[Rodney Morris]

Hire a freelance sound mixer to do it for you. 🙂

I’m assuming you have the power supplies for these mics. If you are going direct to camera (no mixer), simply connect the mics to their respective power supplies and plug them into the XLR inputs of the camera. Make sure “mic” and “48V” phantom power are selected for each audio input on your camera (if your power supplies are battery powered then you don’t need to turn on the phantom power at the camera). Check to make sure your levels are good and wear some headphones and listen.

Rodney

Freelance Sound Technician/Mixer

[Rodney Morris]

Definitely check your frequency at the location. You could be getting interference from something locally. I’m not sure what system you are using, but if it’s Lectro then turn off the pilot tone (basically a squelch) feature at the receiver. Make sure your transmitter is turned off. See if you are getting any interference. Also, make sure that the frequencies of the two transmitters are at least .500MHz apart.

Another suggestion is to check for intermodulation issues. Turn on both receivers. Then turn on transmitter #1. Look at receiver #2 – it should not see a signal. If you do see a blip on receiver #2, then you have intermodulation issues. Repeat with transmitter #2 and receiver #1. If you have an intermodulation problem, simply change the frequency on one of the systems and recheck. Most manufacturers will provide a list of frequencies that are free from intermodulation.

I hope something in all that rambling helps.

Rodney

Freelance Sound Technician/Mixer

[Rodney Morris]

The RE-50, when new, can withstand lots of wind without overpowering wind noise. As they get older, the foam windscreen under the metal grill begins to deteriorate and wind begins to creep in. I’ve used a fairly new RE-50 in a tropical storm with wind (50 – 60 mph) and rain pelting us and it never complained. Putting a person’s back to the wind usually helps also.

As far as the lav goes, I can pretty much guarantee there was a shotgun out of frame. Networks get freaked out when they don’t SEE the mic with the reporter on a live shot. I’ve been in situations where it was windy and I knew there was absolutely no way the lav could be used. But as soon as transmission went up and the studio saw no mic, they began asking “where’s the lav!?” You can try to explain but it matters not…

The lav is often the backup, and sometimes not even plugged in, to the shotgun – especially if it’s outdoors.

Freelance Sound Technician/Mixer

[Rodney Morris]

Even degradation isn’t appropriate. If a mic’s frequency response is 40Hz – 18kHz, then the mic will reproduce these frequencies. Any frequencies outside of that range will simply not be reproduced – it doesn’t mean they will clip the mic or somehow be distorted. Also, some mics have a “flat” frequency response, which means that all the freqs in it’s response range will be reproduced fairly equally. Other mics may have a “presence” peak, which means freqs in the 2K – 5K(ish) range will be slightly more present than the other frequencies.

Hope this helps.

Rodney Morris

Freelance Sound Technician/Mixer

[Rodney Morris]

Upgrade to what? The latest LE version? Are you wanting a hardware upgrade? I haven’t upgraded in awhile because my LE version is fine for what I need. What are the limitations to your current version that you hope to improve? My advice is to visit Digi’s webpage and check out the compatibility section. This way you can be sure of your system requirements. Also, you can go ahead and register your system, but you’ll be outside of any warranty/tech support.

Freelance Sound Technician/Mixer

[Rodney Morris]

Sennheiser would be a good choice in the pro-sumer line of wireless systems and would probably work fine in this situation. I’ve used their wireless systems and they’re OK. Most of us working in TV use much more expensive Lectrosonics wireless systems because of their rock-solid performance and audio reproduction ($2K – $2.5K per system). But this may be out of your budget for now. However, if you really want much better sound you have to pay for it.

If the $40 mic sounds good to you and your clients, then it’s a good mic for your application. It really depends on your definition of good. I’ve used $2000 condenser mics and sub $100 Radio Shack boundary mics (not on the same shoot), so it really depends on the application / situation. If the mics are going to get damaged frequently and the client isn’t willing to pay for what they destroy, then the $40 mics would be OK. I’m assuming the interviews are not for broadcast. If they are, then you should be using better sounding mics.

