Help with Audio Setup for Doc - On-Camera, Boom, and Wireless

J

jscheib

Active member
Having read through the forum a ton and through personal experience and recommendations from some doc filmmakers, I think I've got a pretty good idea of what setup will be good for my needs. We're shooting a doc inside of a retirement community (so mostly indoors), and mostly either interviews (in quiet apartment) or group situations (like cards or dining room). Wanted to run my thoughts by y'all for some final input before I pull the trigger. The crew consists of me on camera and a sound person (boom op+mixer - one person).

Gonna get the new Panny HMC150 camera and it's between either the Senn ME64 or AKG CK93 mounted on-camera.

Boom mic: Senn 416 (Deluxe kit from BH). After a lot of experience and aggravation with boom mic tethered to the camera, I'm considering getting a Senn 500 Series G2 system to make the boom mic wireless. I'm pretty sure that's feasible with just the transmitter and one receiver (if I didn't get the full lav kit, for instance), but wanted to be certain with y'all. The 416 go through a Sound Devices MixPre and we'd put the transmitter on the MixPre output to transmit to camera (or just cable the MixPre to camera if we scrap the wireless).

And finally, since depending on the context and subject's comfort, we might want to use a lav, so I'm thinking of getting the full Senn 500 Series G2 kit that BH offers and getting the Countryman EMW to replace the Senn lav. This would, for those shooting situations, replace the on-camera ME64/CK93 input.

Any thoughts? I'm not sure if it'd be possible to have both wireless lav and wireless boom on one G2 system, so if we did use the wireless lav, I suppose we'd just use the cable from the boom/MixPre to go directly into camera.

Thanks y'all, I really appreciate any help!
 
I might be able to give you some ideas to think about. Since it sounds like you'll mostly be indoors. I'd go for the Sennheiser 8040 cardioid microphone instead of the 416. The 416, and most all shotguns with interference tube designs will not sound as good in small echoey rooms. Ditch the idea of the 500 series wireless and use the money saved to upgrade from the Sound Devices MixPre to a 302.

Take a listen to a few tests with the Sennheiser 8040 indoors - this is running through the Sound Devices 302 http://www.dvcreators.net/microphone-polar-patterns/

I haven't tried it yet, but the 8040 in a RODE Blimp just might be an idea worth running with. Here is the manual to the new blimp http://www.rodemic.com/downloads/blimp/blimp_product_manual.pdf

You can save a few bucks going with the 100 series Sennheiser wireless since you won't need the phantom power of the 500 series (mic would get power from mixer). You could use the 302 outputting through the SKP 100 plug on transmitter if you wanted to go untethered.

I like the Countryman B6 lav personally, but the EMW is good for the money.
We actually sell all this stuff, you might have seen our banner ads here on the site for DVeStore. Unless you can get better service from B&H, consider shopping with us and we'll match or beat their price on anything Sennheiser, Countryman, RODE, or K-TEK.
 
The SKP 500 G2 and EK 500 G2 will be fine - the SKP will phantom power a 48V phantom powered mic.

I agree about the Sound Devices 302 being an excellent little mixer.

The MKH 8040 is worth thinking about, or the 8050 if you want it a bit more directional (the 8050 has about the same pattern as the 416 at low frequencies; it just keeps this pattern all the way up, instead of getting more directional as frquency rises like the 416 does).

But don't spoil it by trying to put it in a Røde blimp - I would either use it in a Rycote ball gag with the special ConnBox that enables you to use the head only (Sennheiser have supplied Rycote with a quantity of short Remote tails, which Rycote use to a ConnBox - this is terminated with a normal XLR) - this will be very small. Otherwise, I would use the supplied foam windshield with a Rycote mini Windjammer over it.

Regarding the lav. - the ME 2 supplied with G1 and G2 systems is good for the price, but Sennheiser sell the MKE 2-Gold-ew professional mic. as an accessory - or you may like to consider the new, tiny, MKE 1 microphone (just 3.3mm dia.) instead.

I hope this helps.
 
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Thanks for the ideas, guys! I will certainly look into all of that stuff and, Guy, I'll get in touch with you if I decide to go with that setup.

Cheers
 
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