sennheiser me2 hiding issue
 

Hi there group! how we doing?
anyway have a couple of doubts for a film we are shooting...

We've got Sennheiser ew100 radio mics with sennheiser me2 capsules, I was wondering if anybody have been successful by hiding these mics under clothing's talents avoiding the annoying rustling noise, is there anything I can do? any material, technic, etc...? other mic position? All the characters are wearing t-shirts so no possibilities of hiding between 2 bottoms... In the past, I have been successful with other lav mics like DPA's, Lectrosonics and B6's...but we couldnt count on them on this one as its very low budget...

Also I was wondering if anybody has gotten annoyed by the noise (on the high frequency range) of the RED one camera on set... anyone got any recommendations? is it easy to remove on post?

Thank so much

Hi Vvicente, is see that you're Bristol based same as me.
If the lav is that much of a problem then is there no chance of booming ?

Paul.

IMO, the MK-2 mics are useless in any situation (aside from surveillance). As is the POS audio section of the Red. I go double system on a Red shoots.
The Red's fans' shut off when rolling tape, but it's annoying anyway. The 15.7kHz whine does not bother my 50 year old ears.

As one previous poster mentioned, these aren't the greatest of mics, but if they are what you've got, then they're better than silence !

I conceal these a couple of ways, for most cases. For a guy with a buttoned-front shirt, I use a strip of moleskin about the width of the shirt's placket (the fabric strip through which the buttoholes are sewn) and just shorter than the distance between two buttons.

Then, use the moleskin to stick the mic horizontally to the back of the placket between two buttonholes mid-chest, with the element barely peeking out of the moleskin strip, but not visible from the front. I use another small strip of moleskin against the shirt fabric close to the mic to control the cable and dampen cable noise.

For women, I often tape the fixed side of a tiny safety pin ( the ones that close ) to the mic, lengthwise, with a small strip of gaffer tape. I leave the side that opens free. I put a small strip of moleskin, say 1/2" by 1-1/2" crosswise on the cable an inch or so below the mic. I have the woman open the safety pin and stick the pin vertically through the center of the bra strap, then close the pin. She then sticks the moleskin "wings" to her skin below the bra, which secures the cable.

I've had great success with these mic placements and there is almost no noise, except when the actor lies down on it, clutches his/her chest, embraces someone, etc.

If this is unclear I'll try to get a couple of photos of these mics with these mounts.

Good luck with your shoot !

Stephen H
Stephen Hall, Location Sound Recordist

Hey, thanks everybody for replying

Paul, yes We are booming, but some shots we are not able to cover all the talents (I am operating a second boom, and I really prefer the sound of it obviously, its also good to have a back up on the radio mic)

Rick, so that freq 15.7, could be filtered without altering the sound considerably?...I am recording sound double system, using 442+744 and then sending hirose to red one (we are recording at 24 bits, how reliable are those 24? how are they quality wise compare to the 744?

Stephen, thank you so much for those methods, will try them. It will be awesome if you have a couple of picts to look at.

I will keep you update, but so far using boom, and when require using two booms...mkh50's so far for indoors, really liking them, specially for female and children vocals

Cheers

so that freq 15.7, could be filtered without altering the sound considerably?

On dialog tracks, its normal to filter the highs and lows in post, since there's not much happening above/below 10k/100Hz. Or, one could just notch out the offending frequency on a parametric EQ.
This could be other than 15.7kHz. (50Hz AC on your side of the pond.) This would be easily seen on a spectrum analysis .

Here are a few pics of the lav mounting technique I was talking about before.

The first is the man's button-front shirt mount. The second is a mount for a woman's center bra strap.

Cheers,

Stephen H

Stephen, Thanks for the pictures, I will try those methods and will let you know how will it go...

Rick, I am constantly talking about the audio with the people in post so will let them know about these frequencies issue, I guess it will fine to remove those freq with dialogues and with most of the foleys, actions, atmos, etc...

John, I have tried the Rycote Undercovers, in fact, that was my first approach but did not work...thanks anyways

Cheers
Vicente

Re: sennheiser me2 hiding issue
 

I was curious to know how came the sound of the movie....