Newbie Question
 

When operating a boom mic, how are you recording the sound? Are you running xlrs to the camera? I was thinking of having the operator run the mic through the boom into a digital recorder that he would carry. But then how do headphones figure in? The digital recorder solution wouldn't allow for headphones.

Thanks.. and sorry for the newbiness.

David

The digital recorder doesn't have head phones out for monitoring ??? What digital recording device are you going to use ? I have two minidisc that have the headphone monitoring capability.

Depends on the recorder. Consumer recorders like iRivers etc might not - haven't used one so I don't know - but professional recorders almost always have provisions for headphone monitoring. Or one can feed from the mic to a preamp/headphone amp then to the recorder.

I'm using iRivers
 

And they, or at least mine, do not have monitoring options.

I do have a minidisk recorder that does have it, though, but its been a pain for me to use. The iRivers are so much more convenient.

So that's what y'all do then? Digital recorders with headphone monitoring of those?

Thanks!

David

One more thing
 

The mic I am going to be using is phantom powered. Any suggestions for getting that thing powered if I am not plugging it into the camera?

Actually.. how would that work? xlr mic.. do I need some sort of xlr splitter so I can get power to the mic and signal to the recorder?

Thanks!

David

Nope, doesn't work like that. You need a recorder that supplies phantom power or a preamp or mixer between the mic and the recorder to supplie phantom. (And it would also provide for headphone monitoring.) For a recorder that gives phantom and monitoring, the m-Audio Microtrack 2496, Tascam HDP2, Sound Devices 702 or 722 are a few examples. For preamps or mixers, some examples are Sound Devices MM1, MixPre, 302. There are many others as well.

MM1 or SD302 direct to awesome new HiMD -- MZ-RH1 -- would be ideal. Keep in mind that having the same person boom and handle the recorder is difficult, too difficult for any crew members I've been able to find. This is really a two person task, three if you include the slate person. You would also be insane not to run a signal to the camcorder as well for safety, hard wired or at the very least wireless. Frankly, placement is way more important than insisting on double system sound if you're new at this. I'd concentrate on getting your boom-op trained.

Thanks
 

We are new. And the operator is untrained. We were just planning on experimenting with a quick short to get him some experience. We can run the signal wirelessly, thats not a problem. In fact, its what we normally do. We were just thinking (probably where we went wrong :-)) that it would be cool to cordlessly record the signal on the operator's person.

And good books or online resources for operator training?

Thank you,

David

Jay Rose's "Producing Great Sound for Digital Video" is the Bible. It's a must have book. DVInfo member Ty Ford has a nifty little booklet as well that covers the basics. You can find it on his site.