[Ty Ford]

“It looks like a standard headphone size cable, I have no idea what one would call it.”

Yes, well, that very well may the problem. Plugging a mono source into a stereo input jack requires a special cable.

Regards,

Ty Ford

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[Ty Ford]

So you are plugging thr Azden into your camera?

What kind of cable. Please be specific?

Regards,

Ty Ford

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[Ty Ford]

Hello Eric,

Let’s take ’em one at a time.

>Do I really need one with timecode? Won’t I be fine if I just use a clapper and sync up the audio with the video?

Clapper will work, sure, but with time code and a video camera with time code a syncing becomes a lot easier.

>Will a $1300 mixer really make that much of a difference?

I have the 442 mixer and 744T 4 track recorder. In a pinch, the 702 and 702T can be used without a mixer, but you can’t mix very well because the knobs on the 744 and 702 aren’t really designed to follow dialog. The 302 mixer allows for three simultaneous inputs. The 702/702T only has two.

Presuming my budget for all this is $3000 what should I get? That automatically rules out the mixer.

If you went to the store with soup money and found out you were hungry for meat, what would you do.

Regards,

Ty Ford

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[Ty Ford]

Hello WIll and welcome to the Cow Audio Forum.

You said you were using the Sound Devices 442 mixer, right?

This is a beautiful mixer. I’m the happy owner of one. It make everything sounds quite good, but there are adjustments on it that, if not tweeked correctly will not sound good.

One mic to each track is fine. Yes you can go line out to line in if your camera has a line level input. I prefer line to line because its hotter signal can stay on top of strange noises that can otherwise compromise the audio.

You need a mixer to camera snake with a headphone return. You can (and should ) monitor the output of the camera whenever possible to make sure the audio is getting to the camera properly.

Regards,

Ty Ford

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[Ty Ford]

Hello Eric and welcome to the Cow Audio Forum,

Do you not need timecode? If you need timecode, make sure you get the 702T.

You need a mixer and mics and cables and headphones.

The Sound Devices 302 mixer mates well with the 702. I think Sound Devices also has a good mixer to camera cable if you just want to go staright to camera. They also have other accessory cables, as needed.

Wireless Mics: the Sennheiser G2 series wireless or Audio Technica 1800 are as low as I’d go. The Lectrosonics are a notch up and Audio Ltd are at the top.

Boom mics; you’ll want a shotgun (mostly for exterior) and a hypercardioid (mostly for interior).
In descending order from best to not as good.
Shotguns: Schoeps CMIT, Sennheiser 416, Sennheiser, MKH 60, Rode NTG-3, Sanken CS-3e
Hypercardioid: Schoeps cmc641, Audix SCX-01 HC, Oktava MC012 w/ hyper capsule.

Headphones: Sony MDR7506.

Wind gear: Rycote
Boom: K-tek
Boom suspension mount: Rycote InVision

Regards,

Ty Ford

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[Ty Ford]

[Matt Sepeta] “We have previously been using some Azden WM Pro Wireless Lapel Mics (BTW what exactly is the difference between Lapel and Lavalier mics?) with the recieving transmitter hot shoed and plugged into our Canon Optura 50’s.

>>Hello Matt and welcome to the Cow Audio Forum. Lav, lapel, all the same.

Now we mainly shoot 2 camera interviews in our green screen “studio”, and we have been getting some pretty bad audio from this. We recently bought a MBox 2 and Pro Tools, in addition to two nice stand up wired mics to do audio recording in the office.

>>Can you be more specific than “pretty bad?” How bad? What did it sounds like, what was the situation?

>>The mBox: you got that for voice only, not for video, right? Stand up mics? What make and model?

Here is my question… Looking at the nicer Lav and Lapel mics, I was told to buy Shure or Audio Technica. Looking at the Shure SM11 Lav mic, it says it includes a XLR cable. Is that the way it would be connecting to the camera? Or will I be sending the signal straight to the Mbox to record it? “

>>Does your camera have an XLR connector?
>>The SM11 is a dynamic mic, so it doesn’t require Phantom Power. I don’t see a spec for sensitivity, but normally dynamic mics are not as sensitive as condenser mics. The question would be whether or not your camera’s mic preamps have enough quiet gain to sound good. They may. I don’t know.

>>I don’t understand why you would be recording to an mBox for video. In most cases where the camera audio is acceptable, I’d plug the mic into a mixer and then go to the camera or plug the mic right into the camera.

Regards,

Ty Ford

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[Ty Ford]

[Steven Broido] “Our studio is VERY dry. That is, humidity is probably around 20% or so and I’m often shocked when touching metal objects. “

Hello Steven and welcome to the Cow Audio Forum.

20% is very low. If you’re pulling static discharges, it’s probably that and has little to do with Phantom Power. Try laying some wet towels or pebble trays around and see if that helps. Also, silk blouses are a know cause of static discharge.

Regards,

Ty Ford

At Peabody Conservatory years ago the Sony MXP300 console was quite a ways from some of the performance stages. Far enough away for electricity to be induced into the tie lines. The result was that they were blowing out input stages. They had to go to transformer inputs to preserve the gear.

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[Ty Ford]

Hello Donovan and welcome to the Cow Audio Forum.

Jordan is probably correct. There may or may not be a bias voltage problem. There may or may not also be sensitivity issues between the transmitter input and mic output. Azden is not recognized as pro gear. I don’t really know that much about how a particular mic might work in this situation.

Operationally, however, you are faced with a dilemma. If you’re operating a wireless boom mic, how do you hear what you’re doing? Given your setup, e.g. no mixer, you’d have to be plugged into the camera and that sort of defeats the wireless idea.

A better solution would be to have the boom op wear a small mixer with a headphone jack so he/she could hear where to put the mic. the transmitter would then plug into the mixer. You’d still need to have someone listening at the camera to make sure the audio got there intact. Unless you do that, you’re courting disaster.

Regards,

Ty Ford

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[Ty Ford]

Hey Jordan,

Yer givin’ me ideas! The best little preamp/processor I’ve seen for the money (and I was the proud owner of a Symetirx 528 for many years, was a dbx 286a. You can get one for about $200 USD.

https://www.dbxpro.com/286A/286A.php

I reviewed it when it came out and was very impressed by its sound and ease of use.

Ty Ford

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[Ty Ford]

Rodney,

Interesting. Back in the day when the 3060 came out, it was pretty much poo-pooed as a noisy, pumping box by the studio guys; most of whom knew whet they were talking about. I had a Compellor at the time, so I didn’t need to check it out.

I reviewed the RNC and was pretty happy with what it did for basic compression. I think I liked it better in “super” mode.

Back to the original prob, peaking voice talent. I want to rethink my previous answer. If it’s occasional peaks, you’d want a limiter, not a compressor. Why don’t you just record at a lower level?

Ty

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