Outdoor mic recording

G

ggrantly

Veteran
After several false starts, I will start my first paying video project next week. I've been self employed for 20 years, and presently am a professional computer graphics jockey. I have neen aiming to expand into video for several years and would like to thank all those here who have given their time to answer the most basic questions. Wish me luck. This will be a corporate video and will be demonstrating some machinery. My recording location will have some background traffic noise. I will have a building barrier and about 150 yds between the shoot and the road. The road isn't an interstate but does have 55mph traffic with a few 1 minute intervals between vehicles. Now the question: I could use a lav or a shotgun for he brief speaking parts, which do you recommend for minmizing the traffic noise. I could do both. I will be able to orient the shotgun away from the road.

Any advice rendered would be appreciated.
 
If you are going seriously into corporate video, you will have to get both lavalier and shotgun microphone(s) sooner or later anyway.

What I woud do is use both, one to channel 1 and other to C2. Then you can use the better track or a combination of the two.

Lavalier works fine in noisy places because it is close to the mouth, but being omni it picks out some sound from everywhere and you might get varying levels and colorations when the talent moves his head. Generally the best sound quality is recorded with a good shotgun, because there is less coloration in sound (mic is not under the chin etc.) and with carefull aim unwanted sounds can be eliminated to a great extent.

I would say that if the traffic noice is localised shotgun might give better quality. If there is "surraund" noise, lavalier might be better.

However there is no general rule how these things work, have to experiment and have a backup.
 
Most of what petrus says is true, however in practice, your will probably hear a lot less traffic noise using an omni lavalier. A shotgun is a more natural sound and will sound excellent on axis to mouth and off axis to traffic, however you will still hear quite a bit of atmosphere. the lav will be less sensitive so maybe won't even pick up sound from that far away. Sometimes when i'm flicking from monitoring the shotgun to a lav, I'm not sure if its on until the talent speak, as compared with the shotgun, which clearly hears traffic a way away.

its a good environment to experiment.. a nice cushy corporate, one subject two mics two channels. use both and tell us which you preferred.
 
remenber the rule that omny mic would pick up the same ambience to voice reatio as hyper placed about 3 tomes furthier
so if you have 10 -15 cm lavalier placed from the mouth the hyper would fo the same from 35-40 cm
shotgun placement ober head would pick you reflecting from the cerface while placing under will eliminate it + the the benefit of the blocking sound with the person body .
large reflection serface in the back of the camera will increace any noice ,esspecially if you use omny lavaliers
 
Sound like a twofer situation. Have both a lav and shotgun, a long gun would probably be better, available for the shoot. If you have control of the shot you will probably be able to work the shotgun better then the lav.

Good luck
 
Thanks guys, I do have both and I'll use them both. I did score on this job, though I am taking some of the risk.....but I 've been in business a long time, so I'm not risk averse and can afford it if it flips in the market.
I have several months to finish this and will do VO while the machinery runs. The only problem with the shotgun is there won't be a sound person so I'll have to limit that to the talking head shot where I can do a fixed boom.

Thanks again for the input.
 
ggrantly said:
The only problem with the shotgun is there won't be a sound person so I'll have to limit that to the talking head shot where I can do a fixed boom.
Click to expand...

That's why you budget and hire a sound person for professional gigs. I forgot his name but there is a sound guy near Marysville if you need to find one for Bellingham.

Cheers
 
no need for swound person - bring someone to hold the boom from bellow pointed the mouth to midle of the chest and good par of cans :-)
by the way sanken cs-3 or mkh 70 are the best choices to work with in that situation .
 
Hello All,

The first day of my shoot went pretty well. Both the lav and the shotgun sounded ok, with the nod going to the lav. After I monkeyed with a few gain settings between the G2 and the cam (DVX), I could barely hear any background traffic. Since I wanted a wide shot of the talent standing in back of the machinery I was shooting, a regular boom for the shotgun wouldn't work. Instead I clamped the shotgun on the machine which was between the cam and the talent. I was able to get the mic aimed perfectly and only 24-30 inches from the talent, but below and out of site. On the lav, I did the Jay Rose trick and cut a pinky off a dark wool glove and used a black mini tie rap to secure it. The talent wore dark blue and you could barely see the lav at all. Both soundtracks were good on the talent, but the lav reduced the traffic noise better.
I am fortunate this is a pretty easy deal for my first: Shoot some talking heads briefly and then some machinery moving around. I'll add VO later on top off the moving machinery.

Thanks again for the advice.
 
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