C100: Multiple Lav Mic Rigging/Capture?

chappelldigital

chappelldigital

Well-known member
Greetings All!

Thought I'd get some opinions. I have a shoot coming up where I'll be shooting 5-6 people talking who will all be wearing lav mics (lav mics as I will likely be solo, so no "boom-man", and wanted the best possible audio for it).
Currently I'm planning on capturing 4 tracks through a Zoom H6 or Tascam recorder, and then 2 direct into the camera.

How on earth to I manage the 5-6 receivers on my end?
I'm considering 1 receiver on the cold shoe on the C100, and then the other screw point I have a cold shoe (female) screwed on, so I'm planning on using a cold shoe rail (similar to this) http://www.henrys.com/68826-CAMERA-CADDIE-3-PC-ACCESSORY-KIT-OCC0100AK1.aspx which can hold another 4 receivers, possibly a 5th on the bottom of it.
The audio recorder I'll use an articulating arm connected to the tripod to hold it nearby and plug the 4 XLRs into.

Seems like there might be a better way to do this, but I've never captured 6 lav mics at the same time.
Any advice?

Thanks!
 
To be honest, I think you're going to have a tough time managing all those lavs and shooting all by yourself. How will you monitor audio on all 5-6 channels, and adjust as needed as you go, all while framing and focusing the camera? Not to mention that all those receivers will make for a clunky rig!
 
Yeah I'm debating what can be done.
Its a panel discussion, so I figured I could run a thorough sound check before shooting to make sure everything is setup (and could possibly use a splitter to monitor camera and recorder at same time during shoot). Shouldn't need a lot of tweaking during, but as we all know things can always go crazy.

Thanks for the feedback!
 
Are you using the same type of Lav system? IE: (Sennheiser EW 100 ENG) I use 2 of these often with my c100. The one thing to be careful about is the frequency. If you are using 5-6 different wireless units that are wireless, and of the same manufacture. It will be very important that you monitor to make sure that the channels are not on the same frequency, or overlapping each other. Also the environment may come into play as well. Just some things to consider. Not sure if all people will be speaking at the same time, but wireless handheld mics might be a better option. If it is an ENG styled run and gun event, the handheld mics will allow you to use fewer devices, and also may fit better for the type of shoot you will be doing. Will you have an assistant or sound tech to monitor the inputs?
 
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They will likely be all Sennheisers. I know I'd need to make sure they all have their own dedicated frequencies.
They shouldn't be all at the same time - Although I didn't consider the wireless mic, I'll have to find out from the organizers if thats do-able.

I likely will not have an assistant for this one unfortunately, so its a lot to take care of on my own for sure. May have to hire a sound guy after more consideration
 
Hire a competent sound mixer with one of the multi track hard disk recorders. you are being hired to shoot , not juggle a bunch of wireless which will quickly compromise any brain space you have left while you are shooting. there really isn't any other way.
 
Doug_EX said:
Hire a audio guy with a 6 channel mixer. Trust me.
Click to expand...

+1

Getting your sound wrong could completely undo your shoot - it's a big enough job for a competent sound recordist by themselves, let alone trying to shoot pics as well.

I wouldn't consider doing a job like that without multi-tracking each mic onto discrete stems - you can then EQ and compress each contributor accordingly in post.

One other suggestion - find a good radio sound engineer. They're often cheaper, come with a portable pro tools rig with decent pre-amps and are quite used to recording and monitoring multiple sources.

Ben.
 
Are they sitting on a straight line? Consider planting microphones on the dias. A boundary microphone on the table would be better and it would pick up the speakers much better than your lavs. It would be cheaper as well.

5-6 lavs is a bad idea. Don't even think about it.
 
They will be in a sort of semi-circle.Not familiar with boundary microphones, will have to look into that.
Looking into a sound guy with 6-channel mixer as front runner now though.

Thanks everyone for your advice!!
 
5 lags in close proximity can give you phase cancellation in a mix down situation but if you can ISO each microphone you can handle that problem in post .
boundary mics like the Sanken cub 01 can be amazing in situations like this if you have a bunch of people clustered together providing you have a good surface to mount the mic on. I done things like suspended a thin piece of plexi over head above a table where a group was going to have a conversation . Stick a Sanken cub on the underside of the plexi and radio mic it to the camera . This can work really well in some situations . Hiring a sound mixer to do the job would be the first choice though.
 
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