[Clyde Villegas]

I didn’t hear anything bad when both are powered. But will that damage the mic or the recorder?

ut in omnibus glorificetur Deus

[Clyde Villegas]

By the way, I remember that the sound assistant turned on the power on the ME66/K6 while the H4n has it’s phantom power turned on at +48. Is this the right way of doing it? I know that if you turn on the mic, you need to turn off the H4n’s phantom power.

ut in omnibus glorificetur Deus

[Clyde Villegas]

Thanks Richard! I love how the shotgun sounds but aside from being expensive, they cannot be used on wide shots. The wireless lavs look like they will work on any situation, except for one: run and gun interviews where I can’t ask the interviewees to hide the mics in their clothes. Last month, I was hired to shoot interviews of generals in an Asian military show. You can’t hold them for more than two minutes, and it’s impossible to ask them to put a hidden mic inside their uniforms. We used a Sennheiser ME66/K6 and it was good enough (in terms of gain level with the H4n). Though I still want something more directional to reject more noise from the crowd (is there something more directional than the Sennheiser ME66/K6 at that price range?).

Thanks David for letting me know about the Sankin COS-11D. Will check that out.

ut in omnibus glorificetur Deus

[Clyde Villegas]

The doctor that I’ll shoot will be sitting all the time on a chair so I’ll just put the boom on a c-stand. No need for an operator to follow her.

I could have simply hired an audio guy (with own equipment) to handle this but budget is a major consideration. I have to make this work even with a super low budget (they had the bulk of the budget in post because the video’s heavy in motion graphics and animation). My plan is when things go from bad to worse, I’ll just have to look for better rooms to shoot (within the building). I will also bring in a pro lav mic as backup. Will also consider buying an H5.

ut in omnibus glorificetur Deus

[Clyde Villegas]

Thanks a lot Richard!

But about my method #3, in your experience, is this done less than methods #1 and 2 when miking two or three people? I feel that I should ONLY do this when two people are too far apart to use just one mic.

This is the reason why I generally use wireless lav mics (I can count on the fingers the projects I’ve done using shotguns). It’s adaptable to more situations. Though I think shotguns mics in general have fuller sound.

ut in omnibus glorificetur Deus

[Clyde Villegas]

Thanks Brian, I really appreciate your help. Yes, we monitor all the time. It’s just that we can’t do a lot of trial-and-error once we get there.

A year ago, we once shot in the same location and I got really annoying buzzing sound (good thing I was able to fix that in post). We were using a wired lav back then. It’s a highly restricted pharmaceutical research lab so it’s kinda difficult to get in and out to test equipment. Not to mention that we cannot test unless we already paid for the equipment rentals. In other words, we will need to pay for the rentals of several different equipment for the trial and error so we can bring them all in inside the lab. Yes, there will always be trial and error but if I can already weed out several obviously wrong options before renting equipment, that would be very helpful =)

ut in omnibus glorificetur Deus

[Clyde Villegas]

Thanks, I’ll do that. Do you think looping the unused part of the cable will somehow help (or add to the problem)?

ut in omnibus glorificetur Deus

[Clyde Villegas]

Thanks Brian! Do you think office fluorescent lights (with ballast) will affect interference? Though this is less of a problem because I can switch them off (except for other office rooms beside it). Will just use studio lights (LED, CFLs, and tungsten).

ut in omnibus glorificetur Deus

[Clyde Villegas]

Thanks for the info, David.

ut in omnibus glorificetur Deus

[Clyde Villegas]

I’ve used that microphone before but I failed to ask for the model. It’s a sennheiser with battery. I remember it has a very long cable, probably about 3-4 meters. Will that affect sound quality (or get interference noise from other electrical equipment) if it gets unbalanced?

ut in omnibus glorificetur Deus