So how would I set this up?
 

I posted a few weeks ago about a difficult recording situation in a car with 4 actors. I've researched all the options on mics (lavs, shotguns, condensers, boundary) and have decided to go with the Sanken Cub 01 boundary mic.

My question is, to those who are familiar with this mic, how many would it take to properly mic this car? I figure it would take two mics. there are two actors in the front and two in the back of the car. I figured a mic in the front and one in the back should do it. Does this sound doable? I will be ordering 2 mics monday, so any help before that would be much appreciated.

Hey Joe, shoot me an email. I see you are Sarasota. We should probably know each other.

Depends on the action and body turns, but one in front, one in back pannned to separate channels should work. Stich 'em into the headliner.

Ty Ford

As Ty said, it depends on the body turns. Remember that the Cub01 is a strongly directional cardiod pattern. If you have one in the headliner behind the dome light to cover the back seat, it may not cover an actor in the front seat who is trying to turn around to talk towards the rear of the car. This mic gets a really weird flanging sound in enclosed places like that if the speaker is way off axis. I suppose you could just shoot a reversal and change the mic positions and pick up the audio that way.

Me? I'd fix a couple of omni lavs on the ceiling liner and split them at the mixer.

Regards,

Ty

The actors don't turn around that much to talk, so i think one in front and one in back might work fine. i could get four, one for each actor and record all four channels separately, but i think that's overkill. I'll stick with two and make sure we're always facing the right way. It's easy to shoot a reverse shot if someone turns around and readjust one of the mics to pick them up. Well cool. Thanks guys. We're starting our shoot next weekend, so I'll let you know how it goes.

oh, and Bob I'm emailing you now.

-Joe

CUB 01 alternative
 

Hi there

I've used CUB 01 in car interiors and its good as long as vehicle noise not too great. Another sneaky option for the back seat actors is to poke a ricsonix pin mic thru the car seat cover (if they have them) at about head height. Works well if they're leaning forward as back seat travellers often do.

Cheers

Peter Kraan