I have my SD302/schoepscmc6mk41/sennmkh416, now how do i use them! :)

S

scribbles

Active member
Well, I'm not totally clueless.
Please don't be annoyed by my ignorance, i've tried very hard to search all these forums and read all your posts, I've learnt a lot, but there are some things I have yet to learn. I understand buying a book on audio would answer a lot of these questions and I will probably do that but you guys are always so helpful.

The questions I have are probably fairly easy for you guys to answer:

1. When shooting outside, do i still record room tone? (I'm assuming I do). Is there a certain technique for recording it outdoors, like, do i always point the mic up to the sky, at the trees blowing in the wind around me, point it in front of me? I'm clueless. Do you just point it in the direction where the sound you want is coming from? (eg trees blowing in the wind)

2. When recording room tone outdoors and indoors, is there a different level I should keep the audio at? Eg. Outdoor audio roomtone -20db? -10db?

3. When recording room tone outdoors during a long take, lets say someone walks an entire block during the take, is it practical to record your room tone by walking that block in 'silence' to record the entire symphony of sounds along the way? Do you stay stationary, record a bit at one spot, then move a bit further and record different stuff, then move a bit further, a bit further, and then mix it all in post? like 'cross dissolve' the audio?

4. Is there a certain standard for what level the room tone should stay at during the final mix? Or just whatever sounds good?


Thankyou so much! Now that I have all these amazing tools I can't wait to start learning more about audio.
 
I'm fairly intrigued by the amount of interest in recording roomtone. The kit you have is the same as I have and it's a very good working package.

1. Yes, roomtone whenever you have a chance. Every new scene/location, you should at least record a minimum of a minute (30 seconds will do, more random traffic noises more roomtone you record) so that you can edit it along with your cuts to make seamless and smooth flow. You can point the mic in whichever direction you feel is best that will fit with the picture during post-editing. When I'm outside on the streets with a busy crowd, I usually extend my pole to the highest with the mic pointing to the traffic to record the ambience of the surroundings. This gives me a pleasant recording rather than having the mic next to my eye level, which I'll get more direct sound from the closest objects.

2. There's no standard level for recording roomtone. As long as you don't overmodulate or distort your signals you'll be fine. Later on when you edit, you then adjust your levels according to the amount of roomtone present in each of the takes/scenes/cuts.

3. Recording roomtone in this kind of situation can be hard. Since every second the sound changes, you will need to record additional ambient noise or direct sounds that is going to match the setting. This could be the car, ATM machine, dining area with conversations, bike wheels, cetera. I would suggest you to make the first attempt as good as possible because it's a one-shot opporunity. Whatever that's being recorded is pretty much the "tone" for that take. Yes, most of these recordings are then put together in post to help add definition to the scene.

4. No standard level for roomtone, but there is for dialogue. After you get your dialogues synced up and rough mixed, by then you should have an idea of how loud your roomtone should be set to. If your recordings turn out to have lots of background noises and the dialogue is somewhat cutting through, then you have to raise your roomtone to match the background level to stay consistent. This is why sound, microphones to be exact, needs to be as close as possible to the talents so you get the best signal to noise ratio for your dialogue and background.

Yes, use the mic to its advantage! Specially the 641 system.
 
you want to record you roomtone with the mic in the same position it was for the dialogue.

by the way, it sounds a wee bit funny referring to ext atmos as 'roomtone' maybe just call it atmos! :0)

if you start pointing the mic at other stuff, then it won't cut into the dialogue edit as easily. that would be a 'wildtrack'

don't turn up the level on your mixer for room tone.

as for your walking street thing, I reckon it would be cool just to take sound for certain points along the street and they can work with the dissolves like you suggeted. always just get a good variety of sounds, escpecially the more subtle ones, as they are often the most used.
 
to clarify - whatever your mixer settings were for your dialogue, thats what they should be for your roomtone, with the mic in the same position.

the idea with roomtones/atmos/buzz tracks is not to be recording ambience/environment effects, its to be recording audio that matches the silence when characters dont speak. this lets an editor/mixer smooth out the jumps between background levels between shots.
 
and by silence, of course i dont mean silence. i mean the generator that was badly positioned, the pa's talking about their sex lives in the next room, the ballasts that are buzzing and in the same room as the talent, and the highway that is outside because the location looks good and we'll just have to make do because its too pretty not to use this particular bathroom! ha ha
 
timapter said:
.. the generator that was badly positioned, the pa's talking about their sex lives in the next room, the ballasts that are buzzing and in the same room as the talent, and the highway that is outside because the location looks good and we'll just have to make do because its too pretty not to use this particular bathroom! ha ha
Click to expand...

lol

same the world over!!

not that we're bitter! ;0)
 
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