[Ty Ford]

Hello Ryan and welcome to the Cow Audio Forum.

I don’t have all the answers, but I have imported polywave files into Pro Tools LE, up to eight tracks at a time. I got 18 into FCP last year while testing it.

How you transfer files depends on what you recorded them on. I use a Sound Devices 744T. It has a firewire port. I connect the 744T to a computer and then turn on the 744T. The computer sees the 744T as a hard drive. Drag and drop the files from the 744T to the computer HD. Eject the 744T from teh computer. Power down the 744T and disconnect the firewire cable.

Regards,

Ty

Want better production audio?: Ty Ford’s Audio Bootcamp Field Guide
Watch Ty play guitar

[Ty Ford]

No problem. “Most” opera singers don’t want to sing into a mic and most don’t need to. You might have the vocal mic several feet away from her. Even then, when she goes for the big notes, you may have to ride gain.

The best advice I can offer is to go to a rehearsal or two and make notes as to where she hits the big ones so you can be prepared to sneak the gain in and out.

Having the piano on the back or side of the mic may help keep the piano from going up and down in level when you have to change gain for her.

Regards,

Ty Ford

Want better production audio?: Ty Ford’s Audio Bootcamp Field Guide
Watch Ty play guitar

[Ty Ford]

A couple questions:
1.) What is a null (In audio terms)?

> Where stuff cancels out. In a room, the sides of a figure of eight mic pattern,

2.) Is there anywhere online that’s resourceful with examples of bad production audio (many different situations)? I may just try recording the bad sound myself even.

> Youtube. 🙂 Well the desired effect is to start with bad and move toward good. Good headphones help. I use Sony MDR7506 and Audio Technica ATH-M50.

I’ve read about this mic, it’s a shotgun, but it’s hyper-cardioid and gets good reviews – https://www.trewaudio.com/sankencs3.htm – It’s a tad expensive, but it looks like it might do the job for any indoor shooting.

The CS-3e is a good choice. I have it on the “Good Gear” list in my little book.

Regards,

Ty Ford

Want better production audio?: Ty Ford’s Audio Bootcamp Field Guide
Watch Ty play guitar

Some contents or functionalities here are not available due to your cookie preferences!

This happens because the functionality/content marked as “Google Youtube” uses cookies that you choosed to keep disabled. In order to view this content or use this functionality, please enable cookies: click here to open your cookie preferences.

[Ty Ford]

Hello Frank and welcome to the Cow Audio Forum.

As Seth mentions, gain staging is very important and he’s spot on with his explanation.

While line level is normally preferred to mic level when going to a camera from a mixer or receiver because it’s louder than mic and may survive some interferences, mic level can be fine. -30dB is sort of a high mic level, but if you camera is set to mic input, you’re not hearing a lot of noise (hiss) when you play back and your camera meters are showing -6 dB to -12 dB peaks, you should be fine.

You did a good practical test with the side by side. The only thing I’d add, would be to play a bit with the sensitivity on the transmitter. Its default setting is probably fine. If you have a low talker, you’d want to increase the sensitivity of the transmitter and not depend so much on boosting the receiver gain to get good level on the camera. If you have a screamer, you’ll have to back the transmitter sensitivity off to keep from clipping the transmitted audio before it even gets to your receiver.

That’s what Seth was referring to by gain staging.

Regards,

Ty Ford

Want better production audio?: Ty Ford’s Audio Bootcamp Field Guide
Watch Ty play guitar

[Ty Ford]

Hello Dave and welcome to the Cow Audio Forum.

Depending on the piano, depending on whether it’s a grand, depending on whether the lid will be open, half, open or closed, depending on the position of the singer relative to the piano, depending on whether there’s a PA or not — all of these weigh in on perfect mic choice.

KSM 141 would be better than KSM 137. Small is better than big if you want to get into the piano. If it’s during alive performance, having one or two U87 will probably look too intrusive.

One or two AKG C414 would be less intrusive than the U 87s and if matched with the right mic pre and with the right pattern chosen based on all the factors, would be better than either of the Shures.

Regards,

Ty Ford

Want better production audio?: Ty Ford’s Audio Bootcamp Field Guide
Watch Ty play guitar

[Ty Ford]

Hello Ervz and welcome to the Cow Audio Forum.

“Broadcast quality” has become an interesting term. Many think there has been a major decrease in broadcast quality; that broadcast quality isn’t as good as it used to be. That’s another discussion.

Really good audio is the predecessor of good broadcast quality. Adding compression and limiting can be part of the equation, but they won’t fix bad audio.

The audio software/hardware you’d be running would have to have enough DSP (digital signal processing) to compress/limit in real time. The new digital mics from Neumann come with a software input strip that has a high-pass filter, compression and limiting. The are AES, not USB. They are expensive, but sound better than broadcast quality.

I am not aware of any USB based software/hardware systems that do compression/limiting in real time. There may be some, but that’s a lot of computing power and you may run into latency problems if you’re listening while speaking. I’d probably put a hardware comp/limiter in between the mic and the input. The symetrix 528 and dbx 286a are good basic mic processors. You don’t tell us anything about your specific application so it’s a bit difficult to say much more.

Regards,

Ty Ford

Want better production audio?: Ty Ford’s Audio Bootcamp Field Guide
Watch Ty play guitar

[Ty Ford]

Hello Nate and welcome to the Cow Audio Forum.

