Major Sound Mix Question and Workflow Help

[Willman]

This is a question for those with some audio experience and filmmaking experience where by their films made it to festivals. I would like a simplified answer that covers everything in terms of sound mixing workflow. So here we go.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT ME

I'm shooting a short on a 5d mark 2, external sound is with zoom h4n and rode mic. I plan on getting into some notable film festivals. I'm looking to achieve a 5.1 mix. Submitting on BLU-RAY.

I DON'T KNOW HOW TO SOUND MIX, so I plan on sending it off to a post production company.

1. What should I send to the post production company, what files?

2. What do they need for a 5.1 mix?

ALTERNATIVELY

1. How could I do this myself, what hardware and software would I need, if even possible?

2. Is it important to have a 5.1 mix in the first place?

3. Have you had your short or film in a festival, what was your post workflow (specifically your sound mix)?

All help would be gratefully appreciated and very helpful in every way.

Regards.

 

[Alex H.]

Which RODE are you using? This can make a difference, as the NTG-1 and 2 have lower output levels for which the Zoom's pre-amps do not offer sufficient clean gain. This means that, in order to get proper recording levels during production, the input gain must be cranked way up. That adds noise, which will put audio post into a fit. The NTG-3 is hotter, but you still have the issue of sub-par pre-amps in the H4n. At the very least, I would add a decent external pre like the Sound Devices MM-1, or even better the MixPre-D (depends heavily on how much you can spend, of course).

Since you're learning about sound, you might also want to check out the Sound for Film and Television training resource available at DVXUser. If your production sound isn't right, your post production sound won't be able to help.

Which NLE are you using to edit your film? This helps to figure out what files you're capable of providing to your sound post facility, though you do need to check with your audio post editor/mixer to get specs on what files s/he requires. Typically, you'll edit the film with sound, add music and perhaps some ambient sound beds and limited effects. You'll then export a reference movie file (format and size determined by audio post needs) as well as either an OMF or an AAF. The OMF or AAF will export all the edited audio tracks intact, and can then be opened into a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation software) such as ProTools where it will appear just as it did in the audio tracks of your NLE.

If you don't know what you're doing with audio post, you probably don't want to consider doing it yourself. As for 5.1, does the short really warrant a full surround mix? My guess is, probably not. Go for a basic mix, which is either stereo or 3.0. You'll hear that 3.0 is better for theatrical screening, and that's because theaters have a center speaker behind the screen for dialog (which is always mixed mono center) and then left and right speakers for stereo sources such as music and some effects. Your audio post person should be able to accommodate. Also, DVD encoding can handle 3.0 and will be able to play it on a stereo playback system.

If you still decide that you want to try and mix the sound yourself, do not try 5.1 at all... takes experience and a properly-calibrated production monitoring setup. Again, finding a dedicated sound person for your post is going to be your best bet. Audio post is an intensive process with lots and lots of layers of sound. It requires the right software (ProTools), a reliable hardware interface, true audio production monitors that are properly calibrated, and a treated mixing room that is set up for audio mixing.

 

[Richard Crowley]

What are you shooting? A scripted drama about 3 people stuck in a tiny elevator? An unscripted "reality" of a dozen people galloping across the steppes of central Asia?
Do you have a dedicated crew person to tend to audio? Is the audio person experienced? Or are you trying to do this as a "one-man band"?
Do you have adequate schedule to shoot (and capture sound) optimally? Or is this "run-n-gun" in 3 days?
Do these festivals WANT 5.1 sound? Can they even accommodate 5.1 sound? 5.1 seems like an unwarranted complication for someone with no experience.

Mixing for 5.1 implies (to me, at least) that you are capturing dialog from all the principal actors (each to their own monaural track if multiple speaking parts). And adequate time to capture all the other sound elements, ambience, SFX, wallah, etc. etc. And all those pieces are what you need (or your editor needs) to create the sound track, whether 5.1 or 2.0 (stereo).

What editing software are you using for video? For audio? How much time to you have to experiment and learn how to do the audio mix yourself?

 

[Noiz2]

1) whatever they ask for. Generally that will be an OMF, a video, and original sound recordings along with the sound reports.

BUT you need to talk to them they may have a different list and they will definitely have a preference for what format they want the video in.

2) same as for a stereo mix. 5.1 is created in the mix it doesn't come in that way.



