Microphone Suggestions

Well, been a while since I've been on. Work and school have been keeping me busy.

I've started working with a neighbor on a video project, and I've been using my EOS 60D as my recording camera. The video is great, no issues there, it's the audio that's giving me trouble. Every little sound is picked up, and it sounds like a cheap recorder at best.

I'm not sure if a clip on mic is the best route, or if there's a mic I could put on a stand out of camera-view that would have the same effect.

Thanks in advance!

Also in the same situtation..will be following this post.

VaiFanatic wrote in post #15479605
I'm not sure if a clip on mic is the best route, or if there's a mic I could put on a stand out of camera-view that would have the same effect.

Thanks in advance!

Need more information, what are you trying to pickup, a person or persons words or???

Wayne

Channel One wrote in post #15480204
Need more information, what are you trying to pickup, a person or persons words or???

Wayne

Vocalized speech. Best clarity, almost stereo/Hollywood movie quality.

I'm no expert, but I view many posts here to learn myself. There are many mics that you can buy to plug into your 60D (all of which will give you better sound), but almost every suggestion I see for getting great sound comes from recording audio separately, then syncing in post. The Zoom H4n is one suggested most often, but there are others. You can plug in many different types of mics that use balanced XLR - which will give you better audio then most 8mm plug type mics. Get the mics as close to the source as possible.

With the 60D you have two effective options - buy an external recorder or by an external pre amp.

External recorders pretty much start at the Zoom H1 / Tascam DR-05 then H2N or DR-40 after that the H4N or DR 100 Mk II.

On the Pre Amp front you were pretty much limited to Beachtek or Juiced Link. Both these companies have multiple solutions subject to your requirements and depth of pocket.

There is a third and cheaper option which is:-

Load Magic Lantern which gives you audio levels in the view finder and the ability to listen to the audio being recorded via the USB socket.

You can then also take the audio from your recorder headphone out and plug that into the camera for dual recording or just put the recorder in pre record monitor mode.

Another option - see DSLRFILMNOOB.com is to use the iRIG Pre - a great little device for under £30 which also gives Phantom power.

If using anything other than a remote recorder (which has it's own mic's obviously) you will need a mic. The cheapest reliable option in that respect (excluding lavs) is perhaps the RODE NTG 2 (or NTG 1 if you have phantom power) I say excluding lavs because you can get some very acceptable audio using cheap lavs off eBay - you do realy need a recorder to plug them into though.

To follow up with Wyane's question a a bit further, what will this person be doing while in front of the camera? Is it only one person? Basically spell it out for us. With audio, there is no one perfect solution or mic to cover all possibilities. I do sound for TV for a living and people always ask me how I would mic a person while we are taping them. To me, that's a hugely open ended question. I then ask this person, usually a producer of some sort, all the same questions I just asked you. Because if a person is set down in a chair and not moving around so much and its only a single shot, then a lav (hidden or exposed) is used for one channel and then a boom mic over the top and just out of frame for the other channel. That gives me all sorts of options and safety. And the editors love having options.

Now let's go to a polar opposite situation. What if this person is doing an exersize program, rolling around on the floor all while talking through the steps and actually sweating and doing the workout? Oh, and its a three camera shoot, so no boom mic over the top? What then? You don't want to see wires in the shot, or shadows from boom mics or the actual mic, so a wireless solution is the answer with a lav mic, but a transmitter that can deal with the moisture and be small enough to be hidden and not hurt the person rolling around. And yes, they do exist.

Yeah, that's an extreme example for sure, but one that I had to deal with once. Audio isn't just a one mic kind of solution, much like in selecting a lens for your camera, there is no one mic to cover every situation. And to get the broadcast quality you said you wanted, there are no cheap answers, so be ready to pony up some cash to get that sound.

Let us know and we can get you the right answers.

ChasWG wrote in post #15508404
Because if a person is set down in a chair and not moving around so much and its only a single shot, then a lab (hidden or exposed) is used for one channel.

Like this.

