Microphones

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Shotgun Mics

Quality Control.

Achieving industry standards

It’s easy to think of film and commercials as a visual medium, but there is a significant amount of behind-the-scenes work that goes into an entirely different sensory experience, sound. A key part of any film, documentary or commercial is quality sound. They are a major asset in getting the best sound possible. Not to mention, they can even save time and money for the post-production process.

Shotgun Mics

Capturing superior audio is incredibly important for any production. But in order to capture that sound, quality production microphones are necessary for every recording device.

Schoeps

The CMIT5U is a staple in the movie industry and beats most shotgun microphones by a mile where features are concerned. It offers customizable tone and predictable directionality, even when rotated.

DPA

The professional and versatile 4017B microphone is designed for demanding sound capturing for film, video, sound reinforcement, and even music recording.

Sennheiser

The MKH 60 has a much shorter interference tube. It also contains an RF-condenser microphone, which means it has a natural immunity against moisture but also low self-noise levels.

Sanken

With three capsules for even sharper, more uniform directivity than that of the CS-1e or CS-M1, the CS-3e moisture-resistant shotgun microphone gives professional sound recordists high-end audio quality for capturing clear dialogue, foley, and sound effects in challenging environments.

Rode

The NTG 3 satin nickel moisture-resistant shotgun microphone. Professional-level features such as low-noise circuitry, upgraded immunity to radio-frequency interference, and minimal noise handling.

Shotgun mics are good for several things on a production set. They get their name from the way they record sound. You point the mic at what you want to capture, and it not only gets this sound, but it grabs surrounding sound. You can use shotgun mics to capture the dialogue of a scene or the sound details of a scene. They are also used quite often for capturing foley sounds and ambient room tone. While shotgun mics are excellent in spaces, they tend to pick up more sound than you need for dialogue. With that in mind, your best bet is to utilize a shotgun mic in conjunction with a lav.

Lav Mics

Lavalier Mics

A lavalier mic (or lapel mic) is the gold-standard mic for capturing dialogue. Lavs come in a wired version and a wireless version, with both versions being small enough to hide beneath the collar of a shirt or on the underside of a jacket. Lav mic should be as close to the center of the chest as possible. Depending on the talents costume, the application of the lav mic can require a skilled audiophile.

DPA

The 6060 CORE is a subminiature, moisture-resistant lavalier microphone designed for use with wireless systems for broadcast, performance, and theatrical applications. The tiny, 3mm electret-condenser capsule delivers crisp, clear, and intelligible speech, while being easy to hide in clothing or costumes, making the mic well suited to the demands of professional presentations, theater, and live stage work as well as TV, film, and video productions.

Shure

Sweat and moisture won't stop your signal when you use the black Shure TwinPlex TL47 omnidirectional lavalier microphone as your transducer of choice. It is an ultra-lightweight mic with a patent-pending, dual-diaphragm condenser capsule with an omnidirectional polar pattern, yielding full, natural tone and consistent off-axis response along with low self-noise and wide dynamic range. The swappable frequency caps incorporate a superhydrophobic nanoscopic coating to eliminate sweat-outs and signal drops caused by perspiration.

Sennheiser

The MKE1 is well suited for placement in hair, the body, clothing, accessories, props, etc. The Kevlar reinforced cable is rugged and minimizes surface noise. The MKE1's moisture resistant enclosure protects against damage caused by moisture, making it well suited for actors, performers and broadcast applications.

Surround Mics

The basic and simple setup for channel-based 5.x (5.0/5.1/5.2) surround sound is the application of five microphones in a spaced array. There are different ways to select and arrange the microphones; it depends on many factors like the acoustic qualities of the recording room (i.e. a concert hall/jazz club/church), the layout of the sound sources present, the directivity of the microphones applied, or maybe, just taste. The setups may vary from strictly mathematically-calculated, psycho-acoustically verified to more "feel-like" configurations.

One way of thinking about the coverage of a 360° circle around the listening position is to consider each two neighboring microphones as a stereo pair. Each pair covers a specific segment of the circle. Sometimes the segments overlap, sometimes they "underlap". Another way to look at it, is to consider the frontal microphones as providing the main soundstage and the rear microphones establishing a sense of surround/atmos.

DPA

The D5100 is a versatile surround sound microphone, ideal for use in television production and other applications where high-quality audio is of utmost importance. The mic features 5 internal pressure transducers with omnidirectional pickup patterns to capture every sonic detail from your environment. The mic can be mounted on a camera or mic stand, suspended, or handheld via a hand grip. The compact and robust design also provides an excellent resistance to inclement weather.

Holophone

The H2-Pro 7.1 Surround Microphone captures audio in complete surround for broadcast, audio for film, video recording and sound design applications. The microphone system is designed to provide an easy, point-and-shoot method of recording surround audio and eliminates the guesswork out of positioning, technique, preliminary mixing, etc. The elliptical microphone head emulates the shape of the human head and the behavior associated with human hearing.

Sennheiser

Designed for 360° immersive applications, the Sennheiser AMBEO VR is a microphone intended to bring the full vision of VR content creators to life in all its four-channel glory. Indeed, the microphone utilizes four KE 14 capsules situated in a tetrahedral arrangement to ensure that from wherever you're standing, the AMBEO will record the surrounding audio in a spherical manner, resulting in true Ambisonics recordings.

Rode

The Rode SoundField NT-SF1 is an ambisonic microphone designed to provide clear and accurate reproduction of 360° sound for recordists in VR, film production, and audio for video games. Set up mixes for all common surround-sound formats from 5.1 to 7.1.4, and accommodate custom formats and speaker arrays

Sound Report

Labeling and file structure is a conversation had with post, the DIT, and script supervisor to ensure everyone is on the same page. Generally speaking, one might start with a hierarchical file system starting at the top with a project folder, followed by a date folder, and finally scene folders within that.

Labeling for what the takes are should always match what the script supervisor and slate says to avoid confusion in post-production. As cards get changed, labeling sound roll numbers, and communicating the roll changes for the script to log are standard procedure.

Whether using digital or hardcopy sound reports, they are delivered to the script supervisor to be sent to post. Sound reports contain information like scene, take identifier, file labeling, track labeling, take notes, and metadata information including timecode, sample rate, bit depth, roll number, and contact info. In addition to turning over media, a copy is secured on another external backup just in case.

A terrible picture can be passed off as 'style' when accompanied by quality audio, but a masterful picture with poorly recorded audio and/or unprofessional mix will be passed off as amateurish and awfully-executed.

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The Information above has been simplified for readers who may not have complete knowledge of the subject.
Each product represented in this page including Schoeps, DPA Sennheiser, Sanken, Rode, Saure, Holophone, do not hold any connection to and from Blake Sound. Companies and apps represented on this page maintain their respective copyrights.
All microphone recommendations are not paid sponsors and every microphone listed maintains their respective copyright including Schoeps, DPA Sennheiser, Sanken, Rode, Saure, Holophone.

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