videographer sits between me and the atty taking the depo and so the camera is almost set up face on as the atty would view the witness, just a little bit to the atty's side,  like at the corner of a conference table area, but getting the entire face,  and the witness is on my opposite side, so it's just like a regular depo setup except for the videographer over my shoulder.  I don't set my mic out in full view. it's clipped to cables.  nobody can actually see it.  Oh, also with the videographer close to me, I use his headphones that are hooked up to his equipment/mics on everybody so I'm hearing a direct feed of what the videographer is hearing..it only sucks when someone coughs, clears their throat or messes with papers and blows your ears out!!:)

[Debbie Taggart]

Kerry,  I put some velcro on that back of my computer screen and a little on the back of my microphone, and attach the microphone to the back of my computer screen.  I very rarely ever have a problem hearing anyone in the room that way.

Also, do you have an external sound card in your computer?  The newer computers (from what I understand) don't have as good of sound cards as the old computers, and without an external sound card, you won't get as good audio.  I have an "Andrea Pure Audio USB sound card kit that I got from Stenograph.  It made a HUGE difference in my audio quality when I got a new computer.

[Kerry F]

THanks Debbie.  I'll try that.  My auido comes out good, records good, just doesn't play back good on the laptop speakers.  Maybe I'll have to look into the sound card.

[Judy]

Do you have a Boosteroo or some such device?  Sometimes those will increase the audio.  Also, are you listening with headphones?  That helps a lot with my Sony Vaio.

I do like Debbie, except I have a plastic envelope thingy that I put my business cards in so they can see who I am if they look at my computer (and don't have to ask me for a card, they can just take), and I attach my mic to that.