Location Sound/Audio for Video, need recommendations

By far the worst sounding rigs used in that world are the wireless lavs, but they’re a necessity if you have to shoot walk and talks without a boom operator (and even then it seems to be standard to use both).

The Sennheiser shotguns have an immediately recognizable “broadcast” sound. They will sound completely passable into your Zoom. I did a shoot with a Rode shotgun into one of those Zoom recorders that came out great.

I have some Shure lavs, but it seems like DPA makes the really good ones. Beware of long beards when pinning the lavs to talent! 😅

Thanks, that’s very helpful. Most of the shoots are documentary style interviews, but we need to be flexible. Shots could be indoors, out doors, noisy environments, controlled studio spaces etc. That’s one of the reasons I’m not sure where to start. This is mostly corporate work but there is a little spill over into more artsy/indie videography/film making

I know of the MKH 416 as being somewhat of a “standard”, so I’m guessing I can’t go wrong with one. In the past I’ve used nice handheld dynamics, Beyer m88 etc, and they’re great but I need something more purpose built for this application. We used a Beyer mc930 sdc last shoot and it just picked up way too much of the room, and it was a noisy environment. Dealing with it in post was a bitch.

I’ll most likely have to stick with zoom H6 for now, but the next shoot will probably grant us a budget for a better field recorder.

I’ll likely be renting half the kit for this shoot and then slowly buying the pieces we need for long term growth. Right now though the shotgun mic is a priority with the lav mics a not so close second.

Im wondering if a cardiod or super cardiod as good all rounder? I’m looking at the Sanken cs-1e. Most of the uses will be indoors, and a lot of it will be interview style, either boom or c stand.

The Sanken is a great mic, but what you have to understand is the advantage of Omni is the fact that the mic has the same phase and frequency response off axis, your not moving a boom to capture each voice, and with Lavs a head turn or body movement won’t be noticeable. I know I cardiods get it when Jonathan Lipp the founder of Full Compass was preaching it till I did a musical with over heads and 12 wireless lavs. Started out with cardiods, then switched to omnis and suddenly no matter where someone stood, how the moved didn’t matter and even the monitors required less EQ because no matter the angle same response!
Applied it to a couple of video shoots, it was probably the biggest lesson J Lipp taught me in audio. It even applies to vocalist in the studio. I have even used this knowledge on instruments when you can hear the player moving around. Can’t tell you how many times I have been at a session switched a mic to Omni and looked like a genius.

I do love Sanken though, been lusting after a lot of used COS-11D’s for the wireless system.
One other tip with wireless remember digital wireless means latency so your going to probably have to offset your sync a bit, been noticing this issue all over broadcast TV lately.

Thank you! That’s incredibly helpful, looking into those Zazcoms right now.

When running handheld booms, I’ve always opted for the RCA 44BX.

I generally prefer to have a shotgun for outdoor or big, high-ceilinged spaces. The Sennheiser 416 is a classic for a reason. Some people don't like them these days, but I still do. I actually opted for the Rode NTG3 over the 416 personally, because it sounds very, very similar, but the Rode has a slightly larger "sweet spot" that I personally find a bit more forgiving. (The counter argument to that would be that it's not quite as tight or focused as the 416, but I haven't found that to be a problem personally.) Both the 416 and the NTG3 are RF condensers, so they keep working even in very humid conditions. And the Rode is a little lighter physically.

For indoors in more normal rooms, I like a tighter cardioid generally over a shotgun. Something like the Sennheiser MKH50. If the room is really quiet and you're trying to pick up two people sitting next to one another on a couch, you can even go with a wide cardioid. 

Agreed that omni lavs are a good idea to put on talent.

Zaxcom body packs are great but out of my price range, so I use a Rode Wireless Go II, though the new Wireless Pro is an even better option. Even if there are dropouts on the 2.4GHz broadcast to camera, everything gets recorded to the internal transmitters, so you're covered there. The new Wireless Pro actually records in 32-bit float, so you don't have to worry about clipping at the record stage.