RE: alternatively

1) no, and yes. It depends on what you want the finished film to sound like, how good you are, and how much time and money you are willing to toss at it. If you are looking for a documentary "rough" sound then Yes. If you are trying for a "hollywood" fully polished track then probably not on your own. There is just so much experience that you don't have that it would be very difficult to get to that level first time out of the box no mater how much money you tossed at it.

You could however start the edit. Split out dialog tracks and find some sounds and backgrounds. Even if some is not used or is replaced you could save a lot of your editors time. Don't try to clean up the dialog though, as in using filters and any kind of processing.

2) No. In fact if it isn't done in a real mix stage it could come out really bad. You NEED to do surround in a calibrated and balanced room that is similar in acoustics to the theatre it will play in. It's a big PITA and if your goal is to be picked up for distribution... You will need to remix anyway, at least for theatrical.

This last will probably change but it hasn't yet.

3) I do sound so I have had a fair number of films in festivals. I have only worked on 5.1 mixes on 30 mil+ films. The reason is that there is currently no viable way to mix and release a 5.1 mix for micro budget films.

My workflow is that I want an OMF, a video (my current fave is h.264 with every frame rendered as a keyframe), and a EDL or XML of the edit.

You and I will go over the film and talk over what needs to happen and what direction scenes want to go etc. And generally spot the film.

I pull that in to ProTools and clean the dialog, lay in backgrounds and hard FX, do some Foley, recordings etc. If there is music that is needed IN the scene then I will go through my library with you or have you go through online libraries unless you have something in mind that you can get the rights to. Score is almost always done by a composer that you are working with separately and that comes in and gets added in. I will pre mix and send you a sample or have you come over and we will lok through and you will give notes about what you like what you would like to change and such. If it's a quick fix I will see if we can get to where you want right there if it's a longer fix I'll have you come back. Once stuff is OK we will really mix.

A final mix should happen in a mix stage that is about the same size as the intended viewing space. An experienced mixer who has worked on big screen stuff mixed in a smaller room can guess pretty well how to compensate but you should still check it on a bigger screen. I don't do 5.1 in my studio. It's not tuned for it and I don't think it makes any sense to do 5.1 if you don't have the money to do it in a real mix stage that is properly set up. 5.1 films are edited in stereo 99% of the time so if you can get a final 5.1 mix on a stage it all translates, but I will add somethings that should go to surrounds and the sub. etc.

SO if it's small screen and or stereo we will final mix in the studio. If we have really worked on the premix we probably won't have a lot of changes as we final. Some editors don't like having folks other than the director in the room but generally I don't have a problem with the composer and picture editor there if they want to be and producers are, well they come if they want anyway.

When we are done you will take a copy home to live with. Many times there will be somethings that get discovered after the final and then we can go back and make some minor adjustments and create a new copy.

IF we are aiming at surround and going to a stage then after the premix I need to get it all into a format the stage will be happy with. Then we take the whole project there and mix and fix in the big room ;~)

Sound post (editorial) takes from 10 - 15 hours per finished screen minute. Those are "man hours" so a "crew" will cut the calendar hours. Pre mix for a feature can take a week or two, depending and a final for a feature is generally a week or two. These numbers vary, but more on the long side than the short side.

An experienced editor with decent production tracks and a good library might get the editorial down to 7hrs/ screen minute and mixes can go faster. I did a low budget feature (like 50K low budget) and we snagged some time on a mix stage so we did a surround mix. The director and composer and I spent about 100 hrs premixing and then did the final on the big stage in two gruesome days. If you try that get a really big bottle of tums and probably some aspirin.

Mix stages run somewhere around $250 - $450 an hour (for the size you would need, they can be MUCH higher) and you are looking at sixteen to twenty hours if your fast. And you will need a license for whatever surround format you want to encode with. Dolby 4.1 is something like $1,200 and Dolby Digital is around $12,000 (and requires release on 35mm film.

 

[Noiz2]

Mixing for 5.1 implies (to me, at least) that you are capturing dialog from all the principal actors (each to their own monaural track if multiple speaking parts). And adequate time to capture all the other sound elements, ambience, SFX, wallah, etc. etc. And all those pieces are what you need (or your editor needs) to create the sound track, whether 5.1 or 2.0 (stereo).

Actually no major film that I know of recorded FX in surround. Surround is built in the mix and it is VERY rare to use much if any of the non dialog sounds from production. The exception is where they had a separate SFX unit recording FX separate from the actors. A lot of films with sound thinking directors have the principal sound post folks in place during shooting and have them out recording location specific sounds during production, but not on the set.

