Park Edwards
Veteran
I have a location with all tile and wood flooring and using an Oktava mic. The mic will be going into a small mixer and then into the Gh2 as well as a separate audio recorder. Thoughts and suggestions?
Tile and wood floors with an Oktava Mk-012
- Thread starter Park Edwards
- Start date
My first thought is to get what's called "foot foam".
http://www.coffeysound.com/Footfoam.html
or
http://www.coffeysound.com/Garfield-Hush-Heels.html
Basically, it's a thin layer of foam that is sticky on one side. The idea is that you put this on the bottom of shoes and it keeps shoes from making a lot of noise on hard surface floors. The big one (the one that's 10 square feet) typically lasts an entire season of a tv drama..if memory serves me correctly. You cut it to the specific size you need. The Garfield "Hush Heels" are pre-cut pieces of foam. The big sheet of foot foam is your best bang for your buck, but if you don't need that much, you may want to go with the hush heels. Trust me...as a guy who has cut lots of dialogue for all kinds of stuff, your dialogue editor will really appreciate you using this stuff.
http://www.coffeysound.com/Footfoam.html
or
http://www.coffeysound.com/Garfield-Hush-Heels.html
Basically, it's a thin layer of foam that is sticky on one side. The idea is that you put this on the bottom of shoes and it keeps shoes from making a lot of noise on hard surface floors. The big one (the one that's 10 square feet) typically lasts an entire season of a tv drama..if memory serves me correctly. You cut it to the specific size you need. The Garfield "Hush Heels" are pre-cut pieces of foam. The big sheet of foot foam is your best bang for your buck, but if you don't need that much, you may want to go with the hush heels. Trust me...as a guy who has cut lots of dialogue for all kinds of stuff, your dialogue editor will really appreciate you using this stuff.
Use the hyper cap and keep it close to your talent.
If you don't need to see their feet, spread blankets on the floor.
If you don't need to see their feet, spread blankets on the floor.
Park Edwards
Veteran
Thanks guys. I was doing a little search throughout the forums and looks like the blankets is gonna help out.
Steve House
Veteran
Not just more of the room, a cardioid will pick up more of everything - crew shuffling their feet, traffic on the street outside, the refrigerator in the kitchen, etc, etc. The reasoning behind using a hyper is that it rejects a greater amount of unwanted environmental sounds than does a less directional mic.
sonidista
Active member
Well, that's only the half truth. A cardioid also doesn't have the rear lobe of a hyper. So a hyper will pick up more noise from the 180 degree angle, that's the price for the narrower pickup pattern and in some rooms (especially in reflective ones) will result in less direct sound than a cardioid. I'm not speculating here, I tried it many times, and was surprised that the cardioid often sounded better and not roomier! I advise anyone who owns both caps to swap them whenever you get the chance to see for yourself. Mind you though, the described effect only works when you can get closer than about 50 cm to the talent.
And by the way, the fridge in the kitchen is the first thing I switch off when I hear it
And by the way, the fridge in the kitchen is the first thing I switch off when I hear it
Last edited:
Mitch.Kear
Well-known member
At 180 degrees it does.
sonidista said:
Hyper vs Cardioid is a matter of preference and situation. In a quieter, less reflective room, I like cardioid as it sounds to me a more accurate representation of the talents voice, usually. But in a reflective room, it sounds way to roomy and unusable. Even when you're close the the source.
Decide for yourself which sounds better. We can't (shouldn't) say what sounds good when we can't hear it for ourself. Just use our suggestions and go from there.
Mitch.Kear
Well-known member
I agree though, if you can't afford both go for the hyper. It will work as a better all around mic.
I also can't speak for the Oktava, except that I would never use it for dialogue.
Rick R
Veteran
FWIW, My findings and opinion on Oktava mics is that "all Oktava mics are not created equal". This is (or was) a quality control "problem". They run from pure crap to a Schoeps sound-a-like. There is also modifications that can be done to the circuitry as well. I won't bother commenting on the counterfeit Chinese Oktava, which is another well known issue.
sonidista
Active member
sorry Chad, but that sentence makes no sense.
Park Edwards
Veteran
That's an interesting statement. I've heard quite the contrary.
Mitch.Kear
Well-known member
you've heard that you should buy cardioid over hyper first? Or that mk 012 is a good dialogue mic?
Carpets and blankets are always the choice of last resort for wood and tile. Buy some inexpensive insulation, like rigid fiberglass and park a few pieces to trap the bass and wide spectrum reflections. Carpets or blankets simply act as a treble damper, which adds to, rather than removes the boominess. Many a recording has been ruined by blankets. Cardioid and Hypercardioid are both good, consider drilling out a foam ball and putting the mic in it for more rejection. You can also judiciously combine carpets with insulation or bass traps.
A figure of eight, if you have one, can sometimes be very effective if you have a reflective ceiling as well. In this case, if you don't have the Fo'8, the hyper has the best nulls for parallel surfaces, and has better rear rejection if that is an issue than the Fo'8, though typically not as good as the cardioid. Consider a high pass if reflections are an issue, traps are unavailable, and the source material has no important low frequency material. However, I would start with the cardioid--simpler, less chance to go wrong.
Sonidista is exactly right about the rear lobe of the hyper (and of course the Fo'8), however, this does vary among manufacturers and models. If you look at
http://goo.gl/9bERB
on page 5 you will see a clear example of the strong difference in the rear lobe, measured in dB and frequency response. I use Neumann as an example because, technically, the Schoeps is a "supercardioid"--however, the patterns are similar.
For further info, see the awesome pages by Ethan Winer
http://www.ethanwiner.com/basstrap.html
Just adapt the info there for inexpensive, mobile use--a roll of insulation, or reusable, rigid insulation, or specially designed blankets--which are cheap--on eBay that have acoustically balanced filler.
A figure of eight, if you have one, can sometimes be very effective if you have a reflective ceiling as well. In this case, if you don't have the Fo'8, the hyper has the best nulls for parallel surfaces, and has better rear rejection if that is an issue than the Fo'8, though typically not as good as the cardioid. Consider a high pass if reflections are an issue, traps are unavailable, and the source material has no important low frequency material. However, I would start with the cardioid--simpler, less chance to go wrong.
Sonidista is exactly right about the rear lobe of the hyper (and of course the Fo'8), however, this does vary among manufacturers and models. If you look at
http://goo.gl/9bERB
on page 5 you will see a clear example of the strong difference in the rear lobe, measured in dB and frequency response. I use Neumann as an example because, technically, the Schoeps is a "supercardioid"--however, the patterns are similar.
For further info, see the awesome pages by Ethan Winer
http://www.ethanwiner.com/basstrap.html
Just adapt the info there for inexpensive, mobile use--a roll of insulation, or reusable, rigid insulation, or specially designed blankets--which are cheap--on eBay that have acoustically balanced filler.
Last edited:
Typically, the unwanted room noise picked up a hyper from the rear lobe will be markedly louder, unless the frequency response of the individual capsule is a factor, or a majority of the noise is bounced from the floor or ceiling into the nulls of the figure of eight.