I also wouldn't personally want to use a Zoom H6 -- I have before, but it's a pretty big compromise IMO. The pres aren't very good, it's kind of noisy, but maybe even more importantly, it doesn't have many great power options (IMO). If you like Zoom, the F6 is far, far superior, and can be run off of NPF batteries. I have an F6 as a backup to my Sound Devices MixPre 6 II. I like both of those units a lot, actually, and they both can record 32-bit float, as well.

I would also ask the director what they want to do about timecode. Are they planning to rely on audio sync in post? Or do they want dedicated timecode? If dedicated timecode, that's a whole 'nother set of things to think about.

You mentioned the problem in the past with extraneous noise on the external mic pickup. That's definitely always a concern, and you're right to think first of what mics might best help mitigate that. But you'll also probably end up spending time cleaning up some things in post regardless. I use a little bit of everything: iZotope RX, Acon Digital, CrumplePop, Hush Audio (one of the very best, IMO), and even the voice isolation plugins in the NLE. I'm primarily a Final Cut user these days, and the latest included voice isolation is actually very good IMO - oftentimes it's all I need. Oh, and quite a few people like the Waves Clarity Vx plugin.

Regardless of all the above, exciting news that you're working on this project! I have really grown to love production audio for picture over the past few years -- it's exciting (usually non-boring) work, and it's fun to be a part of a creative team all working to make the best production possible within all the insane limits faced in a video-centric environment. Congrats!

Ahh production audio. One of the most underrated black arts in audio. I love doing it.



If your renting, heres what I'd get.

Mixpre6 II
DPA4017a for your mic. Sounds way better than a 416 and can work indoors and outdoors really well. Get wind protection(a ryocote blimp) and dead cat to go with it.
DPA4060a for the lavs. Very small, easy to hide, and sound better than anything else out there.

You'll need microdot adapters to whatever transmitters you want to us(Sennheiser/LEctor/Shure/Wiseycom)

Im a Lectrosonics guy personally.



You may want to get a Timecode unit to sync stuff, a mixpre 6II can generate Timecode or recieve it. You'll also need the correct cabling to do this with the right device you pick. VERY important.

In more shoots, Audio is responisble for sync. That means you're responisble for making sure the camera gets a feed from you and timecode. You really need to know the camera being used to do this well and how they plan to shoot it. This will drive your gear choice be it a wireless timecode and audio hop setup, or if you can just cable it. obviously one is much cheaper and takes less coordination with gear choice, cabling, power, and wireless coordination.




Post clean up tools are SCARY good now. In the last year alone the voice cleaning software area has been flooded with good options. But, please don't lean on that crutch. As a Production mixer and Post mixer, it pays BIG to have clean audio up front(just like music). Especially when it comes to time. But if you have to use those tools, don't get carried away and over cook. Very tempting too.


My other tip is obviously to get this all days before the shoot and get comfortable with it and check it all works how you want it to. Nothing is worse than stalling a shoot over not having one small cable or something.

AND practice hiding your lavs. This is a skill that takes years of just practice to get consistent good results to hide lavs that sound good and don't generate noise. So be sure to practice that. Also mounting lavs comes with its own assortment of accessories(tapes, mole skins, concealers, furs, stickies, ect).

One thing to always remember when using wireless even with the best wireless, your clear wireless frequencies are not static, even if you have a spectrum analyzer your not going to catch a police walkie-talkie that’s out of spec. Understand the frequency band your choice of wireless operates in. Traditional UHF analog are based around TV ch, modern digital are based around the Frequency band used for WI-FI. I just spent an hour on the phone trying to explain why trying to use 12 ch of digital wireless in a hospital was a no go from the get go.

It’s funny how manny newbies think they don’t need timecode because you can manually line things up in post, well till you show them how much easier and consistent it is just to offset time code.

The standard in that world Is dpa 406x lavs and lectrosonics wireless. Schoeps mk41 on the boom for interiors.

Can't the 3 use the NPF battery sled? That's what I use on my MP6. Two NP970s will power it just about all day.