Am I doing it right - lav in noisy environment?

[Toenis]

I just wanted to be sure that it's right to use a lav mic instead of a shotgun like Senn mkh416 indoors in a large room when there are like 3 computers and a fridge running?
By listening it seems that the lav isolates almost all the noise and room echo and the shotgun gets me a bit more "roomy" sound with more ambient sounds from vents and fridge. Even when I turn the appliances off the reverbed room sound still isn't as clear as the voice from the lav.
Would a hyper mic do better, I don't think so as the MKH416 is close to hyper already.

Thanks,
T

 

[timapter]

the 416 is very different to a hyper - check up on that one. and yeah a hyper might just be better, the 416 is particularly poorly suited to some indoor settings - the general rule is "shotguns outside, hypers inside". the only problem with the general rule is that every second situation is an exception - you need to just know your gear and use your ears.

yeah, a lav will help with background noise. more often than not, mixers will both wire AND boom talent in tricky situations, and create a mix of the two sounds in post (dont mix booms and lavs together on set unless you really know your stuff)...

 

[Alan H. Chang]

Toenis,

Could you possibly turn off the computers and fridge while you're shooting? Unless they're being used in the background, you can definitely turn off the fridge. Yes the lav will pick up more of the voice because it's the closest and loudest element that it receives. Your ears are the judge, does the lav sound better than your MKH416 in this situation? Also, remember to record roomtone. This is a MUST and will help your post editor during cutting and editing.