Hypercardioid For Porches?

R

Richard J

Active member
Hey, I'm trying to figure out the best mics to use for a series of interviews held on front porches. I intend on using either my sony lavalier (I believe a 77b) or picking up a Sanken Cos11. I believe I can just hardwire them as people won't be moving around, they'll be sitting. I would also like to boom them.

Outdoors, I've always been much happier with my Sennheiser 416 than a lav as I feel it's a more natural, transparent, sound.

I'm wondering about porches though. It's basically inside, except for one wall. Is that open enough to not have the reflections and problems I run into if I try to use my 416 shotgun indoors or would I be better off using a Hypercardioid?

I know the best thing to do is test on location but it's in another state. I'll try to find a couple similar porches around my parts but was wondering if anyone had any thoughts. Thanks.
 
Testing is obviously the best thing to do, but the advantage of a shotgun outdoors is its narrow pickup and greater noise rejection -- and on a porch, you're still outdoors with all the commensurate noises and can still take advantage of it.
 
Thank's for the quick reply David. Good point about the noise rejection. Are you giving the shotgun the advantage of noise rejection over a lavalier or simply in comparison to a supercardioid? Also, in this sort of situation do you think a shotgun will give a better quality of sound than simply using a lavalier. Thanks.
 
The shotgun is going to have better rejection than a hypercardioid. The lav advantage is proximity, of course, so the voice signal will be very strong and overpowering, but it has no rejection at all. You are quite correct to want to boom as well as lav, and double sound is the safest way to go. All things considered, though, you'll almost always get better sound from a properly-boomed shotgun than a lav. (Not going to say absolutely always, of course.)
 
David Jimerson said:
All things considered, though, you'll almost always get better sound from a properly-boomed shotgun than a lav. (Not going to say absolutely always, of course.)
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I try to explain that to my clients, but they always think lavs are the "gold standard". But when they are paying, and demand it, they get it.
 
Doc Bernard said:
I try to explain that to my clients, but they always think lavs are the "gold standard". But when they are paying, and demand it, they get it.
Click to expand...

Anyone who thinks that has also never had to deal with clothing rustle, head turns, chest bass, or cord pulls . . . :)
 
If there talent is sitting in rocking chairs, bring a small rug or strips of felt to attach to the rocker runners, and also so spray furniture polish to spray any joints on the rocker that may squeek when rocking.
 
Adding for consideration, the issue is not strictly one of indoors versus outdoors, it's whether the environment is reflective or not reflective. Shotguns do not do well when there is a lot of indirect sound hitting them in addition to the direct sound from the source. Porches tend to be very reflective due to the close proximity of the front exterior wall of he building, a solid ceiling, and hard concrete or wood floor. Clap your hands from the talent position and you'll hear lots of reverberation and echo, the bane of shotgun mics. While it's worth trying both to see what sounds best in your specific shooting situation, I think it's likely the hypercardioid would be better suited.
 
Maybe you can deaden some of the out of shot walls, floor and ceiling with blankets or convoluted foam. The reflection will also pick up traffic etc...which may pose larger problem than normal reflection phase issues. Might also be worthwhile trying to pre-steer the interviewees to clothes that are lav friendly regarding placement and material noise.
 
Like David said, the best option is going to be for me to go and do some testing. Different setups will definitely work better than others even among the same mics. First on my list is to see how the Sennheiser shotgun works when aimed at the talent from the house side of the porch. This should give little reflection except from behind (I've found the 416 picks up audio directly in front and also, surprisingly to me, directly behind). I've been contemplating picking up an Audix SCX-1 HC hypercardioid and just wasn't sure if this might be a good time to invest. For now I'll rent cameras as the tech is moving so fast and rental fees are pretty cheap but for audio I don't mind picking up gear, over the years audio equipment always seems to be a good investment. I'll keep y'all posted with how the shotgun sounds on a porch, not Porsche :) Thanks everyone for the input.
 
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