More recordists are recording FX on more than two tracks but the non stereo tracks are almost always extra stereo or mono tracks. You might record two or three stereo pairs going down field for say a cannon shot, but that isn't surround, just multiple perspective.

Maybe I'm miss reading your post though and we are saying the same thin?

 

[Richard Crowley]

Actually no major film that I know of recorded FX in surround. Surround is built in the mix and it is VERY rare to use much if any of the non dialog sounds from production. The exception is where they had a separate SFX unit recording FX separate from the actors. A lot of films with sound thinking directors have the principal sound post folks in place during shooting and have them out recording location specific sounds during production, but not on the set.

More recordists are recording FX on more than two tracks but the non stereo tracks are almost always extra stereo or mono tracks. You might record two or three stereo pairs going down field for say a cannon shot, but that isn't surround, just multiple perspective.

Maybe I'm miss reading your post though and we are saying the same thin?

I think we are saying the same thing. You were giving Willman a view down from on high, and I was assuming that Willman is attempting a very low-resource production. I didn't intend to imply that anything was recorded in surround, but rather that there are many pieces to think about in addition to dialog that go into a quality sound production.

 

[Willman]

Hi guys, thank you all for your replies. I have to say it's overly technical I have 15,000 dollars left in my pigy bank just for for this film as a reserve, it runs at 50 minutes.5,000 of it is actually going for the principal and shooting, food, lighting etc. The rest reserved for post. I should have used it for more audio equipment but what I did realise was that a lot of indie films that I appreciated lately were shot just with that and it sounded good to me even at the festivals. But the thing is there seems to be a whole lot of stuff going over me here. My question is now going to be simple as this, if you had 15,000 dollars to spend on your indie film, what audio equipment would you use and would you go for a 5.1 mix or is stereo just fine?

I'm just thinking of going ahead with the equipment I've got and doing a typical edit with Final Cut Pro in my apartment. I know that FCP does stereo by itself and then just sending off the film on blu-ray to festivals. Is there anything wrong with this approach. We did some audio tests and it sounded fine off our monitors and on the plasma TV. I'd rather have a good film with a decent stereo mix than have a good film with a bad 5.1 mix...so what do you think? To add, Your tips on stereo mixing?

About the film itself. Very dialog driven, noir, a few chase scenes by foot. We've been doing foley and ambient sounds by ourselves already. It's low budget but it's not low budget in the way we've planned on executing scenes. There's a grip, myself and the actors.

 

[Alex H.]

If you're going for theatrical screening, I highly recommend that you don't just leave it to FCP-based audio editing and mixing in your apartment. (Other pros here, bear with me on this...) Levels don't matter too much (aside from clipping at 0dB) if you're mixing to watch in your own apartment, on your plasma TV, etc. And honestly, there's really no standard for Internet distribution... audio levels are all over the place on the web.

Now, the reality is that levels matter EVERYwhere; it's just that things outside of broadcast distribution and theatrical screenings have no set, or even generally-accepted, standards unless the video is generated by a professional team that knows better. You're going for the festival circuit, so I assume that theatrical screenings are going to be a major part of that. You need to make sure that your film is mixed for theatrical screening. If it's too quiet, well... the audience won't be able to hear. The bigger problem is your mix being too loud or having the dynamic range squashed too much; your audience will have a very unpleasant experience. You must - MUST - be in a treated, calibrated environment in order to get your mix and levels right.

As for your budget, you could try to find a professional audio mixer/boom op with gear who is willing to take a special rate for an indie film. I wouldn't spend money on gear, but rather would rent, if you can't/won't hire a dedicated sound professional. And if you decide to rent, get a mixer (SD MixPre or 302) and even a better recorder. We still don't know which RØDE you're using, but making sure that you have proper suspension mounting, wind protection, boom pole, and cables will make your life easier. And headphones: get good headphones, and use them. But again, even with just a basic mic and recorder, having some one on set who is dedicated to the sound and only the sound, and knows what s/he is doing, is the first step to getting good dialog recording.

Spend as much as you can on a pro for audio post, too. Again, you can usually find some one who will work for a reduced rate on an indie project, knowing that the post treatment will be a bit less intensive than on large-budget films but assuring a quality result in the end.

