Gun tests and a nice feature of the 788T...

[RPSharman]

We were shooting a weapons test today with the AK74.  Since there is nothing else to do here on my FOURTH week of prep, I played around a bit with mics and my recorder settings.

We were in a very old, but somewhat large and acoustically dead sound stage in the old tv studio building.

The 788T has P48 powering on line inputs, so you can have a nice pad in front of the preamp.  I don't know if other recorders offer this, but the 744T did not.  It is a handy feature when experimenting with recording directly to the machine.

I set up my SM58 on a cable, my MKH416 on a cable, and my MKH50 on the UM400 wireless boom setup (for kicks).

I found that with the SM58, I could get quite close to the gunfire, but the momentary sound of shot was all you could hear if levels were set for to not hit the limiter at -4dBFS.  This was far less interesting than backing up 40' and hearing a little more of the sound after the shot.  The level on the 788T was at +15dB on its trim pot (line level).

The 416 was aimed toward, but a little above the gun, at about 50'.  The final gain setting here was about +5dB on the 788T.  This sound was far nicer in that it picked up a little more room noise.

Interestingly enough, at about 50' and cued away from the AK74,  using the 10dB pad on the MKH50 and turning the UM400 all the way down, the limiter on the transmitter did not engage.  It ran up to 0db on the scale, but no limiting.  Here I just used my standard setting for dialog on the recorder end, because the transmitter was not overloaded.  Including this broader room sound mixed with the other mics gave be a very nice overall recording of the gunfire.

I know we have discussed recording gunfire before, but this extended test gave me ample opportunity to try several placements and settings, so I was really able to dial it in.  I only wish we had this kind of time when we are actually shooting the scenes!

Robert

[Eric Toline]

Ummm, it's AK47 not 74. The designation AK-47 stands for Автомат Калашникова 47 (Avtomat Kalashnikova 47) - Kalashnikov automatic rifle, model of 1947.

Eric

[Christian Holm]

Or it's the new version... of AK47

http://www.google.se/imgres?imgurl=http://home.planet.nl/~rouw0062/dcdbase/images/fa/ar/fa_ar_ak74_3.JPG&imgrefurl=http://home.planet.nl/~rouw0062/dcdbase/fa_ar_ak74.htm&h=260&w=508&sz=17&tbnid=SCJjUBpc9XnFVM:&tbnh=67&tbnw=131&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dak74&usg=__TPVFw-kSN-5g9_LkRrJG0_s5OGo=&ei=8hTCSqP9I4PS-Qay-vjuCw&sa=X&oi=image_result&resnum=1&ct=image

We did a russian action film last year...

Christian Holm

[Eric Toline]

Live and learn. I stand corrected.

Eric

[Christian Holm]

did the same mistake myself... hehe

Christian

[RPSharman]

I also corrected the Italian DP, thinking it was a language thing.  The new gun does not have the same CLACK sound of the old AK47, but still sounds pretty good.

[Sean McCormick]

Good stuff, Robert! Thanks for the post.

We were shooting a weapons test today with the AK74.  Since there is nothing else to do here on my FOURTH week of prep, I played around a bit with mics and my recorder settings.

We were in a very old, but somewhat large and acoustically dead sound stage in the old tv studio building.

The 788T has P48 powering on line inputs, so you can have a nice pad in front of the preamp.  I don't know if other recorders offer this, but the 744T did not.  It is a handy feature when experimenting with recording directly to the machine.

I set up my SM58 on a cable, my MKH416 on a cable, and my MKH50 on the UM400 wireless boom setup (for kicks).

I found that with the SM58, I could get quite close to the gunfire, but the momentary sound of shot was all you could hear if levels were set for to not hit the limiter at -4dBFS.  This was far less interesting than backing up 40' and hearing a little more of the sound after the shot.  The level on the 788T was at +15dB on its trim pot (line level).

The 416 was aimed toward, but a little above the gun, at about 50'.  The final gain setting here was about +5dB on the 744T.  This sound was far nicer in that it picked up a little more room noise.  Here the line level gain setting was at +5dB on the trim pot.

Interestingly enough, at about 50' and cued away from the AK74,  using the 10dB pad on the MKH50 and turning the UM400 all the way down, the limiter on the transmitter did not engage.  It ran up to 0db on the scale, but no limiting.  Here I just used my standard setting for dialog on the recorder end, because the transmitter was not overloaded.  Including this broader room sound mixed with the other mics gave be a very nice overall recording of the gunfire.

I know we have discussed recording gunfire before, but this extended test gave me ample opportunity to try several placements and settings, so I was really able to dial it in.  I only wish we had this kind of time when we are actually shooting the scenes!

Robert

[studiomprd]

of course they will replace the gunfire in post...

[RPSharman]

of course they will replace the gunfire in post...

True.  Real gunfire never sounds as cool.  But it's nice to hear in dailies, which people rarely listen to any more either.  Sigh.

[Derek H]

From what I've heard all the gunfire in the big heist scene of M. Mann's Heat is the actual location recordings.  M Mann apparently 86'd all the sound design after it was finished in favor of the raw unadulterated location sound.  Props to him and to the mixer of that film (Lee Orloff?), that scene sounds fricken great!  ..all those reflections off the buildings, you can't easily replicate that in post...

It's always fun when you get a day to experiment.  Thanks for posting your findings.

[johnpaul215]

Thanks for the post.

That's great you had your gear, the guns and the location all available to experiment a little.