Before asking what kind of kit to build, which microphones or wireless to choose, or how to best stay within your budget etc., please try using the Search Bar at the top of this sub first!

I work primarily in NYC, but may be making the move to LA next year. My question is this: is it worth holding on to my Comteks. I don't use them super often but last time I did (in NYC), they sounded horrible. Like almost unusable. Granted I am just using the whip antenna 216 in a bag. The only plus to Comteks is the sheer number of them out there, on the rare chance a client calls in for 20-30 of them.

I also still use G3's as cam hops, but I'd love to have a single, quality sounding system that I can use as both hops and IFB. And I can't financially justify going all Lectro.

The Deity DIFB are priced pretty reasonably and the sound quality is apparently decent (plus much more RF freedom), but I'm also worried bc I have a Theos transmitter that I almost can't use in my bag as it "sprays", making my DSR4 overload. The Hush system is supposed to be a lot better in that regard, taking up less bandwith, but still worries me.

Thanks in advance! I’ve heard that the double one doesn’t offer as much support, but I’m not sure how big of a dealbreaker that is

Just curious if it’s worth spending $70 on the double neck or $100 on two single neck rigs

Hello hive mind!

After graduating from my film production degree this June, I’ve jumped after my dreams with both feet and begun working in post and production sound.

Mixing off of a Zoom F4, I have a great entry kit that has enabled me to get a bunch of gigs so far, but I am definitely worrying about my weakpoint - my current wireless kit (2x RODELink I), especially with clients lately seeming to hold lav audio in higher regard than the boom. To me, the current results are totally workable in post, but for projects where I’m solely working during the production stage, I’d like to feel more confident in the recordings I’m handing off.

After reading through many old posts asking the same thing, and wider discussions on this pro-sumer/edge of mid range bracket, my prominent options seem to be either:

- A trusty second hand set of EW500 G3/G4s & upgrading the mic to either a Sanken or Countryman B3.
- Financing a pair of either
-Shure SLX-D+s
-Sony UWPs
-Deity Theos
- waiting for the RODELink II

I saw a comment on an old thread recommending to rent, but I’m fine with some temporary debt if it means I’m getting gear worth my money that’s going to pay for itself and save my sanity. Would love to hear opinions, and any suggestions for options I’ve missed.

Based in BC, Canada if that’s relevant. Thank you for your time!

Edit: phrasing in second paragraph.

Hi Folks,

I was curious if anyone has connected a dynamic mic to their Zoom F8 or F8N before to see how it compares in noise level versus a condenser mic. In my case, I was surprised to hear that the dynamic mic, the Shure SM58 is quite noisy. Have other people had the same experience? Am I missing something obvious? For reference I've pasted two clips which are from my condenser mic and dynamic mic. I also emailed Zoomcorp and will attach their responses to this thread.

Best to all.

SHURE SM58

https://reddit.com/link/1w41v21/video/relef0jd9umh1/player

SENNHEISER MKH 416

https://reddit.com/link/1w41v21/video/93cxoixe9umh1/player

Hey all ! So I've been doing some field recording with borrowed gear for 3 months now (mix pre 10, couple of lavs with G3s, Sennheiser MK600 for the boom) and I managed to have a gig on a movie set in Canada. Thing is, while I know (a bit) how to mic actors, hide lavs and such, it's with cheap tape that I have so it's not as professional.

I'd like to come to set with some knowledge of what the sound guy expects of me, some tips and tricks as well and how a classic day for the boom op looks like so that I don't look too green.

Any help you guys could give me ?

Hey!

I'm looking for recommendations on rental places in Tokyo for a project in october.
It's a run-n-gun TVdocumentary style project and I'll be needing a large bag with 10 radio mics + boom and a smaller bag with 4 ch radiomics + boom.

If anyone of you knows about a good rental house for location sound please comment.

Very thankful for any tips, thanks in advance!