By the way, Foley is always capitalized. It's a proper name. Also, if it isn't performed live to picture, it isn't Foley.

 

[Doc Bernard]

Your second sentence in your last post makes me concerned.

I have to say it's overly technical

Sound is very technical. There are reasons why sound guys get paid on a crew, when most other crew is not on low-budget shoots. Them and usually the camera guys.

But, in your favor, you are recognizing there is an issue. You have a decent budget according to what you said. Hire someone.....experienced.....then look at what he uses........but more important and valuable than the gear is the knowledge between the headphones. You cannot buy ANY gear that will give you good sound out of the box. I have heard atrocious audio using $25,000+ worth of gear, used by someone that had no idea how to use it. It not just "stick a mic out there and hit record". There is gain staging, placement, riding the faders, mic choice, monitoring, listening to the ambient..... And knowing what the gear can and cannot do.


If it is recorded poorly.......post cannot perform miracles. Great gear won't help if you don't know how to use it properly.

As to 5.1 or Stereo/LCR........Does the fests you are submitting to want a 5.1? If not, you are not only wasting time, you are wasting money. Any venue that can play a 5.1 can play a stereo. But the opposite is not true. Some venues don't have the capability to run a 5.1, and if you hand them one......their system may not resolve it to stereo.

If you are determined to do a 5.1........mono tracks and stereo tracks are all you need to hand in from the field. They create the surround. Unless you want to fly a decca tree (LOL just kidding, you dont have the budget for that)

 

[Noiz2]

$15,000 is REALLY low budget. I have a friend who tried to make a feature on about $15K .. fifteen years ago. He finished it but in the end it ran around $35K and he got probably double that in favors and good will help.

The good news is Noir was a low budget genre and if you take some lessons from original Noir it will stretch your budget.

Picture editing programs are are not good sound editing programs, none of them. You say you are using FCP, is that FCP7 or FCPX. If the later you have a problem because FCPX does not play well with others. If they are still including STP with FCPX then you may be able to export to a decent DAW from there?

I would sit down with your picture editor and your post sound person (yes you do want one) and really break down the film. I'm not sure where you are located but you should be able to find an editor and a post sound person locally in most places. I'm going to make the bold assumption that you have a decent script and folks will read it and want to work on your film. THAT is your budget leveler. You can get folks far below their rate with a good script because your new, if you can produce a good script now you have a chance to make a living making films and we all want to help out new tallent because you are tomorrows paycheck, and we are nice guys, but really it's a lot of the first.

Festivals are up to their ears in films done by one man bands that are awful. Not just bad but AWFUL. Part of the reason is you can't do it all and do it well. If you write it you probably shouldn't direct, but if you write and direct you absolutely should have someone else edit. If your doing all three you need a lot of outside eyes on your edit. The problem is you know all the answerers, the audience doesn't. You NEED someone who also doesn't know all the answers so you don't create a film that only you can understand.

You are not a sound person, that is not an insult it's just what you have said, so you should not be doing the sound. I'm not an actor and trust me you don't want me acting in your film. Just as you would not cast an actor who didn't know what they are doing you shouldn't hire a sound person who doesn't know what they are doing.

That kind of applies to the rest of the jobs also. If you came and applied to you for the job would you hire yourself. Conduct an interview, did you get the job?

Plus a feature is a marathon. By the time you get to post you are just going to want to sleep, and then you may not even want to look at the footage. A lot of films die at this point. Which is another reason to get your post people in place now. You will be fried they will be rested and they will do a better job. Then you will be rested and can come back with fresh eyes and work with them to finish it up.

I would also avoid buying sound gear if possible. If you do see if you can work a deal so that your sound person takes it as part (or all) of their compensation. Sound gear goes out of date faster than last years car. Especially the lower priced boxes. If your ready to drop your budget on sound gear it will be current for a few years and usable for some after but an inexpensive recorder has a limited life. Better you use it to pay someone who will use it to death than hang on to it and find you are not going to use it on your next film a couple of years from now. This is a feature remember and just because the budget is low doesn't mean it will go any faster.

ALL you want from production is clean dialog. Don't try to get anything else when shooting. I would also recomend doing what everybody from big budget films to same day wedding videos do and that is have your editor assemble the film while you shoot. It will let you catch things you missed while you can still do a reshoot with low impact.

