Should I be using multiple mics to record dialogue and sound effects?

[Ty Ford]

Hello Ryan,

I don’t know who you’re talking to, but they are pulling your leg.

I was told by a couple of others in the audio business that instead of using one boom mic to record all of the dialogue that I should have multiple mics around the scene, to create a surround sound mix, live while shooting, cause it’s better to spend the extra money on mics to do it while shooting then to create surround sound in post, which won’t sound as natural.

— For the most part surround is created in post.

They also say that if I want to record sound effects, such as a car driving by for example, that I should record it with multiple mics to get different parts of the car simultaneously, rather than trying to record all the parts separately, cause it won’t match if I do that they said, cause the car will be driving by with different sounds, if I try to record all the different sounds, one at a time, on different takes.

— Well that sounds like a lot of work and mics. Sound Design is the art/craft that combines different sounds to make a final effect.

But they also say I should record 4-6 tracks with all the mics placed in the room in a surround sound capturing fashion.

— You’ve got a car crash in a room?

If an actor walks from left to write while talking to the other actors in a scene, than the mics should be placed left to right, so he can walk past each mic and it will give a left to right surround sound mix in production, so I don’t have to do that in post for example.

— Nope, you want to do it with a pan pot, not multiple mics.

They also said I should of course have a boom on the actor that is moving with the actor the whole time, as back up, but I should do the left to right mic placement.

— No, that would be your primary mic. A wireless would be your backup.

Or if an actor is talking while sitting on the floor and then getting up, while talking, I shouldn’t just boom along with the actor, I should have mics placed going from the floor, to the ceiling to capture the surround, as he goes from floor to ceiling, they said.

— pulling your leg in an effort to explain “plant mics.” Very funny.

Things like that. What do you think, do you think it’s worth it, to mic a whole scene for surround sound, during shooting, in order to save time doing it in post? And does doing it during shooting sound more natural, than trying synthesize reverb and sound direction in post, by comparison?

When “natural” sucks, you don’t want it. Get new friends.

Regards,

Ty Ford
Cow Audio Forum Leader

Want better production audio?: Ty Ford\’s Audio Bootcamp Field Guide
Ty Ford Blog: Ty Ford\’s Blog

[Ryan Elder]

Okay thanks. Well the way I’ve been doing it so far, is I’ve been booming the actors, and using lavs as back up, if I can get them for my shoots. But I follow the actors with the boom close by.

But they say that by doing that, with one close boom mic and lav, and no other mics placed anywhere in the room that I am missing out on room ambiance and creating surround sound, and just giving myself more work in post that will not sound as good cause it’s synthesized, compared to getting it right during shooting (shrug).

The two guys who told me know more about recording than I do, but they’ve been recording music bands their whole lives, and are use to the band playing all simultaneously in different mics. So perhaps they feel that it’s best to place mics all over cause they are use to doing it with bands?

[Ty Ford]

The only reason to place mics all over is because you don’t know where to place them specifically.

Music and dialog are very different.

With dialog, the challenge is usually to record as directly as possible.

Regards,

Ty Ford
Cow Audio Forum Leader

Want better production audio?: Ty Ford\’s Audio Bootcamp Field Guide
Ty Ford Blog: Ty Ford\’s Blog

[Richard Crowley]

Those two guys would appear to know nothing about recording production sound. It is completely different from recording music, either live performance, or studio recording. Stick with your experience and feel free to ask questions on these forums. You can consult those guys next time you want to record a rock concert, or next time you want to split the cost of a pizza. But for production audio recording advice, stay away from them.

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

[Ryan Elder]

Okay thanks. I actually have a question that came to mind. I am going to be doing a 5.1 surround sound mix for the first time, and I was wondering, when the composer does the music, does he give me a five track wave file, that I bring onto the time, or does he give me a bunch of mono files of different parts of music, and I am the one who mixes those mono files into the 5.1 master mix, myself?

[Ryan Elder]

Oh okay, they said I should place mics all over to create surround sound while shooting as an actor will walk into the direction of one track, and then walk into the direction of another, etc.

But I have no problem mixing in post, which they thought was just more post work and less natural, by the sounds of it.

[Richard Crowley]

It depends on what you asked for (or contracted for, or paid for, etc.) I would expect that unless you specified something otherwise, you would probably get a 2.0 “stereo” mix-down of the music. Depending on how the music was created/recorded, you could get individual tracks of different instruments. But then you would have to mix down the music in addition to doing the dialog, music, effects, etc. mix for the video. And it sounds like that would be rather beyond your experience at this point, or perhaps cut into your timeline to finish the mix for the video?

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

[Ryan Elder]

Oh well I am just starting to search for a music performer/mixer now, so I haven’t asked for anything yet. It’s just my first time doing a surround sound mix, so not sure what to ask for, when mixing the music for that mix.

[Richard Crowley]

Just starting out, I would ask for an ordinary stereo mix. You have more than enough on your plate without worrying about mixing down the music before you even get to mixing the main tracks in the production.

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

[Richard Crowley]

You can’t properly mix everything together (dialog, narration, music, effects, Foley, etc. etc.) if each element comes with its own “ambiance”. By the time you mix that all together you will have an unintelligible mishmash of sound.

The dialog needs to be CLEAN and as free of extraneous noise and ambient reflections, reverb, room tone, etc. as you can make it. AND you need a good 30 seconds of “room tone” for each setup. And your SFX, Foley, etc. need to be a clean and isolated as possible.

THEN when you have all the elements in the right places at the right levels, THEN you can apply whatever kind of effects you need to match the scene. Wind noise and distant surf, or traffic noises going by, or indistinct chatter and clanking glasses in a pub, or reverberation in a cave or whatever. But only AFTER you have all the clean elements mixed together. That way everything sounds “natural” like it all really happened there in the place the audience sees the scene.

NOBODY can predict exactly what the final mix will need while they are recording during production. That is why you need CLEAN, standalone, isolated elements to mix together in post production.

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