Audio Questions

[David Thrasher]

I've been getting some nasty 60 cycle hum when recording sound with my camcorder on the set that I've built in my living room. I'm using external mics through an inexpensive Nady mic mixer which feeds to the camcorder. One of the mics, a Radio Shack lapel mics, seems especially prone to the hum. A few questions about this:

I'm in an old house that was built in the 1920's and some of the wiring is old. Is it possible that some of this old wiring is unshielded and basically "broadcasting" 60 cycle hum and the mic cables are picking this up acting as antennas? 

Are balanced mics (those that use 3 pin XLR connectors) less prone to picking up hum?

Is there any way to shield my existing set up if it is the wiring. (It picks up even if the camera and mixer are running off battery power.) I thought of the crazy idea of putting aluminum foil against the likely walls with old wiring. Would this help?

Another audio topic:

I'd like to replace that cheap Nady mic mixer with something that can handle XLR connectors. I'm looking for something that can be run off of battery power if I'm away for AC power sources. I'd also like to have pan controls so that I can place mic sources in their correct spatial orientation because of mixing to stereo and I'd like equalization controls. Also line inputs. I'm thinking 4 mic inputs and 2 stereo line inputs would be just about right.

I've started to look around at mic mixers and this is what I've found so far: I can buy a new Behringer mixer for about $119 but I heard that they don't hold up. I saw an Alesis mixer for about $160 that also included some onboard effects but unfortunately didn't look like it took batteries. I also saw a Peavey mixer for about $175 that had 6 mic inputs and could run off batteries (3- 9 volts -- 2 for the mixer and 1 for phantom power). Does anyone know of any others I should be looking at? Faders aren't a big necessity for what I'm doing, do gain knobs would be just fine.

-Dave