Basic audio recording questions

[kat.hayes]

I want to use an A7S2 with a Sony preamp that mounts to the hotshoe that has a small boom attached to record run-and-gun type shoots.

1. If I am just recording dialogue/spoken word, is there any reason to record stereo?
2. What is the best way to record spoken word/dialogue and also have the ability in post (if necessary) to eliminate/minimize ambient sounds like cars driving by, doors slamming shut, etc. two mics/channels? Even with two mics won't both be recording the potential ambient noise so when I import into edit I will end up with the ambient noise on both channels? What is the way to handle this?

Thanks.

 

[Paul F]

1 - No.

2 - Alas, this is just not a good scenario. Don't event think of trying to eliminate unwanted sounds in post. It's not realistic. The on-camera mic will give you poor results with no good way to fix it. That's why you see those long poles with mics on them during on-the-street news clips with politicians or you see someone holding a mic and putting it alternatively under their mouth or the person they are talking to. It's all about getting a good strong signal from the person you are interested in and drowning out the other sounds.

Expect poor results or get a sound person to follow you around with the proper equipment.

 

[Amadou]

Dialog is recorded in mono using a shotgun microphone and getting the mucrophone as close as possible to the subject and pointing at the subject's mouth, ptfferably from above.

 

[Noiz2]

Or using a lav mic, or a hyper, or even a cardioid. In all cases you want to be as close as possible.

You do want mono. And the way to eliminate sounds you don't want is to not record them in the first place. That is not snotty, just true. Removing after the fact is still hit and miss. Sometimes miracles happen, but generally not. I have done a LOT of sound post and I have some really good tools to remove stuff and well it is still hit and miss.

If you are doing ENG then do your best and hope for good luck. If you are doing anything planned then stop when there are sounds you don't want. Check your location and eliminate everything you can that makes noise.

 

[OzGizmo]

Have a look at your local TV news.... what sort of microphone do they use and where is it placed...Why?
Because it works !!!!
If they could use a camera top mic successfully for stand ups don't you think they would use...of course they would......But they don't.

 

[Noiz2]

Well that is a bit of a special case. On set they are going to be using a lav and it's going to be visible, that doesn't work well on a narrative shoot. In the field they will often be using a handheld omni dynamic because it has pretty low sensitivity (so it picks up less of the BG) and has no proximity affect and is very forgiving of not great mic work.

And you will also have (though you won't see it) camera mounted short shotguns. But the bar is pretty low for run and gun sound.

OP did say R&G but that also has a fairly wide range. On a documentary I worked on the director shot some stuff with a camera mounted mic because that was really the only option with out $$$$. Stuff was just happening to fast and unpredictably and he was interviewing bikers who can be a bit testy with thinks like mics pointing at them and are not going to be "wired up". But I also boomed some interviews where it was a less crazy situation, and we set up stereo pairs for some of the concert coverage. So all over the place. A reality very R&G show I did I ran a bunch of wireless mics because it was in a hospital maternity ward. They did not want non family males in the room during the birth for kind of obvious reasons and you can't run cables across a hall in a hospital, or block the hall way. Soo a bunch of wireless plant mics did the hop across the hall to where I was recording and one of the parents would fetch the mics for battery changes (long labor...).

A different music interview gig was in his studio so even it was basically a R&G shoot the interview was all locked down and the boom was fixed. I used a wider mic because I couldn't adjust aim during the rather long takes, and it was a recording studio so it was very quiet.

And I did a pilot show on stunt pilots and in that case because it was often LOUD, and we wanted to pick up lots of plane recordings, I was on a stereo set up and when we did interviews I had an umbilical I hooked up to the camera so they got a feed off my MixPre, and I recorded separately. In that case I just tilted the zep so that one of the capsules was on axis with the speaker and that was the feed I sent the camera.

Those are examples but they all pretty much follow the "rules" of get as close as you can, record dialog in mono.

 

[Amadou]

The indudtry standard go-to microphone for on location recording is the Senheiser 416.

 

[Alex H.]

The indudtry standard go-to microphone for on location recording is the Senheiser 416.

It was 20 years ago, at least in the United States. It’s a decades-old design, certainly battle-tested and proven and there are plenty still in use, but it has been replaced in many kits with mics from Schoeps, RØDE, and even other Sennheisers. Newer, better designs, some of them more expensive and some less expensive. I don’t see as many 416s on sets and locations as I used to.

But again, that was a commonly-used shotgun, just one of a selection of tools in any well-stocked sound kit. It may or may not be the right choice for the OP. We still don’t know exactly which type of run-and-gun we’re talking about here.