Bruce Watson
Forum Replies Created
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[Victor Arevalo] “…was looking for other ways of shooting glass and maybe some good techniques to cut reflection.”
Best source I know is for still photography, but the principles are the same for video. That would be a book with the odd title “Light Science and Magic” by Fil Hunter and Paul Fuqua. Book has an entire chapter for glass.
I got more out of this book than I did out of all my other books, classes, and instructors. If you want to understand photography / video, you have to understand light. This book will even help nature photographers who work outdoors without artificial lights.
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[Jonathan Hardison] “Does everyone always use a de-hiss, de-noiser or some other cleanup tool in post?”
I’m using my MixPre-D with Oscar SoundTech 802 lavs (almost always with the OST XLR power supply, but when there’s no other way I use Sennheiser G3 radios with the 802s), an AT 4053b, a Sennheiser MKH 416, and an E-V RE50N/D-B dynamic reporter’s mic. Serviceable stuff, but clearly not state-of-the-art. I typically take the output from the MixPre-D’s unbalanced mic output directly into camera (if the cameras could take XLR line-in, I would, but they can’t). But I calibrate the main camera with the MixPre-D’s 1kHz tone resulting in negligible noise from the camera.
After I figured out how to set my system up, do proper gain staging on it, and record dialog well (mic placement), I’ve never needed to remove hiss from my dialog. I have used de-noise applications/plugins for unwanted background noise (HVAC, traffic, etc.), but not to remove any pre-amp hiss from either MixPre-D or camera, or for that matter microphone self noise. Never had a client mention it, ask for it, or complain about it.
IMHO, the least likely source of hiss is your MixPre-D. And SD has given your unit a clean bill of health. Time to start looking other places.
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[Tarik Fouda] “What’s the best way to do this? I was hoping I could do it with my Sennheiser wireless transmitter/receivers so as not to buy a whole new set of gear,…”
Sennheiser makes the SKP 300 G3 for this. Works with your standard G3 receiver.
That said, wireless should be a last resort. This thing can’t sound as good, be as reliable, and is way more expensive, than a simple XLR cable. You know that, right?
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[Jonathan Hardison] “I get the same noise with or without a mic.”
Really? Because there’s a world of difference between an open circuit and a low impedance microphone. A microphone is low impedance so that real physical current flows in the wires going to the mic. The micpre the microphone is connected to typically has a higher impedance so that this current can develop sufficient voltage that the micpre has something to amplify. Without this voltage across the input to the micpre, the micpre is operating outside its design specifications. Said another way, without an input voltage, the output of the micpre is largely undefined.
I’m just saying that you can’t meaningfully “set a baseline” for a micpre using an open circuit.
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[Jonathan Hardison] “Can anyone confirm that this is normal operation for this device, or should I get it serviced?”
It’s not normal to “use” the unit without a mic, no. Try using a mic before you decide it’s defective.
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[Luke O'Brien] “I was guessing something could have acted up because of the batteries. There is 2 receivers (they were at full 3 bars and the other at 2 bars), but yes indeed there are rechargeable batteries since we had a massive bag of 50 dead batteries, we thought of going with rechargeable batteries. Can you tell me more about why it’s not a good option for these G3s?”
Voltage. Rechargeables in general can’t deliver the voltage needed. I read that the Eneloop rechargeables seem to work reasonably well. When they are fully charged. And if they’ve been charged properly using a good recharger.
If the problem just occurred when you changed both wireless systems over to rechargeables, there ya go. If not, I’d be looking at the Beachtek. It may exhibit similar behavior with rechargeables, IDK.
More information:
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[Luke O'Brien] “Is it a frequency problem?”
Probably has nothing to do with frequency; this doesn’t sound like any RFI I’ve heard before. Sounds like maybe a range problem, also possibly companders acting weird. Both of those point to either low battery (what battery are you using and how fresh is it?), or difficulty maintaining signal (where are the antennas, both transmitter and receiver?).
Could also be lose connections just about anywhere (antennas, mic cables, batteries, receiver to recorder cables, etc.).
What people are saying about your gain staging are true. But that’s probably not your immediate problem. But it could also be pointing toward a battery problem, as can this:
[Luke O'Brien] “but even within the same take it could gradually become glitchy.”
So… trouble shooting. If both channels did this at the same time it’s really unlikely that the problem is the wireless mics. More likely is a single point of failure in the recording chain somewhere. For example, if both channels feed into a single recorder, look there first. Check to make sure it’s getting good power, has clean connections, is set correctly for what you’re doing, etc. If you can, try another recorder (even if it’s just a mic feed into a camera). If the problem goes away, you have your answer. If not, start checking the two channels against each other.
If the recorder has been cleared, then pick a channel, make a change, compare to the other channel. First thing, start with fresh Alkalines in one channel. Not rechargeables. Alkalines. Replace the four in one channel, see how it sounds compared to the other channel. If it’s the same, it’s not likely a power problem, so keep looking.
Just for completeness, what is your entire recording chain? Two G3s, yes. What else? Mixer? Recorder? What levels? Balanced or unbalanced? Give us all the juicy details please.
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[Ty Ford] “But might or might not pick up more ceiling bounce…”
Always a tradeoff when recording in a small room. I’ve learned to dread 8ft ceilings, but that’s mostly a waste of time/effort and unproductive. You have to work with what you’ve got to work with.
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[Ashwin Ganesh] “I get a lot of bass at around 160hz”
The mic positioning is pretty standard booming position so it’s a good starting point.
The 160Hz seems like it might be a room mode.
If I did the calculations correctly, that’s a wave length of a little more than 2m. Easy enough to check maybe — just move your setup 50+cm in some direction or other. If it’s a room mode, that 160Hz bass peak should change. But if it’s a room mode, you’ll probably find that you have found one or more other peaks/dips caused by other room modes at other frequencies. This is the peril of recording sound in a small room.
Where is the microphone located between the floor and the ceiling? About the worst place would be half way, and that’s probably where most people want to work when sitting (mic position in the 140-150 cm range from the floor). Standing would raise that up, and get you out of one of the primary room modes. Just a thought…
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I love a language barrier. 😉 I apologize for my failure to be more clear. I’m going to try to do better below, but if I’m not clear, ask more questions.
One thing at a time — you were trying to make a choice between two shotgun mics. Not lavaliers. This discussion is only about condenser mics designed for booming. That is, on the end of a boom pole, typically over the head of the person you want to record and in front of them, with the microphone pointed directly at their mouth. When possible a boomed microphone should be 45-60cm from the speaker’s mouth. Usually the farther away the microphone is from the source, the worse it sounds.
While it’s true that shotguns have a microphone capsule that is typically a hypercardioid or supercardioid, that capsule has an interference tube in front of it to make it even more directional than the capsule by itself. It’s the interference tube that becomes problematic when used near surfaces that reflect the direct sound. One way around this is to eliminate the interference tube. That is, to go to a hypercardioid condenser mic like the Sennheiser MKH 8050, the AT 4053b, and the Audix SCX1/HC.
All of this is just speculation anyway. If you could post a sound sample we could better understand what you mean by: “previous videos were spoiled just because of poor audio”. If we understand better, we can perhaps offer better suggestions on how to improve your audio captures.