Zoom H5 - XY or Shotgun?

[Joshua Milligan]

Hey guys. I have a Zoom H5 recorder mounted on a Wooden Camera cage with a Sony a7s mirrorless camera. I am going to be filming a documentary in Illinios this week that has to do with wildlife. I am plugging a Sennheiser wireless mic into the Zoom, but I also need a secondary mic for ambient audio, including birds chirping, wind blowing, leaves rattling and animals walking (particularly deer). I have the XY, the M/S and the Shotgun attatcments for the Zoom and I really need to use one of these as the secondary mic. Basically, I'm going to have a person whispering to me about the animals via the wireless mic and the other mic will be picking the wildlife up. In the past for wildlife, I've used Rode shotgun mics, but for this setup I can't have a Zoom recorder, a wireless mic and a separate shotgun mic all on the same rig as it's just too much for run and gun in my field. I want to utilize the Zoom's attachments to cut down on size and weight on my rig while still getting dual audio. My question is whether I should go ahead and use the Zoom shotgun attachment or should I use the XY instead? I like the sound out of the XY mic and I like that it's not ridiculously long like the shotgun is. But will it not be sufficient for picking up wildlife and outdoor sounds? I'm no sound engineer, just a filmmaker that needs to be a one man band this week. Please let me know which would be best suited for this situation. Any help is greatly appreciated!

 

[Noiz2]

There is not really a good choice in your question. A stereo setup is what you want for the ambience but that is very wide and not very specific. For something like deer footsteps you would need something like a shotgun since you are not going to get very close and the FS will be lost in a wider field. Plant mics might be better IF you have some way to entice what your shooting to head to the mics.

I guess the best you can do is decide which is more important to you, trying to get more specific sounds, or aiming for more general ambience.

It's probably not in your workflow but what I would probably do is shoot and record ambience and make sure to have the wireless on it's own track. Then add the specifics ass needed in post. I have done this on many films, documentaries etc.

It comes down to two things. First can you, or do you have the budget to hire someone who can, add those sounds (ie skills and library). And is it OK for you and this project to do so. In the Doc. world there is a big split between those that feel only what is recorded at the exact time you are filming is "real" and those who feel that as long as you don't "lie" by adding sounds your fine.

There is also the more "reality TV" camp that doesn't really care about "reality" and will add anything, but none of the real Doc. folks I know consider that a truthful option.

 

[GaryNattrass]

Most wildlife doco's tend to have the audio recorded separately and added in post because of the practicalities of getting useable sound from a long way away.

I have a good friend who works for the BBC etc and has done numerous wildlife doco's but he tends to work independently of the camera teams: http://www.chriswatson.net/

Also any mic at the camera end will tend to record operational noises or zoom servo etc but if you are just after some ambience then I would choose the M/S mic as you will always have good mono and stereo imaging.

 

[davefisk]

I can tell you from experience using a camera mounted mic to do nature recordings will not work at all. You need to record all of that separately and edit it together in post. Your best bet is to hire a professional sound effects recordist, preferably someone with nature experience, and have them record all of this for you. You'll need a good selection of mics for this, not just one, depending on what you want to record, and a professional sound effects recordist will know exactly what's needed.