new surround sound mic for 7d at DVinfo.net

Neil Dankoff · October 23rd, 2009, 03:59 PM

Small world. While waiting for pick up at my son's school, I was speaking with one of the parents and turns out he is in the same industry as me. He just emailed me a photo/article of his new product and it looks pretty interesting. Check it out.
Holophone PortaMic 5.1 Surround Microphone Reviewed

Charles W. Hull · October 23rd, 2009, 10:57 PM

Interesting. Any idea what the work flow would be, say from CS4 through Blu-ray?

David W. Taylor · October 24th, 2009, 07:57 AM

As a guy working in post production sound, I'd be concerned that this version of the holophone mic produces a 'Pro Logic II' output. That's a 'dying audio format' in my eyes, as it produces a matrixed version of the surround audio channels. It's not a cheap mic and the matrix surround audio, which always produced a rather poor stereo image width, puts it 'out of court' as far as I'm concerned.
I'm still using a 5DMk2 camera and am currently running a seperate audio recorder, an Edirol R-44 4 channel machine. 4 channels are perfectly adequate for recording surround sound...we only really need left/right front and left/right surround. The centre can happily be ignored as this is primarily FX use or become a 'phantom' image and the 'low frequency effects' channel..well it's of no real use in a 'wide frequency range' recording world. It's redundant now and best ignored completely as it was for optical film. The standard persists because Dolby can't now eliminate it from their original track layout.
The R-44 gives me the option of recording a 'double M/S array':
http://www.schoeps.de/dmsplugin.html
to produce the 4 channels out of three mics.
I'm using a set of Sennheiser mics- a 416 'super-cardiod' as the front, MKH30 'figure of eight' as the 'Side' signal and MKH40 'cardiod' as the rear.
Sometimes I keep the most directional mic the 416, or use a radio mic, on the camera. I then have the MKH40 as 'front', the MKH30 as 'side' mic and have a cheap Rode as the cardiod 'rear' mic. They all fit in a Rycote 'stereo mic' windshield basket. You need to shell out for a good windshield with any exterior mics. Even 'softie' type windshields will still get 'buffeting'.
No it's not an 'on camera' rig, but for surround FX use I accept that.
With the Shoeps software as a VST plugin , I can produce superb 4 channel surround from this 3 mic array to decode. I'm lucky in having either Nuendo 4 or in my Fairlight Dream II audio programmes, which I use as part of my work.
I do however also record a pair of the channels from the R-44 back into the 5D2 to use as a 'guide track' using the 'Magic Lantern' firmware, with the analogue gain set to 'Odb'.
With a 7D camera you would currently require a 20db pad as Dennis Chueng has mentioned to put a useable 'audio guide track' back on the camera to help in the post. With no Magic Lantern currently for the 7D, it would still have the nasty AGC in operation.
David T
PostFade

Neil Dankoff · October 27th, 2009, 06:20 AM

Any questions or concerns can probably be addressed by them. Here is their web site.
: : H O L O P H O N E : :

October 23rd, 2009, 03:59 PM	#1
Neil Dankoff Regular Crew Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Canada Posts: 25	new surround sound mic for 7d Small world. While waiting for pick up at my son's school, I was speaking with one of the parents and turns out he is in the same industry as me. He just emailed me a photo/article of his new product and it looks pretty interesting. Check it out. Holophone PortaMic 5.1 Surround Microphone Reviewed Attached Thumbnails

October 23rd, 2009, 10:57 PM	#2
Charles W. Hull Major Player Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Canyon Country, CA Posts: 445	Interesting. Any idea what the work flow would be, say from CS4 through Blu-ray?

October 24th, 2009, 07:57 AM	#3
David W. Taylor Regular Crew Join Date: May 2009 Location: Pinewood Film Studios, Bucks, United Kingdom Posts: 80	As a guy working in post production sound, I'd be concerned that this version of the holophone mic produces a 'Pro Logic II' output. That's a 'dying audio format' in my eyes, as it produces a matrixed version of the surround audio channels. It's not a cheap mic and the matrix surround audio, which always produced a rather poor stereo image width, puts it 'out of court' as far as I'm concerned. I'm still using a 5DMk2 camera and am currently running a seperate audio recorder, an Edirol R-44 4 channel machine. 4 channels are perfectly adequate for recording surround sound...we only really need left/right front and left/right surround. The centre can happily be ignored as this is primarily FX use or become a 'phantom' image and the 'low frequency effects' channel..well it's of no real use in a 'wide frequency range' recording world. It's redundant now and best ignored completely as it was for optical film. The standard persists because Dolby can't now eliminate it from their original track layout. The R-44 gives me the option of recording a 'double M/S array': http://www.schoeps.de/dmsplugin.html to produce the 4 channels out of three mics. I'm using a set of Sennheiser mics- a 416 'super-cardiod' as the front, MKH30 'figure of eight' as the 'Side' signal and MKH40 'cardiod' as the rear. Sometimes I keep the most directional mic the 416, or use a radio mic, on the camera. I then have the MKH40 as 'front', the MKH30 as 'side' mic and have a cheap Rode as the cardiod 'rear' mic. They all fit in a Rycote 'stereo mic' windshield basket. You need to shell out for a good windshield with any exterior mics. Even 'softie' type windshields will still get 'buffeting'. No it's not an 'on camera' rig, but for surround FX use I accept that. With the Shoeps software as a VST plugin , I can produce superb 4 channel surround from this 3 mic array to decode. I'm lucky in having either Nuendo 4 or in my Fairlight Dream II audio programmes, which I use as part of my work. I do however also record a pair of the channels from the R-44 back into the 5D2 to use as a 'guide track' using the 'Magic Lantern' firmware, with the analogue gain set to 'Odb'. With a 7D camera you would currently require a 20db pad as Dennis Chueng has mentioned to put a useable 'audio guide track' back on the camera to help in the post. With no Magic Lantern currently for the 7D, it would still have the nasty AGC in operation. David T PostFade

October 27th, 2009, 06:20 AM	#4
Neil Dankoff Regular Crew Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Canada Posts: 25	Any questions or concerns can probably be addressed by them. Here is their web site. : : H O L O P H O N E : :