Boom Operator - how to let them monitor boom mic sound?

M

matthewd5

Veteran
hello.

i'm curious what people are using, if anything, to let the boom operator hear what he or she is recording so they can be better able to hear if they aren't close enough or if they are making handling noise.

the only solution i have found that seems to be practical required buying the psc duplex cable that has the belt box with the xlr in for the boom signal and the 1/4 jack for the sound coming back from the sound mixer.

i haven't gotten this cable yet but it should work quite well but its a bit cumbersome as the duplex cable is pretty thick and the shortest length available is 50 feet!

and then i have to use a headphone amp to power the feed back to that belt box.

just seems rather bulky. plus with this solution i have to keep the channel that he is plugged into just for the boom mic otherwise it would be confusing getting more audio than just what your responsible for as the boom op.

but not giving the boom op a pair of 7506 headphones and a return audio feed doesn't seem fair because then they really can't be aware if their getting sound thats bad or if they are making noise inadvertently.

matthew
 
cool thread oleg.

as oleg mentioned in that article, and maybe of interest to matthew, you can use a mix out channel, but you can avoid another cable by bouncing it back to the boom op via wireless.
 
That's how I handle it - Comtek (well, now ListenTech) to the boom op for monitoring. Doesn't give me a talkback mechanism, but still gives good monitoring. Good headphones for the boom op is important (primarily to avoid spillover from the leakage found in cheap headphones.)

Phil
 
i know about the duplex cable.

i already ordered the psc one from gothamsound.com but it just seemed like such a bulky solution and i was curious if other people might have come up with other solutions.

i'm going with the psc duplex cable and a headphone amp for now.

its just that most of what i do is in fairly tight spaces like regular homes where your shooting a short and another bulky cable that is 50 ft. long is going to add to the congestions of wires between camera and sound and camera and playback monitor and sound and boom operator.

matthew
 
i checked out that thread that oleg mentioned and the rolls box they talk about looks interesting and its really cheap.

matthew
 
phil, you can comm with the boom op via the slate mic though (just obviously not during takes. :-) im sure you knew this already.) why am i even typing. oh well.
 
hey at least you didn't reply to me and say "it's called a duplex cable" when right in my message i mention the duplex cable as being the solution i was considering!

i already ordered the psc boom duplex cable and i'm going to also get that rolls box as its cheap and tiny and probably less cumbersome than the psc duplex cable but there is no reason why i couldn't use both.

the psc cable is great if the boom op is a ways away and then the boom op can still use the rolls box if he/she wants.

plus the rolls box is good just for additional audio feeds if i actually work with a director who cares enough about sound to listen in!

i always setup a headphone amp with a spare pair of 7506's and i've yet had a director listen to the sound other than one who listened for 10 seconds and then never listened the rest of the shoot.

matthew
 
ha ha, yeah i guess he skim read your post.

i also have not known of many directors that actually care enough to listen. one or two, but not many.
 
he is one exellent director , with or without his mixing capabilities , the guy did few sound designs for features in his life and i can say they were exellent .
the reason he mixed it was in driving car so i couldn't be inside .
most of my "clients ' do sit with headphones during the shootings , but if not i dont insist or push .
only on critical situations where we working on the edge i ask director or producer to say the final word for the approve - or be more aware about problematic situations , usially it helps since they know how much it cost in post .
to mark the shotes NG is the easiest way - certainly not the right one
 
NG? Whats that stand for oleg? Sounds like a good guy, there arent very many directors like that on the level i work at right now.
 
I augment my NG notation with a giant X as punctuation...it's amazing how many times the take gets used anyway ("well, the picture looked good"). ;-) If only we could jiggle audio like a DP can do when he doesn't like a take and wants to make sure it doesn't get used. ;-)

As far as monitoring goes, I almost always have the script supervisor on headphones so they can hear exactly what the actor is saying and match it to his/her notes for continuity.

Phil
 
ptalsky said:
I augment my NG notation with a giant X as punctuation...it's amazing how many times the take gets used anyway ("well, the picture looked good"). ;-) If only we could jiggle audio like a DP can do when he doesn't like a take and wants to make sure it doesn't get used. ;-)

As far as monitoring goes, I almost always have the script supervisor on headphones so they can hear exactly what the actor is saying and match it to his/her notes for continuity.

Phil
Click to expand...

thats every one problem , you usually compromise , dont sure that camera department not suffering from the same problem if the director decided to take best preforming take .
if you write down and the director know it is , you did it right so there is no complains from any one on any stage , the production is the last word how do they like to treat the problem - its their money and their decision . your name on the movie that sounds bad is another problem :-)
 
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