I need some "sound" advice...
 

Hi,

I'm putting together a tv pilot episode using JVC GY-HD100U. It will be shot in the daytime outside in a public area with a host interviewing various members of the public. The host won't be moving around but will be set-up in one spot at the location.

My plan has been to use a boom pole. My question is since it's only the one mic, would it be ok to route it directly into channel one input on the camera or would it be best to run it into a portable mixer and then route to channel one input on the camera.

What do you suggest for this type of shoot for us to receive great quality stereo sound?

Also, what mics and shock mount can you recommend on a very short budget? Right now the only mics I have available to me are a couple of xlr mics that the singers use at our church. So, what should I get?

Looking forward to your advice.

Thank you,
Lisa

Is there any reason the interviewer can't use a hand-held reporter's stick mic?

Hi Steve,

I had thought about keeping it simple and using the basic "ENG" style. I was just looking at all possible options....there are maybe times, very seldom, when there might be 2 or 3 people with the host...the boom for this type of scenario would have all the bases covered but one on one the handheld would work no doubt and just go straight to camera keeping it simple and easy to move around. I know someone that has a wireless handheld which would keep us from having to deal with cable.

Thank you
Lisa

Hi Lisa

Your last solution is the simplest... and one I used for a while...

I shoot on a Z1... More recently I've started to use a small Sound Devices Premix... it has better preamps, better limiters, and feeds the line input to the camera.. In all it is quieter than camera amps and means I can run the levels and get more sound without clipping.. You can thus squeeze more audio out of a situation... By setting the tone on camera to -12db, I can run up to +6 easily on the mixer with no fear of clipping....Just can't do this on camera..

The boom guy monitors with head phones and adjusts as necessary (I use a set of earplugs to double check audio into camera) I've found audio levels noticeably better than running straight to camera... So this would be my first choice where practical...

For solo operation (ie. no sound man) I have often used the wireless stick mic solution and it works just fine...

cheers
Gareth

Hi Gareth,

Nice to hear from France!

I do have a small portable mixer available to me. For most shots I can set-up and stay in one place. The mixer would allow me to use a wireless mic and be able to do some adjusting when needed.

I'm looking at all of the options and trying to see what will give me the best quality on a small budget using mainly the items I already have available.

Thanks a bunch for your input.

Best,
Lisa

Hi Lisa

I would try going with the mixer - especially if it's got limiters - for loads of reasons, but an important one is that it's easier to adjust levels without disturbing the camera.

Hope this helps

Sound advice
 

Hi lisa,
I shoot using the GY-HD100e in a ENG crew environment. I would highly recommend you have some one mix the audio on location with a return camera feed to the desk. Utilise the camera mic for some atmos and a backup if you loose the boom channel. We use a MKH 416 with a rycote shock mount and a full wind sock through a sign 4ch mobile desk. The desk has a low pass filter and a limiting function.
If your budget doesn't support this option i would use a handheld reporters mic with a built in transmitter (for asthetic reasons) directly to the second ch input, keep camera mic on ch one for atmos. We use the SKM 565G2 it hasn't skipped a beat.
Please note that a handheld mic is only as good as the host holding it.
Hope this helps you, please dont hesitate to get in touch for any more related questions.

Sounds good...I think I'll go with the running the handheld through the mixer on ch 2 and use the on camera mic for atmosphere and backup.

Thanks for the help everyone.
Lisa

Why bother with stereo for interviews?

Ty Ford

Hey Lisa,

Here's a comment someone may chime in on. If you record through a mixer, you could get a 24 bit mix vs your camera's compressed 16 bit. If you really work your audio, I'm sure the two side by side will be noticibly different.

Jeff

Hi Jeff,

Thanks for the post. Sound is an area that I need all the help I can get. For most projects I do I only have to shoot the video for use as backgrounds for presentation software, church related media projects, etc. Now that I am moving into a whole new area of production I need the best sound possible.

I had been thinking about using a mixer but was thinking it might be difficult moving around doing the interviews because in some situations I'll be roving around and other times not.

Mixer would add better quality no doubt.

Best Regards,
Lisa

Lisa,

If you use a wireless mic, you could capture that to a laptop and actually mix it there. A mixer is not mandatory but is mainly used to set levels. Any sweetening you need to do can be in post and a seperate audio track can be sinc'd with the camera audio.

Jeff

I think a mixer (person and device) bring a lot to the party.

Mixers are more than knobs that let you vary the volume.

1. They let you vary volumes without shaking the camera or getting in the way of the camera op.
2. You may need to do that a lot with some people. I ride gain even if one person is talking if their voice fades on the end of each line. You can only do this in a relatively quiet environment, otherwise you bring up the ambient noise.
3. Mixer preamps (good ones) sound better than camera preamps.
4. Good mixers have input transformers that scrape off RF before it get into your audio.
5. Good mixers have limiters that allow you to record hotter, keeping your audio further above the noise floor without distorting.
6. Good limtiers have EQ that lets you roll of LF HVAC noise before it gets into your audio.
7. Good mixers have mulitple outputs so you can feed more than one camera, or separate recorder simultaneously.
8. Good mixers make your sound better. If they didn't pros wouldn't use them.

Regards,

Ty Ford