Changing Sound Kit in Middle of Shooting

[Raditude]

Quick question...

I was wondering if I were to change sound kits, between takes, would it cause noticeable issues in quality?

Why I am asking, is I don't have enough money for a shotgun mic, boom pole, and sound recorder, but my college has them that I can take on loan. I figured at a later date, I would purchase my own set. If I started shooting with the school's sound kit, would I notice any changes in sound if I switched to a different kit?

 

[josh-ozirigpro]

Yes and no;

If you're switching from using, say, a condenser mic to a shotgun mic (or a lav) then you can tell the difference between the raw audio.

That being said, I mix and match between the different types of mics depending on the situation...
So whilst you can quite easily tell the difference between a lav and a shotgun on a quiet set, you can generally fix any glaring differences in post.

I wouldn't worry too much about it.

 

[Alcove Audio]

Somewhat contrary to the previous post...

It's all going to depend upon your situation. If you have no choice, you're stuck.

If you're only a quarter of the way through your shoot it's not going to matter too much, but again, it's very situational. If you've been shooting in one room with a cardioid or lavs and then shoot more scenes in the same room with a shotgun it's going to sound inconsistent. Some very good dialog editing can possibly mitigate it if you go from the cardioid to a shotgun (or the reverse) or if you've gone to great lengths to suppress the ambient bounce; a lot will then depend upon the skill of your boom-op. Changing from lavs to a boomed mic will be a glaring difference.

The key to solid production dialog will be consistency. If the first scene of one location is recorded with a shotgun, then it changes to a cardioid, and finally to lavs you can possibly get away with it as the sound is improving as you go; the reverse will present problems as the sound gets worse as you go; it will pull the audience out of the film as it becomes more difficult to understand the dialog rather than easier as the film progresses.

I understand your circumstances; you don't always have a choice as to what gear may be available on any give shooting day. So you'll have to do the best that you can.

As always it's going to come down to the skills and techniques of both the production and post audio
teams; A good boom-op can make the differences less noticeable and a good dialog editor and a good mixer can further diminish the differences.

 

[josh-ozirigpro]

As always it's going to come down to the skills and techniques of both the production and post audio
teams; A good boom-op can make the differences less noticeable and a good dialog editor and a good mixer can further diminish the differences.

Alcove's spot on again.
My advice is really only effective if you can do some decent editing in post or you have someone very experienced in each of the pieces of equipment you'll be using.
You really do want to aim for consistency but if you can't help it then you can't help it.

 

[Alcove Audio]

Here on IndieTalk, Josh, we have to aim our answers at folks who are almost completely DIY with generally close to zero audio experience and low/no/mini/micro budgets.