Holophone H2 surround mic - anyone?

M

matthewd5

Veteran
hello.

i just wrapped on a three week indie feature...

i did the usual dialog and ambient sound recording for the film but on top of that they really wanted a holophone h2 used as well.

i had so little time i didn't even get a chance to post on here before i got buried in preproduction and then had the shoot 12-16 hours a day for 3 weeks.

it was an interesting little piece of equipment, the windscreen, which looked a lot like a helmet as it went all around it and covered everything except the large single cable that carried the eight channels.

i had to get used to the deva V because i needed to record at least 6 off the 8 channels.

i had expected it to be super directional as it is a mic meant to record 5.1, 6.1 or even 7.1/imax surround, but the mics weren't very directional at all.

it seemed in fact like there were 8 omni modules all around the head.

when i had someone walk around it while talking the volume on all channels seemed almost exactly the same level wether they were directly in front of it or behind it.

i still love my 442/744 setup but there are a couple of neat things i liked about the deva but if anyone starts off wiith a deva V or even the IV beware, there are some things about that box that are VERY non-intuitive.

thank god for gotham sound, they were able to help me when i called in a panic a few times when i couldn't record and there was no obvious problem or sign of what was wrong.

i am looking forward to recording a show of a friend who is in the circus to see what i can do with a recording of the show with 8 channels of sound!

but for dialog i still wound up using the schoeps cmc6/mk41 for most of it and the standby favorite the 416 for a little bit of it.

i finally went and bought the cut-1 filter and was amazed how different it sounds with that.

the boom op i had noticed the difference immediately, he said that the noise he normally heard when he readjusted his hands before/between shots totally disappeared with the cut-1.

matthew
 
I'm a bit curious about how you'd use the Holophone in a typical production setting - where'd you put it, relative to all your noisy equipment and people and such? What the heck would you do with it at a circus?

Also, unless I'm mistaken, the outputs of the holophone have to be matrixed to provide surround signals, so the raw signals off the device are NOT clearly related to final surround channels.

EDIT: I was mistaken! They say the holophone p-2 needs no further processing.

In any case, single-point surround recording's a little iffy and gimicky. Like the handheld DVD cameras that record 5.1. What, do the rear speakers have the sniffles and breathing of the "cinematographer"?
 
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the idea was to put it a few feet away from the camera and in the "audio center" of the scene.

the thought was that it would pickup many channels of sound making it easier to do a surround sound mix.

the problem i experienced was that all sound (except the low freq) seemed to come in from all the mics at almost exactly the same level whether or not you were in front of it, behind it or walking around it.

for a circus i normally one or two cameras setup, one stationery with straight on framing where you have the ring centered and just enough space on all four borders of the frame that you will get all of the action

typically that camera is on a tripod set very low or more recently on a hi-hat at floor level or just above floor level with an apple box or two under the hi-hat.

the second camera is often from the same general direction but gets small pans and tilts with tighter framing than the first camera.

for sound i almost always tap into the sound board either with a long xlr cable or preferably with a wireless system using the plug-on adaptor meant for handheld mics to feed the clean ringmaster patter and the music/effects for each act.

then i will have a shotgun mic or other mic pointed at the crowd so i can later mix the clean sound with the live crowd sound

the idea is that with the holophone maybe i can do the two channels i just mentioned and then setup the holophone so the "head/face" pointed towards the center of the ring and as close as i can get it to being in the center of the floor space between the ring and the audience.

i would record six of the holophone mics/channels - left, center, right, left rear, right rear and low freq.

i figure i can skip the rear center and the top of the head channel :)

and then on channels 7 and 8 put the feed from the soundboard and the single "traditional" mic pointed at the crowd.

i was just hoping that someone on here had experience with the holophone...

i have spoke to the people at gotham sound and they have had a few chances to play with this mic and they used it to record some live music performances and they too just fed all the channels into a recorder.

i believe they used the deva V which is what i have been using with the holophone.

i think a big part of the idea of the holophone is that you don't need any special processing, that you can just take those 6 separate channels and put them in the appropriate track in your NLE or audio workstation software.

matthew
 
Well, let us know how it goes! Good surround recording is a pretty tricky business, and I wouldn't have a lot if faith in getting something great from a single-point system in most environments...
 
Yeah, I have never had the opportunity or reason to try out the Holophone. I am very curious as to how it would work at the location. It's hard enough to get people to be quiet for room tone, wild takes, or walla tracks. Recreating the scene on set for surround sound seems difficult.

Does the production have a special reason for wanting the Holophone used for production? Did they shut down the genny for when you recorded the surround? More details!!! How was it all coordinated?

Have you listened to the results yet? Any feedback on on how it worked would be great.

All very interesting :)
 
To resurrect this thread, has anyone got links to reviews of the Holophone H2 ? Would be interesting to check out for me. Later as an upgrade..
 
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