I have been researching them and a lot of people agree it's better to use one, rather than clear up the audio in post. However, how do you know while filming, exactly which sounds you want in a movie and which sounds you don't? Like let's say you're filming a scene near a busy freeway, and there is a lot of freeway noise. You use your sound mixer to clear it up, but then after watching the finished footage, you realize, hey this scene is too quiet for a freeway, and we should have recorded some of that noise with the scene.
It just seems to me that you cannot know what makes it sound good, until you play it back afterwords. Even though the soundman can hear it while recording, he is too busy picking up the sounds and dialogue that are needed, rather than working a mixer simultaneously, to decide which background noises should be left in, as he goes. Is a mixer really necessary though? From things I've read on here it seems a lot of filmmakers are recording sound without them just fine. I read a mixer is mostly for eliminating unwanted humming noises. Humming for the building you are shooting in, such as the AC, or from the set lights, or the camera, etc. But it seems that most of today's lights and cameras are very quiet with no hum.
Another thing is is that they say often on here to use a cardioid mic for indoors and a shotgun for out. However if you have a mixer, then shouldn't it just be able remove any unwanted microphone echoes you would get with a cardioid, if it has the power to remove hums and all?
But how do you know what's good and what's not, while shooting, until after you play it back? And my last question is, since I wanna make a real professional movie to be put on DVD and perhaps even shown in some theaters, which cheap sound mixers are up to par, with accomplishing that good of quality of a job? Thanks.
It just seems to me that you cannot know what makes it sound good, until you play it back afterwords. Even though the soundman can hear it while recording, he is too busy picking up the sounds and dialogue that are needed, rather than working a mixer simultaneously, to decide which background noises should be left in, as he goes. Is a mixer really necessary though? From things I've read on here it seems a lot of filmmakers are recording sound without them just fine. I read a mixer is mostly for eliminating unwanted humming noises. Humming for the building you are shooting in, such as the AC, or from the set lights, or the camera, etc. But it seems that most of today's lights and cameras are very quiet with no hum.
Another thing is is that they say often on here to use a cardioid mic for indoors and a shotgun for out. However if you have a mixer, then shouldn't it just be able remove any unwanted microphone echoes you would get with a cardioid, if it has the power to remove hums and all?
But how do you know what's good and what's not, while shooting, until after you play it back? And my last question is, since I wanna make a real professional movie to be put on DVD and perhaps even shown in some theaters, which cheap sound mixers are up to par, with accomplishing that good of quality of a job? Thanks.
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