Bruce Watson
Forum Replies Created
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The change from 25 fps to 24 fps is less than 5%. Even with music the change in pitch would probably not be noticed. With dialog it likely will be very difficult to tell the difference. But if it bugs you, nearly all DAWs now have tools to let you change the length of a section without effecting pitch. But listen to it first; you might decide you don’t need to bother.
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So now I’m in the market for a wireless transmitter and/or receiver system (~ $1300 – $1500 budget) that is capable of capturing wireless audio from a long distance – from the radio booth on the upper floors of a college football stadium all the way down to the field. We have a set of Sennheiser wireless mic sets that have ALMOST worked in some cases, but for the most part it’s totally useless.
They aren’t totally useless; far from it. It’s just that you are trying to use them for a task outside their design. Wrong tool for the job.
There are basically two companies, Lectrosonics and Zaxcom, who have equipment that will do what you require. These are the two (in the US anyway) that are really into getting the signal from point A to point B without interference. Neither offers a low end product that competes with the Sennheiser evolution g3 100 series, because their normal customers can’t tolerate the compromises that price range requires. So their bottom end equipment is considerably more expensive than the bottom end sennheiser gear.
Something else to think about: When the stadium is full, how many cell phones do you think are present and active? Think anyone is live tweeting the game? Facebooking pix? I’m just saying that a modern football stadium is a huge bowl full of RF interference. You’re going to need a Lectro or Zaxcom to cut through all that and give you a clear signal that you can use, especially at 100 meters.
If you decide to buy new Lectro or Zaxcom units, my advice is to stay with frequencies in the lower than 600MHz band (block 22 and lower). Why? FCC is in the process of taking away spectrum above 600MHz. If you buy in the 600s, you can only use it for the next few years. You’ve been warned.
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Definitely sounds like RF interference. Your mic is *never* the only wireless operating — there are cell phones everywhere (walls don’t stop them), and all kinds of electronic things are poorly behaved and generate lots of RF junk that they spread around the frequencies. Fixing it in post is difficult to impossible, because it’s being reproduced using the same audible frequencies that you are trying to capture. Removing it is like trying to remove the salt from a cake after you’ve baked it. Not hap’nin’.
To prevent in the future, always run a scan of available frequencies with your G3 receiver. There’s almost always a frequency or three that are completely open right were you are at the time. Use one of those, and monitor every second of your capture. If you hear anything like this again, stop, rescan, resync your transmitter and receiver, and proceed. It’s the price you pay for wireless I’m afraid.
Of course, if you can, use wires instead of radios. It’s nearly impossible to have this problem with balanced XLR cables running from a wired lav to your mixer, and your sound quality will be a bit better as a bonus.
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That’s remarkable Mr. Ford. Was the mic in “dialog position” (just out of frame and out in front of the mouth a foot or so, pointing at the mouth at about a 45 degree angle), or was it pointed more at his chest, or where? I never would have thought to use a hypercardiod like this for singing. Clearly an inspired choice.