[Ty Ford]

Hello Phillip,

Actually getting any sources of SFX and/or music over 16-bit, 44.1 may be a problem. 🙂 Most of those files are sent out on regular CDs.

There may be higher res versions. I haven’t bothered to look lately.

Anyone?

Regards,

Ty Ford

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[Ty Ford]

Hello Laura,

FCP suite’s NR in Soundtrack Pro is actually pretty good. There’s also IZotope Rx.

Regards,

Ty Ford

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[Ty Ford]

Thanks April,

Sure, in FCP you can pan a mono signal to center. You can also record a single source to both tracks and just leave it at that. Bring it in as a stereo track, but as long as the sound is equal on each channel, it’ll play as mono.

Some folks like to set record levels of a single voice so one channel is a little below the other just in case the person shouts. If the first track distorts, hopefully the lower one won’t.

Regards,

Ty Ford

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[Ty Ford]

Hello Dan and welcome to the Cow Audio Forum,

You (or they) present a typical wedding video problem. Can’t get close enough. Must record blasphemous church PA. Which one sounds worse?

Shotguns don’t work that far away inside a space, Even my Schoeps supercardioid would sound bad. Too far away.

Church PAs can sound OK, but you have to know how to tap into them to get the good stuff. Each one is different and each situation is different. You may have been put in a no win situation.

Good wireless, on each person would be the best technical solution. Maybe even putting the receivers closer to the action and cabling back to your mixer. Or maybe even using shark directional antennae so you can get a good solid signal from a distance.

Weddings can present wardrobe problems and weird attitudes from the pastor and the bride; you can’t go here, I can’t wear that, etc. Wedding videographers are looked down on by some shooters, but their jobs are frequently incredibly difficult and their clients — the bridezillas — can be just awful.

Oh, and take the cell phone away from the groom and pastor until after the ceremony. You could also cross your fingers and hope that lavs and minidisc recorders on each person will continue to function during the time needed. It would scare me silly to do that, but wedding videographers do it.

Regards,

Ty Ford

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[Ty Ford]

Hello Rob,

In the specific situation of recording sitdown interviews, as you say, I think there’s merit to a “safety net” if you have had bad experiences with a particular set of gear.

Sit downs, at least the ones I’ve done, are staged with great care for lighting, background and sound. When I do audio for that kind of job, even if I’ve never worked with the producer or director before, I’ll bring their attention to sound problems as we walk around in search of the best spot.

They begin to like a spot and I say something like, “Yes, but it’s right under the HVAC duct. Listen. Is that going to be OK?” I say it calmly and with a smile. As long as I think I have a shot at getting good sound, I don’t say much other than, “works for me.”

In the vast majority of cases, a Schoeps cmc641 to my Sound Devices 442 mixer to the camera or recorder works beautifully and no lav can touch it, in this particular situation. Notice I said cmc641….not an interference tube shotgun.

I do travel with two cmc641 and a Sennheiser 416. On one occasion, about 5 years ago, I was doing sound for HGTV for a show called “Small Space, Big Idea” , or something like that. We were in the studio shooting sitdown interviews. I heard some low level ftzzes that seemed only to be happening when the person was speaking. They seemed to be electronic, but I’m still not even sure it was a mic problem. Between each question, there was considerable discussion. During the next discussion break, I calmly walked up and swapped to the other Schoeps. I didn’t say anything because it would have interrupted the conversation. The problem went away. That was one occasion.

Your comment about mixing the boom and lav by mistake is great. I have heard it before. I have also heard of people who “PREFER to mix the lav and the boom.” I have never been there to hear what that sounds like, but I have never needed to mix the two together to improve the sound.

This makes me think about people who buy a graphic equalizer and make a “smiley face” with the sliders. They are boosting the bottom and top….of everything, even if it doesn’t need it, because they like bottom and top. Not everyone who can turn a knob should turn a knob. 🙂

Regards,

Ty Ford

Regards,

Ty Ford

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[Ty Ford]

Hello KC and welcome to the Cow Audio Forum,

Keeping the outside sounds out is expensive. That’s why you have to build a room within a room. And you have to do it very well or it won’t work.

Calming the space within can be done with carpet on the floor, sound blankets on the walls and some acoustic foam on some of the ceiling tiles.

Regards,

Ty Ford

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[Ty Ford]

Hello David,

try sending me the link at tyreeford@comcast.net

Ty Ford

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[Ty Ford]

Hello Billy,

The sample rate should be whatever they want in post; probably 48 kHz if you’re shooting to video. Make sure you find out from them what frame rate they want as well.

Regards,

Ty Ford

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[Ty Ford]

Hello Tom,

How about ganging the 302 with a Sound Devices 442 with a link cable? That’d give you at least 7 inputs; one or two more if you finagle them a bit.

Regards,

Ty Ford

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[Ty Ford]

Hello April and Welcome to the Cow Audio Forum,

[April Hill] “I just got my first wireless mic system and have a couple of novice questions. My camera is a Pansonic DVX100 and the mic system is a Sony UWPC1, https://pro.sony.com/bbsc/ssr/product-UWPC1%2F6264/.

Question #1
After reading through my manuals, I am still uncertain about channels, frequencies, and attenuation levels, with so many options. In doing some test recordings, I just set the channels on both the transmitter and tuner to the first choice – how do you figure out what the best channel is (same for frequencies and attenuation levels)? Any online resources people recommend to beef up on audio knowledge?

Choose a frequency that doesn’t have interference. Both xmitter and receiver (not tuner) need to be on the same frequency. Attenuation levels (or no attenuation) are choices made under the subject of gain staging. At its simplest, you want the input of the transmitter to be loud enough to modulate the transmitter well. If it’s too sensitive, when someone speaks loudly, the transmitter will distort. Too low and the voice will be in the noise floor.

The output of the receiver needs to be gain staged properly with the camera input. At its simplest, you want to have the output of the receiver match the input of the camera. Line out to line in, for example. Or mic level out to mic level in.

Mixers usually have a tone generator that is used to send a tome from the mixer to the camera. On the DVX 100, you send tone at 0 on the mixer and adjust the camera inputs to -20. That gives you a usable dynamic range from 0 to +20 on the mixer without distorting the camera input.

You then connect the receiver output to one of the mixer inputs and gain stage the two so the receiver output won’t over drive the mixer input.

Question #2
My recordings were mono. Is that normal/ok/the only choice I have? Is this something you make stereo in editing (I use FCP HD)? Or do you just use a mono track?

Thanks so much for your time with these non-audio professional inquiries! And if there’s other info you need about what I’m using, let me know. “

A mono mic can only record in mono. You can probably switch the DVX 100 inputs so that the mic goes to both tracks. Then it would be dual mono.

If you want stereo, you need a stereo mic or two mono mics.

Regards,

Ty Ford

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