Audio Test

Dreadylocks

Dreadylocks

So I made a little test video to see if I could rig up the things I had on hand to get some decent audio. I think it turned out pretty good, but I'd like some advice because it's far from perfect.

So the equipment I used was an AKG studio mic which I ran through a BOSS BR600 and from there I used the line out and plugged directly into the mic jack on my camera (Vixia HF200). The room was really bare and has hardwood floors, considering that, I feel like there wasn't too much ambiance or noise, but my ears are that sophisticated.

I also tried out some lighting stuff I've been learning about and got a bit of shallow DOF which I'm proud of. I just used a desk lamp that has a circular metal reflector with a 40 watt bulb for the backlight and a 75watt bulb with just a scarf instead of a shade for the key. For fill there was some indirect sunlight coming in through blinds on an overcast day.

I just had my bf Sean do some reading from a book, mainly because I like looking at him :) So here it is, any comments or tips are totally welcome! :D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFaRWyGdHcM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFaRWyGdHcM
 
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Tried to check it out but it says the video has been removed by the user.

In any case, you probably had a difference in color temp between your desk light and the sunlight coming through the window. If u use the same color temp, your shot/scene will look much better.
 
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Ok, sorry about that. It normally only takes a couple minutes to process on youtube but it didn't work so I reuploaded. The link in the original post has been fixed and now I am happy to report it's up.

Sorry about that again, and thanks for checking it out!! :D
 
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Alcove Audio said:
I don't know what mic you used, but it still sounds "roomy". (AKG studio mic is pretty vague - their "studio" mics run the gamut from $180 to $5k.)
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Thanks for the reply!

Yeah I was wondering what that was called, the "roomy" sound, it's like there is an empty noise. The mic, more specifically is just an SKG D8000S when I looked at it, and I guess it's like a $50-100 mic. Do you think the mic was the problem or do you think it was just because the room was almost completely empty? Should I have taken the pop filter thing off? Can you think of any low-budget solutions to fix this? I feel like I'm pretty close to having good sound(am I completely off-base here?).

Thanks again for taking a look :)
 
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Nice job!
Sean was great. I was getting into the story, tell him "he CAN do it!" LOL

The shot looks great, the subject looks good (Heck, Im a dude, married with 6 kids, and I like looking at him! (on artistic merits only!)

The rest is just my observations.. for what its worth..

Framing:
Nice use of the "rule of thirds."

Sean does seem to have a mandolin growing out of his shoulder! :) (Yes, I know its a guitar in the background!)

The background seems to be dark on one side, light on the other, this is a tad distracting..

For lighting:

The lighting looks a tiny bit mixed, I see his right cheek has a blueish tint, but the other cheek is more orange-ish. I think this works anyway.. but you might have tried manual white balance.. meh

SOUND:
Frankly, I don't think your there yet (nor am I!)

The room sound is more likely caused by WHERE the mic was in relation to the Sean.

Was it on a mic stand as close to hims as you could get it WITHOUT being in the frame?
If you look at the frame you can see that you could get a mic about 7 or 8 INCHES away from his mouth on the lower left side. This would have given you a more "intimate" close mic sound your probably after.

The mic could work OK if you can can get it VERY close. You should look at something else though. This mic will really limit you.
Taking the windscreen off can help. But then you have to watch out for "plosives" like "popping peas" etc. which will easily bottom out that dynamic mics diaphragm.

Unfortunately the BOSS BR-600 does NOT provide phantom power which limits your mic choices.

Condenser mics are good for video as they can be very sensitive, but the almost always need phantom power.

For cheap solution, let me finish my testing of the NADY DMP-2 Battery Powered preamp with the canon HFS100 as this might be a good cheap alternative to the juicedlink and similar widgets..
 
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For a cheaper solution, hang thick blankets or thick egg crate foam around the microphone in every direction except for what's facing your subject (ideally for the sound, you'd hang some behind him as well). This will help cancel out some of the room reflections (not all though as the mic sounds like it's pretty far away. The mic should always be brushing the edge of the frame, and a non-directional mic will almost always have problems with room reflections. The trick to get rid of these is to make the Signal (voice)/ Noise (echoes) ration tilt as strongly toward the Signal as possible... so mic as close as humanly possible.

For an experiment, never mind the visual and start the mic out directly in front of the subject (6" or so away), then after a bit of reading, move it back a couple of feet at a time and you can see how quickly the sound changes from EXACTLY what you're looking for to a muddled mess.

I like the lighting, I'm a big fan of mixed lighting used well and of Dark side of subject being over light background and vice-versa (hardcore chiaroscuro fan).
 
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Thanks for the advice. So the next test I'm going to pad the room and just see what getting the mic closer does for the sound. As far as phantom power goes, I do have a Fender LX-1506 powered mixer. It's kinda big so I don't think it would work as well for location stuff, but that should do the trick, right?
 
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yup, but only if you need phantom power.. your AKG D8000 is a "dynamic" mic and as such does not require phantom power.

But you seem like you might have a condenser mic lying about.. heck you have a mixer, and a portable recorder.. so anything is possible..

Definitely go through Knightly s experiment, you will really hear a difference with a close mic.. Dynamic mics can sound very good, there just not as sensitive as condensers..
 
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Yeah, Sean said that he's got a couple more mics somewhere, I'm hoping to dig them up when I have time tomorrow and see what's what. I guess I got lucky in that Sean is a musician and has some old PA equipment, and also some basic home recording stuff. You should check out his music, I think he gets pretty good sound with that BOSS. http://seanjamesfinley.com
 
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taking an inventory and replying properly

Ok, I finally have some time to write a real reply. So I wanna say thanks for looking at it and giving me so much feedback.

@wheatgrinder: when you say it looks like he has a mandolin growing out of his shoulder, do you mean that they are kind of muddled? Do you think I should have made it less blurry, I was trying to do that shallow DOF trick I so I wanted the background to be a bit more busy.

And when you say that one side of the background was darker, do you mean lighting wise, or just the fact that on one side was wall and the other was a door?

@knightly: I had the mic just out of frame but you're totally right, I don't know why I was bothering about that since it was an audio test. Maybe part of me always turns on the camera hoping that everything I shoot I can put on a reel or sth. lol

Ok, so I also did some inventorying and found 3 more mics. One is just another d8000s, and one is an AKG D112, which appears to be for bass drums :/ And the other I don't know anything about and it's an Audio-Technica ATR-20. It also says cardioid and low impedance on it. And actually looking at it, it kinda weirds me out in that it has just a 3.5mm plug instead of XLR. I don't think that's a good omen....
 
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Definitely I noticed the shallower DOF, so its working, try and push it even more.. Increase the distance between the subject and the background, Get further back from the subject, zoom in more...

For example, in this clip http://www.vimeo.com/8757119 The background is pretty far back and rather dark, the subject was in the shade so the aperture (which on that cam I could NOT control) opened up to let in more light.

the reason humans like the look of the shallow DOF is that it focuses our attention on the subject . My comments about the guitar and the walls were really about how these items draw my attention AWAY from the subject and to the background, which kinda defeats why the shallow DOF is so cool..

Believe me, I have a million pictures of kids with trees growing out of there heads so its easy to do..


The AT ATR-20 is a chepo, but it does have one nice feature, it will plug right into the camera! Keep in your camera bag as a back up.
 
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