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Hiding mics in Tuxedos


Rob Lewis

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I currently on a reality project shooting some wedding ceremonies. I am struggling with clothing noise with the groom's tuxedos. Any on have any tips or tricks on hiding the mic. Placement and so on. The usual moleskin and topstick tricks are not working well. They also cant be exposed because of high winds at an outdoor ceremony venue. Tips would be appreciated!

Thanks,

Rob

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Hi Rob,

I did an entire featue with four guys in tuxes. It is hard and some days were better than others. Try using a hush lav and black moleskin (they will make hiding and wind exposure easier). Place the LAV in a hushlav in the crease of

the bow behind the bowtie and mask it with the black moleskin. Do your loop at the center of the bowtie and run the wire down the shirt behind the buttons. Sometimes taping or placing moleskin on various points down the wire reduces noise, sometimes it makes it worse... In my experience, anyway. But you can experiment. That's the best technique I could consistently come up with.

Wait. There is one more trick that works sometimes... Again, I recommend the the hush LAV. Moleskin the lav on the shirt fold between the buttons. I moleskin it to the top layer of the fold and loop it just below. Sometimes this works like a dream. Other times, the way the shirt falls and the actor moves make it a complete failure. But, it does work a lot for me...

Good luck! Let me know if these work or if you come up with a new trick. I am always interested in new wiring techniques!! :))

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Only success I have ever had with Tuxedos is in the shirt with a sanken and RM11 mount though usually tuxedo shirt is very noisy. Too bad your outside because I would use a B6 in a button hole or in plain sight. Definitely tough as it is a reality show and you dont have same TUX everyday

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The bride is not a problem at all, it is the Groom that causing all the issues. I have a Sanken CUB-1 but no place close to plant it.

How about hiding the mic in the groom's flower corsage? Tried it once, worked well. you might even disguise the pop filter on the mic with this technique.

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Thats a good Idea Chris, but he needs to be wired for the evening so going to the coat is no good if he takes it off. Im Shooting in windy hot Texas so the extra layers come off as soon as all the formal stuff is over.

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Are the grooms wearing bow ties?

If so, try the inside of the bow tie with fluffy over the mic. Cut some fluffy in the shape of a triangle so it hides better.

Get different color fluffy material from those fabric stores (we have "Spotlight" stores here in Australia that sell many different fabrics and fluffy's).

Using double sided tape and the fluffy, should do the trick.

The only thing with this, is it sounds a bit "throaty" but acceptable and better than shirt noise.

Its fiddly but affective.

Then at the reception, if its indoors, re-mount with exposed mic through button holes etc etc all the usual tricks.

If he's wearing a normal tie, try in the knot with fluffy in there also. Its always a compromise with these types of suits, tuxes etc.

If your using a COS11, keep the metal wind gag on, just to give the sound a bit of "air", otherwise the double sided tape and fluffy smother it too much.

Good luck

Peter Mega

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