How is the ME-67 on a boom?

[Marco Leavitt]

Most people seem to use this mic in specialized situations where they need to pick up audio from a subject that is very far away. Can you also use it on a boom to capture dialog? We have a project later this summer that is going to take place in the dining room of a restaurant that has an adjoining bar with juke box. Would the ME-67 be effective in helping to reduce the amount of unwanted background noise? I'm thinking if we can get the mic as close to the actors as possible and reduce the signal, we can make the dialog stronger in relation to the background noise. I already own an ME-66, but would like to add mics to our arsenal and the ME-67 seems like a good start. Any opinions?

[Mike Rehmus]

Go to the Sennheiser web site and look at the technical specs on the 66 and 67. I don't think you will find a whole lot of difference when you are in a noisy environment that contains low frequency noise. A juke box with booming bass will get you every time.

If you can hold the microphone right over the actors heads, then the 66 will do well. If the ambient noise is still too bad, then you may have to go with very small lavalieres to get the voice to noise ratio you need.

I'd do a sound test before you decide to spend more $.

[Marco Leavitt]

Thanks. The bar is actually a floor away, and the sound isn't that loud. I just worry about having the background noise match from shot to shot.

[Mike Rehmus]

That's why you need to capture ambient sound (room tone) to use where you need to fill in. Unfortunately, all you can do is raise the background noise level to the highest common denominator.

Even worse is that the background noise that will get through to your location is exactly the noise that will blow right through the directionality of the shotgun. The only thing you have going for you (with regard to eliminating background sound) is to get it very close and use manual level control.

Possible that you might even be able to mask the background sound with a music bed if the piece allows that.

[Marco Leavitt]

Music is a good idea. I guess it could sound like generic Muzak stuff that would conceivably be playing in the restaurant. Would the bass roll-off switch be of any use here do you think? Thanks for the tips.

[Mike Rehmus]

I'd do the bass roll-off in post rather than on-camera. Same effect but you get to control what happens rather than depending on the fixed camera setting.

Generic stuff is OK. You can even set a different mood by playing something entirely different as long as the underlying noise doesn't counter it.

Of course you could avoid all of the sound problems of this type if you could shoot only while the club above is closed.

The last resort is to ADR the voices although that is a bit difficult if you've and the talent have never tried it before. Post production dialog rework is always difficult if the talent isn't experienced enough to recapture the moment. Can sound like watching Star Wars with a poorly done non-english dialog track. The mouth and the expressions aren't matched by the dynamics of the voice.

[Jay Enterkin]

In the kind of situations you are describing, my experience has been that I have to use lavs or do ADR or go with crappy sound because shotguns just don't work well in high-ambient sound environments indoors, like clubs or restaurants.