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Iwanttoknowaboutsound

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Posts posted by Iwanttoknowaboutsound

  1. OK. Update on my original post. The advice about having the mic close to the mouth via a headworn mic worked perfectly. Unfortunately for me I had a defective headworn mic and had to send it back. What I ended up doing was using a really nice Sony lav mic with an XLR connection into my Mixpre 3 ll. I took a piece of flexible springy wire stuff from Home Depot and put an alligator clip on one end and attached the mic to the other end. Then I just clipped the rig on my baseball cap and adjusted the mic so it was slightly to the side and back near my mouth and the sound quality of vocal audio the road noise was perfectly balanced for what was my original intended purpose. I also tried just clipping the mic to the front of my baseball cap and pointing it towards my mouth but too much road noise resulted in that technique. The mic was probably 7 inches from my mouth vs 1 or 2 inches with my current set up. I’m grateful for the assistance and advice. Many, many thanks. 

  2. OK. I recieved the headmount microphone. It did the job of reducing road and cabin noise in the car very well. Unfortunately for me I received a flawed unit and had to send it back. The package looked like it had been opened when I took it out of the shipping box and low and behold it suffered from static sounds that could be due to the place where it connected to the recorder. Now I know for sure that a headmount mic does reduce noise from the road and vehicle itself. I'm back to using the shotgun mic and I just need to figure out how to arrange it so it points up and is close to my mouth while maintaining driving safety. Getting the correct mount is a bit tricky. 

  3. Wow. This magic arm thing will work. I looked at the car just now and the area between the seats where you store things has a hatch that opens up and a section between where I can clamp this magic arm and easily adjust the mic to essentially any position I want. This is gold. I need a shock mount to finish it off. Folks.....I can’t thank you enough. I’m going to try the Rode HS2 headmount this week and see if that is preferable but if not then this magic arm opens up a world of possibilities. 

  4. This is interesting. I just did a test drive with my wife sitting in the passengers seat in the same car but she was being recorded on audio this time instead of me. She had the mic pointing up at an angle towards her mouth about 6 inches away. Remember I had the mic pointed down on an angle towards my mouth as it was in the sun visor. My audio picked up all kinds of road noise but my wife's audio had minimal road noise. Almost too little this time. David Waelder did mention that I point the mic up and I did some quick tests on my own but the test was not as precise because I was a one man band. With my wife holding the mic and recording her voice with the mic at the upward angle position things were MUCH quieter with regards to road noise. I have a headwore mic from Rode coming in this week and that will be very convenient due to it's form factor. If that works out I'll be all set. If not then I will need to somehow mount the shotgun mic near the cupholders near the shift handle in the center of the seats to point up to my mouth. Getting it that close to my mouth will be a challenge due to the need for driving safety. 

  5. I ordered a Rode HS2 Headset based on price and reputation. The DPA’s are very pricey. Double the price of the Rode. I’ll receive it Wednesday. I’ll make sure I use proper mic placement by carefully adjusting it’s exact location for the best performance. I’ll report back how it works out. 

  6. Folks.......the shotgun placed pointing up or down in my car is still giving me more road noise than I want. It's a pretty quiet large car but to me the shotgun mic in that environment isn't cutting it. I have tried a bunch of different placements but it's just not what I need for road noise isolation. The voice audio is good but the background sound is too distracting. I need some ambient sound but this is just too much.

     

    So I'm going to try a headset mic. I am looking at a Rode HS2 Headset, Countryman E6 and the DPA d:fine 4166. The DPA seems to sound terrific as does the Rode and E6 but there really aren't too many comparisons done on these. It seems the DPA is the industry standard. Any thoughts on those mics?

  7. 22 minutes ago, Paul F said:

    I understand you won't be using the lav experiment, but for the record, I'm retracting my statement about side fire vs end fire. I've  had side fire work better than end fire in this application. It just depends on the microphone.

     

    I appreciate the clarification Paul. 

  8. I'll do some experimentation with the shotgun mic pointed up as David suggested. I don't have a lav mic unfortunately so I can't perform test suggested by Paul. If the shotgun mic experiments don't work out I'll simply order the Countryman E6 and go from there. 

     

    Grateful for all the information and ideas. 

  9. 9 hours ago, Mungo said:

    When the focus is on mic and recording technology, it is sometimes forgotten:

     

    Keep windows and roof closed, air condition as silent as possible and listen out for noisy things in the car (e.g. rattling CD's in the glove box, squeaky seat belt, rustly outdoor clothes, wobbly smartphone holder ...). There are things you normally not notice because you claim these noises as "normal" while driving, my experience. But in the recording they can be very annoying.


    Yes. Excellent advice. Initially I did have some distracting sounds so I eliminated everything from the vehicle and now the cabin inside the car is rattle free. 
     

