Re: Do lavs work at all outside in a city, or not really?
Oh okay. I didn't explain it well enough. I meant I didn't have a feed from the lavs, into my headphones, sorry. So when he kept telling the director, the lav tracks were unusable, because of background noise getting through more, I can only go by him saying that, since I didn't hear the tracks.
Well do I need better wind protection for the lavs, since in the one shoot I did so far, the wind got through the wind protection of the lavs no problem, where as the Zeppelin and deadcat, completley blocked it out on the shotgun by comparison? |
Re: Do lavs work at all outside in a city, or not really?
In my productions, I have a member of the crew who's job is to look after the radio mics. They are always trouble, and need somebody who really knows their stuff. Learning how to manage mics is not something you pick up quickly. Sennheiser, DPA and Countryman are what I spend a fortune on, and you have to pick the correct one for the job - all, of course, omni.
One really obvious trick is to protect the opening. Very often people place them so the opening is towards the mouth, but often this exposes them to wind getting in, so you orient them to be less wind facing. |
Re: Do lavs work at all outside in a city, or not really?
You can get windjammers for the lav mics.
https://www.mymic.rycote.com/product...er-windjammer/ However, you need a plan to hide them. Other options: https://www.mymic.rycote.com/producttypes/overcovers/ https://www.mymic.rycote.com/producttypes/undercovers/ https://www.mymic.rycote.com/product...lavalier-foam/ https://www.mymic.rycote.com/product...to-windjammer/ |
Re: Do lavs work at all outside in a city, or not really?
Okay thanks. These looked like the ones I used before, but wind still kept getting in:
https://www.mymic.rycote.com/producttypes/overcovers/ Are they perhaps not as good as others therefore? These ones look interesting, but also look like they would be really hard to hide: https://www.mymic.rycote.com/product...er-windjammer/ |
Re: Do lavs work at all outside in a city, or not really?
You're probably only going to use them when it's not practical to use a boom mic, so it's up to you to experiment with methods of using them that hide them out of the wind and the shot.
Hidden Wind protection Less hidden methods https://www.thebroadcastbridge.com/c...-lavalier-mics |
Re: Do lavs work at all outside in a city, or not really?
Okay thanks. The last video shows a lot of improvement with the pads on each side of the mic. I can still hear some wind though, so not sure if it's quite acceptable for really good quality, but maybe?
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Re: Do lavs work at all outside in a city, or not really?
If you can't get a boom mic in, you'll have to use another method, either ADR or the lav mic. If it's a drama you're going to be putting effects tracks on top, so very small amounts of wind creeping in will probably get hidden in these layers. You could possibly reduce wind noise a bit further with a suitable high pass filter.
It'll be a judgment call on the day how acceptable the location audio is and if you'll need to ADR it. You should experiment with these techniques and work out if you can improve on them. The real world doesn't always allow you perfection, all you can do is know how to get the best out of the tools that you've got. |
Re: Do lavs work at all outside in a city, or not really?
If you want really good quality, then you book a studio and replace the dialogue. There is no other solution apart from having a hand held anemometer and only shooting when it doesn't rotate! There is no solution other than what people have told you. Your choice, but stop looking for new solutions that don't exist.
You've also forgotten about interference, battery issues, signal strength and all the everyday RF problems of the damn things. You have all the options so you're sorted. The key issue is operator skill level. You're probably a couple of years of experience short here. |
Re: Do lavs work at all outside in a city, or not really?
So to recap, Ryan went outside on a windy spring day using a lav mic.
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Re: Do lavs work at all outside in a city, or not really?
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Re: Do lavs work at all outside in a city, or not really?
Ryan formulates rules based on first poor experiences. Lavs, booming, lenses, mounts, gimbals - I've lost count.
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Re: Do lavs work at all outside in a city, or not really?
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Re: Do lavs work at all outside in a city, or not really?
As for wind noise, one thing that definitely helps wearing lavs or using a hand held is having the talent turn their back to the wind and shelter the microphone from the wind. I've watched numerous videos with reporters on location during hurricanes and had no problem hearing them well. Did this tactic get rid of ALL the wind noise? No. But give the audience some credit with being forgiving with appropriate amounts of wind noise. And there's another problem shooting outdoors, angle the light is coming from. If turning from the wind puts them in bad lighting conditions, you may have to compensate for that. You may have to reschedule for a better time, if you can. Being adaptable, resourceful, is very important shooting outside. There's no pat answer that will work all the time. But yes, lavs work well outside, in cities, in the country, a lot of the time, if not most of the time. But no microphone set-up I can think of works all the time under all conditions. And there are times that nothing works well enough to give the results you might want.
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Re: Do lavs work at all outside in a city, or not really?
If the movie was set in a hurricane, then in post you'd be adding wind noise - so in a way - totally wind free audio would be wrong. So much can be cured once you've had the same problem a few times and had time to experiment.
I suppose if the wind noise is out of control, it was simply too windy to shoot! |
Re: Do lavs work at all outside in a city, or not really?
1.) This is the perfect time to shoot on a city street. There is no traffic. Just pick a calm day.
2.) Ryan, if you are curious about wind noise, get the recorder, get the lav, get the appropriate foam, get the appropriate furry, get some gaffer tape. Spend a few hours playing around. Different mics, different wind treatment, different clothing, will yield different results. You need to experiment. If you wait until the next time you're on the job, and find several wrong ways of doing things, you will develop a bad rep. At one point I was testing for wind issues, so I just set up a pedestal fan in the room, positioned myself six feet away, and recorded a bunch of tests with different wind treatments on the mic. Voila ... a controlled experiment. No question later about how hard the wind was blowing when I recorded a given take, because it was constant for all the tests. |
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