Best H4N Settings for Outdoor interview

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dontfeedbaboons

New member
I'm shooting an outdoor interview with a shotgun mic connected to a Zoom H4N. I've browsed around quite a bit, but haven't seen a great synopsis of what people have found the most efficient settings for this situation on the H4N.

Obviously, I'm pretty new to audio and the H4N. If this has been covered before, I apologize and if it hasn't, please be pretty specific. I probably don't know what you're talking about or how to do it.

So, I know it needs to be in Mono, but what are the best settings for Mono? 4CH? MTR? Stereo and convert it to Mono? I'll probably do it as WAV 48khz/16bit. Record levels? Any other settings?

Thank you for your help.
 
The reason there isn't a great synopsis of what do is that it all depends on the situation. Audio isn't something you can ever just 'set and forget'. You need to be listening to what you're recording, watching the level, and adjusting things on the fly to give the desired result.

First off, "A Shotgun" doesn't exactly give us any real idea what you're using. It might be a 416, it might be some $100 piece of crap that only looks like a shotgun mic. For this particular question, it's not hugely important, but generally you'll get the most useful replies if you give details of what you're using.

There's really no reason to use the 4ch mode, and MTR mode limits you to 44.1/16, so that's right out. Go stereo, 48K/24bit. For levels, again it depends. You never want to hit 0db in the digital world, so start out trying to keep things in the -20 to -12 range to keep yourself safe in case of any unexpected peaks.

As always, shock mounting is crucial, and when shooting outdoors wind protection is just as vital.
 
I do these now more regularly for different projects. I am a photographer for 12 years and doing video work for about a year plus now. I've made almost all mistakes and learned how not to make them again.

For outdoor interview, best to have a super cardioid type shotgun with fur style windscreen, not just a foam windscreen. Get that mic as close as possible to the subjects mouth above and in front of their face (just out of frame) pointed just below the mouth, around the chin. Use a boom pole or whatever else you can muster to extend it the mic out and over. Connect the pole to a c-stand or light stand, multiple ways of accomplishing that, I use a boom pole connector bracket to a c-stand knuckle, sand bag the stand for safety.

The goal is to get the desired audio to be as hot as possible within the safety zone and keep the noise floor (preamp quality and ambient sounds) as low as possible by having the mic so close to the source just out of frame. You'll be amazed at how close that can be in an interview. An interview I did this week, my framing was just a little lower for a more commanding view and I was able to get the mic within 9-12 inches of their mouth, still having their entire head in frame. Just be hellbent on maximizing audio quality and minimizing mic distance to source. The location I shot a few days back was in an extremely echo-ie room, auditorium. With the mic so close, I minimized the echo to next to nothing, just enough to still present the feeling of the space without the ambient deadness sound of a sound booth.

I use an AT875R (under $200) with a Rycote softie and shock mount, and it does quite well. You'll do yourself a favor in getting the DVD, Sound for Film and Television by Barry Green. Great technique can make decent gear sound better, poor technique can make the best gear in the world sound like crap.

Manage your ambient sounds by choosing the best exterior location with the least offending ambient sounds. Make sure to get "room tone", at least 30 seconds or more of complete silent yet ambient sound to fill in gaps that can happen during editing. If you are near trees and there is a slight breeze, realize that you may pick up the rustle of leaves. Pay attention to AC units nearby, street traffic, construction, pedestrians, and the list goes on and on. It's hard sometimes to have someone repeat naturally flowing thoughts when unexpected ambient sounds jump up.

With XLR from mic to Zoom, set 16bit & 48kHz on the Zoom (the standard for Final Cut). Use good headphones, I have the standard Sony ones. Monitor your audio, a sound check before the interview starts and get you peaks of their voice around -12, which is 2 larger hash marks down from the right side of the levels meter (Stereo shows it, but 4 channel doesn't show the dB scale).

Best to format the SD for each new day. Start the recording (2 presses of the record button) and just let it run, you never know what you might get in the casual moments between questions or other stuff.

Use a hand clap or a slate (I now use my iPad with the DSLR Slate app) for syncing later in post.

Make sure you do get some audio in camera as a scratch track to sync later.

What you notice the more you do this stuff is how much more tuned your ears get to any and all sounds in the environment that will affect the quality of your recording.

Using a boom mic is a mono source anyway, so don't worry about actual stereo recording. You can use an XLR splitter to send the single mic to both channels or just fade the single channel to the middle in Final Cut. Or as added protection, use the XLR splitter and set one channel to the standard -12 dB for average voice peaks and set the other channel at an ADDITIONAL -6 to -12 as a backup for any unexpected loud sounds.

