If you are considering a shotgun/cardioid...

Thought I would also chime in, I am editing a project that I shot last week with the Audio-Technica AT875r. This mic is amazing for the money. Two days of interviews and b-roll on location in Philadelphia. I am listening to the sound on the Genelecs and it sounds very good, I would dare say even better than some of my $500.00 to $800.00 mics.

For those of you considering the Rodes and Oktava, don't forget to consider and listen to this one, it's a sleeper.

Best,

Dan
 
hi dan

i perfectly understand your point.
problem is that in documentaries and run and gun most of the times for me the struggle is poor sound vs. poorer sound!
i have always thought that the best side rejecting mic was the best to use but during my last job i have been tempted to change my perspective. for example booming a dialogue: refugee camp, lots of unwanted, loud ambient noise, two people speaking a language i don't speak. with a 416 the ambient noise still gets in and many times the beginning of each person's line is out of focus, off axis. a hyper like the oktava or the schoeps might have given better results thanks to the wider pattern, forgiving the bad positioning of the boom. still i'm wondering what would have happened to the ambient noise.. may be it would be louder, may be it would be lower because of the limited reach of hypers.. who knows. probably i just have to admit that sometimes you just can't have a good sound. a documentary is not a fiction film, nobody screams "silence" before shooting. sometimes "better" is the enemy of "well"..
 
I saw that torrents were mentioned. This would be an ideal solution for reducing your bandwidth issues. Zip files containing mp3's will not give you much of an advantage because of the high compression already present within mp3. The only thing using zip files will do is to discourage people from downloading each file due to the steps of decompression-- not an issue with one file, but takes time with many.

If you would like to embed the files in the page itself I would suggest the flash based JW MP3 player. http://www.jeroenwijering.com/?item=JW_MP3_Player Its free for noncommercial use and you can create play lists. The files do not start downloading until the user clicks play.

Hope you find it helpful.
 
pietro jona said:
hi dan

i perfectly understand your point.
problem is that in documentaries and run and gun most of the times for me the struggle is poor sound vs. poorer sound!
i have always thought that the best side rejecting mic was the best to use but during my last job i have been tempted to change my perspective. for example booming a dialogue: refugee camp, lots of unwanted, loud ambient noise, two people speaking a language i don't speak. with a 416 the ambient noise still gets in and many times the beginning of each person's line is out of focus, off axis. a hyper like the oktava or the schoeps might have given better results thanks to the wider pattern, forgiving the bad positioning of the boom. still i'm wondering what would have happened to the ambient noise.. may be it would be louder, may be it would be lower because of the limited reach of hypers.. who knows. probably i just have to admit that sometimes you just can't have a good sound. a documentary is not a fiction film, nobody screams "silence" before shooting. sometimes "better" is the enemy of "well"..
Click to expand...

Hi Pietro

Assuming your are exterior, in the siutation you are describing, a cardioid (hyper, super or cardioid) would definitely pick up more ambient, unwanted noise than a shotgun. Frankly, that is a tough situation and the best you could do would be to have a god boom operator who could position the mic nearer to the speakers.

Yes, there are definitely times that you cannot have good sound but that's not always the most important thing in a doc. Another thing to consider would be to have another person hand boom, carry your shotgun/cardioid on a hand mount and just position it nearer to the speakers. Less obtrusive tha na giant boom mic over their heads. This technique is fairly common in docs in situations like yours. OR, put a wireless lavaliere on one of your crew who can stand near the talent you are trying to mic, you would be surprised at how much audio an omni lav can pickup and your "human mic stand" would probably be able to get pretty close to people and they would not know that he is miked. Worth a try. That's the beauty of it, your human mic stand does not need to b that skilled so a local or member of your crew who might be otherwise just standing around can be put to work.

Best,

Dan
 
grant-o said:
I saw that torrents were mentioned. This would be an ideal solution for reducing your bandwidth issues. Zip files containing mp3's will not give you much of an advantage because of the high compression already present within mp3. The only thing using zip files will do is to discourage people from downloading each file due to the steps of decompression-- not an issue with one file, but takes time with many.

If you would like to embed the files in the page itself I would suggest the flash based JW MP3 player. http://www.jeroenwijering.com/?item=JW_MP3_Player Its free for noncommercial use and you can create play lists. The files do not start downloading until the user clicks play.

Hope you find it helpful.
Click to expand...

Hi Grant:

Thanks for the heads up. We talked about how to present the files a lot before we went live. We both feel that a lot of readers, especially more serious ones, will want to download all of the clips and put them into their editing software to playback on better speakers and to make A/B comparisons easier. I think that the Flash idea, while convenient for the casual reader, would frustrate people who want to have the files on their drives to manipulate and play on better systems.