We have a quick pickup to do for a documentary. It is one person, interview and a little walk-and-talk. I'd usually bring my small kit (lav mic & pack, cable boom mic, recorder, batteries, monitors, TC, etc. Then I briefly considered just using the body pack recorder on my Wisy MTP61 lav and a MTP60/PHA60 on the boom, and monitoring them with my 2-channel MPR52. Tentacles for two cameras and jamming the Wisys. Someone talk me out of this idea please!

I am getting a field recorder. My choice, after research, narrow down to Tascam Dr40xp and Zoom H5Studio, whose specs looks similar on the paper (except that the zoom mic can be changed)

I would like to know if the built in mic in Zoom is better than in the Tascam, in terms of audio quality and build quality. The fact that the mic in Zoom made of plastic, make me think twice about how long it would last. Also the preamp noise floor on the paper looks similar, but in the real world is it different?

How would you recommend? Does anybody experience with both units?

I got the Deity Theos, but I can't bypass the limiter on the DLTX.

I don't want to compress the signal at the source, so when I lower the transmitter gain, the receiver's inherent noise sounds really loud.
Is there a better way to handle this?

Serious question. I’m a relatively new sound mixer/boom operator. For now I’m working on small no/low budget projects, mostly unpaid. I’m learning. I have an unrelated day job, but I have aspirations to do production sound full time eventually.

I have 2 sets of Saramonic K9 UHF wireless lavs (4 transmitters, 2 receivers) plus their K9 XTX plug on transmitter. I haven’t had them long but so far I’ve been super impressed. That said, I have no experience with more expensive brands.

I chose Saramonic because of price, dual channel receivers (I have a small bag) and the XTX plug on transmitter (Deity Theos’ plug on is not available in the US.) They also have a good reputation for honoring their 2 year warranty. Curtis Judd also reviewed reasonably favorably.

I know Saramonic isn’t Lectrosonic or Zaxcom or even Sennheiser, Sony or Shure. However, K9 seems great for low/no cost productions. It seems to be a solid learning platform for me… and seems to work for everything I’ve done with it so far.

People in this group though seem to HATE Saramonic. That’s cool. I’m not trying to sway anyone. Instead, I’m sincerely interested in WHY (in more detail beyond “They suck.” and “Avoid like the plague.”) I know what $350/channel buys me with Saramonic. What do I get for $500 (Deity) or $1000 (Sennheiser, Sony, Shure) or more (Lectrosonic, Zaxcom, Sound Devices) that is life altering?

If I do make the transition to full time, paid, location work, of course I’ll upgrade. But until then, what am I missing?

Hi everyone !

To get some context I'm kind of new in sound, I didn't even finish my cinema degree but I really love the process of being on set and all the work behind sound recording. I usually work as a boom operator on set

For a project we've to record sound in a car, thing I never done before. In the script there is just two characters on the front sit talking to each other for a few minutes on a parking.

Some friends recommended me to hide mics between the handbrake and the gear stick, other suggest to hide lavalier mic on the sun visor or on the wheel.

As I said earlier, I never record on a car I a little bit uncertain of what method would be better. If you have advice on gears, process and other stuff I would be gratefull to read them !

Upgraded from Sennheiser G4 to Wisycom MTP40S Linear and I need to swap the 3.5mm jack connectors for 3-pin Lemo.

I bought Cable Techniques 3-pin Screw-Locking connectors (SKU: RED16), which I read here on the forum are as good as—or even better than—the Lemo FVB.00.303.NLAE24.

However, I'm a bit unsure about the wiring now.
The Wisycom MTP40S manual shows this diagram—has anyone wired these connectors to a Sanken COS-11?
What pinout/wiring did you use?

Hello all,

I’m trying to use LR Modulation with my A20 receivers / A10 transmitters. For some reason the audio signal becomes way quieter, almost non existent when I switch to long range modulation, as compared to standard modulation.

The receiver is showing all five Q dots and a full, strong signal.

Could be something very simple I’m forgetting here, but any help is much appreciated.

I'm looking for a boom microphone and a recorder to record audio for Short films. Ive been looking at the Sennheiser MKE 600 paired with the Zoom H4essential.