Phase cancellation is a naturally occurring phenomenon. It’s all around us every day. Most of the time we don’t notice it. People who do sound for a living may notice it a bit more because they are always listening on some level.

Yes, phase cancellation occurs during stereo and mono recording. It is frequently positional, that is, dependent upon the position of the mic(s). It happens in the air before the sound hits the mic. Stick a mic in a null and you will record the results of cancellation. Move x number of inches or feet and you may walk into a peak where the opposite of cancellation occur. At these positions the sound accumulates to be louder than in the average sound field. It is not unusual for this to occur for a small spectrum of sound instead of the entire audio spectrum.

Film dialog is almost always recorded in mono. With multiple voices, it’s not unusual to record each voice to a separate track. In post, the tracks are brought up in the editing program. There, typically, when actor A is speaking, the gain from tracks of actor’s B, C and D are reduced to keep actor A’s voice (which may be heard in the other actors’ mics) from being heard.

If this isn’t done, there is a hollowness to actor A’s voice. That’s phase cancellation! Actor A’s voice gets to the other actors mics slightly after it gets to his. Putting on my aluminum foil Physics Hat, that’s about 1 millisecond per foot, because that’s how fast sound travels. So if actor A’s voice is getting into three other mics, all at different times, you get a phase wash that’s very nasty. This is made worse by the fact that in those other mics, with actor A so far away, you are also hearing a lot of the room acoustics of actor A’s voice banging around in the room.

In my seminars, I try to get people to imagine a pool table. The bumpers are walls. The ball is the sound. Roll the ball and it bounces until it runs out of energy. Sound works the same way. Now imagine a three dimensional pool table; ceiling, walls, floor. The ball still rolls until it runs out of energy.

Any three dimensional space has, depending on its geometry, places where certain frequencies might add or subtract. That’s the wonder of acoustics. That’s why recording room tone in every setup is important, even if the setups are in the same room. They MAY sound the same, but they probably won’t.

If you only use a mono mic for dialog — like a boom mic — for interiors, you’ll want a hyper cardioid or supercardioid pattern, and NOT a shotgun mic. Shotgun mics are only directional at high frequencies. In a room they pick up mid and low bounce which, because it gets to the mic later than the direct sound you’re aiming at because it has bounced off the wall, ceiling, floor, blackboard, conference table, window, etc., before getting to the side of the mic.

There are and endless number of individual situations in which moving the boom mic a little here or there make a profound difference in the amount of phase cancellation heard. That’s one of the things a good boom op and mixer know and know how to deal with. Ears are important. Knowing how to process what you hear to make the sound better is the job. Using different tools and techniques to get the job done are the art and craft of the sound person.

Regards,

Ty Ford

Want better production audio?: Ty Ford’s Audio Bootcamp Field Guide
Watch Ty play guitar

[Ty Ford]

Hello Bill,

What you’re referring to is a Fisher Boom.

There are Pascal Coulumbier’s rigs, but I’m thinking that would hurt for long periods.

https://www.atscomms.com/Sales/Products/CoolCam/Kit_Cool/kit_cool.html

Regards,

Ty Ford

Want better production audio?: Ty Ford’s Audio Bootcamp Field Guide
Watch Ty play guitar

Some contents or functionalities here are not available due to your cookie preferences!

This happens because the functionality/content marked as “Google Youtube” uses cookies that you choosed to keep disabled. In order to view this content or use this functionality, please enable cookies: click here to open your cookie preferences.

[Ty Ford]

Hello Rick,

I think you’ll be OK. Play REALLY CLOSE attention to where and how the mic is pointed.

Use G-tape to make a little cradle or sling for the mic and that will answer John’s good comment about vibration.

A/B the lav and shotgun to make sure the shotgun is what you want. I’m not a big fan of the K6.
Sometimes a lav can work better than a shotgun in a shot where the space is a little slappy. Just don’t hit yourself in the chest (and mic).

If the shotguns does hear too much room, you can always hang some blankets around yourself just out of frame to reduce the bounce. Don’t forget to put one on the floor.

BTW, the mic of choice (unless you’re on an acoustically designed set would not be a shotgun, it would be a hyper or super cardioid. To hear why, download this.(warning: 22MB). You’ll see a Quicktime logo on the screen until it downloads. Listen with headphones!!!

https://idisk.mac.com/tyreeford-Public/Video/Ty%20Ford%20Mic%20Tutorial%20VIdeo.mp4

Regards,

Ty Ford

Want better production audio?: Ty Ford’s Audio Bootcamp Field Guide
Watch Ty play guitar

Some contents or functionalities here are not available due to your cookie preferences!

This happens because the functionality/content marked as “Google Youtube” uses cookies that you choosed to keep disabled. In order to view this content or use this functionality, please enable cookies: click here to open your cookie preferences.

[Ty Ford]

Hello Seth and welcome to the Cow Audio Forum.

You don’t give us much to go on. I don’t know who “he” is but a T1 (not 1T) line is not cheap last time I checked and unless you’re running a lot of traffic to make it worth your expense, sneeker-netting hard drives is the cheapest way to go if distance isn’t an issue.

Regards,

Ty Ford

Want better production audio?: Ty Ford’s Audio Bootcamp Field Guide
Watch Ty play guitar