Hope this helps.

Rodney

Freelance Sound Technician/Mixer

[Rodney Morris]

Joe, Creative Cow is a great resource. We’re always glad to help you when we can.

In all honesty, you’re not going to get much (if any) of an upgrade on the audio of the DVX100 by looking at standalone recorders in the $500 price range. You’re just creating more work yourself. I have the Zoom H4 ($300) that I like to use to record transcription and as an extreme backup to my portable ProTools system. It will record at higher sampling rates (96KHz, IIRC), but it has no time code functions. Let’s say you record a 60 minute interview using the DVX100 and the H4, by the end of the interview you’re likely to have some drift (sync) issues between audio and video.

You’d be better off spending money on a good field mixer (Sound Devices 302 for example) and upgraded mics (boom and wireless) and having a dedicated person to operate the mixer.

Rodney Morris

Freelance Sound Technician/Mixer

[Rodney Morris]

Reducing the bit rate to 8 or 10bit will not make it sound like a car radio, it will make it sound like an old computer sound file.

Are we talking vintage cars or newer cars? Rolling off the lows (start around 100Hz) and the highs (around 10K-ish) will get you close. You may want to run the audio through another compressor to squash it a little bit more. Actually, anything mastered in the last ten years is likely to have been squashed to death already, but with older stuff (say mid 90’s and back) there’s still a bit of room left.

Freelance Sound Technician/Mixer

[Rodney Morris]

I’ve gotten several calls from a local studio to fix audio in post that got screwed up in production. There’s a lot of tricks an audio pro with the right set of tools could try, but it’s not going to be pretty. It’ll be better than awful, but still bad.

Just a hint with EQ. You’ll get the best results by attenuating (cutting) trouble frequencies rather than by trying to boost missing frequencies. You can try to boost the low to mid freqs to beef up the voices, but you’ll just make a muddy mess with the room. Now if you could get a good sample of room tone, you might be able to use a noise filter to help cut down on the mud, but again there’s NO miracle plug-in/filter for this.

Are absolutely ALL the wirelesses useless? I recently fixed a scene (by the fore mentioned studio) where I was given two speaking actors on screen and only one wireless mic (the other was not recorded!!) and was able to make the two actors audio match very well.

Freelance Sound Technician/Mixer

[Rodney Morris]

Here’s my $0.02 worth.

First off, you are looking for an “active” monitoring system if you don’t want to purchase a seperate amplifier. An active monitor has the amp built in. A passive monitor is just the speaker – no amp.

Secondly, if you ask 10 people which monitors to purchase, you’re likely to get 10 different answers. It’s similar to asking a group of runners what type of shoes a person should buy. It all comes down to personal preference and how the shoe fits the foot. Similarly, most folks determine which monitor to purchase based on how the speaker sounds to them. So it becomes a very subjective proposition.

We should know a few things first before we can give a good answer.

1. What’s your budget?
2. How large is the room?
3. Is the reproduction of frequencies below 80Hz important to you?
4. Will you be creating final mixes on them? (You’ve given us an indication already)

You’ll probably end up with a good set of nearfield monitors, but they are designed to provide very good imaging in a “sweet spot” which is the point where the listener will sit in which the audio will arrive simultaneously from both speakers. To find the sweet spot, you make an equilateral triangle with the speakers and the listener’s head. If the monitors are spaced 5 feet apart and pointed diagonally towards the center, the listener’s head should be roughly 5 feet from either monitor.

I have my personal faves such as Yamaha and Adam. Others swear by Genelec. Others will swear by “insert manufacturer of choice”. The truth is a good audio for video mix can be created on average speakers. I used to use Yamaha NS-10s and Altec Lansing computer monitors to create very good broadcast quality mixes.

Freelance Sound Technician/Mixer