I would only do a stereo mix. If you get distribution and they want a 5.1 mix there are a couple of routes you can take then. The best is a remix with new elements and a full 5.1 mix but you can also "unfold" the stereo and cheat it into a 5.1 of sorts. The thing is Noir was all mono and mono Xcurve so no lows and no highs. Even today most 5.1 films are really 3.0 films with some stuff sent to the sub and a bit of reverb wash into the surrounds. Partly because few films really benefit a lot fro surround and many theaters don't actually play the surrounds, or have them way out of calibration. You shoot yourself in the foot if you put anything important in the surrounds so...

BTW this has not been a technical thread. If this level of tech stumps you then you absolutely want some other more experienced folks on your team. You can write and direct with hardly any technical knowledge but post is a technical jungle.

 

[Willman]

Thanks a lot guys, the information is being taken in. I'm using a Rode NTG-2 with the H4N and so far our tests are good and sound, for the most part, what an indie film would sound like specifically with dialog, which is the most important part of our story. I've just decided to scrap that idea of 5.1, it's an expense at this point and a whim really. It's not what's going to make the film good, the story will. On the other hand, I NEED to focus on a stereo mix and I don't have a great facility for that, it's just my apartment. Looks like I'm hiring someone, well I do have money for that, I'm sure there's a good sound mixer just out of college somewhere wanting to take the job, I'll just look around. As for shooting, I do own headphones for monitoring, I had them from the company I worked at last, stole em from the facilities. I do also have all those things such as a good boom pole from RODE, stabilizer, shock mount and dead cat, so that's not a worry that's what we've been using even for the tests.

What settings would you recommend for the H4N, what is the standard for cinema 48HKz if I'm correct? What do you personally think are the best levels for shooting, namely in interiors? This will be important to know because I wouldn't want hell in post for the mixer. What other tips would be recommended to avoid mishaps in post. For video editing I use FCP7.

 

[Doc Bernard]

Believe it or not, with all the bad comments about the H4n, I like the little bugger. But I also use a bag mixer ahead of it. Feed it a nice warm signal from your mixer or pre, and you will be good. I record at 0.6 to 1 on the h4n. And my audio is crystal clear.

 

[Willman]

Believe it or not, with all the bad comments about the H4n, I like the little bugger. But I also use a bag mixer ahead of it. Feed it a nice warm signal from your mixer or pre, and you will be good. I record at 0.6 to 1 on the h4n. And my audio is crystal clear.

Yes, I really enjoy the h4n and I can't see myself actually working without it at this point. It sounds great in every way. Certainly for an independent project it's fine enough.

 

[Sage]

Yes, I really enjoy the h4n and I can't see myself actually working without it at this point. It sounds great in every way. Certainly for an independent project it's fine enough.

Run the Rode through this:
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/292990-REG/Sound_Devices_MP_1_MP_1_Single_Channel.html
-into the h4n line in. That will be a big leap right there.
The NTG2 will not take interiors well, unless heavily soundproofed. Take a look at a Joly modded Oktava MK012 for interiors.
DVD is a good match for the 5D's resolved detail. You'll have a bit of oversampling, and if the export is well done, an excellent image. You don't need to do this on bluray.

 

[Sage]

As to 5.1, this is done at the top end with convolution reverbs (lexicon pcm pro) used on multiple foley effects, sfx, and ambient atmospheres recorded with great stereo mic configs. The mixers have calibrated 5.1 monitoring rooms (theaters), and awesome levels of experience. With just an NLE, you could do some 5.1 placement of sfx, and use available reverb to nice effect... it will be a good time. Sound libraries will be vital overall, with your mono setup covering foley and voice.

 

[Noiz2]

As to 5.1, this is done at the top end with convolution reverbs (lexicon pcm pro) used on multiple foley effects, sfx, and ambient atmospheres recorded with great stereo mic configs. The mixers have calibrated 5.1 monitoring rooms (theaters), and awesome levels of experience. With just an NLE, you could do some 5.1 placement of sfx, and use available reverb to nice effect... it will be a good time. Sound libraries will be vital overall, with your mono setup covering foley and voice.

It's Foley, not foley.

And while your right that 5.1 is built in post not recorded in production it's not correct to say it's done with convolution reverbs. And for DVD release it's not necessary to mix on a big stage, in fact it could be a bad choice. Ideally you want to mix in a space that is close to the one folks will mostly view the film in. Video mixes of big films are often done on smaller stages than the one the film was mixed on, though that may be more because big film mixes are very focused on the theatrical release and generally spend very little time and money on the video mix.

