Best mic for indoor/outdoor mix?

[andrew00]

Hey, I'm gonna be going to Egypt and making a travel promo soon and wanted to get a proper mic to use when I'm out there.

My problem is I wanna record both interviews, probably just simple talking heads, both indoors and outdoors. I also want to film general scenes, and therefore record the sound from them. [By that I mean, the hustle and bustle of every life, ambient stuff etc].

I don't have a massive budget and currently don't own a proper mic [I've been using a Shure SM57 mic that I record my band with for what audio I've needed to record].

With regards to getting an entry package I've seen you lot are generally pro the Rode NTG2 for outdoors and the Oktava MK012 for indoors - being that one is a shotgun and the other a hyper-cord. [for a small budget]

I was wondering though, since I can really only afford one mic, esp as I'd have to get some extras, all the wind stuff etc, what mic would you recommend I get that'll best cover me to shoot the outdoors stuff, be that outdoors interviews, outdoor ambient/general life style things plus the same type of thing indoors - things like interviews, scuba diving instructions talks etc.

Thanks for your help in advance, I'm really not good with the audio.

Also, I know this is a totally lame question to ask, but what should I set the audio levels too? I'm talking specifically about the two dials on the side of the camera. Naturally when people talk their voices increase and decrease in volume and I don't know to what level to set the dials. Should I have their normal voice just pushing in the red, beyond that figure of a human whatever that's for or should I keep it low and just up the volume later? I know this is a silly question but I just don't know the answer.

 

[vidled]

You could probably get away with one Oktava Mk-012 in BBG and a fluffy for outside, and some inside (not using the fluffy all the time of course!); but I'd still get a LAV mic too (can be wired). Look at Sony ECM77 or B6 Countryman or similar; they go for merely 100 bucks on eBay sometimes.
A wired lav mic will get you better quality in interview situations than an on-cam mic.

Question on levels: if you only have one mic, a little trick is to go into input 2, and record to both channels set at slightly different levels. That way you can pick-and-choose which one to use in post-production.

 

[andrew00]

Thanks for you reply. I can't afford the lav mic's from new and unfortunately ebay uk doesn't have any for an affordable price at the moment so I reckon I can only afford one mic set at the moment.

From your reply it definately sounds like you believe the Oktava is better than the Rode for the mixture of indoor and outdoor.

However on your comment about picking and choosing which channel of audio to use, how do I do that? In Vegas, which I use the audio just appears as one channel, as one stream.

 

[vidled]

Mic: if you are serious about getting decent audio from interviews you have another option too; get a wideangle lens and move in to about 40cm from the person who is speaking, that will get you good sound!
You can still do it with some tricks, like having the mic on a mini-tripod on a table right in front of the interviewee.

Just trying to convey what 100000 other posts say also: you need that mic in as close as possible. If these are proper interviews, and you are by yourself, and you don't want to carry a boom pole and stand, and the interviews are an important portion of the film you are making, it would be a shame to NOT have a lav with you. Really. A crappy lav will probably still give you better results than an on-cam mic from 10 ft away. If it's just a bunch of people yapping around a campfire, without saying anything significant, the Oktava Mk012 will do fine.

Regarding the other mic issue: plug the mic into INPUT 2, then behind the LCD make sure CH1 and CH2 are both set to INPUT 2. Choose a slightly different level on CH1 and CH2.
In your NLE (Vegas) you can the select either the left or right channel. If you have a lav also, you'd probably want to run the Oktava in one channel and the lav in the other.