Bruce Watson
Forum Replies Created
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[Dale Cornibe] “Would anyone recommend, as a substitute, the Sennheiser ME65/K6 combo”
The MKH50 is excellent, the MKH8050 is arguably better. But if you’re after the biggest bang for the buck at about half that price, I’d be looking at the AT 4053b or the Audix SCX1-HC. These have been thoroughly vetted by the indy video crowd; they are the go-to mics for the people who can’t afford the MKH8050.
Can’t say anything one way or the other about the ME65/K6, but it’s designed to be handheld, not boomed.
[Dale Cornibe] “I’ve tried that same shotgun indoors and got sound reflections…”
You’re going to “get” reflections no matter what mic you use. The problem with shotguns and reflections is due to the interference tube and how it reacts to rapid reflections of your source coming off nearby surfaces. If the time of arrival of your direct sound and the time of arrival of the reflections are close together the result can be comb filtering artifacts. That’s probably what you were hearing.
A hypercardioid or supercardioid pattern hears the same reflections as a similarly placed shotgun. But the hyper simply attenuates sound that is out-of-pattern compared to the sound coming from in-pattern (where you are pointing the mic). So, no comb filtering artifacts.
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[inanc tekguc] “I tend to use rechargeable batteries that have at least 2/3 on them (mainly because I want to make an environmentally less damaging choice). I didn’t know they could be bad choices for transmitters/receivers. I mostly use Ansmann or Eneloop pro…”
The Eneloops are OK, but they should be fully charged every time you use them. The problem with rechargeables is that they don’t offer the same voltage level as a fresh alkaline. But the Eneloops do get good reviews and are used by professional sound mixers.
[inanc tekguc] “I did the frequency check once, so I guess I should do it more often?”
You absolutely should. Things change.
[inanc tekguc] “Someone also suggested that it could be my transmitter’s volume is too high and it causes overmodulation (new concept to me) by the time it reaches to Zoom, which brings the peaks down to a safe level but keeps the distortion. When I checked the transmitter settings it was at -6Db. I moved it to -18Db.”
This is probably part of your problem. Look up the concept of gain staging. Clipping anywhere in the chain stays in the chain, no matter what your recording levels are. You are probably clipping the transmitter on the high-energy sibilants at the higher settings. That said, you don’t want to set it too low either, because of the corollary of the above: noise anywhere in the chain stays in the chain. I’m just sayin’ don’t guess at the settings. Spend the time to learn what works in your workflow.
[inanc tekguc] “I am adding another short piece that has the same distortion even when the person is not speaking or moving much.”
What Mr. Ford said about blocking and walking around people with cellphones. It’s always best if you can avoid moving the receiver, and can prevent anything from blocking line-of-sight between transmitter and receiver.
Everything we are talking about here is why I continually advise people that wireless is a last resort. Not a first. Last. Because it’s full of problems, and the laws of physics aren’t ever on the side of wireless. A cheap XLR cable is always going to sound better, be infinitely cheaper, and be way more reliable.
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[Ty Ford] “I saw a lot of gear and a lot of people at AES/NYC last week. Here’s an ongoing report.”
So, what about this new Samar VL37A? Did Mr. Fouxman give you any idea on a ship date? Price? Are you going to obtain one to compare to the passive version? I’m just sayin’ it would be nice if you could test both versions at the same time to answer the question of how the active’s amp changes the sound, if at all.
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First sample, it sounds like an RF hit of some kind. Interestingly isolated. You did do a frequency scan before picking a frequency, yes?
Second sample sounds like a similar RF hit, but since it’s a sibilant which already has a fair amount of energy in it, your speaker might just be overloading the mic/transmitter. But that should sound more like clipping than this does. Still, you might want to check your gain staging to make sure you aren’t clipping something in the chain.
There are myriad sources of RFI in any environment, from fluorescent lighting fixtures to cell phones and pagers. And myriad ways for said RFI to get into your signal chain. Connectors, unbalanced cables, even the microphone itself can all provide paths for RFI.
That said, I sorta discount the idea of bad connectors here since your speaker is hardly moving when these sounds hit. I also discount the idea of clothing rustle being a part of this since the mic is above the cloths and the speaker is hardly moving — what’s to rustle?
What about battery levels? Fresh batteries in both the transmitter and receiver? I’m not talking rechargeables either. Only a few rechargeable brands can deliver sufficient power for radio mics. When in doubt, use fresh alkalines.
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[Ty Ford] “Bruce’s answer is right, but I do the math differently.”
Differently, and correctly. Sigh… I fixed my post. Thanks for the correction.
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[Josea Balzack] “Any idea on the value?”
Depends on the production. I would imagine that someone needs it. But that’s more of a set decoration thing than a lighting thing. And as a practical light, this would be practically worthless.
Sorry. Couldn’t resist.
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[Larry Watts] “Premiere can’t turn it into dual mono tracks at the timeline.”
Have you tried this?: https://www.premiumbeat.com/blog/stereo-to-dual-mono-premiere-pro/
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[Joao Luis] “This being the case, what is the best way to capture both stereo ambient sound and dialogue in this scenario?”
The best way is to capture dialog separately from everything else. The way Hollywood does it. You now know why they insist on doing it separately. And you’ve probably figured out that there really is no way to do a good job capturing both at the same time.
That said you can try delaying the lav tracks a bit. Sound in standard conditions travels at around 0.12 m/millisecond, so if you’re a couple of meters apart, try a delay of 4-6 milliseconds. This might help if you’re recording either outside, or in a large space. If you’re in a small space, the boxy sound is “small room sound” cause by rapid reflections off room surfaces and all you can do about that is drop the “ambient sound” tracks from the mix. Sad but true.
[Joao Luis] “Should I just ditch the audio from the camera-mounted mic in these shots?”
Probably what you end up doing, yeah.
EDIT: Fixed my units. Only off by three orders of magnitude. Easy catch inside a DAW. But just using my brain, well….
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[Matthew Richie] “The mic in question has also had a rough go of it traveling through deserts, jungles, and cow pastures. Could this just be the result of rough handling?”
Yes, it could. You can wear out a mic cable, absolutely.
In my experience, roughly 80% of electrical problems occur at connectors. I’d be looking at the connector on the end of your mic cable, and the cable itself. I’d also try to find a known good mic and use that and see if the problem reoccurs. If it does not, the problem is your existing mic/cable/connector. Fix that and you’re done.
If the problem does reoccur, the problem is downstream of the mic and you probably want to keep troubleshooting. Next thing I’d do is look at the other end of the chain. Check the cable running from the receiver to the camera. That is, replace that cable and see if the noise reoccurs. If it does not, the problem is that cable. Replace and you’re done.
If the problem still happens, the cause is between those two cables. That is, your xmitter or your receiver. Check in particular the antennae on both units.
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[Grant Peacock] “buying a lav mic that you consider better performance? My needs will continue to be exclusively news and documentary type work.
I’m trying to avoid sending mics out to have their terminations altered, as we’re thin here in the DC area for tech resources that can do this in a timely manner (in fact I don’t think we have any at this point).”
I’ve got no experience with the Sony lavs, so can’t offer any help there.
You might want to consider the Oscar SoundTech 802, which is a Tram TR50 clone. OST will terminate it just about any way you want. Call them and talk to them about your application. I’ve found them to be pretty helpful.
Tram also sells its lavs with various terminations, including the Sony.