[Bob Kessler]

I don’t know of any cameras that record 5.1 sound, so a new camera won’t make any difference. In fact there are only a very few mics that can record surround at all, the cheapest I know of costing around $3k; and you will still need a six channel audio recorder to capture all six channels.

Peace,

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

[Bob Kessler]

Are you expecting Vegas to automatically turn your stereo mix into 5.1? It doesn’t work that way in Vegas or any other NLE or DAW.

There are plug-ins that supposedly will give a stereo mix a little 5.1 depth, although from what I’ve heard they really don’t work very well. You can use a 5.1 reverb and send the reverb return to the rear surrounds for some spaciousness, but that is not the same as a 5.1 mix.

What actually happens is the individual audio elements of a multitrack audio mix are individually panned around the 5.1 (7.1, etc.) spectrum during the rerecording process.

Peace,

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

[Bob Kessler]

There are a whole bunch of working professionals here that can give you more detailed answers.

An audio dynamics processor is usually used is to reduce dynamic range. It can limit how loud the sound will go. It can increase the (apparent) volume of quiet sounds. It can do both at the same time, compressing the dynamic range. The range can be very wide – the quiet sounds are only a little louder and the loud sounds are only a little softer – or very narrow, to the point where the loudest and softest sounds are the same volume. Many radio stations do this and it is often referred to as “Steamroller” compression. The overall volume of the compressed dynamic range can be increased or decreased.

You could set up a series of pre-sets for the half dozen or so situations that will probably be regular occurrences, but there are no “set it and forget it” compressor settings that will solve all problems; dynamics processing will still have to be applied on a case-by-case basis. When using audio compressor/limiters you have to be aware that, even though they can increase/decrease the overall volume of a piece of audio it also increases the accompanying noise of low audio levels, and can create unpleasant “pumping and breathing” with hot level audio.

Peace,

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

[Bob Kessler]

And besides a budget are you doing sit-down interviews, ENG style run ‘n’ gun, “reality” style, high risk “embedded”? Are you on the ocean, in the desert, in the city? And do you have a sound man or are you on your own?

What, where and how you are shooting will also dictate your equipment choices.

Peace,

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

[Bob Kessler]

Okay, a couple of things…

I don’t know anything about you, but have to assume that you are a “general” videographer.

First, I recommend renting because there is no single mic that can “do it all”; you rent what you need for each given situation. Second, mics for musical applications don’t work well as production sound mics; they’re too bulky and too heavy to be used on location, and, conversely, production sound mics aren’t really the best choice for musical applications. Third, some places allow you to apply some or all of your rental fees towards your eventual purchase.

Another consideration is that in your projected scenario you can only have one continuous take; your artist, no matter how good he is, will not be able to give you “perfect” enough performances to allow for audio edits as you change angles (or whatever), and if you have him turning while performing that will change the quality of the audio mid-performance because the mic positions keep changing.

So I would still recommend that you rent two mics, plug them into your camera, record the music only, burn a CD, stick it in a boom-box, and shoot like a regular music video. You will have better sound quality and more visual shooting and editing options.

Peace,

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

[Bob Kessler]

Rather than buying a mic why not rent?

In fact, why isn’t it being shot like other music videos – syncing to the playback?

[Bob Kessler]

It varies from project to project, but that’s the general idea. I have a basic template and modify according to project needs.

I have lots of other sessions for editing dialog, ADR, doing Foley, cutting sound FX, editing music, etc. and import the results into the master assembly and mix session. Since I work in PTLE I have to – well used to – keep an eye on track count, and I still have to keep an eye on the number of plug-ins and processing power since PTLE is a native platform.

[Bob Kessler]

Mine is different from others, but the organizational basics are the same for all of us.

Dx1
Dx2
Dx3
DX4

ADR1
ADR2

DxF1 (Phones, etc.)

Pfx1 Mono (Production FX)
Pfx2 Mono

Foley1
Foley2
Foley3
Foley4
Foley5

Fx1 Mono
Fx2 Mono
Fx3 Mono
Fx4 Mono
Fx5 Stereo

Bg1 Mono
Bg2 Mono
Bg3 Mono
Bg4 Stereo
Bg5 Stereo

SrcM1 (Source Music)
SrcM2

Mx1 (Score)
Mx2

DX Sub
Foley Sub
FX Sub
BG Sub
Music Sub

Verb1
Verb2

Master

A lot will depend upon your track count. I have to limit myself for PTLE. If you have tracks to spare you can have a dialog track and multiple Foley tracks for each character. Films like the LOTR trilogy had an entire 256 track PTHD system for each stem – so 256 tracks each for dialog, Foley, Sound FX, and score; over 1,000 tracks.

[Bob Kessler]

But you still haven’t answered my questions.

Is the mic going to be placed on a stand or handled by an interviewer?

Is the person speaking standing in one spot or moving around?

What’s your budget?

[Bob Kessler]

The Shure SM63 is more like the interview mics you see newscasters use; about the same price as the SM-57. Also the Electro Voice 635A and the Audio Technica AT8004L in the same price range. They are all omnis so should be fairly forgiving directionally. I’ve never used any of them, so only anecdotal info on my part.