Mike Wally

Thank you guys! My friend that contacted me was miss-informed; they wanted to just shoot b-roll of the 10 subjects talking, gets shot of them doing that. So, he thanked me for agreeing to try and jump in so quickly. Thanks for all the responses, it's great to know my options going forward. Will look forward to automixer coming to Nomad when ever they get around to it. Seems like the logical thing to do in this case is to just rent a 788 from Pro-Sound. The other options sound awesome, it's just a matter of PSS or Gotham carrying them in stock? Multiple Boom Ops seems also highly logical, but I'd assume for that type of job they wouldn't want 3 people hovering around the "subjects". Thank you Marc for those links, will read them, sorry for not looking up this question beforehand. So, with an auto-mixer, would boundry mics be the way to go at that point?

Just got a call from a friend asking if I could help him record this event for a company. I don't have many details, he's trying to go scout the space, and get me more information. From a theory level, what is the best way of going about this? A.) Conventional idea would be to have all 10 subjects wired lapel style/above clothes. My Nomad-6 (with the upgrade) can do 10 tracks, so I'd be able to handle each of them on their own isolated track. The problem is they might need to be pulled away for other things, and so I'm not sure if wiring and unwiring will work with them. B.) Have practical table mics. Would you need 10 of them, or could you create something with Figure-8 mics? Would cub-mics work better, or something similar? Would you use just regular omni stick mics on a pidgeon type stand? How many would you need? I don't know if they'd want to off-put to the camera's (again, still waiting for more information) but lets assume that I'm tasked with recording it separate. If I'm trying to do a mix down of 10 tracks into 2, I would split it 5 to the left output, 5 to the right? Again, sorry if these seems simple, I've never had this many subjects to record at once.

"How's sound?" On a scale of 1-to-f**ked, how bad was the airplane/fireengine/siren/loudnoises in the last take? Truest statement ever.

I have 2 B6's, and a Cos-11. I use my B6's for anything interview in nature, because it is so easy to conceal without having to hide it under the clothes. For narrative, they come in handy a lot because of the wire being so small. The actor was wearing a white beater, and I was actually able to run the wire down the seem on the shoulder straps, (since there is an "elevated" edge on either side of the fabric shoulder straps) and then down to the pants. Stuff like that I have noticed that if placed too close to an actor with a powerful voice, you can get wind-hits pretty easily. Exterior, I put them inside a rycotte overcover and didn't have a problem. The only negative I've ever found with them is that the wire is SO thin, it breaks very easily. This can be problematic if an actor does a stun fall without anyone telling you he'll be do one...hooray for production insurance. I use my COS-11 if I feel like there is going to be a lot of action going on, or if we're exterior since they are a bit more durable.

Taken care of

Oh, and I don't have decent wireless - just 3 sets of Senn g3's. I can't afford Lectro's yet. :/

Yea. And I was able to make it work for me, very simply. I avoided the Peavy completely. The House was using a Shure System - A flat elongated receiver with two balanced outs. One balanced out went to the PA system, the other balance out I ran an XLR cable to my Nomad-6. I was then able to have Mic, in essence, transmitting directly to my recorder. I used my breakaway cable to go into the FS-100, which stayed on Tripod the entire time, and monitored the return on the camera (while recording iso and a post-fade tracks) as a backup. The only problems I ran into were people not understanding that they don't need to kiss the microphone. The main guy seemed to notice, though, and they were able to repeat things if it was really bad. Then there was handling noise on the mic, or people would tap it while talking. Not sure if there was anything else I could have done in that situation. I've been freelancing for 2 years now, and so while I may lack the experience some others might have, I'm not a complete idiot. My kit is still in the process of growing/expanding as best I can afford. I'm not going to pretend to be an expert, which is why I brought this up on the forums - to get ideas and suggestions and share my way of thinking (and ultimately to learn and get better) from people who have been doing this for much longer. If i'm mistaken in the forums being here for that purpose, I do apologize. Also, Matt, love your sound guy stick figure. He's badass. Thank you guys again for all the tips and suggestions

http://goo.gl/DDEAE And yea, I'm worried the House guy won't know much. I'll improvise. Thank you everyone for trying to help me out

I have the XLR to 1/4. I will see what I can do. I will have to make some on-set audible/decisions once I have everything set up.

And yes, I would have loved to have used a dual-transmitter plug in for the House's Microphone, but of course I wasn't given enough time or information to make it happen.

Hey guys. So, i finally was given more information (the day before, of course) i convinced them to go with an FS-100, so I have a regular camera with XRL inputs now. The PA system for the event that the house has is a Peavy xr-600 system. I can't take the plug from the microphone he'll be using, because he's going to be using the actual PA system so that people can hear him over the mic. The PA system mixer has a 1/4 inch out, so I'm going to adapt that to an XLR and feed that into my Nomad-6. From the Nomad-6, I can feed an XLR into the camera (from a single XLR, or a breakaway cable). Or I can still try and send the signal wireless to the camera for scratch audio. Or I can use the add-on shotgun mount on the FS-100 If he breaks off from the tripod, I will have my boompole and mic ready to go for on the fly interviews. Again, there is a lot more I'd like to have done, but when I get a call at 3pm the day before we're going to shoot, there is only so much I can do.

Sorry yes, I have a Nomad-6. Thank you, that was what I was hoping to hear. I will see what I can do to make this work best, thank you for understanding my position.

