What is the application and what device are you feeding from the
microphone?
I migrated from live production sound to sound for film about4 years ago. If this is what you are doing then here's a few pointers regarding production sound for film:
1. Dialog is king. Everything we do on set is to capture dialog as cleanly as possible. In film, nearly all other sounds other than dialog are mixed in separately. While I may capture sound effects on set, those are captured separately. The only other sound which we capture which becomes vital to a final soundtrack is room tone. This is the sound of the room with nobody talking or moving.
2. Shotguns are the go-to mic for outdoor dialog recording. Due to way a shotgun cancels off-axis sound, they present phasing problems when used indoor in a booming situation where the talent moves around. Typically, a hyper-cardioid is the go-to mic for indoor dialog recording where early reflections may be present.
3. Both
shock mounting and wind protection is vital to recording dialog outdoors. My
shock mount (we
call it suspension) and wind protection is the Rycote Wind Protection
system which consists of a lyre suspension, blimp, and windjammer (dead cat). This
system alone is around $700.00 and that's without a
microphone.
4. Regardless of the mic being used. Clean dialog is captured when the
microphone is positioned within 18" of the talent. This means that typically you'll
boom during the close-ups and OTS shots. If the shotlist calls for only medium and wide shots, than wireless lavs are the tool of choice. Hiding lavs while at the same time minimizing clothing rustle is an art in itself.
5. More and more DPs are using DSLRs for capture. The audio circuitry is flakely as best, and mostly unusable which means recording sound separately and syncing in post. The most common tool to assist with this is a slate, however, a software tool, Pluraleyes, can do a really good job by matching the separately recorded audio takes to the scratch audio recorded on camera. Although the
zoom H4n has become quite popular as a field recorder, it's lack of adequate
gain and noisy preamps are an obstacle to getting proper levels recorded. In the field, we try to get dialog to around -20 with peaks hitting -12 on the meters. We avoid compressors but most of us carry mixers with quality limiters.
Location sound for film is a very specialized area of audio, and as a result, the tools can be somewhat expensive. However, these tools are built to last and it's not unusual to find sound recordists carrying mics which are 30 years old, and mixers 20 years old. The
mixer I carry (PSC Alphamix) was built in 2002 and is still going strong (I
send it to PSC for cleaning about once a year).
After having worked in live music production, live
theatre, and studio recording, I can tell you that location sound recording is the most challenging work I have over done with audio.
So I'm looking at K-Tek KEG-88CC Avalon Series Graphite Boompole with KEG-88CC B&H and I also need a mount and
shotgun mic to go with it. I'd prefer a mount that isn't some crap plastic clip one. So I'm looking for one that actually suspends the mic with elastics or something of the sort.
Anyone have recommendations, also looking for a starter
shotgun mic however I don't want some cheap plastic Rhode. I'm looking at spending about $300 maybe $400 for the Mic / Mount together. Obviously once i get the mount then I can just use other mics in it at that
point.
