Rodney Morris
Forum Replies Created
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It’s very possible that what you are hearing isn’t overmodulation caused by high levels. Some mics just aren’t good at reproducing an accurate piano sound. The piano, as you know, has a very complex sonic “footprint” if you will. There are so many harmonics that sound with the playing of a single note. When multiple notes are played simultaneously there are crazy amounts of harmonics floating around and I’ve heard some pretty weird signals coming from cheaper mics that sounds somewhat similar to mild distortion, but different from that caused by simply too much gain. I don’t know if there is a term for it, but I would call it “harmonic distortion”. I wouldn’t be surprised if it occurred with the G2 systems. However, this is speculation at this point and I’d be very interested to hear what Ty and others have to say about this.
Maybe I’m just crazy. I’m no longer drinking caffeine these days so…
Rodney
Freelance Sound Technician/Mixer
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Too early to tell here (or maybe it’s the wrong season). We have the Super Bowl, Daytona 500 and baseball spring training just around the corner. I’ll be able to give you a better assessment after that. Last year to date was fairly normal.
One piece of advice, if you advertise your work at a lower rate, it’s much harder to bring it up later. However, you have to eat and keep a roof over your head, so you do what you have to do. But lowering your rates can hurt other sound mixers in your area in the long run – my fear is that it becomes a downward spiral of continually offering the lower price to get the work.
Let’s get a government bailout for the location sound mixer industry! Hmm… how can I convert my business to banking holding status…
Freelance Sound Technician/Mixer
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All the above ideas are great for deadening the sound, but as an alternative why not shoot wide and show that you are in a big, echoey cathedral. If it’s a low budget shoot, then that’s as low budget as you can get. I would still put duve down on the floor and you can spot treat where you please. But instead of trying to turn chicken crap into chicken salad (tight shot with echoey sound), take advantage of the location and the designed acoustics. I understand it may not work for the production, but it’s still a thought anyway and that’s what this site is about. Hope it goes well.
Rodney
Freelance Sound Technician/Mixer
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I would be of the opinion that the Radial would protect against any flow of unwanted phantom power going to the iPod, but that’s just a guess. Does the console have a phantom power switch that applies to all inputs, or does each channel have a 48V switch?
Rodney
Freelance Sound Technician/Mixer
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I’ve used my iPod in that situation by using a 1/8″ mini to 2 RCA cable, and then connected RCA to 1/4″ adapters to the RCA plugs and connected that to the 1/4″ inputs of the console with no problems. Much simpler.
Rodney
Freelance Sound Technician/Mixer
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Thanks for that tip. None of my wireless have a dangling antenna, but I may run into one at some point…
Also, since we’re giving out free tips, if anyone gets a call to work at an NFL game, make sure you clear your frequencies with the Game Day Coordinator BEFORE you turn on any transmitters at any point on game day. That’s the reason I got called for these last two games; the previous sound mixer didn’t get his frequencies cleared and was banned from the stadium for the year.
Rodney
Freelance Sound Technician/Mixer
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Which mic and recorder are you using?
Freelance Sound Technician/Mixer
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Turning the camera inputs down is the better way, assuming that you’re not overdriving the mic transmitter to begin with. You don’t want to set your levels too low on the transmitter because you will open up a whole set of possible issues including interference, drop-outs and noise-up, etc.
Set your transmitter gain as high as possible without overdriving (distorting) the signal.
Then adjust your camera levels accordingly.
I hope this helps.
Rodney
Freelance Sound Technician/Mixer
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Thanks Ty, sometimes I have the “elusion” that I’m smart or something…
Freelance Sound Technician/Mixer
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As Matte and Ty eluded to, we need to know if you were sending mic or line level and what the camera was set to accept. As far as the HVR camera is concerned, you should do a test record and see what it sounds like (on a deck or editing program). Not all headphone amps (and circuitry) are created equal. In other words, some headphone amps can be inherently noisy. I hear noise on the bigger, professional camera’s headphone amps quite frequently.
Rodney
Freelance Sound Technician/Mixer