Small mic to be used close to speaker

[Tony Connoly]

Got it. Thanks Ty. I need to be able to monitor while recording before I can learn to use it, hence one of the reasons for my other question re: preamp/recorder.

[Tony Connoly]

Ok, per Ty’s advice I’m going to stick with the NTG-2 and learn to use it first.

But while we’re discussing dynamic omnis, how about the elctro 635A?

[Ty Ford]

Tony,

It’ll work, but an re50 has much better wind protection built-in

Regards,

Ty Ford

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[Eric Toline]

I seem to recall that the RE-50 is the 635 capsule in a different housing.

Eric

[Ty Ford]

Eric,

yes, better wind protection and handling noise rejection.

Ty

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[Craig Alan]

Hi,

Just want to add that I find this conversation popping up frequently. At our school, we are asked to shoot events all the time and are expected to get good results without any rehearsal or cooperation from the talent or organizers that want to be recorded. That’s ok, if not great, for visuals. Find a good location, mount the cam on a tripod, ball balance, white balance, adjust the exposure and hope that your location is adequate to cover the entire event. You can go with multiple cameras and hand-held cams for additional footage, though you are increasing the amount of time you need to spend in the edit bay for this afterthought shoot. But good, even just usable, sound requires the talent’s active participation.

Whenever I get asked about shooting an event, my questions run as follows: “Do you care about the sound at all?” “Do you care about the sound quality?” “Will your talent be miked to powered speakers?” “Can we get a feed from the sound board.” “Would the talent be willing to hold a hand held mike or stand or sit right in front of a mike on a stand?”
Some times the best we can do is set up a cordless mike aimed at a powered speaker and let it record both the live boomy sound coming out of it along with the ambient noise of the event. I find event organizers are usually pretty happy with this “live” recording. I’m not. Other times, I find the talent is willing to hold a cordless mike. You get drop offs when the talent misdirects the mike, but it works pretty well. If we not only have the talent’s cooperation but some extra time for set up, a lav will allow them more physical freedom, but you really need that extra set-up time.

I always find it interesting when there is a live news interview with a hot breaking story and there are like 20+ news teams surrounding the poor subject. It’s a mass of boom poles and handheld recorders, all vying for position really close to the subject. Now if you could just zoom the mike the way you zoom your camera, well then, documentaries would feel more like documentaries and run and gun would be just that.

OSX 10.5.7; MAC Book PRO (EARLY 2008); Camcorders: Sony Z7U, Canon HV30, Sony vx2000/PD170, Canon xl2; Pana, Sony, and Canon consumer cams; FCP certified; write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.

[Ty Ford]

Craig,

Thanks for the editorial! 🙂

And usually these are the same people who complain that the sound person screwed the pooch of the audio.

When I run into sound problems that I think are problematic, I give the headphones to the person in charge and say, “here’s what I’m hearing. so you hear the X? Is that OK with you or do we need to do something about it? If you want to get better sound, here’s what needs to happen.”

That way it’s their call, not mine.

Regards,

Ty Ford

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