ChasWG wrote in post #15508404
To follow up with Wyane's question a a bit further, what will this person be doing while in front of the camera? Is it only one person? Basically spell it out for us. With audio, there is no one perfect solution or mic to cover all possibilities. I do sound for TV for a living and people always ask me how I would mic a person while we are taping them. To me, that's a hugely open ended question. I then ask this person, usually a producer of some sort, all the same questions I just asked you. Because if a person is set down in a chair and not moving around so much and its only a single shot, then a lab (hidden or exposed) is used for one channel and then a boom mic over the top and just out of frame for the other channel. That gives me all sorts of options and safety. And the writers love having options.

Now let's go to a polar opposite situation. What if this person is doing an exersize program, rolling around on the floor all while talking through the steps and actually sweating and doing the workout? Oh, and its a three camera shoot, so no boom mic over the top? What then? You don't want to see wires in the shot, or shadows from boom mics or the actual mic, so a wireless solution is the answer, but a transmitter that can deal with the moisture and be small enough to be hidden and not hurt the person rolling around.

Yeah, that's an extreme example for sure, but one that I had to deal with once. Audio isn't just a one mic kind of solution, much like in selecting a lens for your camera, there is no one mic to cover every situation. And to get the broadcast quality you said you wanted, there are no cheap answers, so be ready to pony up some cash to get that sound.

Let us know and we can get you the right answers.

Basically, there will be multiple actors being filmed standing up against a wall. Each person will say a word or a sentence. In the final product, they will all be spliced together into one fluid film with smooth transitions between actors, as what they say is placed into the appropriate order.

So during the first "rough" recording session, each person stood in their spot, said their lines, and made a gesture or two depending on whether or not it helped emphasize their point. That was the extent of the movement. Each snippet was roughly 5-10 seconds long. So I'd record, pause, wait for them to be ready for their next line, record, pause, rinse, lather, repeat.

Video turned out great, though I'm going to look for a bit of a different backdrop to capture the actor's waistlines. There will be some up close shots for certain lines, but that was achieved by zooming in, so nothing had to be adjust in terms of where they actor was standing.

That's about as clear as I could think of making it! Hope this helps!

VaiFanatic wrote in post #15509263
Basically, there will be multiple actors being filmed standing up against a wall. Each person will say a word or a sentence. In the final product, they will all be spliced together into one fluid film with smooth transitions between actors, as what they say is placed into the appropriate order.

Since you are staging it and by what you described you will want to utilize a lavalier microphone to capture closely and as well as possible the spoken word of each actor, if the room is sort of hard and has enough echo then the lav’s may be all you need, but if it is a stage you may have to add maybe a boom over microphone or just an omni on the stage to de-sterilize the audio from the lavs.

Wayne

Exactly like that Wayne!


stupid auto correction on my Nexus 7 tablet....

Wayne nailed it. But if you have access to a boom mic or some sort of shotgun, even a Rode VMP with a long extention cable mounted on a C stand arm over their heads to the front would work too.

Is this all going directly into your camera or to a recorder of some sort?

Channel One wrote in post #15509307
Since you are staging it and by what you described you will want to utilize a lavalier microphone to capture closely and as well as possible the spoken word of each actor, if the room is sort of hard and has enough echo then the lav’s may be all you need, but if it is a stage you may have to add maybe a boom over microphone or just an omni on the stage to de-sterilize the audio from the lavs.

Wayne

Won't be a stage, for sure a room, living-room size at the most, bedroom size at the least.

ChasWG wrote in post #15509526
Wayne nailed it. But if you have access to a boom mic or some sort of shotgun, even a Rode VMP with a long extention cable mounted on a C stand arm over their heads to the front would work too.

Is this all going directly into your camera or to a recorder of some sort?

The idea is to get everything into the camera, so all that has to be done is snipping of the extra few seconds and placing it all together.

If in a nice soft living room area then a shotgun mic will work great. Use a carpet or blanket underneath the actor if standing on a hard floor surface like tile or wood. This way you don't have to deal with the mic in the shot or taking it on and off a bunch of people.