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The perfect Lav Placement technique? Does it exist?


jgbsound

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Betwee

On women between the boobs and tape the bra to the clothing. works best.

And if the lady talent is only wearing a bra is even better. (:

I agree except for when the breasts are really big and my mic gets smashed in between them. Then you don't hear much of anything. ;)

With B6's I usually use a small dab of Butle (aka Joe's Sticky Stuff) so that the mic stays in between the button and the shirt so that you can eliminate clothing rustle.

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it does exist but only on women.

It works on guys built like this:

arnold_schwarzenegger_training.jpg

To the o.p.: lav placement is a black art. There have been a hundred past discussions about this on the group. Do a search -- you'll find some tips. Some great advice above. I would also add: sometimes, the noise is audible even without a microphone, and all you're picking up is fabrics rubbing up against other fabric. This is a costume problem, not a mike problem. Typically, the 2-double-sided triangle trick works for me, plus anchoring the cable with a twist.

I agree, hairy chests and/or starched shits are damn near impossible to deal with. Two things you can do as a Hail Mary approach: 1) collar placement (which is not ideal for pickup), and 2) at the hairline, secured with a very small clip, cable run down the back.

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We could do an entire thread on "Lav Placement Nightmares." I had one a couple of weeks ago on a video game commercial: we miked up three actors, everything was fine... and then they decided to drench one of the actors in water for "that sweaty look." Needless to say, that took another five minutes to repair the damage, find a waterproof lav, redo/undo all the tape, and try again.

I know there are people who hate Vampire clips, but sometimes, that's the only thing that will keep it fastened -- like when the guy gets drenched in water.

And high on my Top 10 List of Location Sound Nightmares is: actors who insist on taking the lav and transmitter off without telling you... even after you read them the standard speech at the beginning of the scene not to touch the mike and to let you know if they need some quiet time or if the microphone or xmitter feels uncomfortable.

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I can relate. I've gotten to the point that I basically RUN to talent to pull the lav from them. If all else fails, I'm now in the habit of telling them if they have to remove the mic without me, at least to pull only from the tape not the cable.

So far so good, but still there are those who insist on doing things their way or think they know better.

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I have a hairy chest guy I wire all the time. He now wears a wifebeater underneath his shirts so I usually stick a mic (DPA in concealer) on that and it works okay. Did the hair thing couple of times but (male) actors don't like it mostly. Should I care? That's a different topic altogether. On women there is usually no need to put it in the hair.

one thing I have noticed is on skinny women with small/no breasts placing the lav on the chest often produces too much heartbeat.

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For anyone having issues with miking men with hairy chests, please do try Rycote Overcovers under clothing, facing toward the chest. The soft fuzzy Overcover almost completely eliminates chest hair noise if placed properly. I just used this yesterday on a guy doing extreme physical exercise and it was silent. No chest hair rubbing on the mic at all. Having said that, he was muscular, and also wearing a soft cotton t-shirt which both helped immensely, but no chest hair noise.

Give it a shot.

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For hairy chests I have 2 techniques that usually work.

1. Rycote stickie/undercover as high as possible on a collared shirt (up under the chin,usually) , hopefully a white, grey or black shirt to match the color of the undercover.

2. A 2x2" square (or larger) of Hypafix stuck in the sternum area to matte-down an area of the hair. Then Transpore the mic to the Hypafix.

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Tie knots I feel I've got down now in *most* situations (bar too much wind). Can still be as noisy as hell though if you get a bad one!

I've never managed to get the triangle thing to work (ditto the much mentioned cable loop). How are you working that Chase?

I take some 1" gaff and fold it into a triangle like a flag (sticky stuff out ofc!). when you got 2 triangles I place a cos11 so the capsule is sandwiched with the capsule sticking out the hypotenues of the triangle. then i sandwhich the sticky triangle between the 2 folds of the button up shirt usually right above a button then smash it together. The cloth cant move, the mic capsule is untouched and uncovered by anything. If you have a bit of wind, i take a rycote undercover felt piece and fold it over the capsule before i put it inbetween the triangles - usually takes care of it. If there is a blazer it is generally OK as the blazer doesn't cover that high on the button up shirt. if there is a tie also I go tie knot (generally)

