Question for you sound experts...

B

Brian Schiller

Member
Two questions:

1) I'm doing my first doc, shooting with a Panasonic dvx100b. Could you recommend a good lav? If possible, give me a choice of what you consider the optimum companion lav and also the best buy or smart buy?

2) How do you recommend taping phone conversations (where both sides can be heard like 911 calls) to be used in a doc? Do I need computer software for this? Is there a simple way to do this?

Thanks,

Brian
 
Hi Brian,

Both of these are fairly open-ended questions. Before jumping in, please tell us more about the environment, your audience and budget.

Regards, Michael
 
The environment could be many places. Rooms in a building, perhaps outdoors, this will be at least a six month project, maybe more. There will be lots of interviews and lots of following action. I have grant money to buy equipment, but I don't want to overspend on a mic. (I don't want to overspend on anything - who does?) If it really is worth getting a senheiser for example, at $400-500, then I suppose I'll be inclined to buy it. You can learn more about my doc at www.myspace.com/tmsldoc Thanks for your consideration to my question.
 
Rehi Brian,

The link was very interesting yet I'm still not sure I understand the gig exactly - it sounds like you'll be doing "man on the street" interviews, in which case you might not be able to wire the casual walker-by with a lavalier. Do you have a second person to handle a boom or are you a one-man show? Or perhaps you'll be doing the camerawork and your colleague could hold a traditional wired mic, moving it over to the interviewee when it's their turn to talk- that method also helps cue the subject so they dont' both talk at the same time. So you'll want to give it some thought on your interview format.

As far as recording a telephone call goes, I'm afraid getting a good quality dial-up call isn't cheap. A digital hybrid like the Telos One is around $600. An alternative would be to make an Internet call, perhaps using Skype where you "dial" via the Internet to a POTS line (Plain Old Telephone Service) and record the call using PC-based software. The problem with taping a phone is that your voice will be 10-20db louder than the distant end. If you're on a barebones budget, you could improvise using a method offered by a leading audio engineer, Doug Kay - put the recorder on a second line in your home so both sides of the call have the same (lower) level - mind you Doug himself uses the best equipment in the business. Oh yeah, another option is to use a cheapie or freebie Internet conference company - you dial into the bridge number (or have it dial you via your web browser) and have the company's computer then connect to the subject you wish to interview. The call is recorded and the digital audio is available either via download or EMAIL attachment, depending on the service provider. Again, there is no free lunch - the audio quality isn't that great (low Kbs sampling). If the person on the distant end was a knowledgeable/techie "regular", you could use your PCs to record both ends of the call and combine them in post - known as a double-ender. Again, without knowing your environment this is aking to playing 20 questions.

Anyway, hope that gives you a start. Again, once you know your specific environment and customer needs, we can give you better feedback.

Regards, Michael
 
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Go to B&H and type in "telephone tap" and you'll see stuff like THIS

There are several products for phone tapping... it's a pretty simple circuit... I've thought about making phone taps and selling 'em here... but unless I sold a at least a dozen it's hardly worth tooling it. I wouldn't spend too much on this item. Less then $150 for sure.
 
Thanks so much for all this information...I'm actually a one man production and I'll probably need the wireless which I can use for sit-down interivews and for following people (very close) in man on the street type of interviews, I'm thinking. Of course, when I'm just following action out on the street, I guess I''ll just have to depend on the mic in the camera itself. But I don't expect too much of that. Any comments to this would be appreciated...thanks...

Brian
 
Rehi,

For your sitdown interviews on a limited budget as a one-man production, you might consider using a tripod with with a boom and something like the Octava MK014. Wireless lavaliers are cute toys, but unless you have the need you'll probably do better with a boom mic (save them for the last resort anyway, since there's always the risk of interference). Just be sure to have the interviewer and respondent in close proximity so the hypercardiod does its job well.

Unless the man on the street shoots are with friendly guests, you won't have the luxury to wire them up to a lavalier. If the boom mic on the tripod won't work here, you or whomever is the interviewer should consider holding a traditional mic with XLR cabling to the camera (moving it back and forth as described above - the stuff you see on the evening news). Otherwise, you're probably looking to get a shotgun mic on your camera with tight shots and hope you don't have too much ambient noise.

BTW, the JK Audio phone adapter is nowhere in the league of the Telos One that dynamically handles compression, echo cancellation, etc. Like we all say, you get what you pay for - consider a decent unit even if you need to sell it off on ebay after the gig.

Michael
 
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