gabi

I have a tale to tell: A lady booked me for a week as a sound recordist for a project. She is an artist so the project had something to do with some piece of work for Bienal of Sao Paulo (an important art exhibition in Brazil). I was supposed to work for 3 days but she couldn't set the dates precisely so she booked me for a whole week. Based on that booking I took some decisions regarding other jobs. Then she sends me an email saying that she had already recorded all she needed but in very bad conditions so it sounded like crap and she wanted me to "fix" the bad sound that somebody else had recorded. ASAP. What would be your answer to that lovely lady? Gabi

I don't use the Zoom, but I used to teach in a school that had a bunch of them. The students couldn't figure out how to mount them with the mixers so they simply didn't use the recorders... So I came up with this mount: Gabi

Little boxes and organizers... Gabi

Jeff, I can't seem to find the spell check option anymore... It used to be quite handy for those who don't speak english as their first language, like myself. Am I doing something wrong? Gabi

Hey Chris, Check this out: http://movingmicrophones.ning.com/forum/topics/the-boom-operators-handbook Inspiring and entertaining... Goog luck!! Gabi

Done. I'm glad I could help. Great site!! Thanks a lot, Jeff. Gabi

Sounds like a very clean and elegant design to me... Gabi.

Thanks, Mr.Lightstone. Gabi.

For those mixers using the Lectro 400 series for wireless boom, do you use the Smart Noise Reduction algorithm to reduce the hiss produced by the mic preamp or the mic itself? Or do you keep it off to preserve complete transparency? Thanks in advance, Gabi Cunha.

Here is an audio sample recorded with two booms, one was a hardwire and the other was wireless. Channel 1 has a little bit of camera noise because the actor was too close to the camera. Can you tell the difference? Gabi sample.mp3

I totally agree. But I have to disagree that the use of wireless booms is a lack of concern of quality. I would never use a wireless boom if I thought it would compromise my track. With the exception of situations with yelling and whispering during the same shot, a wireless boom can sound as clean as hardline if one uses high quality gear and the gain structure is set properly. I have been using the MM1/UM400a combo for a year with great results and I'm very happy with it. Gabi

I have used the older model (Zoom H4) and the unbalanced 1/4" is the line level input while the XLR is Mic level only. I believe I was able to feed it +4dBu but if that is not the case, why don't you attenuate the 442 outputs to -10dBV? You can use the 10 pin Hirose to feed the camera at +4dBu and attenuate the XLR to -10dBV to feed your H4n... Gabi

Same here in Brazil. We sometimes add letters to the shot number if it is an alternate take, let's say the same angle with slightly closer lens. And sometimes we add PU (for pick up) or RT (for retake). Gabi

I wonder if "An Open Letter from your Sound Department" is still something to refer to when teaching sound classes (or any film school class for that matter)... http://filmsound.org/production-sound/openletter.htm And if it is, I quote: "OVERLAPS - When possible, it's always better not to have them at all unless absolutely necessary because you can only be in one cut or the other. You may decide later you want to see both sides of the actor's dialogue. Remember, it's always easy to create an off camera overlap later if you still want it. Usually, the overlaps are simply because of a belief that the performance will be hindered. That argument loses credibility when the face of one of the overlapping performers won't be able to be seen at all. Of course there are times that overlaps must happen and both sides must be miked. USING TWO CAMERAS - There is a proper way to use 2 or more cameras and an improper way. It is perfectly acceptable to use 2 cameras of the same approximate frame size at the same time. The sound mixer's nightmare is running one camera wide and another tight at the same time. This means that sound will be compromised because all the actors must be wired because the wide camera will not allow a mic to get close enough to the tight camera size. This can be resolved by the second camera only filming non-speaking actors, or not working at all during the wide master shot. Then, go to 2 cameras for all your coverage. REHEARSALS - These are very important to the whole crew. It's fine to have closed rehearsals for actors only, but give one to the crew or at least let the boom operator see one. Otherwise, we can only guess where and how the sound will be delivered. The words we dread the most are "let's shoot the rehearsal". You might get lucky, but don't shoot rehearsals unless you are willing to do a lot more sound takes to work out the unknown problems. AD LIBBING - It's impossible to mic lines no one knows will happen. If you want to keep an ad-lib, do another take for sound if they didn't get the line the first time." Is it time to revise the "Open Letter" or is it time to remind people of it? Gabi

I would like very much to bring this discussion back. Much have already been said but I would like to hear your input on how to approach non scripted material (reality) and even drama (scripted) with lots of ad-libbing. It's a new fashion in my country to let the actors improvise a lot (mostly because digital filmmaking is a lot cheaper than 35mm, so let's experiment). That new fashion seems to create the need for multitracking on scenes that otherwise would sound perfectly fine on one single boom. Any thoughts? Gabi

That's an amazing rig! So portable, lightweight... Can't wait to see it over the shoulder. And wait: is that a FP33A and a Sony Minidisc? Oh boy, state of the art sound stuff! This guy is a genius. I suppose he's going to rig the lights himself and make the coffee too. And ride the levels with one hand as he pulls the focus with the other. Give me a break. Gabi

It has been my personal experience that cicadas completely ignore apple box banging, gun shots and fireworks. They pretty much ignore everything. Birds on the other hand will fly away for a few minutes after fireworks... I strongly believe that cicadas tend to get noisier whenever the word Action! is heard. Gabi

Forget about pluralEyes if all you have is camera mic... Gabi

I know what you mean. We sometimes have a proper vehicle available to shoot car scenes here in Brazil. It all depends on the budget. As you can see I look much happier on these rare occasions... Gabi

Somehow I felt safer inside the trunk than on top of this very crowded tow truck...

For me, using the MM1 before the transmitter is all about control of the gain structure and a great SD limiter and preamp. It's much easier to ride the levels of the boom mic and it gives the boom op the best monitoring possible. Gabi

Actually, the Lectro transmitters have one pin assigned for high impedance, line level input which happens to be pin 5 as you can see on their PDF wiring sheet, fig.7: http://www.lectrosonics.com/service/ServoBiasWiring.pdf#search=%22wiring%22 Now that wiring seems to force the transmitter limiters to work too soon. That is why I send you this wiring scheme suggested by Mr. Glen Trew which adds a 22K resistor before pin 5. Works for me. http://www.trewaudio.com/audioflow/2009/03/17/lectro-line-level-input-cable-recommendation/ Seems to me to be the best gain structure for the MM1/UM400 combo. Gabi

This is the wiring I've been using for the last couple of feature films: http://www.trewaudio.com/audioflow/2009/03/17/lectro-line-level-input-cable-recommendation/ Works like a charm. Great signal to noise, lots of headroom. I set my UM400 to nine o'clock and the transmitter's limiter rarely gets to kick in. As for the MM1 settings anything from 36 (yelling) to 46 (whispering). I have noticed this as well. Sometimes the limiters kick so hard when they clap the slate that we can barely hear it. But it happens occasionally. Gabi

Palmer, I use the G2 as IFBs. If you are feeding it mic level, beware of the fact the the wiring of the jack works as follows: tip - Mic level ring - Line level sleeve - ground As for the receiver, mine is the EK 500 that features two adjustable outputs for line level and heaphones. So I just use the headphones output. My additional receivers are the EK 300 IEM G3 that can be easily adjusted by the user. http://www.sennheiser.com/sennheiser/home_en.nsf/root/professional_wireless-microphone-systems_monitoring_ew-300-iem-g3_021213 Hope it helps. Gabi Cunha

How about a hypercardioid such as the Sennheiser MKH 50? Gabi