Best Steno writer mic now with an integrated case includes two Ultra-High sensitivity mics built-in with cable and business card storage

he MS-WRITER-MIC-4 is a high powered Omnidirectional double microphone that can be plugged directly into the mic input jack of your Steno machine, a standard mic input on a computer or a digital recorder. The microphone can be attached to the back of the lid of your writer with the supplied Velcro. The 12" microphone cable stores neatly inside the case when not in use. There is also a pouch in the case for storing your business cards so that they are handy when you need them!

The microphones are very small and discretely located on the upper corners of the case (see close-up photos). The high quality, super flexible cable is shielded and has a 90 degree plug.

This microphones each have a pickup range of 50 feet - in other words, each mic can pick up sounds 50 feet away. This microphone has an extended frequency response and produces a very clean, crisp recording of voices.

Features:

- Flat frequency response to pick up all voices naturally and clearly- Can be used directly with any device that provides 2-12vdc plug in power (all Steno writers provide this power)

Specifications:

Information for Court Reporters:

The manual for your writer should be followed as written, however, the following information will help you to achieve the best possible results when recording audio with your writer. The recommendations below are intended as a way of fine-tuning the information found in the manual:

On page 44 of the manual, it states:

"Microphone Gain - indicates the current gain setting for the microphone, 0 - 100%. If your microphone is battery powered, set the gain lower. A suggested starting point is 75 - 80%. If the microphone is not battery powered, set the gain higher. A suggested starting point is 95-100%.

These statements assume that battery powered microphones are more sensitive than non-battery powered microphones. This is not always the case. A battery powered microphone could be more sensitive, but merely being battery powered does not mean it is more sensitive (or powerful). An amplified microphone would be more sensitive, but these are extremely rare, and not recommend for devices that have microphone inputs, like the Luminex. In fact, the battery powering a microphone is redundant as the Luminex supplies the necessary power needed for most microphones. This is called microphone "plug in power".

The microphones we supply to Stenograph for the Luminex do not have batteries and are properly powered by the 'plug in power' supplied by the Luminex. In fact, these microphones are more sensitive (powerful) than most battery powered microphones available today. So, they actually require a lower gain setting in the Luminex, not higher. With our ultra-high sensitivity microphones, we recommend a starting microphone gain of 50%

The manual goes on to say:

"Setting this gain too high, may cause audio feedback. Press the - and + sensors as necessary to set the percent. A graphic bar indicates the selected level."

This bar graph is divided into 3 colors - green, yellow and red. It is important to set the gain for the maximum recording level without overloading to get the clearest, strongest recording possible. The ideal recording level is achieved when the sounds you are recording cause the recording level indicator to illuminate the green and yellow segments. The red segments indicate overloading, so it is important that the red segments only illuminate occasionally.

If you hear feedback when monitoring with headphones, simply lower the headphone level until the feedback stops.

On page 43 of the user manual, it states:

"Plug the microphone into the microphone jack on the back of the Luminex. Using a direct feed from a videographer to the microphone jack is not recommended since most of those feeds are line level (much higher) and not microphone level."