Audio Question / Advice

[Gustamize]

I'm been off and on these forums for the last year or so. I've been itching to get back into making shorts. My Friends and I used to make mini movies on old VHS, and Mini DV when they first came out. We stopped for several years, and now we want to start up. We're looking into doing fun stuff, then when our acting/directing rust wears off we'd like to make some shorts to show off. (That's my backstory)

Now my question is I have a XL2 and I have an Arden SGM-2X shotgun Mic, that I have rigged to a PVC Pipe for a Boom. I'm recording the stuff directly into the XLR input of the XL2. My only concern is for the low talkers that the Boom might not catch. I'm thinking of looking into wireless lapel mic. Should I have a little sound mixer also? maybe have the wireless and boom go into the mixer then to the XL2?? I have to XLR's on my XL2 right now. Right now I can't spend more that $200 if I should get lapels or if I have to get a mixer. My mother inlaw filmed a family video and she had wireless lapels she bought at radio shack (don't laugh) I personally don't think they would do the job, but I'm no expert. If I do use those and use the money to get a mixer should it be Adequate enough for a couple of guys and girls that want to get back into the swing of filmmaking? I know later down the road if we want to be more respectible we'd have to upgrade our sound situation. I call this shorts our prequel to our future fevistal short Any advice would be greatly appreciated. (Sorry for all the rambling)

 

[knightly]

test the mic you have and see if it will work for that application...my first guess is that it will work just fine. If you already have the cam and the mic, tests are cheap Just have someone start out talking normally and say a line, then have them repeat the line more quietly until you can't hear them anymore. See how it sounds, how it meters and how much gain you can add before you end up with noise.

 

[oakstreetphotovideo]

You can generally turn the gain up pretty high on an off-camera, balanced microphone. On-camera mics pick up motor noise from the tape mechanism and zoom, but off camera mics are much cleaner (as long as they used balance wiring, and the pre-amps are clean). If it were my money, I'd get a good condenser mic before 2 cheap lavlier mics; if the mic you have doesn't do it. A condenser (vs. a dynamic) mic is more sensitive to subtle sounds. I'm not hip on lavaliers for "filming", because I want the ambient noises in the room. e.g. I want to hear footsteps, papers shuffling, and clothes rustling.

One more thing about your off-camera mic ... you generally want some kind of sound damping between your boom pole and your microphone. Otherwise, any bumps on that pole will transfer to your audio. I found that you can go to K-Mart and get one of those pool floats. Check the diameter of the inside hole in the float before you buy it. Get one that will fit tightly over your PVC boom, stick your PVC boom into one end of the pool float, cut the pool float down to about a foot, then connect your microphone on the other end of the pool float. The pool float will absorb, and resist any noise on the long end of the boom, to keep it from reaching the mic.

I'm sure there are other ways, but I had some pool floats lying around, so it was a way to re-use something I would have thrown out, and it worked well.

 

[directorik]

For low talkers that the mic doesn't catch I see three solutions that won't cost any money:
1) Have the actor say the line louder.
2) Have a good boom operator who can adjust the attack of the mic better to pick up the low talker.
3) Have the actor repeat the lines as a wild track a little closer to the mic.

I have used all these methods and each one works well depending on the circumstances. I even used method three for an entire scene - about 12 lines. It was two cops walking up a flight of stairs to a balcony. There was a rather elaborate boom up and dolly move so we just couldn't get the mic in close enough and we didn't have lavs on set that day. So after we did a number of takes we just sat down on the steps (so we had the same ambient location sound) and did the entire scene. Then we had the actors walk up the steps with the mic right at their feet. It took some time, but we synced up all the dialogue and footsteps in post and nobody is the wiser.

 

[Gustamize]

Thanks Knightly I'll give it a shot and hope that it's all I need for now.

 

[clive]

BeachTek make a really good level monitor for the XL range, so that you've got a digital readout of levels and a headphone amplifier so you can pick out background noise. -- Although having a sound guy checking and adjusting the levels is the best way -- this is the next best thing.

Plus, if you've got someone who is very quiet (which sometimes you need to be for performance) then remember that you'll need a tight close up, so that you can get the mic in closer.

(Which incidentally is why close ups were invented) I think, so please don't beat me up if I just dreamt this!

 

[audadvnc]

'm thinking of looking into wireless lapel mic. Should I have a little sound mixer also? maybe have the wireless and boom go into the mixer then to the XL2?? I have to XLR's on my XL2 right now. Right now I can't spend more that $200 if I should get lapels or if I have to get a mixer.

For $200 you can't get much of a wireless setup. I work regularly with wireless lavaliers costing 10x that much and they're still a pain in the @ss. You should be able to find a wired lavalier that will work for you. Just get the positioning right or it will be more trouble than it's worth.