Phase cancellation

[Mattygc]

have recently been getting involved in some location sound recording which I am finding very interesting. It's a completely different world out there compared to the comforts of a controlled studio and control room.

I have got one question for you and was hoping you may have the time to share your thoughts on this.

I was asked to do location sound on a short film the other week which I accepted. Most if the scenes involved two actors talking to eachother with a lot a overlapping dialogue between them. I had both of them on lectrosonics radio mics, panned left and right to camera.

When this dialogue and vision is digitized into the particular video editing software, how would the two tracks of dialogue be handled?

If both tracks were laid up in sync with each-other, I would imagine that there would be some phase cancellation going on due to the signal from both actors going into both radio mics. The sound would become thin and not very nice.

How would you deal with this scenario in post production?

 

[Alex H.]

Depends on how close together they were, and where the lavs were planted on the actors. Was boom not an option? That's a better solution over relying on lavs (especially wireless) as your primary audio.

As for mixing in post, slight level adjustments to favor each mic as it is dominant in the conversation will avoid big phasing issues. Just a few dB difference between the two... doesn't always take that much. Then smooth the mix out by layering room tone underneath.

As for working in the field, a lot of mixers have an option to monitor those split tracks in a mono sum, so you can listen for such issues. But again, swinging a boom between is a much better way to go... especially if you only have one or two actors (more than that and you may need a second boom op).

 

[Mattygc]

Depends on how close together they were, and where the lavs were planted on the actors. Was boom not an option? That's a better solution over relying on lavs (especially wireless) as your primary audio.

As for mixing in post, slight level adjustments to favor each mic as it is dominant in the conversation will avoid big phasing issues. Just a few dB difference between the two... doesn't always take that much. Then smooth the mix out by layering room tone underneath.

As for working in the field, a lot of mixers have an option to monitor those split tracks in a mono sum, so you can listen for such issues. But again, swinging a boom between is a much better way to go... especially if you only have one or two actors (more than that and you may need a second boom op).

Thank you very much for your reply. It all makes sense what you have said.