[Rodney Morris]

Ty, I’m sorry to hear about your kidney stone. I hope you are feeling better now. If you’ve passed it completely, then I KNOW you’re feeling better.

Freelance Sound Technician/Mixer

[Rodney Morris]

Well Danny, I’m going to call into question your statement:

“The physics of sound dictate that every time you double the distance from sound source to mic, the level is not half as much, but one fourth.”

This is not accurate, not as I’ve learned. The physics of sound, in regards to the measuring of acoustic power are bound by the inverse square law. In practice this means that every time you double the distance from your sound source to your measuring point, the power decreases by 6dB. So if you have a sound source emitting sound at 80dB at a distance of one meter, it’s power at 2 meters (doubling it’s distance) would be 74dB, not 20dB (which would be one fourth the power). Maybe I misunderstood your statement.

Most of us use omni-directional mics as our primary lav mics. However, I will use a cardioid lav mic when necessary. Most of the time you use cardioid lavs in an amplified sound environment (use with a PA system). Omni lavs tend to feed back too easily in this type of environment due to their polarity characteristics.

I use a Sennheiser MKE-102 on Dick Vitale in his office when I do live hits for ESPN. If you know who Mr. Vitale is, you know he is a very loud individual. His office has very hard surfaces and tends to echo easily and has a very “hollow” sound. I’ve tried the Sennheiser MKH60, Schoeps MK41, Sanken COS-11, Tram TR50 and Countryman EMW mics on him in this room and none sound as good as the cardioid Sennheiser MKE-102. This is just about the only time I use the MKE-102 (the Sanken and Tram mics are my “go-to” lavs). But, cardioids do have their uses.

However, cardioid lav mics don’t hide well – they pick up too much clothing noise. Cardioid lavs are bigger than omnis, not smaller. Also, if you accidently block the ports on the side of mic head (with gaff tape), you essentially turn it into an omni mic.

Hope this helps.

Freelance Sound Technician/Mixer

[Rodney Morris]

Thanks Jan – will do.

Freelance Sound Technician/Mixer

[Rodney Morris]

I may have misread your post – let me clarify a few things.

What you want to see is tone reference in FCP at -20dB equal 0dB at the mixer. That’s the goal, especially if you transfer to analog decks (a little old school, I know). However, if you are creating mixes for DVD, then you are probably pushing the program peaks to as close to 0dB (in FCP) as possible. At that point you probably will distort analog gear. In my experience, I’ve not seen any analog gear that can handle constant +20dB of headroom without distortion.

Let me restate:

If you have tone set at -20dB in FCP then trim the inputs on the mixer so that the tone is at 0dB at the mixer. Any mixes you create in FCP that keeps the program average at -20dB will then play fine at the mixer without distortion. If you are creating mixes for DVDs that push that average up to say -10dB so that your peaks are close to 0dB, then you should recalibrate your mixer so that -20dB in FCP equals -10dB at the mixer. This will give you an additional 10 dB of headroom at the mixer and should keep you distortion free for monitoring.

Also, I didn’t know that AES/EBU could travel over RCA cables. I’ve only seen AES/EBU on XLR connectors. S/PDIF uses RCA.

[Rodney Morris]

In the simplest of terms, 0dB analog equals -20dB digital (to account for the headroom you normally have in analog). Your -10dB in FCP signal is actually +10dB at the mixer, thus the distortion.

[Rodney Morris]

For a lav system, you might want to consider the Sennheiser EW112P-G2, $500. I’ve used them before and they will do the job if you keep in mind the sacrifice of performance for budget’s sake. Also remember the sound you hear from professionals is a combination of wireless lav system AND the lav mic. Most mics that come packaged with lav systems are not that great. Unfortunately,great performance, flexibility and sound don’t come in cheap packages.

As far as shotguns, you can go as cheap as a couple hundred dollars. The cheapest shotgun mic that I could recommend would be the Rode NG-2 ($260) if you absolutely do not have the money. An honest comparison between the Sennheiser ME66/K6 combo ($480) and the Rode might favor the German, but it’s nearly twice as much. Don’t forget that windscreen.

[Rodney Morris]

I’ve recently been reading through “The Mixing Engineer’s Handbook” Second Edition by Bobby Owsinski. Although it isn’t exclusively a surround sound tutorial, it does include three chapters devoted to the subject:

Chapter 12 – Surround Basics
Chapter 13 – Why Is Surround Better Than Stereo?
Chapter 14 – Data Compression Used In Surround

I’ve enjoyed the book so far and have incorporated some of the techniques into my own practices.

[Rodney Morris]

Stephen,
You give good advice but I think you are misreading what I wrote. I never indicated that a simple 3 frame (100 ms) echo would accurately convey the acoustic space of an empty flat. If you re-read my post I said first off that he would need a sophisticated reverb that allows adjustments of many parameters (early reflections and eq shaping). Secondly, I addressed what JJ asked for: echo. I explained how to achieve a basic echo, but indicated that it would do nothing for early reflections and reverberation. Also, a 3 frame (100 ms) echo (repeated 3 or 4 times) would be a good starting place to achieve what you might hear in a corridor (not the flat itself). However, it’s only a starting point and would need to be tweaked to get closer to realistic. The intent was not to say “this will work perfectly”, but rather “this is what you can do with what you have”. Perhaps I should have been clearer. Part of becoming a good engineer/mixer is knowing the limitations of the tools at your disposal.

Stephen makes very good points regarding “worldizing” the audio and properly recording ADR to start with. I agree whole-heartedly and should have been clearer regarding “worldizing” and the need for accurate playback.

[Rodney Morris]

Well, you really need a sophisticated reverb to be able to dial in the parameters to make it sound realistic. One that will replicate a small room and allow you to adjust reflections (including early reflections) and eq shaping.

I suppose if you want echoes you could simply duplicate the audio onto additional tracks (maybe 4). Nudge each audio file 3 frames (or so) from the previous track so that the echo occurs every 3 frames. Adjust the volume of the last track to where it’s barely audible then stairstep the volumes from the first track to last as equally as you can. This will give you your echo (but not your early reflections or your short reverb tails).

The most realistic (in your situation) would be to find an empty hallway. Playback the voices from a speaker situated at one end and place a mic at the other end (approximately the same distance as camera). Playback and record and you have your ADR.

[Rodney Morris]

Well Erik I just downloaded the manual on the PV-GS70 and it appears that the mic/remote jack does indeed use a stereo mini jack. However, this input was designed for use with the remote control/narration mic combo. So I’m guessing that the remote function is wired perhaps to the ring portion of the TRS plug, while audio is on the tip (sleeve being the ground). You might need to wire a female XLR to male TRS in this manner:

XLR Pin 1 to 1/8″ Sleeve.
XLR Pins 2&3 to 1/8″ Tip.
Nothing is wired to the 1/8″ Ring.

You may still need the voltage blocker.

Ty, would you please check this?