Need to Buy Lav and Shotgun Mics - Advice Needed

verb1 said:
Would this be good for mounting to an overhood boom and recording group interviews?
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You could record two people sitting next to each other, but no more without moving it.
Applies to any hyper mic, which is what you should use when booming indoors.
 
How about hanging a vacuum cleaner overhead, then putting a hyper in the bag, and the vacuum will "pull" all the dialog into the bag and get picked up by the hyper perfectly. :beer:
 
Gohanto said:
How about hanging a vacuum cleaner overhead, then putting a hyper in the bag, and the vacuum will "pull" all the dialog into the bag and get picked up by the hyper perfectly. :beer:
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Might be a just a little bit of noise interference.

Seriously folks, I'm lost, but I'm trying to learn!
 
Gohanto said:
How about hanging a vacuum cleaner overhead, then putting a hyper in the bag, and the vacuum will "pull" all the dialog into the bag and get picked up by the hyper perfectly. :beer:
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On the first Jefferson Starship album, "Blows Against the Empire", there is a sequence that sounds 'amazingly' like a vacuum cleaner... since I sort of lost interest in rock/pop music for about 30 years after that, so I don't know if this technique became a standard... like say, pushing a vinyl disk backwards, to get a cheap ass percussive sound did...

I think the last vinyl record I bought may have been Aphrodite's Child "666"...
 
You don't seem to want to hear it, but someone swinging the boom is really the way to go in this situation. Even if you were to go with a ton of lavs, you still need someone to mix it down to however many channels you're able to record.

Hire someone, bribe a buddy, kidnap a drifter*, whatever, just get someone with more intelligence than a c-stand to swing a boom.

Don't forget that you can always rent gear to save money. The rental shops will ship anywhere you like and they won't make fun of you for being new.

*Please don't kidnap a drifter, they're terrible boom ops.
 
JordanBlock said:
You don't seem to want to hear it, but someone swinging the boom is really the way to go in this situation.
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No, I'm willing to do it like this if it's the only way. I'm just concerned about missing audio if/when people start all talking at once (or everyone talking super fast back and forth), as is bound to happen! But I'll make the best out of it.

Thanks everyone for the advice!
 
verb1 said:
No, I'm willing to do it like this if it's the only way. I'm just concerned about missing audio if/when people start all talking at once (or everyone talking super fast back and forth), as is bound to happen! But I'll make the best out of it.

Thanks everyone for the advice!
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Perhaps I missed a previous post where you said, but how big a group are we talking about and what environment will you be in when you're recording them?
 
Steve, the groups would be indoors (house, basement, or something like that) and would be from 3-6 people.
 
verb1 you are an idiot or a poser looking for attention. If you want processional audio you have to pay for it, no hardware will compensate for a professional. In any shoot I've been involved in the audio has been a paid resource for good reason.
 
ettubaby said:
verb1 you are an idiot or a poser looking for attention. If you want processional audio you have to pay for it, no hardware will compensate for a professional. In any shoot I've been involved in the audio has been a paid resource for good reason.
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Yeah, you're right, that vacuum pump just doesn't really measure up to the paid professionals that are to be found in the Zona Rosa...

Oh, Audio professionals... sorry...
 
verb1 said:
Steve, the groups would be indoors (house, basement, or something like that) and would be from 3-6 people.
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Then there's some bad news - there's no way one stationary mic can cover them all properly. You should consider two boom ops who know what they're doing and can coordinate with each other on the fly to get proper coverage, each wielding a boom and mic recording to its own channel. Or put lavs on everyone, recording each particpant as an independent iso track to a multi-track recorder. Here's the bottom line - unless the person is wearing a lav, proper mic'ing requires a directional mic (indoors a hyper, outdoors usually a 'gun) located just outside of frame above and forward of the speaker so the mic points down and to the rear towards the floor behind the speaker, held about 20 to 24 inches from their mouth for hypers, 24 to 36 inches or so for a 'gun, and held consistently aimed within a circle approximately 8 inches in diameter centred on their larynx, ideally aimed right where their throat joins their upper chest. When one person stops talking and another starts, the mic has to be shifted so it points at the same location on the new speaker. When the person speaking moves or turns their head, the mic has to move in lock-step with them, otherwise you'll hear the change in their voice timbre as they move further on or off mic. I'm sorry to say, but the availability of affordable filmmaking gear HAS NOT changed the laws of physics and acoustics - you just can't fool Mother Nature.
 
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Steve House said:
When the person speaking moves or turns their head, the mic has to move in lock-step with them, otherwise you'll hear the change in their voice timbre as they move further on or off mic. I'm sorry to say, but the availability of affordable filmmaking gear HAS NOT changed the laws of physics and acoustics - you just can't fool Mother Nature.
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I'm still thinking about the phased array beam forming 'virtual' mic...
 
ettubaby said:
verb1 you are an idiot or a poser looking for attention. If you want processional audio you have to pay for it, no hardware will compensate for a professional. In any shoot I've been involved in the audio has been a paid resource for good reason.
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No, it's called being new. If you read the thread, you'd see I know nothing about audio for video shoots, which is why I'm asking questions here. How about contributing to the thread and being helpful instead of an arrogant asshole.

Steve House said:
Then there's some bad news - there's no way one stationary mic can cover them all properly. I'm sorry to say, but the availability of affordable filmmaking gear HAS NOT changed the laws of physics and acoustics - you just can't fool Mother Nature.
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So you're saying I either need to rob a bank or stick to groups no larger than two people? Ok, advice taken. Thanks everyone (almost everyone) for the advice. Much appreciated!
 
verb1 said:
No, it's called being new. If you read the thread, you'd see I know nothing about audio for video shoots, which is why I'm asking questions here. How about contributing to the thread and being helpful instead of an arrogant asshole.



So you're saying I either need to rob a bank or stick to groups no larger than two people? Ok, advice taken. Thanks everyone (almost everyone) for the advice. Much appreciated!
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I think somewhere back in the thread (or was it another thread in a similar vein???), the recommendation for the 'cheapest' solution was a pass around mic. If you 'can't' do that for 'asthetic', or the potential impact on spontenaity, reasons, then, yes, more money for more mics for more coverage which does not require the pass around mic.

An 'alternative' would be to live with the results of less mics and potentially poorer quality...

It is one of those optimization problems...
 
It seems to me the cheapest solution to this is two wired pass around mics, one in each channel. Instruct the people to handle carefully. Maybe the middle person in each group of 3 could hold the mic and pick up the other two. And buy something like the Shure SM58 which is a great dynamic mic with little handling noise. Problem solved, $200 spent.
 
mainstreetprod said:
...buy something like the Shure SM58 which is a great dynamic mic with little handling noise. Problem solved, $200 spent.
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NOT a good choice unless everyone "eats" the mic. I would go with a cheap CAD condenser (shudder) before the SM-58. The SM-58 is a great mic, but it has different applications.
 
Someone on another forum suggested a pass around mic. While not ideal, I guess I have to be open minded since I can't afford the ideal. What wired handhelds would everyone recommend that won't break the bank? A mic that doesn't have to be "eaten" would be good, as I would like to crop it out of the shot. if at all possible?

I may also keep the groups to two people for now and use a wired lav for the 2nd person. Any recommendations on a few models in various price classes?
 
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