Audio help for casual interview

hackazoid wrote on 2/19/2006, 4:54 PM

Relative newbee and did a 7 min fun video to show some aspects of our small company. Asked questions of a guy as showed some machinery, there was some background noise but not extreme. Used a new Rode Videomic.

Question area #1... Guy was 10-15 away and I was loud but he wasn't like I expected from the Videomic despite him being a bit of a 'soft talker'. Boosted it some with audio envelopes.

a. what does the 'high pass' setting do?
b. should I have used it or done something else?

Question area #2... I did a commentary by a noisy road so had to get a cheap lavelier mic wired to the camera. Worked OK except it mutes the Videomic.

a. Do wireless laveliers also mute the mic?
b. If so, how do you hear both the question and answer---is there a 2 mic setup?

Appreciate any realworld tips as I can only spend maybe $200 on additional stuff for homemade projects like this.

Thanks.

Comments

Bob Greaves wrote on 2/19/2006, 8:21 PM

The microphone input on most cameras is stereo. You can actually use two separate microphones and record them to the audio track. If you are the videographer and th einterviewer you are going to have problems. If you shoot the interview only 1 microphone is needed.

kdm wrote on 2/19/2006, 8:59 PM

1a - High pass on most mics cuts from about 100Hz down - varies from mic to mic, but usually it is best to run the mic flat, unless of course you have a lot of low end rumble/machinery around.

1b - I prefer to cut in post - even higher end mics' low cut switch doesn't sound great to my ears - I always leave them flat, better low mid response that way, even if you cut a lot later.

In general, the closer you can get to the subject the better, esp. if the room is noisy. Either a lav or a shotgun - lav if you are shooting from a distance; shotgun can work a few feet away, but you'll want to put it on a boom, or handheld near the subject (out of frame of course). A normal camera mount mic won't give you what you need from 10-15 in anything other than a quiet studio environment.

2a - Some wireless lavs might have gates/auto mute, so I would do an interview with two mics as suggested by the other poster - one in the left channel, one in the right. Lav for the interviewee, either lav, handheld dynamic, or even the Rode mic turned around towards you or the interviewer.

hackazoid wrote on 2/19/2006, 10:57 PM

Thanks for the comments. I guess the 10-15 feet is just too far given some other noise. Does keep 'flat' mean NOT to use the high pass?

The Rode is OK for my voice for 'questions' so trying to figure how to get the lavelier to work in conjunction with it,

I have the Sony TRV-950 and it has a yellow AV input for the Rode and a single Red mic input on the front for the lavelier.

Any suggestions on how both can work together. Thanks.

JohnnyRoy wrote on 2/20/2006, 7:44 AM

> Any suggestions on how both can work together.

Since both mics are mono, you can buy a stereo to mono Y cable and plug the two mics into it. Then you will have one mic on the left channel and the other on the right. The only problem is if your camera doesn’t have separate left and right volumes, then you won’t be able to balance between them and will need an external mixer to pull this off. I use a BeachTek DXA-2s on my little Panasonic GS200 which gives it separate XLR inputs and volumes for left and right channels. Try and find something similar to this for your mics (which I assume are not XLR)

~jr