A boom pole advice, please

[Adriano Castaldini]

[Eric Toline] “you’ll see more & more cableless poles with transmitters…”No, I will surely not ☺ That’s a super-exclusive gear for my limited budget.
The necessity of changing the cable (5-pin, 3-pin) move me toward the external cable solution.

Anyway I’d have three very basic questions (I’m sorry for the low level of the questions):

1. Considering the wrapping of the cable around the pole, which is the ratio of pole/cable length? (i.e. how conveniently long must the cable be for a 1/2/3mt pole?)

2. Is it convenient to wrap the cable around the entire pole, or it’s better to leave an uncovered segment of the pole for the hands? (i.e. can I put the hands directly on the wrapped cable, or not?)

3. When I’ll shorten the pole, there will be a lot of free cable. Is there a specific way to arrange the cable in order to avoid noises?

Thanks a lot.

[Richard Crowley]

[Adriano Castaldini] “The necessity of changing the cable (5-pin, 3-pin) move me toward the external cable solution.”
We still don’t understand WHY you think you want to use a stereo microphone on the boom? If you are recording stereo “room tone” or ambient sounds or whatever, you do NOT want to be moving the microphone around. And the mic doesn’t need to be far away from you.

[Adriano Castaldini] “how conveniently long must the cable be for a 1/2/3mt pole?”
The extra length required for wrapping around the pole is maybe an extra 10-20% the pole length at most. Not enough to fret over IMHO. Surely you want extra length for other contingencies which will more than cover the shortening effect of pole-wrapping.

[Adriano Castaldini] “Is it convenient to wrap the cable around the entire pole, or it’s better to leave an uncovered segment of the pole for the hands? (i.e. can I put the hands directly on the wrapped cable, or not?)”
I typically use my grip on the pole as the “anchor” point for the cable at the back end of the pole. So I grip the pole and the cable to keep it tight. That way you aren’t fooling around with other means (like tape or clips, etc.) And it is easy to change lengths, etc.

[Adriano Castaldini] “When I’ll shorten the pole, there will be a lot of free cable. Is there a specific way to arrange the cable in order to avoid noises?”
When you are doing major resets like changing the length of the pole, you are not recording. It is not realistic to expect to get noiseless audio while re-configuring the pole.

The tone of your questions seems to have significantly changed from when you said you were a “one-man-band”. None of these questions and answers appear to fit within your original scope of recording a “day in the life” style video single-handed. I’m pretty confused here. Your questions apply to the case where you have a dedicated boom operator. Did I miss your change of requirements here somewhere?

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Recording audio without metering and monitoring is exactly like framing and focusing without looking at the viewfinder.

[Adriano Castaldini]

First of all you are very kind helping me with your replies.
I changed a little my mind (thanks to your help!) but I unfortunately remain a one-man-crew ☺ Let me explain: I decided to maintain the “day in the life” style, but only for video, not for audio. Infact I finally decided to record all the sounds a part, in other days, during off-camera sessions (as a foley/field recordist) and then edit and mix the audio takes in post.
The good thing is that there aren’t dialogues! Only sounds and ambient. I suppose that the only sounds I’ll need to capture will be:
1. tiny sounds from the talent indoor;
2. tiny sounds from the talent outdoor;
3. ambient sound indoor;
4. ambient/field recordings outdoor.
I suppose that for almost all the tiny sounds (both indoor and outdoor), the hypercardioid should be sufficiently appropriate.
Similarly I suppose that for all the ambient/field recordings (both indoor and outdoor), the stereo mic should be appropriate.
For being as close as possible to the talent with the hypercardioid – both indoor and outdoor (avoiding wind) – I thought a pistol-blimp should be the right solution.
For ambient/field stereo recordings I’d adopt the same solution: an anti-wind pistol-blimp for the stereo mic.
As a recorder I will use a MixPre-6 in a shoulder bag.
Here a question: for connecting a handhelp pistol-blimp to a shoulder recorder, is more silent a straight or a coiled cable?

Now the boompole… I thought that in some situations a boompole could be useful to record mainly the talent sounds at distance: for example, for recording the talent’s footsteps during a walk on a country road – in that situation I think I’ll need to be at a distance from the talent (to avoid recording my footsteps too), so I think a boompole could be the solution.
I suppose that most of the times I’ll use the boompole with the hypercardioid, but I have the doubt (perhaps I wrong) that sometime I could use the boompole with the stereo mic too: for example, the same country road walk described before, do you think that recording the footsteps in stereo is a silly option?

Thanks a lot.

[Richard Crowley]

Even people with a crew of 100s of talented professionals and a budget of hundreds of millions of $₤€ don’t go out and record the ACTUAL footsteps, minor motions, generic sounds of the ACTUAL subject, and typically not even in the ACTUAL location. You are attempting to do something that even professionals with unlimited resources don’t do.

When you watch a movie that cost $100s of millions of $₤€, the chances that you are HEARING the ACTUAL footsteps (or whatever sound) that you are SEEING are essentially ZERO. Nobody does that. It is simply impractical. That is why Jack Donovan Foley, back before any of us were born, perfected the process that bears his name. It is so much easier, cheaper, faster, etc. to either use a pre-recorded sound, or record your own sound in a Foley studio (or in your back bedroom or the public park or wherever).

