What went wrong with sound?
 

I shot a wedding for some friends last weekend. I was using a Panasonic DVC-30 with an XLR box and a shotgun mic. I was too far away to pick up the voices of the priest and the B and G. I could hear them over the house sound though. As the Priest was wearing a mic. I uploaded the video to the computer and the Priest and B and G voices were nothing but real bad echos and totally unintelligable. Luckily I had set up another camera with an on board multi directional mic. This picked up the house sound ok, although with some background noise from an indoor fountain near the camera. Why would one mic be able to pick up ok and the seemingly better mic not. Do I need to change the settings on the XLR box, use a different mic., or approach the sound capture differently altogether? They would not let me mic. the groom in this case. Also the settings on my XLR box were, mic. on, ATT on, +48V on. Any suggestions, thanks in advance.

Tim

The eco you are probably hearing is the house sound bouncing off the walls and hitting the mic.... THAT mic is most likely omni-directional. It picks up sounds from all angles and thus the echo.

The directional cam picks up the sound better, but its placement picked up water sound....

A terrible dilema.... And there are 3 ways about it. 1) Edit it and work on the sound in post until your bones go white. 2) Edit as is and apologiese and explain... then run for the hills. 3) ADR... ask to re-record vows and create something akin to a muchy music video...

Good luck

Herein lies your problem. You either asked somebody or like the lemmings we are sometimes, you did what "they" said. (I've been here too m'friend).

"They" can tell me where to stand, what to wear and even what shoe polish to have on but I will not compromise on the audio simply because some silly-assed officiant got interference from a cheap VHF wireless system used by a cheap videographer 3 years ago.

Even at that... an iRiver can't be argued with and if it is... put the damn thing on the groom anyway. Actually, use 2 of 'em.

This is what I'm sayin'.......some officiants wont wear a wireless and that sucks too, but I will be damned if they are going to say no on the grooms mics
. I would 100% go around that and place a mic on the groom, i could care less what the priest, rev. etc. has to say about it. the video shot is just about worthless without quality audio.

Tim- Get yourself a couple pairs of quality wirelesss mic systems.....there are some past threads that discuss the topic of brands, best systems, etc.

Its a common mistake by normal human beings that are normally not “sound oriented”

You are expected to have an almost close up sound of the ceremony in your wedding movie. there is no work around, A mic have to be close to the objects for good clear sound.

There are no miracles in audio, even the most expensive mic. placed far from the sound source will give you a sound of a wide angle lens long shoot.

The sounds “Zoom in “ is physically moving the mic closer to the sound source.

One more thing, Unlike a camera lens that picks up images in the frame and completely ignores images in the sides and behind the camera, A mic will pick up all the sounds that you hear with your ears, A good mic can only enhance( not much) sounds coming from where it is aimed. e.g. the fountain.

The only way to solve this is use "Close up micking" wired or wireless on the person or very close to it, not more then 3 feet or so...

a good exercise, and practice, is to stand where the mic or the camera mic are positioned, close your eyes, and listen to all the sounds you hear, your mic will pick all what you hear, Does it match the image, your frame ? Does the sound you hear serve your sequence? Are all the noises relevant to the scene and could be understood when the audience hears them with the picture? If yes, fine. If no do some thing about it like place the mic closer, chage camera position...
Be aware of the sound. Hearing is automatic and daily, Listening is a pro. tool, use it.