Audio-Technica's new on-camera shotgun mics come in two formats – the extras-loaded ATV-SG1 and the affordable, plug-in-and-go ATV-SG1LE.
Nothing brings down your enjoyment of a video on YouTube like poor audio quality. All the fancy digital effects, transitions, camera angles and quality talent amount to very little when they’re let down by tinny, off-axis audio that sounds like it was never even a consideration for the creator. The same goes for just about any streaming platform, social media included, when viewed on mobile devices. More often than you’d expect, your audience is listening on earbuds or headphones that deliver excellent detail, and that’s exactly when a long-format video, reel, story or post gets found out in the audio department. If you’ve gone to the effort of shooting on a good quality DSLR, back it up with a great microphone and start with great audio before you begin editing.
With that in mind, I spent some time with two new compact shotgun microphones from Audio-Technica that are built to bring your content to life. The idea is to keep everything together, so you don’t need a boom operator standing by your side – these camera-mounted microphones make it easy to capture good-sounding audio from the source you’re filming, with low handling noise and strong side rejection to isolate your target. Two models – one leaning towards affordability, the other towards features – mean anyone using a DSLR or similar handheld video camera can improve what the audience hears right at the source. It’s all well and good to process your audio in the editing suite, but you need a good base to start with, and you get that with the ATV-SG1 and ATV-SG1LE on-camera shotgun microphones.
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ATV-SG1
The ATV-SG1 is the more feature-packed model, and it comes priced accordingly. It uses a 12-sided shoe-mounted design, so you can rotate the fixed mount in 30-degree increments to capture audio directly in front of the lens or off to the side if needed. It can be set further back to keep it out of shot, or to make room for other peripherals on the camera – and there’s an added shoe on top of the unit for mounting a wireless receiver or similar device. Once locked into place, the microphone housing is supported by a shock mount system that keeps handling noise in check, which I appreciated whenever the camera got bumped mid-take. Even shooting handheld and moving around, the knocks and footsteps that usually creep into a recording stayed out of it.
The microphone itself pairs a 14mm capsule with a 100mm acoustic tube, designed for accurate focus in audio capture with strong side and rear rejection. In use, that meant a lot of the unwanted background noise was dealt with right at the source, leaving less to clean up in post-production. Pointed at my subject, the SG1 pulled their voice forward and let the room fall away behind it, so I wasn’t fighting the background to be heard.
It’s a high-sensitivity capsule with very low self-noise, and a low-cut filter helps take care of unwanted low-frequency sounds. The included wind muff handles wind noise when recording outdoors, and built-in RF noise immunity takes care of interference from smartphones and other electronic devices. The built-in USB rechargeable battery delivers up to 24 hours of operation, so it kept up with everything I put the camera through without missing a beat.
The ATV-SG1 records two-channel audio in a number of options. You can set the second track as a -6dB safety track to avoid digital clipping, or bring in a lavalier microphone for one channel with the other coming from the SG1’s capsule. That safety track earned its place the moment someone shouted across the room mid-take – where a single channel would have clipped into a mess, I still had a clean, usable version sitting underneath. All of this is backed up with headphone monitoring and an easily accessible gain knob on the rear of the unit to set your levels quickly. The audio recorded was clear and volume control was spot on, no matter how far the camera was, and a bit of wind was no problem.
ATV-SG1LE
If you’re not after all the extras, the ATV-SG1LE might well be the better option for you, especially as it comes in at a sharper price point. While physically smaller than the flagship ATV-SG1, the ATV-SG1LE still offers the same 14mm large-diameter diaphragm, housed in that 100mm directional acoustic tube. It takes the guesswork out of your audio setup with a more plug-and-play approach – lock it into place, connect it via the coiled TRS-to-TRS cable and you’re ready to go. I mounted it, plugged in and had clean audio coming through within seconds, no menus to work through and no battery to keep an eye on. Its integrated plug-in power draws enough from the camera to operate the capsule without an inbuilt battery, keeping the housing smaller and lighter than its bigger brother. In my time with it, being ready to record within seconds of mounting was the main appeal.
While the ATV-SG1LE doesn’t have as many options, it still delivers beautifully clear audio with a maximum SPL of 114dB at 1kHz, so you’re not likely to push it beyond its distortion range, and it captures a frequency response from 20Hz to 20kHz. Plug-in mics often feel like a trade-off, convenience for quality, but this one didn’t – the frequency range stayed full and it took louder sources in its stride without folding into distortion.
For what is essentially the more affordable option, the ATV-SG1LE is still made in Japan and performs above what the price point suggests. For content creators who don’t want to worry about their audio but know they need to lift their game, this microphone brings a real improvement to your production, without needing an audio engineering degree in your back pocket. Factoring in the value it adds to every video you create, it essentially pays for itself right out of the box.
Either way – a more complex setup that calls for a lavalier and advanced settings, or a simple plug-and-play approach – the ATV-SG1 and ATV-SG1LE lift your audio instantly. The only question left is why you’d settle for less when you can achieve so much more with so little effort. Go and check one out at your local Audio-Technica dealer today and hear the difference yourself.
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