Christian Spaeth

How's that working out now, Harley Davidson?

Maybe it was Trump himself, googling himself because he couldn't sleep? Imagine that, with that guy it does seem that impossible...

I think it's a bit sad... when I think back not too long ago, the USA was this amazing dream of a free country, while the image it has now is indeed quite an ugly one unfortunately. BUt enough with the politics...

I got a personal response to the above comment, didn't think people with that kind of intelligence are able to read this forum...

JBL Go

That's so... uncool. Remember not too long ago we were about to get rid of all import duties via the EU/USA trade agreement, and now this is where Trump has taken it.

If you're looking for Tram-style then 80x are a great value. I have used TL40s a lot, and generally I find them to be more sibilant than 801s. They also have less low-end. Best use I got out of them was in tie-knots on male voices. They don't mix well with DPAs on the chest for example.

Speaking about the sound of the 416, it‘s bad side is also its good side: off axis sound gets coloured strongly. Newer shotguns sound way more neutral for sound coming from the side or rear. To my ears the 416 loses more presence off axis than other shotguns. This may result in more problems in rooms that already have problematic lo-mid range nodes, and also makes the mic less forgiving for the boom op, but it can also help the focus in distracting exteriors (hence sports?) I recall a rare windy shoot among trees with lots of small leaves making hissy sounds off axis, and there the 416 worked better than the CMIT.

Recently I got an emergency call for a reality shoot the same day. No problem, I thought, prepared my gear and then had to realize that my CMIT was making a constant noise. Probably moisture (or sadness, since I hadn't used it for a few weeks?). I then used my 416. That was maybe the only time in the last 5 years I used it, but had I not had it I would've been royally f----d. THAT is why I believe everyone should have one, because I trust this mic more than any other. Of course no reason to buy a new one, as you'll never need to service a 416 and it's pretty unbreakable, as tried by probably thousands of noob ENG assistants in any corner of the world. By the way a day later the CMIT worked fine again without any further ado.

A 416 is ALWAYS worth getting.

sent you an email.

Maybe the people they usually work with for sound are not pros (hence cheaper) and thus need to be told how to hold a boom?

In that case it would of course be a useful feature. I just never worked with that kind of people I guess. I've had a few directors explicitly ask me to leave the boom mic open in between takes as they wanted to hear what's going on on set and never take off their headphones.

Auto mute? Sounds like a nightmare to me. I couldn't bear all the people coming up to me telling me their Comteks are broken because they don't hear anything between takes. No thanks.

then that's a different story, and very cool news!

Automixer and Overdub could be handy functionalities, but since the thing has no time code capability at all this is clearly a musician's tool, not a PSM's.

Really short, reminds of the pencil condenser mics for drum overheads. The question is how often can you use the cardioid for booming. Not too much in my experience. So you'll need a hyper too. Are the capsules interchangeable? If not I would go for the 80x MKH series or even a Schoeps CMC6, which are more expensive but if you only count the (cardioid) capsule it would be actually cheaper than the Kortwich.

That's probably how 90% of all surround recordings end up, without anyone even noticing or complaining :-)

Here's a recent one. TV commercial, VOs with an actor were done at a hotel room after wrap. Got an email from the agency via producer a few days later: "The speech recordings from the hotel room are mono, not stereo! How can this be?" Do you have some funny agency folk stories to share? EDIT: changed the thread name to more accurately reflect the great contents of this thread!

I find it totally overkill and a bit ridiculous to put a Schoeps M/S set or similar on a camera. You will hear all the noises you make pulling focus or pressing buttons etc. The reason why your cheap mic sounded good to you might be because it's less sensitive, has less high frequencies and probably also less low end which will result in less rumble. If you have too much money, instead of putting two Schoeps mics on your Panasonic cam maybe you could try working with a professional sound mixer. You will be surprised of the "next level" sound you will get this way. The sounds you will be able to use from a camera mic is usually some atmo, maybe some sounds from when you're close to a sound source. These sounds in my experience will be totally fine with any inexpensive camera mic like the Sennheiser and Rode cam mount mics. Schoeps pick up way too much for to be mounted on cams.

I thought Schoeps are really electret, too.

So then you shouldn't have read this thread until the guy who worked on it says how it was done...

"Guess how it was mic'ed!" That would be a cool TV game show, or internet at least. In the end - surprise! - the real mixer will show up and tell everyone how they actually did it.

I will always say when there are overlaps during an interview. I have been doing the job for enough time to know when it can be a problem. I won't say it more than once or twice, though. I feel like I need to do this just to save my ass, so later they can't do what they did to the OP. Plus, if the interviewer is unprofessional it doesn't mean I have to go down that hole and be unprofessional, too. As for post not getting it, yes, been there, too, editors work and think differently than we do, so my first reaction would be to try to get them on the phone and explain how it's done. Writing email back and forth as we all know can result in too much things written and misread between the lines. Doing interviews is a really easy gig for a sound person. Put the boom on a stand and roll. Yet they decide to bring us on and pay us. In exchange for that I take on the responsibility to point out possible problems while they're happening, including overlaps (not expect the director or anybody else to do it for me) and be courteous before, during and after the production, because I would like them to hire me again next time. I would save myself the frustration and take a minute to talk to the editor, maybe a bit like you would talk to a child. For they know not what they do...

Great article, Crew. Personally I have had productions with too long hours, too bad vibes on set, resulting in stress. All the advice in that article is excellent. Stress can and needs to be fought.