sound!

Cristian Carceller · November 22, 2010

Hey,

i have shot 4 films with the 7d and t2i. I love the look and the directors are really impressed but on 3 of the films they dont look as good because because of the audio. The AGC kills the whole film and it wastes lots of time in post trying to fix it. On my last film i shot the h4n and turned out better but my mics do not sound up to sketch. The mics used were the rode video mic and the stereo one. Great for running and gunning but not great on set. Any buddy have suggestions with mics.

Please answer!

thanks

Brian Drysdale · November 22, 2010

Best shoot double system sound. Mounted on a boom, with good mic placement the Rode should do a pretty good job for you. The key with sound recording is the mic placement and if you're off axis or too far away even the best mics sound poor. Sound recordists get them as close as possible, just outside the frame.

A more directional shotgun type mic would be a better general purpose mic, I know Rode have some in their range that are popular with lower budget film makers. You'll also need a wind shield and a shock mount to protect the mic.

Vincent Sweeney · November 22, 2010

There is no way around hiring a dedicated person to handle your sound. You could find a recent starter or part-timer for $150/day, however most experienced sound guys get $300+/day, and for good reason. Go this route when you start making projects for money/clients/distribution.

Brian Drysdale · November 22, 2010

That's the best method, doing everything yourself is a compromise unless it's a simple static talking head.

Chris Millar · November 22, 2010

"great visuals with these camera is crap"

"they dont look as good because because of the audio"

:huh:

But anyways, you already know its the AGC ruining it - not sure how mic suggestions are going to help with that ?

Cue discussion about why AGC is put there on cheaper cameras so as to create a distinction between them and higher end (:rolleyes:) models ...

Matt Pacini · December 10, 2010

Everything that I've heard, is that the recording quality on D-SLR's is crap.

So it's not going to sound much better by buying a good mic.

I use a minidisk recorder, & either my Audio Technica shotgun mic, or a PZM if I want to cover a wider field.

The minidisk recorder is really tiny, so it mounts on whatever I'm mounting the camera to.

You could also find (or make) something so it would attach to the camera rig itself very easily.

Minidisc's record in full bandwidth, non-compressed stereo audio.

Mine is a Sony MZH-RH1 and I love it!

Matt Pacini

Chris Millar · December 11, 2010

Minidisc's record in full bandwidth, non-compressed stereo audio.

Mine is a Sony MZH-RH1 and I love it!

Matt Pacini

Interesting, I thought the opposite was true ...

How long have they been able to do true PCM ?

Hal Smith · December 12, 2010

Darned if the MZH-RH1 minidisk didn't have a uncompressed PCM mode. From what I could gather from the following link it required a special 1GB MD for recording uncompressed.

http://www.walkmancentral.com/products/mz-rh1

I had no idea that at the end of their interest in minidisc Sony had introduced an uncompressed MD format. In broadcast circles MD's might lasted a bit longer if Sony had launched those machines earlier. MD's never were quite good enough for broadcast production though there were stations that retired tape cart machines and went into MD's. Much of their interest was because the built-in labeling capability of the format.

Michael Giannaccio · December 16, 2010

My advice, hire a dedicated sound mixer for your projects. It's cheaper than buying the gear, you get someone who's specialty is sound, and most of them have really great mics and gear.

If theres no way you can hire someone, make sure your mic placement is right. The Rhode mic's aren't all that bad for most things so it may be a placement issue. Refer to what Brian said about the placement.