[Rodney Morris]

I could be wrong about the design of that cage mic. It may very well work against rubbing noise. In fact, the more I think about it, the more it seems very possible that is what it’s designed for. That cage would keep the fabric away from the capsule and because it’s just wires, there is not much surface area for the clothing to rub against.

[Rodney Morris]

The MC1 and MC2 do not look like what you described in your first two posts. That cage looks like it’s designed to protect the mic from being hit by something hard that would damage it, not something designed to protect from simple rubbing noise. I read a review online that used the term “turtle clip” when listing what was shipped with the PSC Millimic. But I haven’t seen it anywhere else. I’ll keep checking though, it sounds like an interesting accessory.

[Rodney Morris]

Ray is correct if you are going to use phantom power to power the mic. That cable wouldn’t work. However, you are going to be looking at affordable shotgun mics. Probably an electret condenser shotgun, which most often can be powered by an internal battery. If you do get one of these types of mics, then this cable will be fine. Make sure you get an impedence matching cable (which the one you linked to is). Also, some mixers have a dedicated 1/8″ output specifically designed (impedence matched) to interface with consumer cameras.

Check out the Rode NTG-2. $300, short shotgun, internal battery powered. If it’s as good as some other Rode mics, then it should be fine.

[Rodney Morris]

Are you positive it was a Tram? PSC makes the Millimic which is very similar to the TR-50. Also, Countryman has the EMW series that look similar to the Trams. I read somewhere that the PSC came with a “turtle clip”. All the pictures that I’ve seen recently just includes the vampire/viper clip and that cage clip that you are talking about. It’s possible it was an older accessory that isn’t produced anymore. I’ll keep looking though.

Ray, those under/over covers look interesting. Which mics do you use with those? I want to try my luck with a couple of other combos first (3M double sided sticky foam tape and moleskin used together). I’m always interested in hearing what works for others.

[Rodney Morris]

I haven’t seen what you are talking about apart from the “mousepad” that comes with the Sanken. It’s a rubber mount that has no clips on it. Sounds like a pretty good idea though. The back of a Tram is fairly well insulated from clothing rubbing noise. I normally mount the Tram so that the mesh capsule is facing in towards the vampire clip. If I’m mounting it in the lapel then I tape down the additional fabric between the buttons to keep rubbing to a minimum. I just got a tip from a friend to use the double sided 3M foam tape to keep the clothing from rubbing against itself.

However, trying to mic somebody with a hairy chest and a starchy shirt while trying to maintain a clean sound is next to impossible. I don’t have the guts to ask a guy to shave their chest, though I know guys who will ask. I’ve been thinking about getting a wife-beater T or maybe a tank top to put in my kit so that if a guy shows up with the same situation, he could wear that underneath to give me an extra layer between the outer shirt and the chest hair. You still have to do quite a bit of tape down to keep the fabrics from rubbing together, but that’s manageable.

I recently worked on a fishing show where I had to bury a mic on a hairy chested guy wearing a Columbia fishing shirt. I ended up wrapping his chest and shoulder with a self-adhesive ace bandage in kind of a sling fashion. I then buried the mic (Sanken) in the outer most layer of the wrap. I couldn’t tape the shirt down to the wrap unfortunately because the wrap will only stick to itself, but the wind was blowing hard enough that you didn’t notice the rubbing.

Good luck and let us know what’s working for you.

[Rodney Morris]

JC is absolutely correct. I had a full blown ProTools rig at my disposal every day for 4 years doing post production, sound design, radio spot production, etc. The only way to become good at this art is to have all the tools and practice, practice, practice. Some effects can be achieved fairly simply, others are more complex and require more knowledge, experience and tools.

At one point in my career I was offered the opportunity to train to become a video editor (AVID) but I turned it down because I wanted to focus solely on ProTools and audio production. You really have to dedicate yourself to a particular craft to be any good at it. So if audio production is something you are really interested in, then yeah get an audio editing program and go to town learning as much as you can. If it’s more like something you might like to know but isn’t a priority, I would say stick with what you have and ask some questions around here every now and then when you get stuck. Good luck.

[Rodney Morris]

There’s a very large difference between what’s acceptable from a local cable access standpoint and network quality, though that difference is shrinking (for better or worse). If you want network quality, hire a competent audio tech to work with you on the shoot. Someone who will have their own broadcast quality equipment and knows how to capture the audio correctly. You need to be able to focus on the visuals while you’re shooting.

LectroSonics is generally considered the standard of broadcast quality wireless systems. Even their entry level systems cost $2500. There are numerous reasons why they are superior sounding, from the companders, squelching, etc… However I don’t know any broadcast mixers who use the included Lectro lav mics. We all have high quality lav mics that will work with these systems. So there’s an additional expense.

Most broadcast shoots (non theatrical or “reality shows”, that is) that require more than two microphones generally get mixed to a stereo mix that is sent to the camera. If there are two or more cameras, the additional microphones might get a dedicated audio channel on one of the other cameras.

A multitrack audio recorder with timecode capabilities will cost you at least $4K. You have to have one with timecode sync if you want to prevent drift.

I see a large push in the industry to get away from having audio techs on shoots. If you really believe in these pilots then spend the extra money to have an audio tech with you. Honestly, you’re just wasting your time and money if you don’t because the quality will suffer without one. If the show catches on, you’ll make whatever money you spent on audio back at that point. If you don’t spend it up front, the chances of the show getting the attention it deserves diminishes greatly. Besides that, whatever money you don’t spend during production, you’ll spend in post trying to fix things. Kind of a catch 22. Quality programming has never been cheap.

[Rodney Morris]

For the phone effect, I would try a simple EQ setting first. What you want is to use a high pass filter (HPF) set at around 1kHz and a low pass filter (LPF) set at around 2kHz. Basically you are removing all frequencies below 1k and above 2k, so have a very narrow frequency range left. If you really want authenticity then you could re-record the lines using cell phones (one actor speaks the lines in one cell and the other cell is miked up). If re-recording the actors themselves is not possible, then play the recorded lines back and hold the cell phone up to the speakers and record the other cell phone in another room.

For the club scene, if the scene is completely outside the club then I would set up a LPF for the music track set to around 400Hz or so. This way you are just hearing the lower frequencies. Try moving that LPF frequency around a bit to find the right effect.

[Rodney Morris]

Yeah, a show without any talent or wardrobe isn’t much of a show either. Being an audio person, I try to get people to think more inclusively of all the elements, audio especially, when trying to put together a show. The duvatine will work wonders for the room (compared to nothing at all). There might be some other things you might have to deal with as well (a/c noise, etc) but this will get you 80% there.

[Rodney Morris]

Just reread your post – you said ME80, not ME90. It doesn’t use the k6 power module but the older k3 and k3u modules. Should still be a good mic.