Should I be using multiple mics to record dialogue and sound effects?

[Brian Drysdale]

A field recorder and possibly a microphone mixer with some bass cut filters should do the job for most things.

The DAW is for post.

[Ryan Elder]

Oh yeah you are saying I am going to have to use a DAW anyway, in post...

Yeah I for sure, I usually just use the virtual DAW in Adobe Audition.

[Paul R Johnson]

Ryan you've got confused with terminology again. DAW. Your computer, your laptop, irrespective of operating system, is a DAW if it can manipulate audio. My edit suite is a DAW too because it has audition, sound forge and Cubase installed on it, the same as my audio audio computer has premiere on it! Making it a video editor.

Digital Audio is self-explanatory and a work station is where you work? There's no such thing as a virtual workstation, but I suspect you are thinking workstations MUST have real faders and knobs to turn. They are very nice, but the DAW is the tool you use to do your post, inside or outside a computer. The people who have made sure your media education is mangled have some answering to do. A good young friend of mine, he's been working for me for three years recently left to go to work in the US for a very large entertainment organisation. He was quite good at some things but he gobbled up jargon, buzz words and convinced him self he was amazingly able and techno savvy. Sadly, his use of vocabulary in the Skype interviews got him a job that hasn't yet lasted 39 days and he's asked for his job back.

[Ryan Elder]

Oh okay, I thought a DAW was one of those big studio workstations, my mistake. Thanks for telling me all your advice, and thank you everyone else!

I have another audio question, if that's okay. I boom with the AT4053b mic indoors, but the mic is very sensitive to wind, so when I shift boom from actor to actor, wind gets in the mic and causes unwanted static noise. The mic comes with a a spongy cover, but it's not enough to block out the wind. I was told to get a rycote cover, but that cover is furry and seems like overkill for indoors perhaps, where as I still want the sound to be as clear as possible, and worried that a furry one might muffle it a bit. Is there a better cover to block out air resistance, while indoors, from shifting the boom?

[Paul R Johnson]

OK - the noise isn't static, and sounds nothing like static, but that's a common word people use to talk about noise. Static is sharp, crackly clicks and pops - things that in your audition show up as a sharp vertical line. Noise is a wide band difficult to remove thing.

Many shotguns come with those foam windshields and they're generally ok for use indoors to stop the gentle wind from being heard when you move positions quickly. Outside windshields come in two basic varieties.

The zeppelin shaped, fine mesh covered 'frames'. You put the mic inside, on it's grip with the vibration reducing clamps and the air inside creates a still space, and the wind doesn't get through the fine mesh, leaving you with pretty much silence in a light wind. If the wind speed is higher, then some still gets through, especially gusts. You can then get two kinds of cover. one is made from a fleece type material, like the zip up fleeces we wear. This stops more wind. If the wind is still making it through - then you need one of those long hair covers - the fine hairs make a good job of soaking up energy from the wind, and these are the best and most effective protection. Downsides are the weight when dry, but the weight when wet can be huge. They also weigh enough to start to have inertia, so sharp stops can make the tip of the mic sway and even hit the inside!

Have a look at the full range of UK Rycote wind protection. Sennheiser also make some themselves, and I have a couple of these kits. I also have a dirt cheap Chinese one I bought ten years ago that I use if there's a chance I might wreck it. So far, I've lost a couple of lugs, so the end falls off easily, but gaffer cures all.

The second type of hairy type wind system is the one piece. These have what look like a tube of the open mesh kitchen pan scourer plastic stuff inside - an open mesh, maybe 3" in diameter with a hole up the middle. The end is rubber, and essentially you get your mic, and stuff it into the tube, which is semi-stiff. The outside has the familiar hairy fibres, permanently bonded to it. These work pretty well, and are less heavy than a Zeppelin and cover system - BUT - the mean the mic has to be supported from the very end with the connector, and my experience is the weighty eventually stretches the rubber in the pistol grip and they start to dangle. The internal mesh also comes unstuck from the rubber, and when pulled off, the rigidity is poor and sometimes you have to kind of 'thread' the mic into the internal tube cavity, because the stuff inside has broken up.

That's the mechanics. you asked about clarity. All windshields stop HF to a degree. These are carefully designed to reduce the wind and not to reduce the audio - and with our doubt, these things do dampen the very top end. However, wind is also very annoying, so with the bottom end tamed by the shield, and probably the roll off switch on the mic - the small loss of HF is of little consequence, and a twist of an EQ knob easily restores it. Handling noise for me is the biggest problem with mics on booms. You need to develop the knack of not creating bumps and thumps, hence why headphones that work are so vital. sometimes you see boom ops constantly changing their hand positions, because their arms ache, and every change of hand position creates a bump - big or small.

