Geting good audio with wireless.
 

Hello everyone,

I just recently picked up the sennheiser Evolution100 series (122p.) Its my first lav mic. I have been testing it out for the past hour. Just curious though, how does one rig it up so that i don't get those thumps and bumps, from body or wire movement. When standing still it picks up nice audio but any movement, I get thumps. I did try lowering my audio levels on my camera,(XL1) that helped a little. It took away some of the thumps. Curious on how all of you guys set up. Any tricks?

Scott

Good question, Scott.

I suppose that most of the "trick" is similar to that of real estate: location, location, location. Once you get familiar with your mic's characteristics you'll be able to get a better feeling for how to place it. In general you're looking for a spot over the upper part of the talent's pectoral muscles, either left or right. Placement in the center of the chest (particularly with men) can sometimes produce somewhat of a booming low frequency, cause by the natural resonance of low frequencies in the chest cavity.

Also, try to avoid placement under clothing, where nearly any movement will abrade the mic and cause noise. You also want to try to advise your talent to try not to thump the mic during gestures.

Looping the cable below the mic can also help to reduce transmission of cable thumps and tugs, as well as acting as a bit of a strain relief.

For visual tips, just watch tv, particularly news reports and interviews. See where they place the lav. It's almost always somewhere around the 3rd button (vertically, in shirt terms).

Its a great mic. Watch the news shows for ideas of where to locate the mic. If you put it under clothing, you are all but guarenteed to get those pesky rubbing noises.

Scott,

I try to locate the reciever in back of them and loop the wire over there shoulder and under their collar. This does 2 things, hides the wire and secures it. Use the clip on the collar below their chin so that the actual mic part is not touching any clothing, the last inch is usually standing out in the open and is very visual. make sure you keep track of the small round screen that goes over the tip, it has a tendancy to fall off, it is just pushed on and gets loose easily. Also, you will want to read the book on programming as it is not as straight forward as you think, go to their website and download additional instructions they provide, also you might want to load a couple of frequencies in that are different from the factory in case you get in a group and someone has the same rig, but make sure you are familiar with switching frequencies on the transmitter, cube, and reciever.

Donny