[Craig Alan]

How does the auto mixer work when two talents speak at once? On this show they have a lot of kidding and interrupting each other where one talent will lean into the other’s space. That’s when I thought the 3:1 would be violated. Is an auto mixer too expensive for the show you are doing? Sorry to be a pest but I’m really interested in how this is done properly because I am asked to shoot table meetings. Would a single omin hung in the middle of the table do the trick?

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[Craig Alan]

[Ty Ford] “Hanging blankets requires noise abatement, not acoustic treatment, which is what blankets would provide.
“

I don’t follow this. Wouldn’t blocking sound from the outside and absorbing sound so as to prevent echo be a good thing. Isn’t this treatment?

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[Craig Alan]

So if you had a larger table and each talent had their own lapel and sent to an individual channel you should be ok. On Dancing with the Stars the judges look to me to be pretty close but they are facing in the same direction not angled at each other.

Can’t only one channel be active at any given moment? And toggled between the active speaker. You’d still pick up sound from whoever starts talking since they are so close. My point being that if i had someone with your skill I’d design the shots with sound as a variable. I mean the show is basically dialog. Sound is the most important aspect of the recording.

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[Craig Alan]

Thanks very helpful. If you were trying to feature a female voice with a sweet tone and a decent dynamic range over the instruments would you use schleps mk41 cmc6 with pop filter from above or an E6/sennheiser G3 or a shure dynamic/xlr?

Also what angle/distance are you using from above.

Also I think on my next try I will hang some blankets on either side of the talent because the studio is not sound treated and we are picking up b.g. noise.

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[Craig Alan]

I have followed the 3:1 rule. But never really understood it well. You are correct the google search covers it in detail. Sorry can’t imagine hiring an audio pro and not letting them handle the audio. Audio is by far the most unforgiving of all the production crafts. And the most critical.

So how do you mike the group facing each other around the table?

Now that I think about it, I’ve seen a lot of shows when a group is at a table together they use a very long table and usually there is a ‘reason’ at least one member is standing off to the side. Or they cut between close ups. But that is scripted. How would you handle the three judges or singers all facing the camera, sitting next to each other?

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[Craig Alan]

[Richard Crowley] “2) Are you violating the 3:1 rule? Each microphone must be at least 3x farther from the other source as from its own source (the subject’s mouth)”

Is this a ballpark rule of thumb or is this based on some hard wave form analysis? Just curious. Obviously your source needs to be much closer to the mike other wise background noise dominates the audio. But I have not heard that it produces tinny or any other characteristic sound other than noisy.

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[Craig Alan]

Well certainly make sure your camera is set to mike level phantom power. Plug in a good set of monitoring headphones (Sony MDR-7506). Make sure you are recording the XLR mike to both channels. It might be recording the mike to one channel and the internal mike to another. While listening try different recording levels and the ATT or not. Reread Peters post. If the ATT setting doesn’t help, an xlr pad is not expensive. Remember a $1500 camera doesn’t come with a high end audio recorder. The first attack could overpower the audio circuits and sound harsh. You have to experiment with these prosumer level devices to find a sweet spot. Get your mike close to the source. Use a shock mount. It’s a good mike so my guess is that the camera’s recorder is what is not handling the load. I find that on cheaper cameras you need to trust your ears and not assume that a certain level is good just because it plays well on pro equipment.

How high do you need to set your camera’s audio gain? It could be that if you need to go past 12 o’clock on the dial that the preamp just sounds bad. You should consider a small mixer like the SD 302. It will help a lot. It will outlive your camera. Set up your camera and fix your mike on a boom pole. aim at a constant audio recording and experiment with the settings and gain. Monitor with headphones. Learn where the sweet spots are and where the sound falls apart. Try different distances from the source.

Be aware that the headphone output on these cameras aren’t great. so some noise is going to be added to the signal. But what sounds best even with that noise is what is best. Not sure muddy is the same as clipping.

You might want to post an audio file so the pros here can offer suggestions. The only reason I’m chiming is is because these guys tend not to use less expensive gear. But they do know their craft. So give them a chance to hear what you are up against.

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[Craig Alan]

I mean if you output a line level signal then you need a line level input. For example if your mixer sends a line level signal to your recorder or camcorder then the camcorder or recorder input needs to be set at line level. If there is a mismatch then you can get distortion. And yes there are different flavors of line level. You can mix these within a chain. You can go mike level into your mixer and line level out your mixer.

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[Craig Alan]

You might consider banks of LED’s with a lighting panel where you can dial in different colors. Its hard to control but so are your dancers. You could wash the scene with different colors for very dramatic effects.

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[Craig Alan]

just found this

https://www.macworld.com/article/2357401/how-apple-and-beats-could-shake-up-the-streaming-music-scene.html

Fred Jacobs agrees, noting that the Beats deal gives Apple access to the creative drive and iconic status of Beats’ leaders Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre. And Jacobs knows a little bit about star power, having pioneered the “Classic Rock” radio format 30 years ago. These days, he’s president of the radio consultancy Jacobs Media and writer of its radio blog.

“None of the other music streaming services have the same celebrity-driven aura of Beats,” Jacobs said. “This gives Beats—and now Apple—something that Pandora and Spotify just do not have.”

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