External mic placement
 

Hey guys, I just picked up an external mic for my Hero3 Black. This one to be specific. [ame="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KX8PTP0?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=od_aui_detailp ages00"]Amazon.com: Professional lavalier (lapel) omni directional condenser microphone 20 foot audio cable adapter for GoPro HD Hero, Hero3, Hero Plus, GoPro HERO4 Silver, GoPro HERO4 Black Action camera: Musical Instruments[/ame]

Intending to use it for my HPDE at Road America this weekend. However, I've never used an external mic with the GoPro. Any suggestions on where to place it in order to capture the best sound?

I ran mine to the engine bay.

Here's a video from my old Type R with it in the engine bay: [ame]https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nkMZiI5VaFw[/ame]

And now I miss the Type R :(

Nice!

My thoughts have been engine bay, behind the front bumper, or trunk.

How did you run the wire into the engine bay, and where did you secure it to?

Across the backseat, along passenger side door , up door out window and then cowl to the bay. I tapped it so it hung off the battery. That way the mic was in open air and not on something.

My dad runs his in the passenger side footwell on his Caterham, and it is really clear and perfect exhaust/engine noise but no wind noise we find.

Not a bad idea. However, I'll have an instructor in the car with me and I'd be worried about it being in the way of his feet. For interior placement I think I'd likely route it into the trunk.

The mics are pretty tiny, just tape it to the trans tunnel and shouldn't be any problems.

I place mine under the front driver seat. Does a good job of getting rid of wind noise - depending on the mic too, some sort of windscreen might help too.

Rear tow hook for me. Sits right above the exhaust. Works perfect.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3G3BESQyqoU"]www.youtube.com/watch?v=3G3BESQyqoU[/ame]

I know a guy who puts his inside the gas cap.

The 86's frameless doors help a ton here, leaning towards behind the drivers seat as others have said, trans tunnel not a bad idea.

Similar placement, I taped it to the textured part of the bumper just to the middle of the exhaust tip. I find with my mic if it's too close to the tip I get bad feedback.

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XAwMP9Hnu8"]CTMP DDT - Lapping with Hanson International - YouTube[/ame]

Here's what it sounds like too close to the tip:

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKMb4drzsv8"]SPDA Lapping - July 12th 2015 - YouTube[/ame]

Yeah I've seen a lot of guys running an external mic to the center of the rear bumper.

But I also know a guy who's had really good results by putting the mic in a sock and tapping it to the inside of the glove box. The engine noises come through really well. And you obviously don't get any wind noise.

Sooo I didn't get my mic in time, and had GoPro issues, so no real footage from my first track weekend. haha

My buddy did come out and take some great pictures though!

Sweet! You can never have enough pictures. Try again next time.

Sorry for bringing back an old thread, but what mic did you have for this video, and did you literally just mount it right on the tow hook? That's exactly the kind of quality I want to achieve. I got a GoPro and a Sony mic but am seriously struggling with eliminating wind noise no matter where I put it...

I'm curious too. I've got an external mic and need to experiment more with placement near the rear bumper. I'm thinking of making a wind sock to block the noise. Any other tips and pics anybody?

This vid has one of the best sounds I've heard from an external mic and go pro. I bought the same mic but haven't gotten near the same results. There is nearly no wind noise and perfect exhaust sounds here and very little clipping and distortion. Almost sounds like a good video game... Could be the exhaust just sounds awesome. This is what I'm trying to achieve.

[ame]http://youtu.be/JpLJSCOYldI[/ame]

I tape my Audio-Technica lavalier mic here:

http://i109.photobucket.com/albums/n...ps1tfniisn.jpg

And this is the result:

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWjhX0vt0as"]FR-S - Tomei 60S exhaust - YouTube[/ame]

The mic is an Audio-Technica ATR3350. It is just taped to my tow-hook. It does have a thin starting-to-shred-because-it's-old-and-abused foam wind screen.

http://asbseo.ru/wp-content/uploads/...-youtube-4.jpg

Great. I have the Sony ECM CS3 and have tried tugging it up into the license bulb slot but that did not work. I will try the tow hook next. Thank you!

If you haven't tried already, getting one of those fluffy windscreens can help with wind noise when mounting outside. I recently bought one and it makes a very noticeable difference compared to the little foam ones that come with most of these lavalier external mics. I mount my mic on the rear bumper not too far from the exhaust tip.

That sounds phenomenal. Thanks for the advice.

I was messing around a little today and picked up a better mini usb adapter to 3.5mm. (gopro branded adapter) It was 20 bucks but instantly got great results. I wrapped a Sony ECM-CS3 mic in a little bit of foam and cut the tip of an old wool sock to wrap around that and taped it just outside of the trunk on the top of the bumper. Sounds awesome now. Maybe a little bit more tweaking and getting things mounted right and it will be ready for track day this friday. Before I was using a cheap ebay mini to 3.5mm adapter and the quality was horrible and only recording in one channel. So bad I thought the mic was broken but turns out the adapter was garbage...