Lav Microphones

S

schaefer

New member
Hello to all
Tom More on here suggested we move to Lav Mics for interviews, right now we use hand held mics and its a problem some people we interview don't know how far to hold mic from there mouth.
We use a Panasonic AG-AC90 and they have XLR Inputs for the audio and we wasnt sure what would be a good choice for us to use.
Does anyone have suggestions as to what to get and were to get them from?
Thanks so much we have a lot of learning ahead of us.
 
Can you describe a typical situation where you film an interview.

- What's your set-up?
- How long is an interview?
- What are the main issues with your current set-up?
 
mainly we have doing interviews in race car drivers garages
Interviews have been around 5 minutes to 20 minutes long
Sound going from loud to not so loud due to the guys not holding mics same position all the time
our site is www.inthefastlaneproductions.com and click the youtube logo for latest interviews.
Thanks for your time.
 
schaefer said:
mainly we have doing interviews in race car drivers garages
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Taking a look at your YouTube videos, your current audio set-up works pretty well. ( the only issue for me is when the mic channels are opposite to the way people are sitting in the video )

Switching to lav mics will eliminate the visual distraction of having the people on camera hold their own mic. ( lav mics can be hidden completely )

As to what to buy, there's quite a range of lav mics depending on your budget. My "go to" lav mic is the TRAM TR50 mic, which costs about $240 each for the wireless kit, but you need to have a wireless system to plug them in to. ( like the Sennheiser G3 system, which runs about $600 each ) Otherwise you can buy the model with a power-supply ( to power the lav mic ) that plugs into an XLR cable, and this costs about $380 each.

In the more bang for the buck category, I recently bought an Oscar SoundTech lav mic ( essentially a clone of the TRAM TR50 mic ) that costs less than half the price of the TRAM mics. For example, buying their lav mic wired to an XLR power supply will cost you about $140 plus shipping. You can request a price-list from their contact page: Oscar SoundTech Contact Page

If you want to go wireless, the Sennheiser G3 system does a great job and costs roughly $600 per system. ( you will need one system for each person being interviewed ) The Sennheiser G3 system comes with a good lav mic, so you don't have to buy a better quality lav mic unless you want to. ( I prefer the sound quality of the TRAM/Oscar SoundTech lavs )
 
TheDingo said:
( the only issue for me is when the mic channels are opposite to the way people are sitting in the video )
Click to expand...

Ditto. Big, big ditto. Not only is it distracting, as a viewer, to hear a voice on the left for a person sitting on the right, dialog is a mono source and really should not be split like this in the final product. When you edit, split your audio out of a linked stereo pair into independent mono files/channels and keep them both panned to the center.

For the seated interviews, hard-wired lavs running straight to the camera will be perfectly fine. Since you're doing walk-and-talks, though (such as the host's intro), a wireless system is going to serve you better so that you can move without a cable running through the picture. In fact, for your particular needs, you may be able to get away with one wireless system just for the host's stand-ups, then get a couple of RØDE lav mics.

The RØDE lav has field-swappable connectors, so you can move quickly from a wireless bodypack transmitter for the host's stand-up to a hard-wired connection for the locked-down interview. This may seem like an overly-complicated solution, but cabled is always more reliable than wireless and for a locked-down and seated interview it will eliminate any headache about RF interference or dropouts.
 
For TV reporter type interviews, you still can't beat an EV RE50 or Sennheiser MD42 or 46. These and other H/H mics can also be made wireless with a plug-on (aka, butt-plug) transmitter.
 
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