I’m looking to buy 6 25 fr xlr cables, and I’m trying to figure out which ones to buy since so many xlr cables exist. My usage for these cables is occasional, mainly for events or if I need to run extra lines at my church temporarily. I’m willing to spend $20-35 each cable. Do not recommend monoprice.

Hey everyone, I’m seeing a consistent horizontal noise line in iZotope RX around 20kHz (and another weaker one around 21kHz) on a lot of recent recordings. It isn't really audible, but it shows up visually on the spectrogram and seems to be getting slightly louder over time.

Setup:

• Recorder: Zoom F8n Pro
• Powering: TalentCell 12V 3000mAh Li-ion pack & internal AA batteries
• Mics: Røde NTG-3, Sennheiser G4 wireless, plus other shotguns tested

Troubleshooting so far:

• Across channels: The lines appear equally across all active tracks (booms and lavs alike).
• Swapped gear: Tried different mics and cables; the issue persists.
• Power testing: I tried recreating and isolating the issue at home using just internal AA batteries as well as 2 different TalentCell batteries, but I still haven't been able to pinpoint the exact cause (seems to be happening only on set?).
• Frequency: Appears intermittently (roughly 7 out of 10 files aprox.).

Since it hits all channels simultaneously, I suspect it might be the TalentCell battery, environmental interference or RF bleed, but honestly I could be wrong.

Has anyone run into a similar problem? Any suggestions on how to track down or eliminate this?

Thanks!

Looking for Follow Cart ideas. Ideally something I can transport with my truck but nothing too heavy. Being mobile and being able to go "off road" is ideal. I have a Milwaukee Packout set up that works okay for now but it's getting rather heavy.

Considered a MagLiner that I can break apart and load. Also considered one of those Rubbermaid carts since those are fairly lightweight.

Any pictures or details is much appreciated.

Hi, I need some advice on recording audio for a musical, because I've never done it before, and I'm not sure if it's better to record the music first and then have the actors lip-sync using some kind of transmitter while listening to the pre-recorded track through headphones. Or if it's better for them to sing on set and then try to do ADR on the recorded audio.
Thanks

As I start my career I do a lot of no/low budget short films, usually student ones, mainly for practice and network building. They will recruit me kind of at the last moment, a few weeks before shoot, through listings in a popular mailing list around where I live. The locations and schedule is already set so all I can do is hope the location is good enough noise-wise, and try to use the mic pick-up pattern to my advantage.

But when there are multiple planes per hour, when there's a busy road nearby, or when there's a children summer camp not 100m away in the forest we shoot, and the director obviously doesn't want any of these going into the film, what is there left to do? I find myself always saying that the people in post should be able to clean some of it, that they should really think about doing ADR, or that they should even consider redoing the entire sound with a sound designer because nothing I capture is honestly usable as is and would probably result in butched up aberrations if processed through any kind of cleaning tool.

When I'm on set, trying to explain all of this to people that look like they didn't think about sound once before this moment, I feel like I'm failing at my job. Maybe I shouldn't, but part of me does anyway.

So is there something I could or should do at anypoint in the process, before or during the shoot, to avoid or solve some of these problems? I really hate delivering unusable sound and having my name attached to it. I feel like a glorified and expensive reference track provider.

Received dailies that have mono mix a1 and radio mix a2 along with the rest of the mics. Before going to the sound guy sounding stupid would like to ask anonymously what a radio mix would be and how is it different from mono mix?

Thank you

I’m considering buying the OKTAVA MK-012 for indoor dialogues over the pencil microphone RODE NT5. I am not sure if OKTAVA could also perform well for outdoor dialogues since it’s a small-diaphragm condenser.

What do you think so far.

Thanks for advices.

Hi everyone,

I was thinking buying MixPre and I got an offer to buy MixPre 6 but mark 1. Are there any concerns to consider (outside of lack of timcode generator)?

I am professional sound recordist, from time to time I do a job but mostly I focus on multi-media art and my author movie - tiny production. That is why timecode is not such an issue.

Do you think about another issues to consider?

I already had this machine, I really liked it and the main reason I consider buying is preamps + size.
Mark 1 is interesting considering my budget.

Thanks a lot!