Decent Boom or Mic for Interviews?

M

matt9b

Well-known member
I have plenty of decent mics (U87, NT55's, etc..) but I need something that will enable me to record interviews in an untreated room without background reverb / sound. At the moment, using any of my mics, the sound still isn't up front of the person being interviewed, and so altho these are high quality studio mics, the sound doesn't sound decent. Obviously I don't want to have the mic in the frame.

Basically I need something that will give an up front dry sound of the interviewee without being in the frame or too close to them.

Filming with the Canon 7D

Anyone have any ideas, or suggestions?

Thanks
 
Try a quick use of the search function. This is a variant of one of the asked-daily questions around here, and common practice is to start with a small-diaphragm hypercardioid condenser as a boom mic for interiors.

You could also try a lav, or use both and pick the best (or a slight mix of the two) in post.
 
C2V said:
Try a quick use of the search function.
Click to expand...

Yup, already tried this before posting.

C2V said:
common practice is to start with a small-diaphragm hypercardioid condenser as a boom mic for interiors.
Click to expand...

Such as... ? A search of google and my usual audio gear suppliers turned up nothing.

C2V said:
You could also try a lav, or use both and pick the best (or a slight mix of the two) in post.
Click to expand...

I have a lav, but either the sound isn't up-front enough, or the lav is visible. Any specific suggestions?

Thanks :)
 
A search for "hypercardioid" will turn up plenty of info. And you'll see the same names pop up across multiple threads: Oktava MK012, Audio Technica 4053b, AKG CK93. Unless you want to spend more, then Shoeps and Neumann are worth considering. Read through a sticky or two. Hypercardioids are discussed frequently in them.

As for lavs... okay, so you have a lav. But do you have the right lav? A cardioid (uni-directional) lav is all but useless in this situation. Mounting it even a little off-axis from the interviewee will affect the "up front" sound you get. You need an omni. And for visibility, there are plenty of very good, very small lavs out there... some that can be hidden in plain sight. There's a sticky for that, too. Placement also has a lot to do with it, and some of these tiny lavs can be placed very close to the mouth and still be unobtrusive.
 
Hey Matt,
A lot of people like Sanken Cos-11's, Countryman EMW or B6, Sonotrim, Tram, Sennheiser MKE. They're all good.
 
matt9b said:
I have plenty of decent mics (U87, NT55's, etc..) but I need something that will enable me to record interviews in an untreated room without background reverb / sound. At the moment, using any of my mics, the sound still isn't up front of the person being interviewed, and so altho these are high quality studio mics, the sound doesn't sound decent. Obviously I don't want to have the mic in the frame.

Basically I need something that will give an up front dry sound of the interviewee without being in the frame or too close to them.

Filming with the Canon 7D

Anyone have any ideas, or suggestions?

Thanks
Click to expand...

You're asking for a mic that violates the laws of physics and it's not nice to try to fool Mother Nature - she gets angry LOL. Seriously, except for a using a lav mic, what you're asking simply can't be done. Booming a top-shelf hyper such as the Schoeps CMC641 just out of frame can help a lot, and that's why they're used with interiors in untreated spaces, but don't expect miracles. It's really difficult to grab a field interview in an impromptu space that sounds as good as a top-quality studio mic in a treated announce booth.
 
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