[Steve Graves]

Exactly. I believe one of the culprits was indeed the RF output, which were set slightly different.

There seem to be two essential lessons that have been stressed over and over in different circumstances on this board, lessons which I now have officially taken to heart…

#1: Test everything thoroughly before you ever use it in the field, where it counts.

#2: When you encounter a problem that baffles you then simply start over, step by meticulous step, from square one.

When it comes to the image, half measures can often seem artsy – flares, soft focus, the infamous jumbly cam, etc. – but when it comes to audio there’s simply no such thing as a happy accident. It might explain why so many aspiring filmmakers, who tend to be more emotional/creative/right brain types, seem to struggle so much with sound, which requires every ounce of left brain skills they can possibly muster. Which isn’t to say that sound, especially at the professional level, isn’t creative or that the image, even at the amateur level, doesn’t require a firm technical grasp – only that the two sides of this audio-visual coin seem to almost be coming from different levels of one’s being…

At any rate, apologies for rambling and many, many thanks to the audio professionals who offer their valuable time to help others on this goldmine of a site. You guys are really fantastic.

SG

[Steve Graves]

Copy that, will do – thanks Eric.

Steve

[Steve Graves]

Nice catch, Eric. I checked my settings on the G3s and actually I’d changed #2 from -12 to -18 (not quite double), so next I’ll try going the other way (-9 or -6). The problem is that XLR port #2 seems to be considerably weaker or less sensitive, and yes I’ve tried switching the wireless units but will try this again to see if perhaps, out in the field, I missed something. In theory they should be exactly equal, right? As far as I can tell all attenuation settings in the menu are set to OFF. Thanks for the notes; I’ll mess around with the set up again later this morning…

[Steve Graves]

Not that I’m aware of but now I will investigate that possibility – thanks Steve.

[Steve Graves]

Definitely with you on wireless lav. I have two Sennheisers set ups so will be using at least one of them. Thank you Ty.

[Steve Graves]

Thanks Peter, I get where you’re coming from and will take that under advisement. This weekend I’m going to conduct some tests of the cardioid pattern to see if placing a C-2 18″ above head height approximately 30″ (laterally) from their heads will achieve a decent signal relative to the noise.

[Steve Graves]

Good notes yet again David – thanks. I think I’ll stick with 24/48 if for no other reason that it would probably require an engineer (as opposed to an audience) to hear the difference. And the NTG-1 to get the cleanest possible track (as opposed to the in camera mic) for the wave form sync. And who knows, some of it may even be useable. The Sennheisers will be here Friday – I’m psyched!

Happy Trails, SG

[Steve Graves]

Thanks for your thoroughly informative response, David. I’ve been immersing myself in sound for the last 48 hours and while still exceedingly ignorant I am beginning to feel a little better about this issue; your advice is helping immensely in that regard.

Perhaps the most important decision I have made is to purchase two wireless lavaliers of quality. Seems like there is the $200 range and the $500+ range, with very little in between. I’ve been looking at Sennheiser EW112-p G3 on the B&H site. While this model is considerably more than I wanted to spend ($629 each) having read many, many posts on this forum, Googling excessively and pondering the inherent uselessness of awesome imagery with terrible audio, I’ve simply come to the conclusion that something of this caliber is the only truly reliable way to achieve quality sound. So much of this project will involve one or two people, either following them around or (essentially) eavesdropping on them, with freeways in the near distance and God knows what else, that I really don’t see any other way to achieve my objective without ‘going big.’ My background is camera; I’ve fabricated an ultra-lightweight body harness/bungee rig which really helps distribute the weight of the gear and provide my shots with a fluid motion. So the plan would be to XLR the wireless receivers into the Zoom (both attached to my generously-sized camera plate), set my channel levels and go. Plan to also utilize the NTG-1 (which extends 18″ off a lightweight arm to angle down into frame from overhead) to record either into the Zoom or directly into camera. And as per your advice I am purchasing a proper dead cat to help dampen wind.

Couple of quick questions though, if you have any time left in your life after reading this lengthy post:

Is the Sennheiser wireless set-up the best way to go for my purposes, in your opinion? Any other make/model that you might recommend as a better alternative? And since memory in the Zoom is not a problem (I have dozens of 16 GB Extreme cards), should I just record at 96/24 to achieve the highest quality signal? Would a (lightweight!) pre-amp serve me in this scenario anywhere? I’m assuming not, especially with lavs involved, but understand that the Zoom doesn’t have one.

I will definitely research how to unlink the two XLR inputs on the Zoom as well, great advice. I’ve also read about a balanced 3.5 mm cable with XLR splitters that some engineers have used to enable them to use the other two Zoom channels independently w/XLR inputs, and thought that perhaps the NTG-1 should plug into one of these to avoid recording into the camera altogether (except for a scratch track). Have you used or heard of this set-up?

Regarding PluralEyes, our (very small, mostly me) team has Final Cut Pro and we’ve recently been speaking with some editor pals who all say the same thing: GOTTA HAVE IT. It sounds like a Godsend – such a simple idea, it’s about time someone did it, so we’re not gonna hesitate on that one! Our plan is to keep meticulous notes so that audio and video cards can be downloaded each evening and filed appropriately onto a designated hard drive. Otherwise it will be like descending into the rabbit hole when we try to decipher all of it later!

Again, David, I sincerely appreciate your input. Folks who contribute to forums like this provide an invaluable service to folks like me who seek knowledge. Hats off to you all.

Cheers, SG