Thanks!

Dan
 
Hi Pietro:

No problem. Good luck with your sound. It really is a never ending battle to obtain good sound, but I enjoy it. If you study up on the theory and learn how sound behaves, which is a little strange and not how you would expect, you can use the gear you have to it's best advantage.

Best,

Dan
 
Wow Dan! This article is awesome! Easily the best I've seen yet that goes through the major mics.

Question for you, how would you compare the mkh50 to the Schoeps cmc641? I own the mkh60 and the mkh50 but have been wondering if I should get the Schoeps, but then it seems silly to spend $1500 on a Schoeps when I already own an mkh50.
 
shawneous said:
Wow Dan! This article is awesome! Easily the best I've seen yet that goes through the major mics.

Question for you, how would you compare the mkh50 to the Schoeps cmc641? I own the mkh60 and the mkh50 but have been wondering if I should get the Schoeps, but then it seems silly to spend $1500 on a Schoeps when I already own an mkh50.
Click to expand...

Hi Shawn:

What, are you made of money or something? You are getting a RED and you have a 60 and a 50? Lucky dog! Say hi to the guys at the country club for me! (just kidding!)

Comparing the MKH-50 and Schoeps CMC641. To me, they are two totally different sounding mics. The Schoeps is basically uncolored and very accurate, but it imparts almost no personality to the sound. What you hear with your ears is close to what it records. In a word, it's neutral.

The MKH-50, as you know, is a pretty colored sound but it is colored in an interesting way to my ear. It sounds darker and has more of a bass/mid range bump to my ear. If you have that much working income, I would own both, you would cover the best of both worlds. Very different sounding. I would use the Schoeps for documentary and BTS, I would favor the MKH-50 for softer sounding voices or anything that needs some dynamics to make it sound more exciting.

So what kinds of projects are you shooting with all of the killer gear? ;-)

Best,

Dan
 
shaun dont waist your money not worth it invest in other toys , mkh 40 will be much better choice for boom work to complete the setup
 
Hi Oleg:

I know you think the Schoeps is not a good value and that's cool. But you would recommend the MKH-40 over the 50? How come?

Dan
 
i dont recomend it over , i recomend it as another , by the way the 40 is more suitble for croud dialog as have something more similar to 41 or gefell 21 picup , the 50 is the sharpest card i know , even tighter then the neuman ak 50 so really nneed to be on the swit spot or you out ,
also way better then theschoeps outside for humidity and since its tighter pattrn may vork from grater height on extirials shots which usially more open for the headroom .
schoeps - have few they do not better for dialog recording and francly i sturt to hate them as i need to put cut 1 and make it shot gun lenght not to hear the wind /hands rumble , all others dont have this problem ( neuman need 100f body )
 
If only it were that easy...

That would take me off of the lavaliere article, I am already hitting up Sennheiser to send me their lavs so they probably will not also send me another mic.

I could update and add all of the mics I could not include before but time = money as you know.

Best,

Dan
 
A recent Sean Penn movie came out called "Into the Wild" and there were a number of scenes done here in Portland Oregon. A friend of mine talked to the sound mixer and he had an mkh60, 50 and 40 as his kit and was using the 40 for restaurant dialogue with the mkh50 in the bag.
 
puredrifting said:
Hi Shawn:

What, are you made of money or something? You are getting a RED and you have a 60 and a 50? Lucky dog! Say hi to the guys at the country club for me! (just kidding!)

Comparing the MKH-50 and Schoeps CMC641. To me, they are two totally different sounding mics. The Schoeps is basically uncolored and very accurate, but it imparts almost no personality to the sound. What you hear with your ears is close to what it records. In a word, it's neutral.

The MKH-50, as you know, is a pretty colored sound but it is colored in an interesting way to my ear. It sounds darker and has more of a bass/mid range bump to my ear. If you have that much working income, I would own both, you would cover the best of both worlds. Very different sounding. I would use the Schoeps for documentary and BTS, I would favor the MKH-50 for softer sounding voices or anything that needs some dynamics to make it sound more exciting.

So what kinds of projects are you shooting with all of the killer gear? ;-)

Best,

Dan
Click to expand...

Lol, dude, you're killing me! My friends at my full time job (software engineering) live in brand new houses and drive brand new Prius's, meanwhile I have a long suffering wife who lets us live in a small apartment on the crummy side of town, driving old cars so that I can have cash to buy gear. On top of that, I spend more than I can even afford, maxing out cards and paying them off when I get bonus checks. I'm throwing my financial security under the bus in order to get good gear.

But hey, if this country club you speak of starts taking applicants, let me know how to get in :-)
 
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