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Should I sell my boom mics and by lavs instead?
Basically I have two boom mikes, the AT4053b, the Rode NTG-3, and a boompole.
However, I find that they are troublesome to use on a shoot, cause I cannot find anyone who is that good at booming. I usually have to be behind the camera so I thought maybe in order to operate with less crew, I should just sell the boom pole and two mics and use the money to buy at least four or more lavs instead. That would hopefully be enough for scenes with multiple actors.
However, are lavs good for recording foley and sound effects as well? If I sell the booms, I would them use the lavs for recording foley and sound effects, instead. Or should I be using different mics for recording foley and sound effects? But if I use the same mics, then I have a better chance of making the foley and sound effects, sound like it’s in the same place as the dialogue, cause the mic is the same. Not that it’s an exact match of course room, wise, but it does help.
But would recording foley and sound effects work with lavs though? What do you think?
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26 Replies
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Hello Ryan and welcome to the Cow Audio Forum.
No. Don’t do it. Figure out how to raise your game and find a good boomer.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/293491575232/
Where are you?
Regards,
Ty Ford
Cow Audio Forum LeaderWant better production audio?: Ty Ford\’s Audio Bootcamp Field Guide
Ty Ford Blog: Ty Ford\’s Blog -
Okay thanks, I am in Saskatchewan, Canada, where I shoot most of my short films.
Why not do it, are boom mics better quality than lavs?
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Technically and practcally, very much so.
The diaphragm of a boom mic is about 1/2″ (1.25cm). That’s about 10 times bigger than a lav diaphragm. In addition, the housing for the diaphragm, the capsule, has many engineering positives. Small diaphragms don’t swing (react to sound) anywhere near as much as the larger boom mic diaphragm. That means the lav’s output voltage, referred to as its sensitivity, is a lot lower than a boom mic.Because of this, lavs require more gain and with the gain comes noise.
Lavs are mostly omnidirectional. Boom mics are mostly super or hypercardioid. Lavs pretty much HAVE to be omni when worn that closely. There are directional (cardioid) lavs, but they’re only used on certain occasions. Lavs are subject to more placement problems. Even though they are omni, a simple head turn can be heard as a fall off of level. If you’re doing narrative work, you need to hide the lav and that can create clothing noise, loss of high frequencies and strange sound, if for example, the lave is placed under the chin in a tie knot or inside the front edge of a shirt collar.
There are other reasons but these’ll do.
Regards,
Ty Ford
Cow audio Forum LeaderWant better production audio?: Ty Ford\’s Audio Bootcamp Field Guide
Ty Ford Blog: Ty Ford\’s Blog -
Oh okay thanks. I used lavs a couple of times before when doing other people’s projects, where they wanted to use lavs.
I thought that lavs required less gain, because the mic is closer to the talents mouth compared to a boom mic. So therefore, the gain doesn’t have to be turned up as much to get proper levels, compared to a boom mic, where I had to turn the gain up higher.
Is that true though? That has just been my experience, unless I was doing something wrong.
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Ryan,
If that is your experience, then you’ve been positioning the boom mic a lot farther away than you should.
At or about a distance of three feet, the discernible difference in quality of most boom mics is inaudible.
You normally want to be closer than that. With fairly low ambient noise, 1-2 feet is good about it.
Regards,
Ty Ford
Cow Audio Forum LeaderWant better production audio?: Ty Ford\’s Audio Bootcamp Field Guide
Ty Ford Blog: Ty Ford\’s Blog -
Yep that’s what I did the boom mic was about two feet away for a lot of the shots, which were medium close ups. However, with a lav, it’s six to 9 inches away from the actor.
So wouldn’t the gain have to be turned up a lot less, if the mic is 6 – 9 inches away, compared to 1.5 – 2 feet?
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In close up shots, a boom operator can get the mic in real close, but what about master shots?
Like if you at this scene here as an example:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AApQkNSViGg
In that scene for the first master shot you see, the mic is quite far from the actor since it’s a wide master shot. So when the mic is that far away, wouldn’t the gain have to be turned up quite high, if using a boom mic?
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Hi Ty,
Save your breath.
This guy is a troll who will not listen and will never stop. He’s been puked out by others (including me) already on several other forums here.Do not feed him.
(Moderation does not kick in for some reason.)
Bouke
http://www.videotoolshed.com -
I’ve already answered that question.
Regards,
Ty Ford
Cow Audio Forum LeaderWant better production audio?: Ty Ford\’s Audio Bootcamp Field Guide
Ty Ford Blog: Ty Ford\’s Blog -
Thanks, BV.
So noted
Ty
Want better production audio?: Ty Ford\’s Audio Bootcamp Field Guide
Ty Ford Blog: Ty Ford\’s Blog
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