    By the way, yesterday I placed a shotgun mic on the sun visor as an experiment. My voice sounded fine but the road noise was too loud for my taste. Again.....I’m a novice here but......I had the mic about 8 inches from my mouth and angled slightly above my head. I am thinking that if I can get it closer to my mouth and possibly angle it more directly towards my mouth it will reduce road noise. The mic is said to reduce noise from the sides and back. Of course I have to keep my driving visibility in tact. I’m a photographer. Delving into sound is difficult for me. My needs in this instance are simple to explain but difficult to achieve. Excellent voice audio with minimal road noise while recording a live drive in a car. 
     

    Thank you for the ideas.

  10. 11 minutes ago, Allen Rowand said:

     

    The Sennheiser has a 3.5mm connector, the E6 can be purchased with an XLR or 3.5mm. Either will plug directly into a MixPre 3.

    Thank you Allen. Very helpful. The E6 looks to be extremely popular. I’m leaning towards that right now. 

    13 minutes ago, Rick Reineke said:

    Cardioid earset/headset mics are available. But their inherent sensitivity to wind, handling and other issues is usually not worth a very slight increase in extraneous noise rejection. The only place I would opt for a cardioid lav or head mic, is in a sound reinforcement to help prevent feedback.

    What you said here is a bit over my head. I’m a novice. If I am interpreting your post correctly you are saying that the mics suggested thus far are only to be used as a last resort? I’ll be inside a car with the windows up. No wind. Also......I have no idea what you mean by “sound reinforcement”. What do you suggest for my needs? 

  11. I am really grateful for the suggestion Jim. I assume the sound quality of the mics Paul mentioned are excellent. I’ll need to plug the mic directly into a Sound Devices MixPre-3 ll. I notice those mics are used wirelessly. I won’t be on a wireless rig. It needs to be hard wired. 
     

    Thank you very much for the information on this Jim. 

  12. Paul,

    Thank you for the advice. So the fact that the mic is closer to my mouth will reduce car and outside noise? I notice these mics have omnidirectional pickup patterns. Will that grab road noise? Also.....those appear to be wireless devices. How do I go about connecting one directly to a Sound Devices MixPre-3 ll? 
     

    Very grateful for the information. 

  13. I’m a novice......but......I have a question. I need to record my voice while I drive my car. I will be narrating the drive in real time. Pointing out landmarks, naming roads, and things of that nature as I drive. Video is not something that will be in vehicle so a mic can be mounted anywhere as long as it doesn’t interfere with driving. The goal would be to get the best possible voice audio into a recorder such as a Sound Devices MixPre-3 II while keeping road noise to a minimum. I need to get recommendations on what type of microphone to use. Shotgun, lav, etc. I can mount it anywhere but a good/easy place would be the sun visor. 
     

    Any recommendations on a mic inside a moving car that can keep road noise to a minimum would be greatly appreciated. Great voice audio with minimal road noise. Can it be done? 
     

    Thank you. 

  14. 2 minutes ago, ronmac said:

    Watson Wu has recorded several car sounds for video games and has discussed his methods on his site and in blogs and interviews on several other sites. Start on his https://www.watsonwu.com/ site and explore from there.

    That’s not exactly what I’m looking for. I don’t need The specific car sounds like he records. I need ambient sounds of driving a car as referenced in the video above. I basically want to emulate what the video above does. 

  15. 25 minutes ago, Rick Reineke said:

    Search this forum, there has been quite a few posts regarding vehicle sound capture, Interior, exterior, engine exhaust, ect, including placement and preferred mic types. And many of us have done it at one time or another. There are other resources online that deal exclusively with S/FX capture.

    I would be grateful if you could link me to anything pertinent. I have searched to no avail. 

  16. This is JUST the kind of information I was looking for. I’m grateful for your words of wisdom on this. Any specific lavaliers I should be looking at? What specifically should I capture the audio from mics in to. Money is not a problem here but realistically I’m not making Citizen Kane. These will be videos as described above. Driving on roads being recorded for historic purposes. Years from now folks will be able to look back and see and hear the way things were. 
     

    Thank you for the information.  

  17. I have a question that I can’t find the answer to anywhere. I have searched high and low and there is nothing out there so I joined this forum in an effort to get advice from folks who would seem to have knowledge in this area. I do videos where I drive in my car and record the drive. I am trying to drive every street in my area and capture it on video. People who used to live in this area love these videos because it brings back memories for them. 
     

    Here is my question. When I shoot a driving video I delete the audio in post and replace it with music. The ambient audio is always horrible due to wind noise and driving has constant wind. I would like to record ambient driving sound to go with the video in real time. The following video is an example of the kind of audio I would like to record. How would I go about doing that? Where would I place the recording device? What kind of mic? I have no idea how to go about this. Any help would be greatly appreciated. 


     

     

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