Need microphone help!

drc

drc

I'm currently shooting with a 5D Mark 2, in case that matters.

But my questions is, if I'm shooting a dialogue scene from 5 - 10 feet away from the actors, and the two actors are right next to each other, can I use a shotgun mic thats mounted on my camera?

Or do I need to hold an extended boom pole over their heads and alternate the pole's position between characters as they talk?

Or would it be best to just hook them up to some lavalieres?
 
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drc said:
If I record audio separately, won't there be issues with sync afterwards...if I don't have an experienced sound pro to work on it? Or do you mean ADR?
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Syncing the audio in post is simple, though it does take time. If you don't want to do it yourself you can buy a piece of software called Pluraleyes that will do it for you.
 
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SinEater said:
Syncing the audio in post is simple, though it does take time. If you don't want to do it yourself you can buy a piece of software called Pluraleyes that will do it for you.
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I used to use a clapperboard to help sync sound. And now I got Pluraleyes. The best investment ever.

Also, listen to Alcove. The man is a goddamn genius.

I know nothing about sound. But every shoot I learn something about it. I learned that some lavaliers are better than others. Then I learned that nothing can beat an actual shotgun microphone. Mine isn't even that fantastic, but it's still better than a much more expensive lav. So now I plan everything with the boom microphone and external recorder.

Good luck
Aveek
 
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The DR-100 and H4n are popular indie micro-budget choices because they are cheap, not because they are the proper tool for the job. The Marantz PMD-661, Fostex FR2-LE and Tascam HD-P2 are real entry level production sound recorders and, in relative terms, quite affordable when compared to what professional units like Sound Devices, Nagra, Zaxcom, etc.
 
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Ideally you should record separate sound but If you have magic lantern you can get away with kinda usable sound in cam. The preamps aren't particularly good and you may need adaptor cables to hook up depending on mic. Depends on what you are doing. If your product is heading straight to you tube I'm sure in cam would be OK. If you have no way of defeating the automatic gain control though forget in cam.
Booming is always the best way, lavs may be OK but camera mounted is asking for trouble if there is a lot of ambient sound or you are in a live environment.

BTW while we are on the subject, kinda, of taking audio on DSLRs does anyone know what kind of impedence the canon's mic input is nd would I be well served on using an impedence matching cable to hook up a sennheiser ME66 to the cam and are those cables balanced as Magic Lantern gives me a balanced in.

Also worth mentioning I got a chance to use the Marantz Alcove mentions above the other week and a lot of the things that I found problematic about the Tascam don't apply to the Marantz (the marantz has sling mounts and positions the level metres where they can be seen while slung and more, clean gain). It really is a perfectly usable stereo recorder for simple indie work. If I bought that from the start I would probably be still be using it.
 
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I have a marantz PDM-660 it not 24 bit, which make me sad, but it is modded by Oade brothers and sounds dang good for 16bits!

Im curious if the pros think a 24bit H4n would be better? Though its just academic as I plan to keep it for my 1 man projects and hire out for any thing more serious.
 
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wheatgrinder said:
I have a marantz PDM-660 it not 24 bit, which make me sad, but it is modded by Oade brothers and sounds dang good for 16bits!

Im curious if the pros think a 24bit H4n would be better? Though its just academic as I plan to keep it for my 1 man projects and hire out for any thing more serious.
Click to expand...

I'm not a pro but I would take the Marantz over the H4n every time.
 
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16 bit is DVD standard. 24 bit will give you some more headroom when recording, but will not make an appreciable difference in sound quality to 99.99% of people out there. The superior quality of the Oade mod blows the H4n mic pres out of the water, so the extra headroom is not worth the tradeoff to get the additional 8 bits.
 
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