[Richard Crowley]

You might find this interesting.

https://forums.creativecow.net/thread/30/871143#871143

It is a post I made a few weeks ago about a TV series I did sound for using three different lav mics.

[Richard Crowley]

This is really an open-ended question that is almost impossible to answer. We don’t know what situations you shooting? Is there lots of action, wrestling, sword-fights, mud-wrestling? Or perhaps people sitting in a library whispering? Are you shooting in loud environments?

Your budget is ambiguous. You say you can’t afford professional sound help, but suggest that you can afford premium equipment.

I personally don’t think there is any compromise shooting with lavs (vs. booming). Others have different ideas, but it depends entirely on what your expectations of “quality” are. Shooting an internet-delivery series of short episodes is not going to have the same expectations as a theatrical blockbuster.

[Richard Crowley]

I hear ambient noise, air handler rumbling, talking in the next room, traffic noise, not great signal-to-noise ratio (of indeterminate cause), and perhaps mic placement that causes a loss of high-frequencies (“chin shading”, etc.) Impossible to really say as we don’t know what microphone you are using or where you put it.

If you are boosting the level of the dialog track during editing, perhaps your recording level is too low. Especially if you said you were changing the settings on the transmitter(?) and/or receiver(?).

Sorry I don’t know what you mean by “0 Db Into 3 Layers i.e. 3 layers of 0 Db sound”. What exactly are you saying is “0dB”? What do you mean by “3 layers”? I hear only one person speaking. What other “layers” could there be?

[Richard Crowley]

OK here is the revelation…

Ty Gibson (gray shirt) and James Rafferty (blue shirt) had the Oscar OST-801 mics.
David Asscherick (plaid shirt) had the Rode Lav, and
Jeffrey Rosario (charcoal sweater) had the MXL mic.

[Richard Crowley]

We recorded video/audio on each of five EX1 cameras (“iso”). I split the lav mics to go direct to (and phantom power from) the corresponding camera. I ran the isolated splits to my Edirol R4 (Oade brothers edition) as a backup of the four independent mic channels.

I wasn’t involved in the editing, but the editor discovered that even after syncing the video from the five cameras, there was still some timing errors (“hollow sound”) between the individual audio tracks. So he ended up muting all the camera audio and using my 4-track recording from the Edirol as the primary.

I didn’t do any mixing while shooting. I set the levels during rehearsal and just “let ‘er rip”. My job during shooting was mainly to monitor all four mic channels for movement/clothing noise, and ambient noise that was above the director’s and producer’s threshold of “acceptable”.

We were shooting in a big warehouse next door to a plywood mill and on a logging road, with a train track not 1/2 mile away. Two or three segments have quite audible rain noise on the roof of the metal building, and we had to stop shooting several times because the rain noise was so great.

As I understand it, the mix on the release copy is pretty much just the raw tracks as I recorded them. There are a few places where the editor had to tweak the overall mix level.

The mics ended up being gaff-taped to the inside of their shirts just out of sight. Except the MXL mic was taped directly to the center of the chest of the talent. For next time, I’m getting another pair of OST mics and some vampire clips to make the wardrobe changes easier.

[Richard Crowley]

Alas, we didn’t have the time/budget to do a proper (gated) mix. Not the first time you heard that, is it?

I did a manually-gated demo mix for a couple of 18-minute segments, but it was taking me 30-40 minutes per segment. As you say, there was so much cross-talk and bounce from the table that I was unable to do any sort of automated mixing/gating. Maybe I can devise (or discover) some semi-automated short-cuts for Audition to make this easier/faster?

I tried to talk them into headset mics, but they “didn’t like the look”. They didn’t even like visible lavs. Its not like we were re-creating the era of Martin Luther before the invention of the microphone(!)

[Richard Crowley]

1. NO, you cannot use a single receiver for two different transmitters. Unless it is a SPECIAL dual-channel receiver (NOT the same as “diversity”).

2&3. “Great sound” and “DSLR” never belong in the same paragraph. There are NO DSLRs that record “great sound”. For that matter, there are not even any DSLRs that record “good sound”.

4. Sennheiser G3 is generally considered to be the LOWEST-price decent-quality wireless microphone. Most models are better.

5. The letters designate different frequency bands. Different frequency bands may be better or worse in various locations. Note that if you are in North America, the “700MHz band” is no longer legal for wireless microphone use. By “700MHz band” they mean between 698 and 806 MHz. In many places (especially large cities) finding a frequency that is clear of interference is a challenge, even for a few hours at a time.

6. Transmitter and receiver pairs must be on the same frequency/channel. Note that you can use multiple receivers for a single transmitter, but NOT multiple transmitters for a single receiver. Note further that when operating multiple wireless mikes, you must coordinate the frequencies so that they don’t interfere with each other.

7. Your budget does not correlate with your stated requirement for “Great sound”. It will be a challenge to get ONE channel of a decent wireless mic and a decent recorder within your $1K budget. And, as Mr. Alan says, the mic that comes with the Sennheiser G3 is OK, but not really “good”. It would be advantageous to upgrade it when possible.

Note also that a wired microphone of the same price is ALWAYS better than a wireless. If you really want “great” sound on a budget then forget the wireless. A $15 cable is better than a $1500 wireless mic system. And $1500 is the “low-end” for professional wireless mic systems (transmitter and receiver, and then add several hundred $$$ for a decent microphone).

If I wanted a pair of lavs on a budget to produce above-average performance, I would (and HAVE) get a pair of Oscar Sound Tech OST-801 or 802 wired mics. Around $180 each.

[Richard Crowley]

1) It is not obvious whether the mic preamps in the H4N are any better (or worse) than the C100. A test with your actual equipment would be more instructive than extensive discussion form an online forum such as this one.

2) If you are using a wireless rig, then the receiver typically has adjustable output so that even a marginal camcorder mic preamp doesn’t really need any “help” from additional outboard gear (such as another mic preamp inline). Many wireless receivers can be set for LINE-level output which completely obviates the need for ANY mic presmp, inboard or outboard.

3a) It is not clear what you mean by your hypothetical about “in case the camera malfunctions or shuts or off or something…”. If the camera malfunctions or shuts off, what is the point in preserving the audio channel? If you are recording wild sound that doesn’t require camera sync, then why would the camera even be involved?

3b) Furthermore, the camera operator (or SOMEBODY) should be monitoring the audio recording AT ALL TIMES WHILE ROLLING to confirm that you are actually recording the audio you think you are getting.

(Bonus: Mounting ANY microphone on top of ANY camera is ALMOST NEVER a good place.)

[Richard Crowley]

Not clear from your information if you are looking for a one-off production, or for some ongoing activity? How good? How loud? Is this for checking dialog on “dailies”, or for review of a final mix will full-range music, etc? Local or on the road? Buy or rent? Lots more variables, etc.

[Richard Crowley]

1) Ask the hotel venue if they have a recommendation. You are probably not the first customer who needs to do something like this. If they don’t have the solution themselves, they almost certainly know the equipment rental places in the area who they have worked with before.
2) Does the hotel ballroom not have a built-in sound system? (Typically speakers in the ceiling.) Is this system adequate for the sound track of your video?
3) Where is the projector and the screen coming from? Does that same equipment source have equivalent audio equipment?

If you ask someone who is not familiar with the room (such as us!) be sure to be prepared to answer the questions:
How big is the room?
How high is the ceiling?
How dead/live is the room?
How many people in the audience?
How big is the screen?
What is the video being played on? (Specifically, what is the audio interface?)
Is there other amplified sound being used for the same program/session? (i.e. are you integrating all the sound reinforcement requirements?)