Most films that are going to use a 5.1 mix (pretty much all films come out in 5.1 for marketing reasons but big action films often actually use the 5.1) will design the tracks around that. So your primary stereo backgrounds will also have some tracks specifically for the surrounds. Often some of the FX editors rooms are set up for surround so they can work in a surround environment. Dialog and Foley are mono and center in all cases and music usually comes in recorded and mixed in 5.1. The Lfe is also often specifically cut in and not just a filtered send.

On non action films it is more of a mix to the front L,C,R and toss some of the BG into the surounds with some verb on it. But it certainly is not always the case.

Of course there is the other extreme. Woody Allen likes mono and all his films are mixed in mono, or at least were till a few years ago. They keep trying to get him to go wider but he just likes the sound of mono.

 

[Noiz2]

Run the Rode through this:
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/292990-REG/Sound_Devices_MP_1_MP_1_Single_Channel.html
-into the h4n line in. That will be a big leap right there.
The NTG2 will not take interiors well, unless heavily soundproofed. Take a look at a Joly modded Oktava MK012 for interiors.
DVD is a good match for the 5D's resolved detail. You'll have a bit of oversampling, and if the export is well done, an excellent image. You don't need to do this on bluray.

I would definitely second a preamp front end. I would favor the MixPre (same company) because for a bit more you get a lot more, like meters and monitoring and a second channel.

I like the Oktava, though I'm not sure the moded version is the best choice for a non experienced user. The Oktava is quite sensitive to handling noise and the mod makes it more sensitive to wind noise.

However the one time I used a NTG2 indoors it worked quite well. It was in a bedroom so not a "live" space but still I thought it would be a problem (not my shoot I was just helping a friend and using their rig), but it sounded very good. So you might want to do some tests in the places you plan to shoot and see if it's a problem or not. You might be able to skip the extra purchase.

 

[Sage]

It's Foley, not foley.

Convolution IRs, in the sense that the stand alone NLE user wouldn't have access to this level on micro budget

 

[Noiz2]

...
On the other hand, I NEED to focus on a stereo mix and I don't have a great facility for that, it's just my apartment. Looks like I'm hiring someone, well I do have money for that, I'm sure there's a good sound mixer just out of college somewhere wanting to take the job, I'll just look around.
...
What settings would you recommend for the H4N, what is the standard for cinema 48HKz if I'm correct? What do you personally think are the best levels for shooting, namely in interiors? This will be important to know because I wouldn't want hell in post for the mixer. What other tips would be recommended to avoid mishaps in post. For video editing I use FCP7.

As a rule you don't want someone "just out of college" to mix your film. First off there are VERY few places that teach anything about film sound and film sound is not the same as music. What you need is someone with some experience, who has worked on something that you have heard of or can watch etc. Or best someone who has a recommendation from someone you know and trust. If you have a good script you should be able to get a post person like that even on a micro budget.

You will have to allow them the time they need and it will probably stretch a bit because they may well have a gig that pays that will interrupt your post work but the end result will be worth it. You should also find them before you shoot, at a minimum before you edit.

There are a couple of reasons. First they will be able to record things that will be useful from your locations while you still have them, they will get involved - very important if your not paying a lot, and they may well save you pains and cost in shooting and editing. I can tell you what will be a problem for post and what can be "fixed". This can save you hours and expense of trying to work around a problem that doesn't really exist or letting something go by that will come back to bite you later. If you have the right person they also have experience and may well have solutions that you don't know about. I made a bunch of squibs for a shoot when the SFX guy forgot to pack them???? I had learned how to home brew them years ago on a unrelated project and had leftovers at home.

And maybe you can get them to do the production shoot also? You get very focused when you know you will be the person on the spot to clean things up in post.

48K 24 bit if possible.

BTW don't tell people you stole stuff from folks you worked with. You may want to work with someone here at some point and am I going to let you around my gear now?

 

[Rick R]

"I like the Oktava, though I'm not sure the moded version is the best choice for a non experienced user. The Oktava is quite sensitive to handling noise and the mod makes it more sensitive to wind noise"
-- I would concur with Noiz2's statement. .,. and I'll say it again. Despite it's attractive (initial) low price.. not a good mic for the inexperienced, with or without the $100+ MJ mod.
I would also agree that throwing money at post equipment (and other gear) that one does not have the skills to take advantage of is not a good venrue.