Tagged with microphones - Personal View Talks

Wearable sound recorders: need advice

Brian_Siano — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 12:23:54 +0000

A few years ago, I bought a small pocket recorder for journalism work. These are small, cheap recorders about the size of an iPod, with a 3.5"' jack for a microphone. I once tried using it to record the sound of a play I was shooting, to gain an extra soundtrack of stuff that was too distance for my Rode mike to get. It didn't work too well, because the recorder's soundtrack was a tiny percentage slow: if I synced it up with the start of the play, by the end it was perhaps ten seconds out of time. Fixing that was possible, and seems easy in theory, but in practice it was a pain.

Thing is, I recently got a nice lapel mike that works great. Now, I'm thinking of trying that recorder trick again-- and since the recorders and mikes are very cheap, I could buy six or seven pairs, attach them to a play's actors, put the recorders in their pockets, and get really good soundtracks that I could mix while editing.

But it'd require mini-recorders that recorded at the proper rates. Are there any mini-recorders that work well with video?

Shotgun mics directly to the GH2 with the 448kbps hack. Choices and Advise

hexagonal — Mon, 30 Jun 2014 04:35:08 +0000

Hi everyone,

I accidentally started a conversation on the Driftwood patches thread on audio straight into the GH2 with the 448kbps audio patch.

I am a documentary photographer and recently joined the PV forum after deciding that a GH2 is the tool to have for my work.

I had two queries regarding spanning and in-camera playback and they both have been answered in the Driftwood patch thread: 64GB SD Sandisk Extreme Pro 95mb/s is the only card that spans with Moon T7 reliably and the 448kbps audio patch will make any clip non playable in camera.

Now, to the reason of this thread.

My needs are to simplify the gear I carry with me. I used to work with Rode Videomics plugged to my 5DII and that was that. The audio from them wasn't great.

Now, with the 448kpbs hack, the GH2 can be a great audio recorder without the need for an external recorder like an Edirol or a Zoom.

The conversation as left in the Driftwood patch forum relates to these two tests I found for shotgun mics (most of which can be plugged straight to the GH2) which are outdoors and at two distances.

The distance from where I work and from where the mics would be to my subjects is in between those two tests, both indoors and outdoors.

So far, through my DT770 32ohm which is fed by a Dragonfly, the MKE600 is a bit bassy but very good and the AT897 and the MKH 416 perform similarly at a distance. Close up, the differences are far more obvious.

Also, there has been a suggestion of using an ISK CM 60 which is battery powered:

http://www.swamp.net.au/isk-cm-60-battery-powered-condensor-microphone.html

However, I am unable to find a sample from it. @oto02 said he is getting one and getting ready to test it.

Also, @Jim_Simon mentions that the GH2 can record really good audio so I have hopes that I can work out this rather simple rig for documentary work (TV, festivals)

Many thanks for all contributions in advance.

EDIT: I just heard the tests again with my Sony V6 and still, the AT and the 416 sound roughly similar on both. I am not sure if the MKE 600 equalized would be similar to the 416 raw or if one can up the bass a bit on the AT and make it sound less flat. Both, At and 416, sound crisp.

Microphone for reference audio

Mckinise — Thu, 26 Sep 2013 10:34:52 +0000

I will be booming sound and occasionally using lavaliers for my next project. I have a clapper board for syncing, but I also use plural eyes. I need a low noise microphone that will allow me to get strong reference audio. None of the scenes will be going over 4 minutes of continuous shooting. They will be a mixture of interior and exterior locations.

The microphone will be mounted on the camera rig/cage above the camera and plugged either directly into the camera or into a fiio pre-amp then the camera body. I am really hoping to avoid latency issues, so please keep that in mind. I am seeking microphone and cable suggestions as well as your preferred options for that setup.

Options:

Microphone plugged into Camera
Microphone plugged into Pre-amp then camera.
External recorder (Zoom H1/Tascam DR-05) used as a line pass through.
Your ideas.

Recforge Lite

Brian_Siano — Thu, 18 Jul 2013 19:33:10 +0000

Has anyone used Recforge Lite in video production? It's a sound recording app for Android phones. I'm considering using it with smartphones and lapel mikes to get good voice tracks, but I'd like to know if RecForge works well with video projects. Does it work well? Does it sync properly with video?

Low frequency sound recording (on set)?

Psyco — Fri, 03 May 2013 08:47:59 +0000

Hi, I have a question for our sound-guys ;-)

I have 2 MXL FR-300 mics and a Marantz PMD 661 recorder, which is a nice combo for general audio recording (voice, sound on set, ambient,..). But the MXL mics have a frequency spectrum of only 50Hz-18kHz and there is some sound below 50 Hz. Especially the things you "feel" in a cinema are in the 20-30 Hz range.

How is that part recorded or is it all done in post? And would you recommend an additional mic like http://www.mxlmics.com/microphones/live/Cube for on set recording?

Microphones used is movies

kronstadt — Sun, 27 Jan 2013 09:01:54 +0000

Reading around the internet can get you a lot of disinformation, or rumours at best. So I thought I'd create this thread to see if the microphones that are mentioned have indeed been used in movies, and which ones.

For example, there is a rumour going around that Sennheiser MKH 416 has been the "industry standard" throughout 70s and 80s (and even 90s) in many Hollywood films. Is this true? If yes, which films? Please mention them. I would love to listen to those films.

There is another rumour that Rode NTG-3 (and even NTG-2) is being used in film productions. If you KNOW this to be the case, then,please, list the movies that use NTG-3. (and I don't mean movies made for Vimeo, or amateur movies that don't stand the chance of being accepted into any decent festival)

If there are other microphones that you know of, please add them to this list and please mention which movies they were used in. Movies from any decade are welcome. (like, I'd love to know what mics were used in Taxi Driver, The Godfather, Network, Blowout, Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction etc)