Boom Mics

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mus

I just got the Rode VideoMic Booming Kit (special thanks to Alcove for recommending)


I like the quality, but I'm not quite sure how to make it sound its absolute best. I don't know if it would sound better with its built in highpass filter or not. I don't know if I should run the audio files through some filters on Adobe Soundbooth, and I'm not sure if it would sound best above actors or below actors.


Can someone give me some tips on using this? Thanks
 
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It all starts with proper placement of the mic. Boom overhead unless you absolutely cannot. Get the mic within at least 20", closer if you can. And, most important of all, listen as you record.

Now, the VideoMic is great for what it is, but its unbalanced output means that using an extension to get it onto a pole may create some other issues, like added noise/interference. That's just part of not using balanced XLR connections.

As for editing and post processing... make sure you get room tone for every scene (record :30-:60 of the set, immediately following a scene/take, with everyone standing still and keeping quiet). Room tone helps in dialog editing, as it is the sound of the room underneathe the dialog. If you cut two lines together and the noise floor disappears, the audience will notice. So you fill that gap with a little room tone. Other than that, processing like EQ and noise removal are largely subject to the needs of each scene/take. Is there a low rumble? Use a high-pass. Is there hiss? Try noise removal. You do whatever you need to make the dialog as consistent as you can.
 
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Others can help you better than me when it comes to using a boom and capturing good production sound. When it comes to what you do with the dialogue in audio post: You're not going to like the answer but unfortunately, it's the truth/reality of the situation:

Dialogue Editing is a highly skilled professional role in it's own right and even so, dialogue editing is only half the story. The other half of the story is the dialogue mixing and processing, which is one of the most major parts of the Re-recording mixer's role.

There are two problems to solve with dialogue: The technical quality and the artistic intent:

The editing and processing applied to the dialogue to achieve the required technical quality obviously depends on the quality of the production sound recording in the first place. There is no individual piece of software or even combinations of softwares where you can simply press a "perfect quality dialogue" button or even a "make the dialogue sound better" button. What might make one piece of dialogue sound better might make another piece sound worse. It's a bit like a doctor or car mechanic, one medicine for one illness might make you better but the same medicine for a different illness could make you much worse. So the first step is diagnosis, to identify what is wrong with the dialogue and the next step is working out how to fix it with the tools you have, there is no shortcut to learning this except experience through practise. Even with decades of professional experience and all the dialogue processing tools available, it's still frequently impossible to fix production sound, which is why ADR still exists.

On the artistic side, the emphasis, mood and meaning of a phrase, sentence or word can be enhanced or even on occasion changed completely in the dialogue editing and/or mixing. Being an artistic decision, there is again no software or specific settings which can make these decisions for you, only tools and techniques to help execute whatever artistic choice you take.

There are simply way too many potential problems and even variations of the most common problems and way too many tools and techniques which may improve the dialogue to provide any simple or even complex list of solutions. Even if you describe a particular dialogue problem, probably the best anyone can do is suggest one or more potential solutions, rather than being able to provide you with an absolute definitive answer. Even if you post a piece of dialogue so we hear and diagnose for ourselves, it's possible that 3 different dialogue editors/mixers will give you 3 different answers.

Far and away the best book on this subject is: Dialogue Editing for Motion Pictures: A Guide to the Invisible Art.

G
 
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mussonman said:
I don't know if it would sound better with its built in highpass filter or not.
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This is the only question that has anything resembling a "one size fits all" answer. If you are in a situation where it is windy or there is lots of rumble (like traffic) it would probably make sense to use the high pass - unless of course your actor has a voice like James Earl Jones.

When booming, in most situations, you want to boom from 18 inches in front and 18 inches above the talent (closer, if possible) with the mic pointed at the notch at the base of the throat/top of the breast-bone.
 
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Oh, BTW, there is no such thing as a boom mic. Most any mic can be hung on the end of a boom pole. Yes, there are some mics that are preferred for production sound, typically shotgun mics and hypercardioid mics; lavs are usually associated with wireless systems.
 
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i meant shotgun mic, on a boom pole. sorry. you know what i bought though.

So it's definitely best to keep it in front and above...

And I'm assuming the James Earl Jones comment means a person with a really deep voice can be problematic?
 
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mussonman said:
And I'm assuming the James Earl Jones comment means a person with a really deep voice can be problematic?
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There are two main considerations when applying a HPF (high pass filter) to a recording of the human voice:

1. Every human voice contains an individual range of frequencies (that's how we can tell one person's voice from another's just from the sound). Additionally, that frequency content varies according to how the individual expresses a word or phrase, IE. How they are feeling (or acting how they are feeling) affects the frequency content of their voice. At the extreme ends of the scale are a whisper or a shout but there are almost countless emotional subtleties. Furthermore, the frequency content of any sound (including the human voice) is also used by the brain to help determine the physical position of that sound within the acoustics of a particular environment. Changing the frequency content of the voice is therefore likely to affect the audience's perception of the emotional content of the voice and/or the audience's perception of the physical location of the voice. Presumably due to evolution, the human brain is incredibly sensitive (at least at the subconscious level) to these often subtle variations in the frequency content of the human voice and will easily discern something is wrong, if the frequency content of the dialogue (and therefore the perception of emotion or position) disagrees too much with the visual images. Having said all this, there is little or no useful frequency content in the majority of human voices below about 80Hz (particularly female and children's voices) and so generally, engaging a (80Hz) HPF during recording is only going to get rid of unwanted noise, rather than affect the tonal qualities of the voice. However, particularly very low voices (such as Earl Jones) or low or guttural articulations may well contain useful frequency content below 80Hz. So, engaging the HPF function while recording should generally be a considered decision, rather than an "always leave it on" setting.

2. You also have to consider how your audience will be listening to the dialogue. A laptop, smart phone or average TV is unlikely to reproduce a great deal below about 80Hz anyway, so a 80Hz HPF can be used beneficially, with no downside. Home cinema, theatrical playback and many headphones will reproduce low frequencies though, so you should consider the frequency content of the voice and certain vocal articulations you're recording before engaging the HPF function.

G
 
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mussonman said:
I just got the Rode VideoMic Booming Kit (special thanks to Alcove for recommending)


I like the quality, but I'm not quite sure how to make it sound its absolute best. I don't know if it would sound better with its built in highpass filter or not. I don't know if I should run the audio files through some filters on Adobe Soundbooth, and I'm not sure if it would sound best above actors or below actors.


Can someone give me some tips on using this? Thanks
Click to expand...

Where did you get the kit, might I ask?
 
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