Jump to content

What mics do you reach for, and when?


tim apter

Recommended Posts

Hey,

in response to the question about long guns in the equipment section, i was wondering when the right time to use them is. and then i thought, well, when is the right time to use any mic?

i've learnt that the chain of command is something along the line of: boom mic, plant mic, cabled lavaliere, wireless lavaliere. with wireless being the last choice.

but i also know that with multitrack recording, using wireless as an "insurance" track is becoming common - is this something you guys do on big sets (jeff and co)?

ive also learnt that "boom mic" can generally include three choices: hypercaridioid for interiors, shotgun for exteriors, and long shotgun for wide exteriors. Am i thinking along the right lines here?

I realise theres no "one rule to bind them", but im curious about perhaps examples where you have used particular mics for a particular reason - this is why i love the photo section!

tim apter

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest tourtelot

Sorry to be so flip<g>.  Lets see, exteriors with some overhead, (MWS or MS) Senn 816.  Exterior CU with not a lot of BG, stay with the 816.  CU with a lot of BG, especailly wiuth a lot of LF component, switch to the Sanken CS-3e.  Interior with enough room overhead to fit it (which is almost always), Sanken CS-3e.  Interior in a very reverberant space (small tile bathroom or such) or when I need to bend the mic to get it under a door or tight ceiling space, Schoeps with a GVC (swivel) and an MK41 (hyper) head.  For ECU in a nice sounding room, Schoeps with a MK5 (cardioid) head backed off a foot or so to help with proximity effect issues.

I stay on the CS-3e about 99% of the time for interior OH.

D.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Boom mic, followed by maybe 2 boom mics, followed by wireless lavs (probably all the previous together); followed by plant mics if there is time and possibility.  Wired lavs practically never, unless for a studio TV interview.  There are a lot of specialized mics in the "plant" category.  Sometimes wireless boom, and often the plant mics are wireless too.

Philip Perkins

Link to comment
Share on other sites

thanks guys... douglas, thats some really useful info for me, thank you!

as far as the mkh series go, i notice you guys dont mention the 416 much, does the cs-3e does beat it hands down?

philip, when you mention specialized plant mics, are we talking pzms and such here? what mics can you recommend i do some research into?

thanks for the info guys, im finding this forum amazingly useful - information coming from you is worth 100 novice opinions.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

yeah, i know. i love the 416, and i've also until recently looked at the 416 as the cream of the crop... naturally, im wrong :)

but thats cool. from what ive gathered through research (and for the record, the subject of production mixing and miking for feature films is the subject of my thesis this year. not too revolutionary for you guys, im sure, but for us in africa, the field is not as accomplished), the cs-3e really is the general purpose swiss army mic at the "most used" end of the chain for professional work - im open to corrections here, please, if im wrong - and this mic is joined by schoeps hypers, the sennheiser and other long guns, the cmit 5u gun (new), and then wireless lavs.

my still gray field here is plant mics - lavs/pzms/etc.. would love some info on when they are the mics to choose, and what you folks are using in the field for plant mics.

thanks. damn this forum is better than school! :) ha ha!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

thanks. damn this forum is better than school! :) ha ha!

I was just going to mention (and not to put a damper on your enthusiasm) I don't want this forum to become an online classroom with ONE student being taught by many working professionals who are not teachers... 

A great deal can be learned here, Tim, but I think it might be better to give some others a chance to discuss things. Please do not take offence to my suggestion, and I may be off base here with my concerns, but I do want this Discussion Group to serve a wide variety of people and needs.

Sincerely,  Jeff Wexler  (always trying to make things better for all of us).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Specialized plant mics:  go look for Conrad Slater's recent post on RAMPS about his recent experiences using plants on the huge epics he works on in Thailand ("Suryothai" etc).  Conrad's a great sound man, and his solutions to odd camera angles and very noisy period costumes are extremely inventive. 

My fave plant mic these days is a Sanken CUB-1, usually thru a wireless.  It is basically a directional PZM.

Philip Perkins

Link to comment
Share on other sites

jeff - no problem, i understand.

please realise that information is precious to students like me, who are passionate about sound and film, and when i say "better then school", what i mean is that your opinions are validated and backed up by years of experience - here in SA, even the lecturers are in the same boat as us students, they live and work in an industry that has existed in a bubble for the past 20 odd years and have never been priviledged enough to get real world experience on big films as you guys have..

thanks for the response, philip, i have read that article before, and it was really informative... i've learnt a lot in this thread. thank you everyone.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...