[Ty Ford]

Hey Jason,

Thanks for confirming that science works! 🙂

The extra shielding of a balanced circuit and the double conductors of a truly balanced circuit were designed for just this reason.

Several other thoughts. Were you using the same mics that were susceptible to RF? If so, the mixer probably has some RF draining circuitry. You could try getting some Iron Ferrite RF chokes and wrapping the mic cord around and/or through them as an experiment to see if they will scrape off the RF.

I have not tried this, but you may find it helpful. I does require an XLR connection.
https://tinyurl.com/lhkdnow

Here are some simple clip-on beads: https://tinyurl.com/prs4ymb
You may need more than one. Even several may not help. Just a suggestion. Are you up to it? 🙂

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]

Hi Chon,

A lot depends on the reflectivity of the space, but for normal speech, I like mine no farther than 12-18″

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 Chon and welcome to the Cow Audio Forum.

Thanks for including the photo. Acoustically, I see challenges. I don’t know where the couches and chairs will end up but you have lots of parallel hard floor and ceiling. I’d put down a carpet or lay out multiple sound blankets on the floor to reduce the bounce. Using C-stands to suspend light weight blankets above the group will also reduce the bounce.

It’s difficult to tell much about the side walls and/or how much glass or hard wall there is. Maybe some C-stands and more blankets hung vertically to create a barrier to horizontal sound bounce.

Hyper or super cardioids (Schoeps, cmc641, Audix SCX-1, Audio technica AT-4053b, Sennheiser MHK 50) would be preferable to any shotguns mics due to the bounce from the interior.

You might be able to use stands, but a lot would depend on you much coverage each boom op has. I would think that the two booms will have to be manually operated to get the proper distance and coverage. One one each side of the frame may be all you can do to keep them out of the shot.

You might not be able to provide good coverage that way. It all depends on where the boomers are and how far away the talent is. If you had principal speakers, I might lav them and boom the rest.

I doubt you’ll find PZM useful. They aren’t bad on table tops, but you appear to be using chairs, not tables.

Actually, the very best audio results would be to hard lave everyone and use a Sound Devices 664 with CL-6 side car. This would provide 12 individual iso tracks and a stereo mix. I have done exactly this with a dozen people sitting around a large table. They were speaking extemporaneously. I did the best mix I could, but also recorded isos of each person.

In post they simply turned on the mic of the person speaking and turned off all that were not. The sound was great. It wan’t until that shoot that I recognized how nice it was to have paid the extra amount for the CL-6.

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]

Hi Again Jason,

You would think so, but it’s still a slightly unconventional connector. Finding the problem requires a simple process of elimination. Were you using the XLR connector? Was it plugged right into the recorder or did you have an XLR cable to plug into? Try a regular XLR mic and see if the RF is still there.

Do you know which station and how far away the transmitter is? Radio Station RF can get into audio in a variety of ways, including funky cables. Do you have any other XLR mics or hardwired lavs to experiment with?

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 Jason and welcome to the Cow Audio Forum.

It would be interesting to experiment at that problematic location with balanced XLR terminated lavalier mics. I’m guessing you’d have better results.

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 Santiago and welcome to the Cow Audio Forum.

I actually surprised that the PZMs sound as good as they do. I think there was some post work done. They probably isoed the PZMs and did the right thing in post.

This is not really a PITA, Santiago. It’s really pretty simple and results in a much tighter audio track.

Welcome to 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 Jon-Michael and welcome to the Cow Audio Forum.

Nick Griffin, who’s been a Cow guy for years, showed me SonicFire a few weeks back and it was very easy, sounded good and was very flexible.

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]

Maybe.

The Shure and AT have a NOM circuit (number of open mics) that reduce total output to allow each additional mic being open in addition to the expander/gate. If you’re getting each mic on a different track you can fix the problems in post (if they pay you for that sort of thing). Otherwise, doing it on the fly with an automixer can work really well as long as the levels are st properly and no one get “creative” wiht the settings or their performances.

I think both mixers give you a mono output. The 8 channel versions let you take isos to a multitrack as a backup), plus give you a mixed mono out.

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 Jason and welcome to the Cow Audio Forum.

Richard makes a very good point about the headset mics. Closer (mic to mouth) is better when you have 4 people sitting closely and talking and you don’t know when they are going to talk.

Yes, headphones for all so they can get into it.

If the space is particularly lively, also consider an auto mixer that will suppress the level of the mics not spoken into. It’ll give you a tighter sounding show.

Here are two:

Audio-Technica: https://tinyurl.com/kjd3vpn

Shure: https://tinyurl.com/ljngcbx

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 Cam and welcome to the Cow Audio Forum.

A few things you may already know, but may want to tell the engineer. Record wav files at 48kHz, 24-bit if they can. 16-bit is OK. (I’m presuming that your system accepts 24-bit 48kHz Wav files.)

DON”T CAPITALIZE THE SCRIPT THINKING IT WILL BE EASIER FOR THE NARRATOR TO SEE AND READ. Humans recognize words by their shape as much as by the letters. Capitalizing removes the shape.

If you’ll just be getting the raw footage from the remote record, a script for the engineer is not required but will be helpful to let him/her know what’s going on.

Having the talent slate each take, scene of file, including pickups will help you if you or they will be editing.

Do I understand that you’re trying to get the narrator to read to certain times based on your video edits?
That may mean you have recorded a scratch track to do your edits. Don’t expect the narrator to do the best job by confining him/her to your timing. Typically, the narrator’s emphasizes by changing pace; slowing to make a point. If the scratch track against which the video was cut does not do the same, your timing will be too short for to allow for proper delivery. Having said that, most professional narrators can change the speed at which they read to some degree, but at some point the power of the performance is diminished.

Also, consider “breathing space.” Not space for the narrator to breathe, but space between what the narrator says to allow the thoughts to sink in for the viewer. I re-narrated a script for Nat Geo some years back about the French Foreign Legion. It had been translated from French to English and every video clip was timed for me.

Because they didn’t allow breathing space, my narration was like a continuing flow of words that never stopped, for the WHOLE HOUR. It was, very quickly, exhausting to listen to.

It takes a while for everyone to get in sync. What I usually do, after the entire script has been recorded is to go back and redo the first page. The narrator is warmed up and knows the script a lot better.

If your script is not written with contractions, e. g. I’m, they’re, you’ll, can’t, don’t, PLEASE allow the narrator to make contraction. Otherwise your script will be unnatural and stiff.

Hope this helps. Break a leg!

Regards,

Ty Ford
Cow Audio Forum Leader (and narrator/producer)

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