keith again: i also forgot to tell you that using a combination of a high quality condensor mic (such as close micing a speaker) along with the camcorder's built in mic also produces excellent results. the XL1's built in stereo mic is only good for ambient sound and lacks the articulation of a high quality studio microphone, but it has excellent response reproducing the 'general background' sound because it closely simulates the human ear--meaning it picks up everything in proportion to how we hear. think of a wide angle lense as opposed to a telescopic lense; the wide angle simulates human vision; the telescopic zooms in detail and isolates objects similar to the studio mic.(posted 7965 days ago)