Audio trick for lavs

David W. Jones said:
Good grief, OK I'll be the bad guy here.... It's Foley not foley.

And I tend to agree with Richard, why do an audio how to using horrible audio technique?

All the Best!

Dave
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I think you need to call in the Foley Police

Foley Police.gif
 
I think we should give the OP a break its a useful thought, presented in a manner that some dont really like

Im very interested in tutorials on using lavs where they do not appear in shot

I saw a proper soundie tape one to a (male) chest once I would be interested in knowing about that - postiioning, tape, etc

S
 
AlexDarke said:
And again, I'd like to stress that our main audience so far with these videos (this being only our 4th video) is 12-16 year old kids making videos in their back yard with their friends.
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Although, after participating in forums for many years I would be surprised to post anything that doesn't attract a decent amount of griping about something.
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Tis true. You could probably post "it's a good day' and get some controversy ;~)

It was a fun little video and I knew who you were aiming at and I thought you did a good job.

No professional is going to get squeamish about buying makeup sponges, we buy a lot more eye rising things... Going in to Tranny stores to try and find women's shoes that fit a mens size 11 to do Foley in ranks pretty high.

So a pro is going to take away a new thing to try out. But your demographic might just do slightly better with their sound track. Any thing that helps at the bottom of the food chain trickles up so I am VERY in favor of these kinds of tutorials.


Now you get to quiz us on HD video formats ;~)

Or ask a sound post guy about J and L cuts....
 
morgan_moore said:
...
I saw a proper soundie tape one to a (male) chest once I would be interested in knowing about that - postiioning, tape, etc

S
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Watch that "soundie" stuff or someone's going to come after you with a boom pole.

So first you take some gaff tape..... ;~)



Really just kidding Don't stick Gaff Tape on any body. It really hurts coming off.

There is this bandage tape that is very breathable that I have seen folks who know what they are doing use. Also "corn pads" the little "mole skin" doughnuts, can be used to make a little wall around the lav so cloth won't rub on it.

The down side I could see coming from the technique in the video is there could be audible rubbing, I would think, from the sponge.
 
It seems like for this to be effective, the foam would need to be **higher** than the mic capsule, keeping fabric from touching the mic itself - right?

Is surrounding a mic in foam going to mess with the pickup pattern and the frequency range (foam being a great sound blocker)?

I've wondered if some sort of wire "cage" - like a couple small half-circles of paperclip-style wire - mounted to a pad with the mic under it, maybe just 1/4" high or so - would be a better solution. I napkin-sketched something like that once, sort of a very open windscreen type of thing? Makes enough sense to me that I'm surprised I haven't seen something manufactured like that.
 
Noiz2 said:
folks who know what they are doing use
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He knew what he was doing

My interest in taping to the body was I was suprised that there is not some sort of extra bass or 'reverb' from the chest - maybe that is a good thing - or maybe he taped it so the mic was not in contact but floating close to the body


 
morgan_moore said:
He knew what he was doing

My interest in taping to the body was I was suprised that there is not some sort of extra bass or 'reverb' from the chest - maybe that is a good thing - or maybe he taped it so the mic was not in contact but floating close to the body
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I was referring to my jokingly suggesting the use of Gaff tape. sheesh one can't make fun of ones self anymore with out someone getting offended.

As I mentioned I have seen folks who know what they are doing (I am mostly a post guy and I do not put myself in the "Knowing what they are doing" category on this) use surgical tape and mole skin. The Idea was to make a little shield around the mic so cloth wouldn't hit it. You are probably going to pick up resonance from the chest. That is either good or bad depending on the actor.
 
http://www.videomaker.com/article/1193/ A handy bit of sensible info - although, as a theatre person - I'm always a little surprised with video people who have trouble taming lav sound. We deal with strange costumes, odd wigs, difficult talent and have to produce good quality audio live, with no chance of anything remotely like the post process we have in video. Most theatre style mixers have very musical eq - a cut/boost for very bottom and top, and then two sweepable cut/boosts for the mid range. We can almost always produce good quality, realistic audio from the usual crop of lav mics. We have some people who can make even the best mics sound rubbish, but we also have those who can make poor mics sound really good - a good ear and patience seem to be the key. The original lav mics were quite normal mics just hung on a lanyard - and chest cavity resonance was very obvious - but quite simple to eq out for most people. Many of the older popular mics could be lanyard mounted to put the mic in the Madam de La Vallière position, and back then the eq'ing to make the sound natural was nowhere near as sophisticated. The chest cavity needing a cut at 650-700Hz-ish depending on the size of the person. The old sound mixers rarely had very tight Q, so the curve used was pretty wide. Many modern eq devices are a bit narrow. SO you put the mic in the right place, protect it from wind and mechanically transmitted noise, and get it as close to the mouth of the actor as you can. You can cover it, hide it, build it into brooch - or cover it with acoustically transparent fabric. It just takes care and a bit of ingenuity.
 
AlexDarke said:
That is too funny! I don't think I've ever seen that episode.
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That's because you were probably 10 years old when it originally aired! :shocked:

Take all of this jabber with a grain of salt and keep doing what your doing... it's a good thing. :beer:
 
I've found the little "Hearos" hearing protectors, made out of a different kind of foam , to work great for lavs when sliit halfway through. Dollar Tree usually has them eight for a buck.
 
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