Again - practice is required. Some mics are very susceptible to sideways movements. If you look at a 416, for example. As you rotate it on it's long axis, in some orientations, more of the slots are visible. The wind enters through these slots, so if you make the side where it is more solid face left and right, that provides a small barrier to the wind. It's actually a tiny difference, but I always insert the mic this way, because the physics (not any revue I've ever seen) suggests a benefit, that may or may not be there. I rarely get left-right wind noise, so I have convinced myself the idea works. Could of course be rubbish, but it does not harm. Sometimes, wind noise is inevitable the best you can do is to reduce it.

[Brian Drysdale]

You can remove the furry windjammer, if you want and change it to a foam one indoors. Although, if it's just the pull on Classic-Softie job, rather than a Zeppelin type windshield, people tend not to bother, Rycote's are made to a high standard, the Classic-Softie is described as a: "Thin-walled cavity design for acoustic transparency across the spectrum." They are pretty standard kit news and current affairs work.

I gather they now also have one that you can put over your foam cover, so that you have both.

Some mic designs are more prone to wind noise than others.

[Ryan Elder]

Oh okay, it's just the Zeppelin type cover, which I've used before creates a much more bulky shadow for the DP to have to deal with, at leas that is what they've said before. Plus, you can't get as close to the actor with the mic, with the Zeppelin on it, cause the Zeppelin is about six inches longer than the mic, thereby adding on another six inches of mic distance.

So is there any other type of cove to buy to put on it, that does not create extra mic distance hardly?

[Brian Drysdale]

You can remove the Zeppelin indoors, then put on a foam cover on the mic. Some sound recordists keep a foam cover on permanently and then remove the basket as required, the Rycote one slips off in seconds.

[Paul R Johnson]

Ryan - you need to toughen up a bit. You are being used as a gopher, not employed for your talents but to be bossed around and treated like you know nothing. Your boom will cause shadows. That's correct. They do. You can pass the problem to the LD and see if they can cure it. Or - you assess the problem. Listen to the wind noise with NO windshield, pop on the foam one, and do some test movements, or just listen to the breeze and see how gentle it is. If it's too bad, then the bigger windshield is the ONLY solution. Depending on the hierarchy of the shoot, you need to assess YOUR status. You have a few options.

You say to the director/producer.

I can't get clean audio with the unprotected mic - we can shield it and have some shadows, or we suffer the poor audio - your call. I prefer the clean audio. What do YOU want to do?

They will say - is it sortable in post. You then take the responsibility of saying yes or no. At this point if you say no, they will ask cameras or lights for their input. All apartments stick in their best solution. The Director makes the call, probably elbowed by the producer who will be seeing the extra costs for post recovery.

My experience of inter-department rivalry is that EVERYONE wants their component to be solid. This is quite right. However, compromise is usually required and this requires discussion and bending to the common good. If lights say the cannot sort the shadows, which they will of course, you need to be able to have enough knowledge to known when they're stretching it. Same with camera - if you constantly get in shot with the boom, it's your fault. it could be that they're just framing unrealistically and won't budge. I'm frequently now playing the role of Production Manager and spotting the tactics people are using to deflect problems. To do this you need experience, which for you at the moment you don't have - so learn some management and people skills to deflect your problems onto others.

Always offer at least two alternatives. The skill is making one unacceptable, and the other acceptable, but with carefully applied spin.

[Brian Drysdale]

Camera people can often solve mic shadow issues, sometimes give and take on the framing also helps. On other occasions, the sound department can find ways around when there's no way of using a mic boom, e.g a wide shot that shows everything.

[Josh Bass]

Again, pretty sure Ryan IS the director and producer. But he may also be running audio.

[Brian Drysdale]

He also seems to be the camera department, assuming it's the same film. There are a couple of threads involving a lens issue and coloured lighting.

[Josh Bass]

Yes. I’ve been where he is. It’s not that unusual in zero budget land...on shorts. On a feature it seems nigh impossible unless that feature is three people sitting and talking in a room for two hours.

[Rick Reineke]

" I boom with the AT4053b mic indoors, but the mic is very sensitive to wind, so when I shift boom from actor to actor, wind gets in the mic and causes unwanted static noise"

- As Paul already stated, wind turbulence noise and 'static' are entirely two different things, .. at least to audio folks. If you are getting a low frequency rumble, you're probably doing something wrong with booming or your gear set-up. I've rarely had air turbulence issues with a 4053, when the OEM screen was not adequate, I used an Olsen/Windtech US-2 dual-stage foam windscreen (about $35.USD as I recall). I never used an AT-4053 for exteriors.. nor would I want to. For my 'interference tube' (aka, shotgun) mics. I have zeppelins and Softies.

[Pete Cofrancesco]

“This is Crash Zoom”