[Rodney Morris]

No problem Adrian. I hope your shoot goes well.

Rodney Morris
Freelance Sound Technician/Mixer

[Rodney Morris]

If I were starting over today, the equipment I would buy would be:

Sound Devices 552 mixer
2x LectroSonics 411 Wireless units
2x Sanken COS-11 lav mics
Schoeps CMIT 5U shotgun mic

You’re looking at about $11K worth of equipment right there (and this is a basic setup), not including cables, boompole, mic suspension/wind suppression, mixer bag, headphones…

I use the SD 442 (no longer in production), lectro 411 wirelesses, tram and sanken lavs, sennheiser MKH60, Schoeps MK41, so I’m not suggesting anything I’m not somewhat comfortable with.

Don’t waste money on inferior equipment. It’ll just bite you later on.

Hope this helps.

Rodney Morris
Freelance Sound Technician/Mixer

[Rodney Morris]

This should be what you need:

https://www.trewaudio.com/store/product.php?productid=200&cat=26&page=1

The mixer’s output may be line level, though, so you may also need a line-to-mic attenuator. Your transmitter wants a mic level.

https://www.trewaudio.com/store/product.php?productid=428&cat=48&page=4

Hope this helps.

Rodney Morris
Freelance Sound Technician/Mixer

[Rodney Morris]

When attaching a Tram TR-50 to skin I use a tape down holder with Top Stick attached (generally) to the middle of the chest (this set up works better on a woman than a man). The mic holder on the tape down keeps the capsule from touching/rubbing anything (when the capsule is mounted pointed toward the body). With the Trams, one side of the mic has a mesh screen and the other side is smooth plastic. I mount the mic so that the smooth part is facing the clothing. With the EMWs, however, there is a mesh screen on both sides of the mic which makes mounting more difficult. This is one of the reasons that I ditched the EMWs for the Trams many years ago, although sonically I prefer the EMW. If Countryman makes a tape down clip then that might be the way to go. Ty’s suggestion about the Rycote products is probably a good one, but I’ve not used the undercovers yet so I can’t make an educated comment.

Here’s the tape down holder from Tram:
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/258085-REG/Tram_BTD.html

If I have to tape a mic to skin I almost always grab the Sanken COS-11 and moleskin.

Rodney Morris
Freelance Sound Technician/Mixer

[Rodney Morris]

Easiest doesn’t always equal cheapest.

IMHO, an ISDN connection would be the easiest for the celebrity, but probably the most expensive. Have a qualified engineer setup an ISDN box at the celebrity’s home. It can be setup so that all the celebrity has to do is flip one switch (power) and it’s ready to go. Of course, you would need an ISDN box on your end in order for this to work. The boxes plus the service may be more than you have budgeted, but what you want to do will cost you money no matter which way you go. There are some useful plugins that work with many different DAW’s that allow studio quality audio to be “broadcast” over the internet, between two secure stations. But both ends (the studio end and the celebrity end) would both have to have the workstations (with the plugins) up and running for this to happen. I think this may be more responsibility than the celebrity may want to accept.

The next easiest thing (for the celebrity) is to find a studio close to his home that specializes in v/o work. They will be able to provide either an ISDN line or a phone patch that would allow you to listen in and direct the talent. Studio time with engineer should be approx. $100/hr (or less depending on where you go). If there is no studio close enough that is able to handle this, then consider hiring a sound recordist to travel to the celebrity’s home and set up a mobile recording studio and phone patch for communication.

Hope this helps some.

Rodney

Rodney Morris
Freelance Sound Technician/Mixer

[Rodney Morris]

I can’t respond to “which is better…?”, but I’ve been using the RE50 for a long time now. It works very well. Most of the time I do not use a windscreen with it, even outdoors on a windy day. It’s a fairly bullet-proof mic. I haven’t used the Beyer so I’m not saying it won’t do these things also, but the RE50 is probably the more popular hand-held mic of choice among ENG sound mixers.

Rodney Morris
Freelance Sound Technician/Mixer

[Rodney Morris]

Thanks for the reply Jordan. I haven’t used any multiple driver iems so I’m not familiar with the fatigue accompanying the design. I’ve used a set of OSP dynamic driver iems both as a musician and as a location sound mixer. They’re OK, but they don’t sound full range to me.

Rodney Morris
Freelance Sound Technician/Mixer

[Rodney Morris]

There has to be a way of adjusting the levels independently of each other. That would be a major oversight.

I downloaded the manual for the H4n and looked up setting the levels. When the unit is recording in Stereo mode (2 recording tracks), you should have the inputs set as mono inputs (in the MTR menu). If you have the inputs set as stereo inputs, then I could see how you might not have independent level control. Again, double check to make sure in the MTR menu that you have not selected stereo inputs. (Page 048 of the manual).

Your H4n unit does indeed have the XLR-1/4″ combo jack. The balanced input is the XLR and the unbalanced input is the 1/4″, thus the differing levels in the specs.

Using the MixPre to output two source mics into 4 tracks will be a mess of adapters/splitters/pads. It can be done, but it won’t be pretty, nor would it be ideal.

Yes, the attenuator pads on the outputs of the MixPre would bring the level down from +4 dB to the range which the recorder wants to see.

I use the SD and H4 combo because that’s what I have. Yes there are better recorders on the market, but I initially bought the H4 for transcription purposes. I used to record to a mobile ProTools unit (Mbox2), but I get similar results with the H4 and it’s much more mobile. I’ve used it to record audio for many purposes – from radio spots, tv voiceovers, to audio for greeting cards (Hallmark). It’s certainly a versatile little recorder. I would not use this unit for recording audio that needed to be absolutely pristine (reference quality), but for the purposes I’ve described, it’s been more than adequate.

One of the gripes that I have with the H4 is that it’s not initially user friendly, especially when you are trying to record external microphones. You really need to spend some time with the recorder and the manual to fully utilize the features of it. (That wasn’t meant to be a “RTFM” statement. I purchased it thinking it would be a breeze to just pick up and go with it. I needed to bury my nose in the manual a bit to get it working the way I wanted.)

Good luck with it.

Freelance Sound Technician/Mixer

[Rodney Morris]

According to the specs on the H4n from their website:

unbalanced input = +2 to -32dBm

I would go with a -10 db setup on the 442.

As for the MixPre, your best bet is to pad the outputs with line level attenuators (from memory, I think the Shure attenuator has switches for -10, -15 and -20) and use female XLR to male mono 1/4″ adapter cables to go into the line level inputs of the H4n.

Freelance Sound Technician/Mixer

[Rodney Morris]

Hey Ty – hope you’re doing well. Thanks for the response. I’m assuming you’re talking about the ER.4 IEMs. Do you have any experience with the Etymotic line? I do like the 7506 (with it’s frequency shelving), as it emphasizes the noise that we are often trying to eliminate on the field. So I would like to get a set of IEMs that has a similar freq response.

Freelance Sound Technician/Mixer