[Bob Kessler]

Do it initially as 44.1kHz. There are plenty of programs that will convert from 44.1kHz (and many other formats) to MP3. Then your client will have a good quality version if he ever ned it in the future.

Peace,

Bob
____________________________________________________________________
Filmmaking is the art of the invisible;
If anyone notices your work you haven’t done your job right.

[Bob Kessler]

SoundDogs has many of the major sound libraries, and you can audition and purchase the sounds individually. I know that it’s time consuming, but just audition lots of sound from each category and see which library has the things that you like and order the whole library. If you have the budget Sound Ideas offers large collections on hard drives, and will custom load a drive with the libraries you specify; pricey, but you save money in relative terms.

The Big Whoosh collections are popular; there are six of them. The very overused Hanna-Barbera cartoon library is available for “goofy” stuff. BlastWave and Hollywood Edge both have some very nice varied and specific collections.

Peace,

Bob
____________________________________________________________________
Filmmaking is the art of the invisible;
If anyone notices your work you haven’t done your job right.

[Bob Kessler]

Well, you still haven’t mentioned a budget.

I use Pro Tools LE as my DAW with the DIGI002 as my interface.

For VO/Vocal work I use both the Neumann TLM-103 and the AKG 414BUL/S mics. (I have a number of other mics for other purposes).

I own the Focusrite Vocalmaster Pro as my mic pre/channel strip. (If I had the budget I would probably get an Avalon or a Summit pre, although nice things are coming out all the time.)

I own Mackie HR824 speakers. (If I had the budget I would probably get Genelecs or JBLs.)

I put A LOT of time and money into isolating and and treating my room.

Peace,

Bob
____________________________________________________________________
Filmmaking is the art of the invisible;
If anyone notices your work you haven’t done your job right.

[Bob Kessler]

You’ll find vehement opinions regarding gear in both directions; everyone has their personal favorites and pet hates.

What you most need to consider is the recording space itself; you need QUIET!!! Sound isolation and treatment are very important. A far as the gear you want equipment with low self noise. You want speakers that are flat and give an accurate representation of what you are listening to. These day most processing is done in-the-box, so you don’t really need racks of processing gear any more.

You also need to consider the type of “talent” that you will encounter. Experienced VO artists, narrators, etc. have solid mic technique. If you are using less experienced people you will probably be grateful for a more forgiving mic.

Peace,

Bob
____________________________________________________________________
Filmmaking is the art of the invisible;
If anyone notices your work you haven’t done your job right.

[Bob Kessler]

Is the wireless VHF or UHF? VHF does tend to be more susceptible to random RF hits, and is also more susceptible to drop-outs when something comes between the transmitter and the receiver. If/when you upgrade get UHF and something of better quality than Samson.

Peace,

Bob
____________________________________________________________________
Filmmaking is the art of the invisible;
If anyone notices your work you haven’t done your job right.

[Bob Kessler]

If you don’t want to “sacrifice quality for price” your best bet is to hire someone who knows what they are doing. There is much, much more than having the “right” gear. There is boom technique, lav technique, signal flow, gain-staging, etc. Once you get into post and find out the audio is terrible it’s much too late, especially with a documentary; you have no choice but to live with what you have. And poor production sound has killed more projects than any other technical reason.

As far as recorders here are the usual suspects – Nagra LB, Sound Devices 722, Edirol R-4, Marantz PMD-671, Marantz PMD661, Fostex FR-2LE, Tascam HD-P2.

Cheaper than that they are hobbyist/prosumer units.

Peace,

Bob
____________________________________________________________________
Filmmaking is the art of the invisible;
If anyone notices your work you haven’t done your job right.

[Bob Kessler]

Everyones work flow is a little different, but I have individual sessions for dialog editing, ADR recording/editing, Foley recording/editing, sound fX recording/editing and music/score editing. Once all of the editing is completed I pull the results into a master session. On complicated projects I may also do pre-dubs/pre-mixes. Then there are the final mix sessions broken down by reels, and a last “master” session where the reels are put into sequence. On a feature project I can have dozens of individual sessions since the component recording/editing sessions are also broken down by reel. (i.e 01:00:00 – 01:20:00 for dialog, ADR, Foley, sound FX, ambience, music/score ** 01:20:00 – 01:38:00 for dialog, ADR, Foley, sound FX, ambience, music/score ** etc.)

I can easily use up a terrabyte for a feature films audio sessions. “Hollywood” projects, of course, can use up a dozen terrabytes or more for the audio alone.

Peace,

Bob
____________________________________________________________________
Filmmaking is the art of the invisible;
If anyone notices your work you haven’t done your job right.

[Bob Kessler]

As long as you are paying for it you can request anything that you want, within reason. A detailed contract is always the best way to go about this. You’ll probably want, in addition to the mix (specify the format), all the individual stems (dialog, Foley, sound FX, music) and perhaps an M&E (music and effects). You should also request all of the work and mix sessions, just be prepared to have everything transfered it to your own hard drive.

Peace,

Bob
____________________________________________________________________
Filmmaking is the art of the invisible;
If anyone notices your work you haven’t done your job right.

[Bob Kessler]

I haven’t done any production sound work since the days of DAT recorders, although I still use digital recorders for collecting sound effects.

My understanding is that many production sound folks are using Boom Recorder on a laptop if they are not using dedicated multitrack production sound recorders like Sound Devices, Zaxcom, etc.

Peace,

Bob
____________________________________________________________________
Filmmaking is the art of the invisible;
If anyone notices your work you haven’t done your job right.

[Bob Kessler]

All things considered, the AT897 and NTG2 are very similar. If you recorded exactly the same source at the same time I think that most people would not hear the difference.

The NTG3 does sound better, even to about half of the “average listeners” out there. The other big difference is that, unlike the AT897 and NTG2 which both can be powered by a battery, the NTG3 can only be powered by external phantom power. So if you are using a budget recorder like the H4n or DR-100 you will go through batteries like crazy; you’ll need fresh batteries about every 90 to 120 minutes. So you will either have to invest in many sleeves of batteries, battery packs, a separate phantom power supply (one more potential problem on the set) or get a new digital audio recorder.

IMHO you would not really hear an appreciable difference between the AT897 or NTG2 and the NTG3 if you are not using at least a prosumer recorder like the HD-P2, FR2 or PMD-661 with their better quality preamps and AD/DA convertors.

All of the technical cow dung aside, quality production sound lies heavily on the skills of the boom-op. If you have a good boom-op you will get solid production sound with even a low budget mic like the AT897 or NTG2; if you’re handing the boom to an inexperienced PA or mounting it on the camera it won’t matter how much you spend on the mic.

Peace,

Bob
____________________________________________________________________
Filmmaking is the art of the invisible;
If anyone notices your work you haven’t done your job right.