Lav, shotgun, boom?.... what's best for talking heads/interviews

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xavpil

Active member
Just got an HMC40.
I now need to a mic to shoot indoor interviews, talking heads.
This is not for TV or movie theaters.
What do you guys suggest?
Oh, of course $$$ are important.

Thanks
 
xavpil said:
Oh, of course $$$ are important.
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Budgets are relative. To someone like myself spending a couple hundred on a mic is a no brainer. To others $100 is a huge expense

Yes, the NTG-2 is a nice mic, however, it would not be my first choice for indoors usage. Something like the Audio Technica AT4053b would be a good choice for a boomed cardioid mic. I've heard some folks are using the Avantone CK-1, but have no personal experience on quality, etc.

If you don't mind the lav being seen and its being hard-wired (as opposed to wireless) there are more choices than if you had to hide it for narrative work.
 
xavpil said:
What do you guys suggest?
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First thing I suggest is reading the sticky thread for people new to audio. It's really pretty good. Then, a good book like Jay Rose's Producing Great Sound for Film and Video, or a good DVD tutorial like Barry Green, David Jimerson, and Matt Gettemeier's Sound for Film and Television. These are the fastest ways I know to climb the audio learning curves.

Good audio ain't easy, but it's certainly attainable.
 
Lav when a shotgun mic isn't practical. The trend is to use a shotgun mic for sit-down 60 Minutes type interviews.

I have all mic types though for any situation. Wired handheld, wireless handheld, wired lav, wireless lav and wired shotgun. My favorite/highest quality is the shotgun mic. Cost me less than $400. Sample of it here:

http://vimeo.com/16641798
 
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I'll second the recommendation for both Jay Rose's book and Barry/David/Matt's DVD. Both are fantastic resources for sound.

As far as boom vs lav for interviews the key question for me would be can you get a boom close enough?
A lot of people prefer cardiods (like the Oktava MK12) - but it's not going to do you any good if it's mounted on top of the camera.

So unless you plan on getting a stand (not just a mic) to boom your subject so that you can get the mic just outside the frame line then I would suggest going with a lav.
If you're talking about just sit down interviews then a hard wired lav would be a good choice, I think. No point in using a wireless if you don't need to - that just means you'd have more potential for something to go wrong (interference, batteries, etc).

An idea of your budget would probably help in getting more specific recommendations.
 
The Oktavas sound great for the money. I'd prefer the more open polar pattern capsules, I remember they sounded less boxy.

I had an AT3031 (now replaced by the AT4021) that I just sold, usually sound guys on projects I was involved didn't like it because its polar pattern was too open (cardioid), but it sounded way more natural and rich indoors than my AT897.
 
It''s getting more clear now - after doing some research and reading the replies. I should go with a Lavalier. I'd have more freedom in the sense that I wouldn't have to adjust the stand when zooming or tilting during an interview. This would drive me nuts.
Now the question is: where to find a used one?
 
xavpil said:
It''s getting more clear now - after doing some research and reading the replies. I should go with a Lavalier. I'd have more freedom in the sense that I wouldn't have to adjust the stand when zooming or tilting during an interview. This would drive me nuts.
Now the question is: where to find a used one?
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I use a lav 90% of the time. CHeap best quality is the Shure SM93. Its wired, so there aren't any compander issues. The G3s are good, but I went with Lectrosonics and countryman for my wireless. Trust me when I say, wireless is easy to use, but wired sound better majority of the time.

Used? dvxuser marketplace?? Sorry, it always a treasure hunt to find good used gear.


Jason
 
The Rode Lavalier is a great sounding lav for 250.00. Add 30 bucks and you get an XLR adapter so you can hard wire it to your mixer/camera/recorder. The Senn G3 system is great for going wireless at 600.00, but any wireless package for less is going to give you trouble. The G3 comes with a free lav. It's a so-so lav called the ME-2. Back to Rode, they also have what's called a "PinMic" that has the same capsule as the Lavalier, but pins to your shirt, with the cables hiding behind the shirt. It just looks like a black or gray button on your clothes.
 
Handheld could work also...it's an interview...so it's acceptable. Doesn't need to be wireless.

Don't forget to shoot details of hands, eyes, other things that has to do with the interview... To make it less boring
 
manglerBMX said:
i always do both. hidden lav and boom mounted mic overhead(the location depends on the mic).
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Same here. I let the editor pick which one sounds best in post. Just be sure to slate which is which so that they don't use both and get phase cancellation. Correctly positioned in a decent room, the shotgun/hyper wins with their full, thick, robust sound with very low noise. Sometimes you get people that get excited and move out of the pattern though, so then it becomes lav. Lavs are a bit noisier (self noise), but that can be cleaned up easily in post for important projects, most of the time, it's so low it doesn't matter.
 
98% of the time I go with only a boom. It's quicker, its going to sound better and its less intrusive to the person on camera.

Not the reason I stopped doing it, but I remember back many years ago when I used to do both lav and boom and I remember
quite a few times when watching the finished show on tv.. phase issues from them mixing both together, and even more amusing (in a bad way)
was hearing the boom in the left speaker and lav in the right speaker. (yes I always slated and also wrote audio notes on the actual tape)
Gotta love it.
 
Rippie said:
98% of the time I go with only a boom. It's quicker, its going to sound better and its less intrusive to the person on camera.

Not the reason I stopped doing it, but I remember back many years ago when I used to do both lav and boom and I remember
quite a few times when watching the finished show on tv.. phase issues from them mixing both together, and even more amusing (in a bad way)
was hearing the boom in the left speaker and lav in the right speaker. (yes I always slated and also wrote audio notes on the actual tape)
Gotta love it.
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LOL @ left/right channel issues. Yeah...I'm a big fan of boom only and having one channel about 10 dB quieter than the other. This not only looks better (no mic on-screen) but you don't have to ask talent to run a wire up themselves and it sounds better. I own a Sanken COS-11 which is a damn good lav mic but choose to use a sub-$400 boom mic.
 
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