Audio Set Up Options, Red One....

[Jonathan Pears]

Hey All...

Curious as to what audio set ups people run for on set shotgun boom situations?

External recorder, then out to the camera and record on both?

Just external?

Mixer? If so, which one?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Jimmy Gilmore]

On budget jobs, I use my Wendt X5 to camera and to my Tascam HD-P2 or a borrowed sd 744T. When I have the money it's whatever the sound mixer brings which is usually sd gear. I'm a firm believer in dual system.

 

[Christopher Mills]

Last project was double system with a hard line backup to line level on the camera.
Signal Flow was mic/mixer/recorder.. with spare stereo outs to ch 1 & 2 (on a Red).
Was not that impressed with quality of the channels on the Red... noticeably lower worse signal to noise ratio and limited dynamic range compared to the audio recorder.

In my other life as a sound mixer, I have taken to sending timecode to the camera instead of audio, or at most a mono reference trace only to the cameras..
This includes the other cameras, not just the Red.

 

[Jonathan Pears]

Thanks for all the responces guys, very much appreciated!

Any specific mixers to go for? Nothing too amazing, just something to start with and learn the best practices?

Also, external recorder options? I have a Zoom H4n but anything else to try?

 

[Christopher Mills]

sound devices and wendt are the two mixers I suggest.
H4n and Tascam dr series are the lowest end ones I am willing to use.. I consider them to be transcription grade.
I prefer to use Zaxcom and Sound Devices recorders.
I have also used an Edirol R4 Pro (the one with Timecode), the Tascam and Fostex time code equipped recorders. these all sound good, but are not quite as production friendly as the fancier ones..
744t is highly recommeded.. as are the SD664, Zax Nomad, etc...
a Pix 240 is more of a proxy recorder, but the audio preamps are very high quality, and would serve on a 2 track project.

Now, you should also consider a full time human being mixer as part of the signal path.
As someone who both shoots and mixes sound, you need to understand that I do not multi task on the same project. I do one or the other on each project, not both, and that is even if I am providing all the tools.
You use different parts of your brain to do each of those tasks.