For that matter, likely way more than half of the background sounds that you hear wasn’t recorded in the same space, and almost certainly not at the same time as shooting the film/video. And likely as not is was created in the mixing studio and doesn’t even exist in the Real World.

Now, if you are retired and have spare months and years with nothing better to do, and no customer/professor to please and no deadline, certainly you can go out in the field with your subject and take all day to record some footsteps, etc. “Sorry, Agnes could we do take 37 on opening that squeaky door? I still don’t have it perfect.”

The PRIMARY thing that must be recorded during principal shooting is DIALOG. Secondary to that is capturing “room tone” preferably as close to principal shooting as possible. Then there is all the other NON-synchronous stuff like recording the sounds of various things. But that doesn’t involve the rest of the crew or the actors (or subjects of a documentary).

I think that your concept of recording the ACTUAL sounds ON LOCATION is seriously misguided and will end up costing you far more time and money, AND produce a worse result. If you have no dialog, then shoot MOS (without sound). Or as is commonly done, with the built-in microphone on the camera recording a “reference” or “guide” sound track so that you will know where to put the door-slam or the tea-cup dropping, etc.

You seem to be obsessing on gear without adequate knowledge or experience of what is practical in the Real World. Use whatever you have available right now, and spend a few hours going out into the world and recording things. It may change your whole perspective on how to do this.

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Recording audio without metering and monitoring is exactly like framing and focusing without looking at the viewfinder.

[Adriano Castaldini]

Dear Mr. Crowley, believe or not, I completely agree with you.
In this matter I am an autodidact, it’s evident: my schools are the forums, with the advices and suggestions from all of you.
Anyway, as I said in my previous post, I abandoned the original idea of capturing the real sounds from the actual place of the scene. The example of the walk was intended simply for capturing a generic sound of steps on the grass (certainly not exactly THE steps of THAT walk of THAT specific scene). My only question was simply: could it be interesting to capture a stereo sound of steps, or is bettere a mono sound of steps? Simply that!
On the other hand, it’s true that I’ll use my talent for many of the sounds I’ll need to capture, but the reason is not for capturing the actual world of the scene, but simply because my talent is also my only assistant ☺
Obviously I’ll start shooting MOS (but with the in-camera mic as reference). Then, once I’ll have finished with the camera, I’ll start with foley recordings. I haven’t a studio, so I can image I’ll capture many of the sounds in the actual place of the scene, and not for realism, but simply because the location is also my home ☺ The walk on the country road (for the steps) is where I usually do jogging ☺
I’m trying to explain that I think I’m following (with all my limits) the same method you described.
Obviously I’m obsessed by the gear! Because it’s all new for me! And because it’s all so expensive that I try to know everything about pro’s opinions to make my own idea of what I’d actually need (I’m not in a school where I can try gear and make experiences).
Said that, what is your advices for capturing steps of the grass? Using a mono or a stereo mic? And with boom or without?
Thanks

[Richard Crowley]

I would use (and recommend) a monaural mic. You aren’t trying to capture the (whatever) sound WITH its ambience. Because when you layer and mix together all these little sounds, if each one is carrying its own ambience (or stereo stage position) with it, you will have a jumbled mess . Each sound should be as isolated and pristine as you can get so that you can CREATE the whole sound experience with all the sounds combined as needed. Then, if you are in a reflective room, you can ADD some echo/reverb to make it SOUND like it LOOKS.

You should not need a boom. You should be able to walk through the grass, or over the gravel, or on the squeaky wooden floor, etc. just holding the mic in your hand with your arm pointing down and the mic perhaps 12-18 inches from your feet.

This is rather the OPPOSITE of what you originally came here asking. You WANT the sound of the “operator” because that is the person performing the footsteps (or whatever) AND doing the recording. ????

Of course, you ALWAYS wear GOOD headphones when recording audio. So that you can HEAR what you are doing. It is to be expected that you may need to “cheat” how something is done or the angle or distance of the microphone to capture a convincing sound. This is a time-honored tradition with Foley. You may even find some OTHER door that makes a more convincing sound than the actual one that is on the video, etc.

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Recording audio without metering and monitoring is exactly like framing and focusing without looking at the viewfinder.

[Adriano Castaldini]

Good headphones… I have “classic” Beyerdynamic DT 770 PRO (250 OHM). Do you think is sufficient?

[Richard Crowley]

Yes, assuming that whatever is driving them can deliver a good sound level into 250 ohms.

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Recording audio without metering and monitoring is exactly like framing and focusing without looking at the viewfinder.

[Adriano Castaldini]

Just one last very little question: assuming that I don’t use the boompole – only recorder + blimp – do you recommend coiled or straight cable? (Is there any quality difference between them?)

[Richard Crowley]

There is no theoretical basis for there to be any “quality” difference. This is a low-impedance, balanced signal which is designed to be impervious to variations in cabling. Same goes for mic-level and line-level connections.

A coil-cord is rather a “one-trick pony”. It is rather useful in a limited number of circumstances. For the same budget you could have two or three regular, straight cables of various lengths and IMHO that would make your kit much more “flexible” at no extra $$. But it is a personal choice and it won’t affect the sound you are recording one way or the other.

———————————————————————————
Recording audio without metering and monitoring is exactly like framing and focusing without looking at the viewfinder.