Looking for: Lav Microphone setup tutorials

PaPa

PaPa

Major Contributor
Just picked up a set of G2 ENG sets with the omni mics from a member of this forum and am looking to find some good tutorials on how to setup these mics on talent's to maximize presence and minimize things like cloth sounds, rubbing and other noise.

From acting experience, whenever i have been on set they have used much smaller mics that generally fit on this strange square piece of plastic and it sits in some type of cradle, like a small U and the mic goes on the inside. guess this avoids rubbing.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Been browsing through the audio section but haven't found the best answer, just general information that is also helpful.

-J
 
I am also very interested in ways to put lavs on talent underneath clothes to minimize rustle.. as well as other tips etc...
 
Hi J,
You may be talking about a Sanken Cos 11 lav. mic. There is a small rubber mount that is sometimes used to place it under clothing. It is pretty effective in reducing clothing noise. Another good product is moleskin for attaching lavs. You can find some useful posts about mounting lav. mics over at jwsound.net. It's a very good resource.
Jon
 
Hey Jon,

thanks for the response. I have seen a few video's demonstrating the use of a moleskin around the mic, but I am wondering if the extra mass, really doubling the size of the microphone, would make it near impossible to conceal underneath a talent's t-shirt, above the sternum for effective mic'ing for fiction filming.?

I also noticed quite a large drop in mid frequency when placing the ME2 underneath a "heavy" item of clothing like a dress shirt. However, im sure a little mid/high bump in post would easily solve the problem, or a low-end drop with a slight push in gain.

How about these HUSH lav items i read about? Any experience with those?

Going to check out jwsound.net now.
 
found these three guys:

First link: Links in thread no longer work so no the most informative:
http://jwsound.net/SMF/index.php?topic=1512.msg9944#msg9944

second link: Some terms in there that are not very familiar, but some decent suggestions
http://jwsound.net/SMF/index.php?topic=4492.msg33039#msg33039

third link: Good information, but don't have the budget for those sankens
http://jwsound.net/SMF/index.php?topic=950.0

This will sound very lazy of me, but what ever happened to people posting pictures of their descriptions? Some of the techniques are very confusing to read.
 
so just ran a few tests with the ME2

1) tried micing from high up on the chest, mid chest, and between the chest and the belly button

a) high up on chest - most friction from t-shirt rubbing since it's the tightest area where the clothes meet the skin. So it had the most frequent rubbing sound, but also the weakest

b) mid chest gave the best overall tone, not as low mid heavy so didn't sound like i was talking through a tube, but exibited the harshest popping from cloth when contact was made

c) between the chest and the belly button - gave a higher mid frequency sound which sounded a little less natural than at the chest, but also had the least frequent cloth rubbing sound

next test involved placing it with a button shirt.

a ) Along the "hole" side of the shirt, directly above the hole threaded with the button where it opens slightly creating a V, gave a decent sound. A bit of the higher frequencies were lost but that can easily be gained again with some EQ and there was little to no cloth rubbing. Obviously this changes with the amount of movement done by the talent.

b) along the collar where the flap folds over, absolutely no rubbing sound what so ever but the least natural sounding of the bunch.


And the finally i tried putting the T shirt back on and taping the microphone ot the actual fabric. What was nice about this was that the level of friction when the microphone is on the shirt and occasionally touching the chest was FAR less obtrusive compared to taping the microphone to the chest and having the T shirt rub against the mic. Is this some sort of a trick or a complete luck of the draw scenario? Seemed to be the best bet in my opinion.

Comments?
 
Great to hear you're experimenting and having some success. The technique you mention in your last paragraph, as many have said already, will work sometimes. I mic'd a guy in a t-shirt by securing the lav to the shirt after previous successes of doing so, and it was a disaster: Long chest hairs! I taped to the skin and make a moleskin halo around the mic head and that worked better, as long as the talent didn't raise his elbows too high. I also had to once put a B3 along a t-shirt collar at the clavicle...sounded hollow but it was the only way on that day. Tradeoffs. And every day's different.

Welcome to the Wacky World o' Wireless. :-\ Wireless lavs are often the last thing a production mixer or boom op wants to use, if there are ANY other options, but sometimes it's not always an option to opt out of the wireless lav. It's all about tradeoffs and being clear about them with your team/crew. Sometimes you get invisible hiding at the expense of audio quality. Sometimes you get the perfect sound but it requires a wardrobe rethink. Sometimes Mercury's in retrograde and you forgot your tin foil helmet at home...

You're doing the right thing, I think: Practice constantly! You're reading JWSound, so when other pro's say that after 20 years it's still tricky, don't despair while you muddle through! :-)
 
Hehe, definitely. Tricky indeed but seems pretty basic at the same time, it's just that the simplicity in what is required is not always practical given the circumstance... Hrmph,, guess i'll keep these things in mind as im working on costumes and things of the sort.

I figure i would use them mostly for wide shots anyway, where booms can't get in close enough in the first place.

The next tests will be mixing lav mics and shotguns, and see if i can EQ them similarly to mix.
 
Man, Ive been "laving" for awhile, and whilst I try like a demon and experiment I somehow manage to always get a little rustle. Good thing is not so much that it causes an issue. One thing I have found that works: I have an old boom windshield that was trashed so I cut it into small sections, I stick the lav into it and tape it around middle of chest to inside of clothing. Seems to give me a nice result.

On your last point Papa, I used to use cos11's when using a sanken cs3 - I thought both being sanken products that they would play well together, not bad, but I have since found the SOny ECM88 gives me the most similar qualities through the tonal range for dialogue.

But as you know I'm no soundy.
 
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