Advice on how to Lav

T

tumbleweed

Well-known member
I've searched the forums and I believe this must have been addressed before, but I can't find it. Sorry. Feel free to send me any links....

I always like to hide the lav behind clothing and in the past I've used Vampire/viper clips and plain moleskin. However, I just got a shiny new Countryman EMW and this mic is very little and very sensitive. When I tried to use the viper clip I got too much rustling noise and I had to go with a regular tie clip (which is not my preference). Can anyone give me suggestions on how to mic someone using this lav?

Much appreciated.:dankk2:
 
bump....
any experienced sound people have any tricks of the trade to share? Otherwise, I guess I'll just ask my sound guy next week. I know everyone has there way to do things.
 
Sometimes you have to turn the EMW INTO the vampire clip... so that it's actually facing BACK at the plastic... there should be enough of an air-gap that you'll still get sound that way... although it will sound different, but burying a lav in clothing is just BEGGING for clothing rustle.

With a Sanken COS11 you have that little rubber thingy... so it gives you a pocket to hide the lav in and spare some rustle.

The old gaff-tape football was about getting the lav into an airspace also.

On some people I hide the lav up in the collar... and MOST people I'll put the lav in the cavity of the chest... lower if I have to in order to accommodate a man... and higher if a woman is ample enough to allow an air space under her clothing but between her boobs.

Any time there are multiple layers of clothing it's going to be REALLY hard to have the mic hidden and not get horrible clothing noise.

When possible and these other options are no good I will hair mic with the B6... or I'll get the head of the B6 bent just around the person's ear... and have it held in place with moleskin, or medical tape, or whatever... and the mic is just poking down over one ear... so that it's hidden in the hair anyway... but the head MUST be such that no hair is rubbing across it!

Finally... a hat, or glasses, or other objects worn on the body can offer some great solutions as well. I did a shoot a while back that had a security guard that had a radio (with the coiled cable leading down to the actual walkie) and I ran my lav up through that coiled cable and used black gaff to attach the lav to the side of that thing that faced his mouth... it worked GREAT and it was invisible.

If you have multiple layers of clothing you're going to be experimenting... so give yourself some extra time... and if you know in advance that the talent isn't going to handle this rigging time well... figure it out on yourself before you get there.

Besides moleskin there's a product that's basically called toupee tape... you can get it at wig shops... and there's some kind of medical tape, the name of which escapes me right now.... but if you have a med supply store they'll have it... it's not just the normal stuff... it's expensive.
 
thanks for the reply Matt. In the past I have turned the TR50's into the vampire clip and it worked well. But, with the emw it looks like both sides are actual "mic". Maybe when I tested the vampire clip method, I had the emw backwards. That would explain a lot ;-)
 
matt is thinking of transpore - AWESOME stuff. absolute must have for sound, and not really that esxpensive when you think of how great it is.

right matt?
 
Tim,

Either Transpore or Hypafix (I use Hypafix). You can tape right over the mic head with Hypafix with little or no change in recording dynamics. Also, with the EMW, yes, try flipping it over. If you look back through one of my lessons learned post, you will see I had the mic facing the wrong way once, and was getting terrible "clothing rub". Once I flipped it over, clear as a bell.

Other tricks of the trade include Dr. Scholls corn pads, Rycote top-sticks (expensive) and the gaff tape triangles. I think there is a good discussion of this topic in Jay Rose's book.

Phil
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top