Mxl which had previously concentrated on professional audio products has begun to develop consumer level products. They have four Categories of microphones that they showed off at CES 2013.

The first category is the traditional microphone which is a condenser microphone. It is made for vocal live performances and studio work. This microphone is being refined but there’s nothing really new coming out on it.

The second category is the audio microphones for video. These microphones allow you to produce professional audio for professional video. Anyone who has watched a video with bad audio knows that good video means nothing with bad audio. The DSLR audio kit includes a wireless audio transmitter and receiver which is specifically made to record with a DSLR. It runs at 500 mg range which is a high enough range that it is noise resistant. It can run on either chargeable batteries or AA batteries. These batteries are user replaceable. It has a hot shoe adapter that goes on top of the DSLR. There is a lavalier mic included or you can use an XLR microphone. The kit also includes a shotgun mic that sits on top of the camera. There is both a wireless and wired version of the microphone. All controls are easily accessible. The total set runs $399 and is available through the MXL website.

The third category of microphones is a USB vocal microphone. These microphones are made to be used with tablets, desktops or laptops. They look like traditional desktop microphone. They are omnidirectional and are made for vocal recording to applications such as GarageBand. These microphones were made with podcasters in mind.

The final category was about pro audio for web-chat. This microphone is made specifically for web chat in an office environment. It is a boundary mic that sits on the desktop. It picks up audio in front of it up to 25 feet radius and locks the sound coming from the back. At this point time it is a wired mic however they are working on a 2.4 g wireless version. They decide to go with the 2.4 gig version rather than Bluetooth because the 2.4 gig version has a longer range. This microphone is specifically made to interface with a professional conference setup and not a phone. The wired version which is available now should run around $99 and the wireless version when available should be between $149 and $159. The final thing they talked about was the photographer’s essential kit. This kit includes a handheld grip where the DSL are goes on the bottom and on top is a hot shoe mount when you can put a microphone lights and a monitor. MXL is also working on a microphone that would plug directly into a smart phone either android or iPhone and then record the audio directly into the smartphone.

Interview by Todd Cochrane of Geek News Central for the TechPodcast Network and Don Baine, the Gadget Professor.

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