Right. Thank you all for the kind and kind of demeaning words. It's to be expected when you make a simple spelling error on the internet, my deepest apologies again if I offended anyone. Let me try this again, since apparently some of my point was missed when I was asking my inquiry. I know how to charge for equipment. I know what my current kit is worth, and how much rentals cost for everything typically needed. Back to my actual questions, and I'm sorry again for not being more clear; I will have access to the board. The house will have a simple wireless handheld mic that the talent will hold up to the contestants The handheld mic will be transmitting to the board, which will be plugged into the PA system. They have the ability to give me a direct feed/line out of the mixer. I don't know the exact model. I will try and find out, and get as much information as possible but assume it's an XLR output. My question was, do I use that feed THROUGH my 6-Track Recorder/Mixer? Or should I just simply run it to the camera, and "mix" from the board to make sure the levels are ok. Is there anything LOST when going out of one mixer, into my recorder, and then onto the camera? Part two - Mixer/Recorder into Camera. I have a few options here. With the DSLR, I have limited options in terms of sending a wireless hop, which will end up being scratch anyway. That means that I'd need to slate each time the camera rolls or records. I know exactly how much a smart slate is per day, and using it effectively would require a way to sync timecode to the camera itself, and the 5D has no way to receive that other than audio timecode, which is rogue at best and defeats the purpose of scratch audio. I have my ERX, which transmits audio through zaxnet as a viable scratch. I also have 3 g3 wireless sets that I could use to do it as well. Any thoughts on this? The alternative is to convince the producers to get an actual ENG camera, like the EX-3, and run a hard wire from either the MIXER BOARD, or my Nomad, and just have someone wrangle the cable and follow the camera man around. I'm going to try for that, but there isn't much budget for this and I'm trying to do it as a favor for the organization which helps raise money for the dogs. I'm going to try very hard to get in there before the event, but doubt I'll have any luck. Obviously that would be very ideal. I know how much I hate using DSLR's as ENG camera's, but of course the producer owns one and of course wants to use one. I will try and explain to him that the cost of getting a working sound rig is worth about the same price as just renting the camera. He won't listen, of course and want to use his 5D (which I'm explaining he'd need a handheld rig and follow focus to do the style he wants anyway). I had ideas of how to do it this, and know what I can and can't do if it came down to just me. I figured I'd ask the community of people who also do this for a living and see if maybe I missed something. thank you, happy new years everyone.

It's on the side pannel. It would look like a headphone jack, aka a 1/8 inch/aux input. Eighth Inch...wow, typing fail.

Yea, probably just going to do this with one of my g3's. Thank you

Double system would work, but I feel like the constant stop/go of DSLR shooting would make slating/plural eyes tough. I will try doing some searching, thank you.

Thank you so much for the reply! The 5D has an eight inch "mic" input, and the 5D does allow you to turn off Auto Gain Control and set it to "Manual". Unlike the Mark III, you can't monitor audio on it, though. It's not my choice to use a DSLR for audio, it's the producers. I just got asked how I would run sound into it, so I was hoping to get some ideas based off of that.

I am shooting a little event where they will be using a Canon 5D Mark II to roam around and record a bunch of dogs at a small show where they come up and talk about their dogs and why they should be in the show. There will be a microphone from the House, and they have a board they run it out of. I would think the easy thing would be to use an eight-inch to XLR and plug into the camera that way with manual control on so that the boar was mixing the audio. If i don't have access to the board, do I run it through my Nomad and then try and plug into the camera? Do I use my ERX to send a hop from the board (going into my mixer) and through ZaxNet send the Hop to the 5D? I'm not really sure what to do here. Any idea's would help. Thank you

Kortwich Bags are the best. They have an option for a waist belt too - it's so good I don't even need to use my harness most of the time.

yea, haha. So, they agreed to just take audio scratch. fortunately, the DP is a good friend of mine. Everything is working as it should. I did learn something today though, haha.

I know I can't send actual timecode, but I can't send timecode-over-audio, AND scratch at the same time?

This is exactly the issue...so if the Timecode is so noisy,and I want to be able to send timecode and scratch audio to the 5d mark III, is there something else I need to toggle?? I have a stereo mini pro-sound gave me, but I don't know how it was wired. I'm on set in a few hours and don't think I'd be able to get a different cable in time.. The codes are all 0, Glenn, so no problems there.. By freak out I meant it sounded like really loud screeching Or clipping

Oh my god. It's so cute. A mini nomad. Would have loved to get one of these, but after owning a N6...not sure I can go back

Looks awesome. I was trained on 702/302 and 744/442 systems, so it is really nice seeing them take the next step. Beautiful design, though... My favorite part about the Nomad is that it's one single box. I don't need any add ons...like a CL-X. Just adds more bulk and takes up more space, imo. I also love all the features my Nomad-6 has, and the potential for it to continue to just get better and better as time goes on. Regardless, I'm excited to play with one of these though, and think it will be a huge success for ENG shoots. Fair play, SD

Oh. It was that the TC out was set to "both" and when i plugged regular headphones in to check that it was working, it bugged out. I think that was the issue. On a typical stero mini to mini cable, (i'm not sure how they are wired), is there a way to test or is it just something i'll have to experiment when i'm with camera tomorrow? Should it be right out, tip out? If i change any of the TC output options, it freaks out...is that just because of the headphones?