Boom pole + xlr cable suggestions.

[Marco Leavitt]

You wouldn't need to put the AT4053 in a Zeppelin unless you were shooting outdoors, in which case it's not the ideal mic for that. Indoors, foam windscreen is fine.

[Srinivas Swaminathan]

Thanks Marco.

1. So do you think that the default "open cell foam windscreen" that comes with AT4053 is good enough for indoors or do I need a more sophisticated foam cover?

2. Also, is a hypercardioid pretty bad for outdoors? I thought I could pretty much use it both indoor and outdoor. I am assuming that Shotgun is the way to go, right? Would a 4073a produce much better sound outdoors compared to 4053a? I am a bit hesitant as that is another $550. So basically what I am asking is, (a) If I were to buy only one of them and use it both indoors and outdoors, which would you choose and (b) If I were to buy both, would the quality difference between the two be significant to justify the purchase?

3. Can someone please answer my earlier question - what are the benefits of XLR cable coming out of the side and coming out at the bottom of a boom pole

[Marco Leavitt]

You generally want a shotgun outdoors because of noise. Some people claim to get quite good results with a hypercardiod outdoors though. If this is to be one of those "which mic for everything" questions, I won't claim to know. For me, hypercardiod (or cardiod) indoors and shotgun outdoors is the mantra. Since most of the time we shoot indoors, I'd say that we use hypercardiods far more than shotguns if that helps. I think you definitely want a hypercardiod that's at least as good as the AT4053. If money was tight, I'd spend at least that much, and then add a budget shotgun like the AT897. And yes, the stock foam on the AT4053 should be fine indoors, but outdoors, you'll want a full on Zepplin. Rycote softie or the like probably won't cut it with the AT4053. Softie will be fine for the 897 though, so you could end up saving money with two mics instead of one.

As far as the question about the benefits of the cable coming from the side (this is called side address, by the way), it's so that you can rest the bottom of the pole on the ground. Do that with a cable that exits straight of the bottom and you'll ruin the cable, which is inevitable with an inexperienced boom-op. They ALWAYS forget and plop the boom on the ground, or dirt, or dog poo, or whatever. You can see this is a touchy subject with me.

[Steve House]

Originally Posted by Srinivas Swaminathan

Thanks Marco.
...
2. Also, is a hypercardioid pretty bad for outdoors? I thought I could pretty much use it both indoor and outdoor. I am assuming that Shotgun is the way to go, right? Would a 4073a produce much better sound outdoors compared to 4053a? I am a bit hesitant as that is another $550. So basically what I am asking is, (a) If I were to buy only one of them and use it both indoors and outdoors, which would you choose and (b) If I were to buy both, would the quality difference between the two be significant to justify the purchase?

3...

There's no reason you *have* to use a shotgun outdoors and hypers will work just fine in many scenarios. As discussed, it's the issue of room reflections that make a shotgun sound bad with interiors but that doesn't work in reverse, with something acoustical making hypers sound bad outdoors, and a lot of exterior closeups in features have been done with hypers. That being said, shotguns are often desired outdoors because of the nature of the shots themselves. Many exteriors are wide shots, requiring the mic to be a bit farther away from the talent to stay out of frame and a shotgun does allow you a greater mic to talent working distance than does a hyper. Since you don't have to worry so much about problems with reflections outdoors, choosing a shotgun lets you boom a bit farther away and still get the directivity to reduce pickup of environmental distractions. In many cases, both mic types might be used. According to Schoeps, one of the design objectives with their CMIT shotgun was to give it the same sonic qualities as their CMC641 hyper so that you could use the 'gun for the wider establishing and two-shots, switch to the hyper for closer micing the closeups, and intercut the two freely without fear of changes in the sound timbre at the cuts.

[Shahryar Rizvi]

Originally Posted by Srinivas Swaminathan

Shahryar, Did you buy the shockmount, windjammer etc?


I was planning to buy some sort of stand along with a boom pole. What is a C stand and how is it different from other stands? and what is a grip head and is it required to put a boom pole on a stand? And any suggestions? I am planning for dramatic short films (not professional work, but still want to achieve some quality). I don't have the luxury of boom boys and like, so I'll have to write scenes where the dialogue happens relatively in a fixed location and I can use a stand+boom to capture dialogue. Does that even make sense? I still haven't bought any equipment and was planning to buy during thanksgiving. Does anyone offer deals on professional equipment at all?

Srinivas,

I hadn't gotten anything else yet. Actually, my house caught on fire in mid October and all my equipment got damaged (fortunately, no one was hurt though). So right now, I'm sort of starting from scratch and not planning on getting into video again for a little bit.

