[Ty Ford]

Hello Matthew and welcome to the Cow Audio Forum.

Peter is absolutely right. When the big guys mix audio for film, they mix on a sound stage that replicates the theater experience. to make sure they get the pans, delays and frequency response right.

No, not everybody does this in today’s landscape of indy films. But, if you’re going to have PB in a theater, you need to pay special attention to the low end when mixing on small speakers. Small speakers don’t pass the low end well and if you EQ to get the low end right on small speakers, the sound will likely be way bass heavy in a proper theater.

There may be other inaccuracies in lesser monitors or in placement of them in your space that can trip you up. The only advice I can offer you is to make friends with someone at a theater and have them play your mix during down time. Take notes and go back and correct the mix and try again (until you’re happy).

Regards,

Ty Ford
Cow Audio Forum Leader

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Ty Ford Blog: Ty Ford’s Blog

[Ty Ford]

Hello Jaye and welcome to the Cow Audio Forum.

Find a different place to record and, having heard your track, I don’t think the new mic will help you.

Regards,

Ty Ford
Cow Audio Forum Leader

Want better production audio?: Ty Ford’s Audio Bootcamp Field Guide
Ty Ford Blog: Ty Ford’s Blog

[Ty Ford]

Hello Tom and welcome to the Cow Audio Forum.

If you have a laptop or iMac, which only have one drive, you do it on one and computers and drives are fast enough today to handle simple narration, but I’m with Peter on separate drives; one for system and apps, the other for media.

Regards,

Ty Ford
Cow Audio Forum Leader

Want better production audio?: Ty Ford’s Audio Bootcamp Field Guide
Ty Ford Blog: Ty Ford’s Blog

[Ty Ford]

Hello Terry and welcome to the Cow Audio Forum.

Peter, Eric and Bill have all made good cases and they don’t necessarily agree. That’s not that unusual.

I have had success with a boomed hypercardioid Schoeps cmc641 more frequently than with a lav. My situations are apparently different than Bill’s. My corporate clients don’t want to see lavs.

Our air conditioning varies, certainly, but in commercial and industrial spaces, I have been able to find places that are acceptably quiet for interviews. Maybe our building codes are different back east. Maybe we spec larger duct work that lowers HVAC noise. Maybe BIll needs to dig his heels in more when locations are chosen. When those places are chosen, I’m usually there to say, “nope, but try over here.” I have stopped being amazed that some shooters completely ignore the acoustics and ambient noise levels. The fight has gotten easier over the years. I’m not sure why. I tell producers if and when I hear problems. I hand the headphones to them and ask them to verbally sign off of the sound level so he can’t come back on me and say it was my fault.

I have very poor luck burying a lav under a suit jacket and making it usable. As a result, for efficacy, and because my clients don’t want to see lavs, the boom with a cmc641 works on interiors more often than not. Professional talent are more accommodating when I want to use a Rycote stickie to place a lav on the sternum, between the breasts of male or female talent. The “regular guy or gal” may be a bit freaked by that, maybe not. The CEO is much less likely to say, “OK, sure, shave a 2″ square on my chest to plant your mic.”

I frequently use my locked down boom rig and hang the boom from the top just out of frame. The locked down boom totally eliminates disagreements between the shooter and boomer when the boom ends up in the shot. At least half of the time, this happens because the shooter zoomed out to far or angled up a bit and caught the boom. If the boom doesn’t move, it’s not the boomer’s fault. End of discussion. 🙂

Camera height has everything to do with where the boom ends up and how close you can set it. The further below the eyeline the camera sits, the higher the boom has to be placed. Setting the lens at eye level is a good place to start.

The Schoeps has some extraordinary capabilities. I have angled it straight down when there is noise coming in from front and back. I have angled it toward the face with the boom slightly in front of the head to reduce ambient noise from a loud camera or other noise on the camera side. Even with the talent somewhat off-axis, the Schoeps sounds great.

Boomed with a cmc641, not laved, even with the baseball hats:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7-JJZ2jpWE&feature=player_embedded

Get some sound blankets to lay down as many places as you can to knock the bounce down.

You simply need to take the time to listen to figure all of this out. It doesn’t take much time, and you can really improve what you get. Good headphones are a must. I strongly suggest Sony MDR7506. $99 most places.

Regards,

Ty Ford
Cow Audio Forum Leader.

Want better production audio?: Ty Ford’s Audio Bootcamp Field Guide
Ty Ford Blog: Ty Ford’s Blog

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[Ty Ford]

Hello Ann,

How about something like this?

https://www.videotoolshed.com/product/68/loudnesschange

Regards,

Ty

Want better production audio?: Ty Ford’s Audio Bootcamp Field Guide
Ty Ford Blog: Ty Ford’s Blog

[Ty Ford]

Hello Neil and welcome to the Cow Audio Forum.

Guys, I’m sure Neil has beaten himself up with monday morning quarterbacking and shoulda, woulda, couldas.

Yes, rf interference. This can happen if the person is wearing a smart phone. You don’t know that until you hang the mic on them and bring up the fader. I do hear some of the breakup inbetween words. Maybe you could paste some room tone in to cover them up.

I don’t know if spectral restoration in Izotope would help or not.

Regards,

Ty Ford
Cow Audio Forum Leader

Want better production audio?: Ty Ford’s Audio Bootcamp Field Guide
Ty Ford Blog: Ty Ford’s Blog

[Ty Ford]

We are all learning on every job, hopefully.

I’d normalize peaks to -6dB.

Regards,

Ty Ford
Cow Audio Forum Leader

Want better production audio?: Ty Ford’s Audio Bootcamp Field Guide
Ty Ford Blog: Ty Ford’s Blog

[Ty Ford]

Corbin,

-15 peaks with HVAC could call for normalization and NR. I’d probably normalize to -6dB if there was music and nat sound that would also be added then do NR .

Regards,

Ty Ford

Want better production audio?: Ty Ford’s Audio Bootcamp Field Guide
Ty Ford Blog: Ty Ford’s Blog

[Ty Ford]

Hello Corbin and welcome to the Cow Audio Forum.

It sort of depends on what you’re after. If you like the way things are sounding, fine.

Do you need noise reduction? What sort of noise?

Are you recording too low thereby incurring system noise that you then need to get rid of?

How far below zero is the loudest peak of your un normalized, un compressed audio?

Regards,

Ty Ford
Cow AUdio Forum Leader

Want better production audio?: Ty Ford’s Audio Bootcamp Field Guide
Ty Ford Blog: Ty Ford’s Blog

[Ty Ford]

Hello Peter,

I did a shoot several months ago with a RED (don’t know the build) and we got acceptable audio. I don’t recall whether we used mic or line because we had other fish to fry that morning.

Regards,

Ty Ford
Cow AUdio Forum Leader

Want better production audio?: Ty Ford’s Audio Bootcamp Field Guide
Ty Ford Blog: Ty Ford’s Blog