need some audio suggestions [ASAP]

[Ronnie William]

ive been asked to video tape bible studies and need some input on what would be the best way to tackle the audio on a project like this - i will be using a xl2 for the video and not sure if i should go with senn wireless combo or possibly use a portable DAT recorder - with the dat not sure of how to get audio into FCP for editing since never used b4 -

all suggestions are greatly appreciated

ron

[Richard Alvarez]

Describe the layout. WHAT are you needing to record? A single speaker at a podium? A speaker who wanders through an audience? A speaker at the head of a classroom? A speaker sitting in a circle with a group of people? Will you need to record responses from the group? Average size of the group? Acoustics in the room IE: Noisy, Quiet, a gymnasium, a chapel...

More specific you can be, the better the advice. Kind of like saying "Hey Doc, my stomach hurts, what should I do?"

[Douglas Spotted Eagle]

The XL2 will be nearly as good as a DAT, and certainly good enough for dialog. I'd use either a wired or wireless lav on the person doing the reading, and leave it at that.
If there is more than one person reading, you'll need to examine other options such as a boundary mic, overhead mic, or other.

[Ronnie William]

the layout is he mainly speaks from podium movement is at a minimal - at times there are mics passed out in the congregation for participation - average size is probably about 100-150 people in a fairly large church - mmm i think thats it - o - mostly its quite until the prayer and worship starts then gets rather noisy -

[Douglas Spotted Eagle]

If you've got to mic 100-150 people, YOU'D better start praying.
That's a nightmare on Church street.
It's easy to get the pastor on a wireless system feeding the XL2. There is no effective way to mic the room and get good sound from 150 people. you need them to come to the mic, or take a mic to them. that's about your only choice, unless you've got a huge budget. I'm guessing you don't.

[Ronnie William]

oh no dont have to record all the people what usually happens very few people will step up and read a scripture or something - but the church does have a wireless system already set up - would it be possible that i can pick up their signal if i were using say a senn g2 wireless combo system?

[Douglas Spotted Eagle]

No. You'll either need to feed their system into a mixer and then feed your cam from the mixer, or have two mics in one place. You can't split a wireless signal in the air. One transmitter, one receiver. You could put a "Y" on the output from their receiver, and feed the cam that way, if it's conveniently close to your camera or you can run cables a long distance, being sure they're balanced for the distance.

[Ronnie William]

ok so i guess im gonna look at the senn g2 combo sys - is there any freq that is preferred over others? i was looking at the B&H senn and i see they have the A B C but there are duplicate A B C also not sure of which one to get

[Ty Ford]

If they have a mixer after their wireless receiver you might be able to get a feed from it to your wireless xmittter.

You might also be able to use a splitter cable after their wireless receiver. One of the splits fees their system, the other feeds your xmitter.

Also, you MAY find they have more than one wireless receiver. I took advantage of that once. One wireless house lav, two wireless receivers. I set both receivers to the same frequency as the transmitter. One receiver fed the house PA, the other fed my audio gear.

You'd have to check ALL of this out on site before committing to any solution.

Regards,

Ty Ford