As a photographer, audio clicks with my head because it's a similar concept to ensuring headroom and plenty of bit depth for adjustments in post just as raw image files. But realize that there is much less that can be fixed in audio post as opposed to how much can be fixed in a single photo.

I'm no expert, all this is from the school of hard knocks and picking up plenty of advice from true audio pros.
 
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From what you posted, the issue doesn't seem to be the Zoom, but your mic setup.

There's a reason lav mics are usually used for interviews. You need mics right near the mouths.

You said you were using one shotgun mic for an interview, but that's two mouths, no? One asking the question and the other answering.

In case you only want the answers, a shotgun could work, and the setup on the zoom isn't that important. You can put it in STEREO mode and have the one input go to both Left and Right with the "MONO MIX" option. That way you can hear it in both ears easily. I use 24bit 48KHz WAV uncompressed with the LOWCUT filter on at about 98Hz. The mic is also phantom powered at 24V instead of 48V, but your mileage may vary. See what kind of levels you get with your mic.
 
Lavs are certainly usable for interviews, I also have a wired lav for each interview along with the boom mic. But what I find more often than not is that the boom mic done correctly is so much better quality and tonality of sound regardless of using high end lavs, for the most part most do not sound as good as a boom mic.

Now when we talk about interviews, that word can be misleading. For most projects, corporate, documentary and such, it's a one sided interview in the final piece. The goal is a personal presentation to the viewer, not a news style interview.

If you are needing both people's voices for sound and video then, another option is a hyper cardioid shotgun mic which has a wider pickup pattern for two people closer together. A super cardioid is a typer pickup. You can also mic both people with lavs. But from my paltry 1+ year dive-in-and-make-it-happen learning and working experience is that a well done boom mic for beginners is a hell of lot easier and safer than a lav.

My current project has 11 interviews and for all I used a wired lav and boom mic. The lav track is being dumped in many of the interview footage takes because of all the issues that arise from that type of mic for less experienced people. Scratching noises from clothing or a line getting tugged, too boomy or bassy from male voices with it at chest level. Each interview with a less than ideal lav track has taught me plenty.

As I said earlier, any beginner should get that DVD, Sound for Film and Television. If I bought that a year ago, I would have had far fewer user errors in positioning and using lavs.

Go with a quality boomed shotgun mic with great technique and walk away with some very good audio.
 
Lots of great advice. Thank you everyone who has responded. I'll have to look into the Sound for Film and Television DVD.

Yeah, the interviews will only be one sided. They will be a bunch of small sort of "Man on the Street" style interviews.

Later on, I will be doing a long sit-down interview indoors, which I was thinking of renting some lavs for. Photonashville, were all those interviews you used both a shotgun and lavs indoors or outdoors?
 
Just realize that the H4N EATS BATTERIES when powering a phantom powered mic.

Your best bet is to put a quality mixer with better preamps between the mic and H4n.
 
dontfeedbaboons said:
Yeah, the interviews will only be one sided. They will be a bunch of small sort of "Man on the Street" style interviews.
Click to expand...

Apologies for steering us way off-topic, but am I the only guy that doesn't like the whole one-sided interview style that seems to have gotten way more popular of late? I swear I'm not old enough to be a grumpy old man yet.
 
dontfeedbaboons - I've done plenty interviews in both environments, inside and out. I find getting a good interior a lot easier than trying to control everything that "comes out of the woodwork" right when we start shooting. no kidding, from pressure washers to golf cart beeping (non golf course), outdoor shoots can be a zoo.

Maybe this short "man of the street" celeb interviews will help you: http://nofilmschool.com/2010/08/how-to-shoot-with-dual-system-sound-on-a-canon-dslr/

Yes the Zoom eats batteries when Phantom power is on, I get maybe 1.5 hours on Eneloop AA's before changing them. Have plenty on hand.

JordanBlock - I would never say you're too old or grumpy. I do like the one sided interviews. It tells me a story better than two people back and forth, far too news channel like.
 
mcgeedigital said:
Just realize that the H4N EATS BATTERIES when powering a phantom powered mic.

Your best bet is to put a quality mixer with better preamps between the mic and H4n.
Click to expand...
This is no joke. Make sure to have a phantom power supply or a good mixer that provides phantom power. If not you will have at most 1-2 hours of power. I found this out during a test setup. I had my H4n hooked up to my 416. I had just put fresh batteries in the H4n and an hour or so later the recorder was blinking low battery.
 
Yes, I agree. The best setting for the zoom is at the bottom of an e-waste dumpster.
 
Don't forget the zoom has limiters that you can apply. They sound like crap but are better than distortion.
Batteries - I'm sure that the 12month old battery's from Walgreens won't last, but the ultimate lithium do much better, especially if its not 100 degrees out.
 
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