Indoor mic test - MKH50

S

seanadl

Active member
Hi guys,

I'm in the process of putting together an online satirical news show. Over the last few weeks i've been testing things out while the set gets put together.

As I have explained in another thread (http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?367020-MKH50-indoors-placement-on-mic-stand) I'm using the MKH50 in a small living room which is being converted into a small studio space. Using sound blankets, I'm hoping to erase some of the obvious reverb in the room.

These are my tests so far (please excuse the lack of set/rough production values- these are basically pilots so we can try different things out).



What else can I be doing to make the mic sound a bit nicer?
 
There are 'DeVerb' plug-ins available, but they exhibit artifacts with a 'more is better' work flow.
 
seanadl said:
I'm using the MKH50 in a small living room which is being converted into a small studio space. Using sound blankets, I'm hoping to erase some of the obvious reverb in the room.
...
What else can I be doing to make the mic sound a bit nicer?
Click to expand...

What you are hearing are rapid reflections from the close walls and ceilings. It's why small rooms exhibit "small room sound".

You can lessen small room sound somewhat by treating the room with both absorption and diffusion. Sound blankets only effect a small range of frequencies -- you'll need more than just some sound blankets.

You can cut some of the reverb using products like iZotope's RX7 de-reverb. If you go too far you'll leave artifacts that sound worse than the "small room sound" so use it with a light hand. And don't think it will eliminate the problem, but it may attenuate it sufficiently for your needs. IDK.

If this isn't enough, about the last option is to move to a lav. You don't want to do it, but a lav. at least blocks the rapid reflections coming from directly behind the talent -- lavs are basically boundary mics after all.

Without a reasonably sized room (much bigger than you have available) there's only so much you can do.
 
The trouble with any directional mic is they need aiming. I always think of mics like a torch - with a beam, and while some light up the whole room, others light up just a face, leaving the chest dark. If we light up a person in a room with a torch like this, we keep it moving to prevent the face going dark, but with a mic, we point it roughly the right way and leave it. The light analogy even works when you look at the shadows, if the shadow is small, then the sound is bouncing back towards the mic, if the shadows are large and stetted, then the sound is bouncing away. We tend to aim our shotguns from just outside the camera position, so what bounces back is the sound coming off the wall. Moving the mic further to the sides, or the top, or bottom often catches less reflections - yet we don't do it. The presenter moves a bit, and starts to go off-mic, the room sound increases and it gets horrible.

I had a real shift around in my studios and added a green screen with a curve for the video that we're doing more of and the downside is we need to be much more careful with mic position than in the older deader space. One hard wall made so much difference. Perhaps though, it just prodded us into doing sound capture better!
 
Thanks for all the feedback guys. I'll definitely be experimenting a bit more with the direction of the mic and with using the de-reverb software!

Another question - is the mic suitable for VO work? I had to throw in a very last minute voice over towards the end of editing this latest test. It was an absolute disaster (as you will hear). I figured that because I was doing a VO I could position the mic very closely to the talent at mouth level. It sounded muffled and not very nice at all. You can hear what i'm talking about around the 3 min, 15 second mark in the video below:



Should I still point the mic down towards the chin/chest from above when doing VO with this mic? Obviously, I can box the talent in a bit more with sound blankets or a VO booth of some kind as we're not recording visuals, but just wondering where the mic should optimally be placed.
 
I am half tempted to trade you my MKH416 for your MKH50. Ha!

The 416 is a legend in VO work. And i miss having the MKH50.
 
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