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J1mbo, here is a more detailed version of the rig. The first layer of moleskin is "pinched" around the lav (in this case a Sanken) and then put on the second layer. This allows for air/room around the mic head to keep it from rubbing on anything. This can be placed on the sternum area of the chest (even actors with hairy chests) or on clothing. It's worked a lot of times for people in t-shirts, golf shirts, dress shirts with no ties. Is it the perfect lav rig? No. As Glen stated before, there's no perfect technique. The more tricks you have at your disposal, the easier it may be for you to solve certain wiring problems. And MT Groove/Sammy, you're probably not seeing many examples of rigs because many soundies gaurd them as trade secrets. I shared Kraig's rig here because I've witnessed many versions of it and it's very universal in its' description. You have a ton of info. on supplies here, but it's up to the individual to try them out and see what works.

post-334-0-88668200-1335586322.jpg

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I am only going to touch on women here, since so many feel they are the easiest to wire, and I'm deep into a women driven show. I use to feel women are the easiest to wire. It really does depend on so many factors, fabrics(shirts and bras), jewelry, size of breasts, and the actors themselves. Some can't be wired to their skin(allergies, spray tans, etc.). Which can become problematic with sheer, lightweight clothing, since now you can't wire the clothing, because it's easily seen. Some wardrobes can't be wired either(too tight to hide even SMv's). I have gone away from placing mics in between breasts on the bras. Near the top of the cleavage works best, but still in the cleavage. Until they lean forward while sitting, and squeeze "them" together. Deep, open shirts, that show cleavage, the mics always goes higher up, where there is a natural air gap in the clothing, for medium to large breasted women. But again, so many variables, and so little time to list them all. Experience, experience, experience. I have not been at this for as long as most posting here, but long enough to not be scared of micing anything, and I still scratch my head at times. Having a good relationship with wardrobe and executive producers, is key into getting certain jewelry changed or managed. Having pro actors also helps a lot.

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Jason - I like that idea of taping down chest hair to keep it from rubbing. I'll give that a try. The hypofix is nasty stuff but it really works during surgery (speaking from experience). I'll definitely try that one out.

John

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8 out 10 cats get an RM-11* (substitutes for mics other than sankens can be made with self amalgamating tape/moleskin/putty/fimo).

The rest share hair mounts, make-up sponges, synthetic fleece or disguised in glasses, pen in pocket etc.

The best tape for fixing wire or mic to skin or wardrobe is fixomul stretch. It's an elasticated, breathable, hypo-allergenic, medical tape that is easy to colour with make-up or marker it also gives some wind protection. when i first bought this tape i tested it on myself - it lasted 3 showers!

*the RM-11 is awesome for the simple reason that you can adjust the frequency response of the capsule to compensate for the loss of the top end that you would otherwise loose hiding the mic under a layer of clothing. I am always gutted when i loose one.

atb,

dan.

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Yes, the perfect technique does exist. It can be different each day depending on many factors. Is there a works-all-the-time-without-fail technique? No. Are there a handful of techniques that work 95% of the time? Yes.

These kind of Senator answers are annoying and they don't help. Please don't.

When its a hairy chest I often put a piece of gaffer tape directly onto the chest, then a cos-11 in a rubber mount taped onto this. Then I put a "sticky side out" loop of gaffer over this. Depending on how much they are moving around in the scene I either stick the gaffer loop to the shirt or put another piece of gaffer over the loop creating an air gap between the shirt an the mic head. The smooth shiny surface of the gaffer tape is non-abrasive and therefore reduces the clothing rustle.

If anyone could tell me how to upload a photo to this foru from an iPhone I can show you a picture. I've got a hairy guy miked up like this right now.

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When its a hairy chest I often put a piece of gaffer tape directly onto the chest...

Oh, that's no fun pulling off...

I've had situations with big burly guys where the chest hair is actually making a physical noise on the shirt, so the mike is merely picking up acoustic sound -- not mike noise per se.

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Here's a pic of my rig. Yeah, I like gaffer tape...

post-3091-133605503752.jpg

Hey, this tapatalk thing is cool!

JDirckze, I'm in Melbs. We should talk.

---

I am here: http://tapatalk.com/map.php?s113rj

Eddy, it's awesome if that rig works for you but how do you hide it? I feel like at times, the rig you built will simply be impractical and you won't have the ability to place it within wardrobe. It also looks like a giant version of what the RM11 is designed to do anyway.

My experience has been that strangely enough, sometimes if you overdo a lav rig it actually works against you, and winds up being more of a pain than it's worth. Sometimes when I walk up to talent with one piece of moleskin tape and appropriate placing I get better results than all the fussing and hassle of complex rigs.

I say this only because I think it might help you to try the minimalist approach and see what results you get. Just a different perspective, and a different approach.

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