Help Boom Mic Recording Issues

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fromdecember

Member
I've read a little regarding boom microphones, but cannot find a good solution. I'm definitely not an audio guy, nor do I have lots of cash lying around, so I know there are limitations using 'cheap' stuff. I'm recording in a very small room with nothing in it but props, green screen, and my camera. I had my boom mic about a foot away from the subject when they were talking, but has the 'room echo' affect instead of the more dry sound you want from people talking for interviews or announcements.

Is there anyway I can help fix this echo issue with my boom mic? Whether in post or pre.
 
"Is there anyway I can help fix this echo issue with my boom mic? Whether in post or pre"
-- Not much can be done after the fact. You may have been better off with a lav or other type mic, closer placement and/or altering the acoustics of the room.
Top shelf gear is nice to have, but it's not a subsitute for skills.
If you can elaborate on they your specific gear, set-up and location, you may get a more definitive response
 
If you had the mic a foot away, then there's no reason you should have too many reflections - wanted to unwanted ratio should be good enough, unless maybe, you're in a bathroom. Are you sure you did this correctly - a foot away from the subject (singular) when they (plural) were talking. So was the mic being swapped from person to person as they talked, and the rotten sound was coming from the person off axis?
 
Is the room carpeted? Any upholstered furniture? A room with a hard floor and no furniture can be pretty live. A cheap room size rug can help. Are you using a condensor mic? Hanging a dynamic won't work, they have a short throw. Also, if it has a wide pattern (omni or even cardiod) indoors might pick up reflections. Use a Hyper/condensor. And definitely not a shotgun.
 
The boom mic was on a boom mic stand, and the mic was above the subjects head facing down. The room has carpet, no furniture, and 4 wooden walls. It's in a classroom at my church. I don't use lapel mics mostly because I hate seeing the mic in my frame, which is why I went with the boom mic above the subject. The boom mic I'm using is a VERY cheap-o one, EM320. The reason I went with this mic is because of this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_K9G36iVW4

It sounds decent in that video test they ran so I figured it'd be worth a shot.
 
fromdecember said:
The boom mic I'm using is a VERY cheap-o one, EM-320
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Wow, that's a cheap shotgun mic. Less than $20.


fromdecember said:
It sounds decent in that video test they ran so I figured it'd be worth a shot.
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The EM-320e sounds good in that test because they recorded this in a large sound-stage, which won't have the reflection problems you would have in a normal home or office room.

You need to use a good quality super-cardioid mic ( or cardioid mic if budget is tight ) to obtain good sound in smaller reflective rooms. ( low cost shotgun mics work best outside or in very big rooms with little chance of reflected sound )

For indoor recordings I use an Audio-Technica AT4053b mic ( about $600 ) and I also have a pair of Audio-Technica AT3031 mics. ( I bought these used for about $100 each )
 
Personally I'm somewhat skeptical of any mic costing less than $100.. $20.00?? However compared to an improperly placed $2000 mic, it would likely sound better.
 
A hypercardioid placed overhead doesn't need to be aimed so precisely. A shotgun above two people HAS to be aimed at a point between them, and this is what caused the problem. The overhead position needs to be in front, so it aims at the mouth - NOT - next to the mouth. It's just a poor technique. Two shotguns that can see( and hear) the mouth will work. If the voice is off-axis, then something must be on-axis - if it's a flat table, or a wall or floor, then the shotgun hears the reflections, and this is the usual reason everyone (bar me) cite the indoor means no shotguns rule.

The wider the pickup pattern, the less accuracy in aiming - that's really about it. If you look down on a head, how much of what comes out of the mouth is directed upwards? Not a lot!
 
I've seen boom ops (actually PAs) in low budget productions, point the mic at the back of peoples head... duh.
 
If the side walls aren't in frame, then you would benefit from some room treatment. A cheap solution is to hang thick moving blankets (or sleeping bags) a few inches from the wall. Throw a deep-pile rug below, add pillows to the corners. Basically, make the room look like the inside of a cushy lounge. You either need to absorb, refract or reflect the sound in a way that it doesn't hit the microphone again. Can you use a wired lav instead of a boom?
 
I appreciate everyones feedback. I plan on doing short films down the road, but only got this cheap mic because of that video and needed a simple solution to record announcements weekly. I've been using my Zoom H1 to record the audio and it has done fairly well.. actually better than that EM mic has done. I'll try to put up some carpet or some material around the walls to try and kill the echo a little. Should I do Normal setting or Tele? I did tele.
 
Well.. I just realized the EM320 uses a double-A battery and the audio recording I was doing was still coming from my Zoom H1 mics. Now I know why so much echo. :-)

When all else fails, check power and batteries.
 
I'm not sure I would put a lot of trust into a video where they refer a cardioid mic as a shotgun. It might be a hyper? hard to tell because the # they use refers to the body not the capsule. Point is the folks doing the "shootout" are idiots so...
 
LOL, I was just going to ask what you were recording to. I had a small shoot that had the same problem (I was talent on this one)......and I saw the indicators on the "sound guy's" Zoom that showed it was using on-board mics instead of the boom. Asked if it was real echo-ey and distant sounding. He said "yeah, but it's the mic, I guess." Fixed it with one button.

Doing sound, you have to focus on that......nothing else. If it sounds wrong in the cans, then you need to find the issue right then....not wait until post to see if it can be fixed. Many times, if not most times, it cannot be fixed.

Top shelf gear is nice to have, but it's not a subsitute for skills.
Click to expand...
amen.
 
The mic in that video is terribly familiar - although a new number to me. I suspect strongly the reason it is so cheap is because it's using a fairly old design now - often badged as audio technica, or dozens of other makes. Have a look inside and I think you will find two separate mic elements that the switch couples together to produce a cardioid (using one element) or a supercardioid response using the two together. This, I'm pretty sure produces the characteristic thin sound these have. Even with care with eq, it's very different to get them to sound nice. That said, the frequency response seems to mean that the result is clarity - you can hear what people say, but the emphasis on the HF end means they can be a bit sibilant and sharp with people with toppy voices.

I really don't like the sound, but if you have a tight budget, then they do work, don't they. That video review, though, is a disgrace. It looks good, but exhibits all the bad points of using shotguns on booms. Neither of the mics is a shotgun, but if they were - neither points at the speakers, they point at the ground between them - and is exactly why people don't rate shotguns indoors, because the usage is flawed. Even with the mics they used, if one was aimed at one speaker's mouth and the other at the other speaker's mouth, the result would have been much better.

Not spotting the Schoeps (which is a stupidly expensive mic to not actually understand and identify) isn't a shotgun, and not understanding that neither is the other cheap one just make the concept of the comparison flawed.
 
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