to have a mixer or not for a doc

L

larsvon

New member
i am shooting a feature doc and was planning on buying a FP33. i already have a shotgun mic and a wireless.

but the sales person suggested that since i am only using two channels at the most that i would not need a mixer. he told me that adding the mixer would only boost up the gain and that all the cables and what not would be in the way of the run and gun shooting style.

he suggested that i have my shotgun mic mounted on the camera and have the sound person boom with another shotgun with a wireless buttplug. (i have two shotgun mics and the buttplug for it). then told me to get a small sound limiter (to be safe) and a wireless sound monitor for the boom operator to hear the sound going into the camera.

now i thought that when using the FP33 the sound person can adjust the levels, so the camera op didn't have to monitor the levels and just concentrate on shooting.

any thoughts would be great. thanks.
 
the sales person has the wrong idea IMHO

I use a SD302 with with a hyper (shotgun would work too) on a boom and wired or wireless lavs. Because..

1- I want the audio controls off the camera

2- I want a GOOD limiter

3- I want good wired quality that I can count on for my boom mic not crappy wireless quality with dropouts.

4- I want the good mixer preamp to get the gain up to line level so that I don't have to rely on the camera's 2 cent pres

5- Shotgun on camera is really not the way to go. You can't get it close enough to get good sound in most situations (ie unless they are 2' or less from the camera) and you don't get good isolation because it is pointing toward whatever is behind the subject too, not boomed 18" away from above, which isolates the subject from the background.

1/6- And having control off the camera is ESSENTIAL

Did I say that last one twice? Yes I did!
 
Rather than spending thousands on reliable wireless links, why not just invest in a duplex ENG snake? Remote Audio makes a number of great ENG snakes that'll work just fine with an FP33.
CABETACFP33 is the model you'll want: ballanced stereo lines from the mixer to the camera, a headphone return for the mixer, and a breakaway connection. Those cables are worth every penny.
 
Shure mixers are NOT da bomb! Back in the day, ancient times, the FP32/A was the hot tip because there weren't a lot of high quality portable mixers around to compete with it. However, Sound Devices, PSC, Wendt and many others now make portable mixers that blow the Shure away with features, sound quality and reliability. Although I will say that Shure service for repairs is pretty good.

My advice would be to consider all of the other great mixers on the market besides Shure. If nothing else sounds as good to you, the Shure isn't a bad mixer, it's just that it's design is rather primitive in comparison with more modern mixers.

Best,

Dan
 
larsvon said:
i am shooting a feature doc and was planning on buying a FP33. i already have a shotgun mic and a wireless.

but the sales person suggested that since i am only using two channels at the most that i would not need a mixer. he told me that adding the mixer would only boost up the gain and that all the cables and what not would be in the way of the run and gun shooting style.

he suggested that i have my shotgun mic mounted on the camera and have the sound person boom with another shotgun with a wireless buttplug. (i have two shotgun mics and the buttplug for it). then told me to get a small sound limiter (to be safe) and a wireless sound monitor for the boom operator to hear the sound going into the camera.

now i thought that when using the FP33 the sound person can adjust the levels, so the camera op didn't have to monitor the levels and just concentrate on shooting.

any thoughts would be great. thanks.
Click to expand...
i think you need to change the store
 
Oleg 2 said:
i think you need to change the store
Click to expand...

Ditto.

BTW, Shure FP32a/33 are NOT the "bomb" compared with what you can get today but still work great and are a good choice if you are trying to pick up a cheap used solution.
I have held onto my fp32a, my first portable mixer, partly for sentimental reason, partly as a backup, but mostly because it's fun to break out sometimes.

I do wonder who buys a Shure fp33 new now-a-days.

Cheers
 
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