I had shot Steve House an email actually and he sent me a nice reply. I hope he doesn't mind me posting it here (steve, I'm sorry I had not had a chance to reply, but thank you for taking the time for this e-mail):

Hiya

The Rycote Invision shockmount uses a mic clip and suspension that looks
sort of like a lyre, hence the name.
Rycote - InVision Suspension

They offer have two different windshield kits - a budget S-series kit that
includes a furry windshield and suspension/shockmount -
Rycote - S-series Suspension & Windshield System - and the full zeppelin kit -
Rycote - Full Windshield System. If you get one of
the kits you don't need the Invision because both of them include the same
lyre mounting system. Strictly speaking, a "windjammer" is the furry
overcoat that's pulled over the zeppelin when the wind really kicks up. The
S-series kit integrates the furry and windshield as one piece while in the
full windshield kit they remain separate so you can use the system with or
without the fur as the situation requires. The downside of the full kit is
that it's almost double the cost of the S-series kit.

Indoors you would probably only need the Invision plus the foam windscreen
that comes with the mic (even indoors you'll need a little protection
because just moving the mic through the air is "wind"). Outdoors you'll
likely need more wind protection so one of the windshield kits might be in
order for you.

Remember the NTG-2 has a mono XLR output and your HiMD recorder has a stereo
1/8" mic input (that has 5v mic power on it as well.) You'll need a
properly wired XLR to 1/8 adapter cable with blocking capacitor like this
one - Trew Audio - Cables, Connectors & Adapters - DV Cam Cables - DV Cam Mono Input Cable
- at the very least and I'd strongly suggest something like a Juicedlink
adapter to give you control over levels and panning if you're not ready to
spring for a full-blown mixer like the SD MixPre.

Hope this helps

Steve



-----Original Message-----
From: Shahryar Rizvi @ The Digital Video Information Network
[mailto:cha_cha_mia@yahoo.com]
Sent: October 3, 2008 12:12
To: sjhouse@cogeco.ca
Subject: Question on the Rycote Windjammer you mentioned

This is a message from Shahryar Rizvi at The Digital Video Information
Network ( http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/ ). The The Digital Video Information
Network owners cannot accept any responsibility for the contents of the
email.

To email Shahryar Rizvi, you can use this online form:
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/sendmessa...member&u=41674

OR, by email:
mailto:cha_cha_mia@yahoo.com

This is the message:

Hey Steve,

I didn't know if this was too stupid a question so I wanted to shoot you an
e-mail rather than responding on the forum. I hope you don't mind.

Over on this post,
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/all-thing...lr-cable-sugge
stions-3.html#post945919 , you had said "Rycote's S-Series Windjammers
incorporate the Invision lyre mounting system and are quite a bit less
expensive than the full kit." Could you tell me a little more about this?
My used K-tek ke110CCR boompole arrived this week and I'm planning on
getting a NTG-2 mic to use with this boom pole. But what are the missing
components that I need? I'm planning on recording to my
Sony MZ-RH1 Minidisc Hi-MD.

For my camera, the Canon XH-A1, I bought an AT-822 stereo mic a couple weeks
ago, and today purchased the Rode SM4 mount as well as the camera shoe
adapter.

Also, for anyone else considering a K-tek boompole. I actually sent my smoke damaged K-tek boom pole into K-tek after the fire and not only did they offer to clean it for free before I sent it in, they actually ended up replacing it with a new one because of all the damage. I'm very impressed with their customer service.

[Srinivas Swaminathan]

Thanks Shahryar. Sorry to hear about the fire, but good you are safe :)

a)Does anyone know if RODE blimp can be mounted on a camera, at least for using the shockmount. it says it has a 3/8" thread for boom pole. It doesn't mention male or female. Anyone know which type it is?

b)Also The K-tek 110CCR has a male 3/8" thread, right?

c I was planning to get some shoe to 3/8" adaptor for mounting the shockmount on the camera. So Should I be getting

Audio-Technica | AT8469 Camera Shoe Mount to | AT8469 | B&H

or

Rycote | 037302 Hot Shoe 3/8" Adaptor | 037302 | B&H Photo
?

[Allan Black]

Hi Shahryar, that's terrible news, but everyone's Ok, the good news.

Srinivas, no the RODE Blimp can't be camera mounted, way too big. Female 3/8" thread.

Most booms have a male thread for the mics shock mount female thread, you might need an adaptor for some tho.

Cheers.

[Shahryar Rizvi]

Originally Posted by Srinivas Swaminathan

Thanks Shahryar. Sorry to hear about the fire, but good you are safe :)
....

Originally Posted by Allan Black

Hi Shahryar, that's terrible news, but everyone's Ok, the good news.
..

Sorry for the late responses, but thanks for both of your comments to the fire. Yep, everyone's ok and that's what's important. I'll be rebuying my new cameras once the settlement works out (both my XH A1 and HC1 were damaged in the fire).

Allan - you especially helped me a lot with what to buy and I do have my AT-822 - two now actually so when I get my next camera, I may be running some things by you again if you don't mind helping out. And I also have my brand new K-tek KE-110CCR Avalon Series Aluminum Boompole which K-tek provided me with for free when I sent them my fire damaged boom pole. (I mentioned that here: http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/all-thing...tml#post972919 )