MXL FR-310 Hot Shoe Shotgun Microphone Review

MXL FR-310 Testing and Conclusion

Gain Settings and Testing

The MXL FR-310 has three gain settings Low, Med, and High. These are equivalent to -5dB, 0dB, +5dB according to the MXL website. Essentially you are selecting sensitivity ratings for the microphone with Low making the microphone less sensitive and High making the microphone more sensitive. You can look at these settings a number of ways e.g as distance from recording target, as appropriate settings for noisier environments, or to achieve a desire result. We left the microphone at its Low setting for our recordings as selecting High will result in pickup of more peripheral sounds and we are shooting to demonstrate its ability to selectively exclude peripheral sounds.

We tested the FR-310 in a closed office/studio setting as well as outdoors and in noisy environments to gauge its performance. We paired the camera with the popular prosumer DSLR the Canon T3i which offers excellent 1080i video recording but less than excellent audio recording via the combination of internal microphone and Canon’s software automatic gain control (AGC). The result is overly noisy video with few correction options.We did update the T3i to the latest 1.0.2 firmware and tested the camera with and without Magic Lantern v2.3 to bring you the best possible results.

We applied the MXL FR-310 to this camera and recorded several clips. The results are below:

Microphone Used	Settings Enabled	Results
Internal Microphone	Automatic Gain Control	Overall noisy video that picks up peripheral noises in any direction in front, rear, and sides of camera and microphone.
	Manual Gain Control set to 0	Less noise video that still picks up a fair deal of noise in any direction in front, rear, and sides of camera and microphone.
MXL FR-310	Low Gain	Low hiss video that does a good job of subduing peripheral noise especially behind the microphone.
	Medium Gain	Medium hiss video that does a good job of subduing peripheral noise especially behind the microphone.
	High Gain	High hiss video that does a good job of subduing peripheral noise especially behind the microphone.
	Bass Roll-Off	Effectively attenuates the low end bass resulting in less stage rumble and boom. This is good for concerts, events, and sudden loud deep noises.

Editors Notes: We did find that while testing the FR-310 a few issues arose that consumers should be aware of. Changing the setting of the FR-310 while it is operating tends to effectively disable the microphone. The selector switches tend to get stuck between positions when they feel as if they are in the desired position and the result is no/muffled audio. This is something that many consumers may do during normal use that we feel they should be aware of. The unfortunate fact is that this forces you to make your audio decisions ahead of time or face the possibility that you may not record audio as a result of making a change in selection. Those cameras with a sound level check built into the UI will be able to see if this has occurred as well as checking their audio inputs.

Conclusion:

The FR-310 is a very attractive option for the amateur videographer needing a better viable recording option than the built in microphone. The MXL FR-310 does an excellent job at subduing peripheral noises, especially those behind the camera/microphone and does so at a very reasonable price. It is solidly built, long lasting, and comes with a very nice and usable travel container. Controls are simple and easy to use and aside from the tendency of the controls to eliminate/muffle sound if set incorrectly we were very pleased with the performance of the unit.

The FR-310 is an excellent choice, indeed one of the few best choices on the market for a low cost quality shotgun microphone. It should be high on your list to consider when making a purchase. It is ideal for those that find themselves doing interviews, recording outdoors, or events where there is extra noise you would like reduced. We are pleased to award the FR-310 our TechwareLabs Silver Award.

Additional Note: We would like to note that the FR-310 received the silver award due to price, ease of use, and overall design quality. MXL would have received the Gold Award but for the issue with the selector switches. We would be happy to reconsider the product for this award should design changes be made.

Enjoy the gallery.