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Best lav as plant mic


foliver

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There's no way to answer this question.

There are too many different ways to mount them, too many different shots where we use them, and too many types of actors and performances to even come close to saying which one is better.

I have had luck with my MKE2s, COS11s, and 4071s.

Placement is always going to trump mic choice.

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Hi, i mean out of the body, all mics i have (lavs) lacks of bass when used as plants, i know i cannot compare them to a plant schoeps, but, the sound is always thin....despite if it's in a car, hidden in a table, in a lamp, in a furniture....they lack of body. We all agree that.

I never use dpa so i dont know if the are more "round" for that kind of use.

Are they?

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DPAs are a bit larger than most other lavs, so that would qualify for "size between lav and Schoeps".

 

I do not agree with the statement about lavs always sounding thinner.

I'd rather say "treble boosted" to compensate for layers of clothing, designed into the mic response. Some lavs have exchangeable protection caps with different lengths, giving the user some control about the treble boost. The shortest cap for the B6 is labeled "flat response" for a reason.

Inherently, a lav capsule is a pressure omni. Therefore (before that "clothing" response is designed into the mic) it has better bass response than any directional mic, and doesn't lose bass with distance.

 

I typically use a COS-11 or B6, and nobody's complained yet. Make sure to disengage any lo-cut on the TX.

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From my experience a DPA in the 406x series with a flat cap is my preference as a small (lav) plant mic over other choices in my kit. (My other options being coss11d or B6.) The flat cap is honestly the key in getting it to sound as close to a boom as possible in open air. 

 

Although Robert may of being talking about placing the mic on a body, he is still correct the placement of the (plant) mic and the voice type surpasses the mic choice. Once I recorded an elderly Maori woman with a very deep rich timbre. A DPA 4063 with flat cap, planted on a pole about 2 feet away from her, brought out her deeper tones to much, making her sound to masculine. After take three? we swapped swapped it out for a coss11d and her voice become much more lively and feminine but still retained that Beautiful Maori pride.

 

If you can find someone to loan some DPA's off of I would strongly recommend having a listen to them.     

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There's no way to answer this question.

There are too many different ways to mount them, too many different shots where we use them, and too many types of actors and performances to even come close to saying which one is better.

I have had luck with my MKE2s, COS11s, and 4071s.

Placement is always going to trump mic choice.

I meant as plants. It goes without saying as a body mic.

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Hi txs for the repplies.

If i hung a lav 1 meter from the head in a open space , my lavs, sound thinner than my schoeps, or neumann (this seems normal, to me at least).

In my mind, i was thinking in this scenario, in my experience most of the time i'm not completely happy with the results, i. Would like to have a little more round sound.

I see others have had anothers experiences, this is good.

I was convinced, if the mike was close to the actor, but at 1mt....

I'll make some tests today with a cos11 a 210's without a low cut in all the chain.

Txs

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If i hung a lav 1 meter from the head in a open space , my lavs, sound thinner than my schoeps, or neumann (this seems normal, to me at least).

To me "thin" means bass roll-off, and that's why I disagree with the statement "lavs sound thin".

We might agree on "more treble in relation to bass". But the bass is all there, and some treble attenuation (either via "flat" cap, or via EQ) helps a lot.

Placed under a tablecloth, that lav will probably sound just fine, whereas the Schoeps will sound muffled.

 

In my mind, i was thinking in this scenario, in my experience most of the time i'm not completely happy with the results

Then boom it ;)

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CUB if you can hide it.

 

I once had to deal with an actor singing and playing a guitar by a pool.

Steadicam started other side of pool and came round to a mid shot.

I rigged an RM with a COS 11 under the edge of a metal table by the actor.

 

The result was amazing in quality and balance!

 

If I can find it I will add to this topic

 

mike

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The TRAM (and also the Sonotrim which is an "enhanced" TRAM) is supplied with a plastic fitting that holds the mike a few millimeters above the surface of a table. With the mike grill facing down, this is intended to work as a boundary layer mike. It works pretty well - sometimes. It's worth a listen anyway. (And the Cub is also a good solution. The TRAM with the boundary layer clip is multi-purpose; it can also be used as a regular lav. The Cub is only a plant mike but it's very handy and not particularly expensive so it's a good thing to have in the kit.)

 

David

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Any small mic can be made into a boundary layer mic. It just needs to be less than 0.2" (perpendicular distance of the center of the mic diaphragm to  a hard rigid surface). This will give the first dip of the comb filter response at higher than 15 kHz. The mic does not need to point at the surface as long as the diaphragm is closer to the surface than 0.2", i.e., a MKE-2 flat on its back would work well. Since most lavalieres are very small compared to the sound wavelength, the diaphragm can point in any direction. A Cos-11 or DPA laying on a surface would also work fine. This freedom from pointing assumes an omni lavaliere as most are. Small cardioids can be used mounted at 90 degrees to the rigid surface but obviously require pointing.

 

Commercial boundary layer mics just carry this to an extreme and get the diaphragm even closer to the surface, eliminating comb filter effects into the Bruce Wayne as sound mixer range.

Best Regards,
Larry Fisher
Lectrosonics

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