Wireless Audio Setup Question

[Chad Lancaster]

excuse my newbie question, audio is something I'm not the most familiar with..

In Fincher's xenomorph camera that has built in zaxcom wireless audio, whats the setup and workflow? Does the mic have a TX that goes straight to the RX in the camera or does it go from the mic to a person at a mixer and then to the camera?

 

[Alexander Thomson]

Zax-Max has a transmitter built into the mixer so it can Tx the wireless hop. If they're not using a Zaxcom mixer, they'd use a Zax Tx on the output of whatever mixer/recorder they're using. I'm fairly certain that the built-in Zaxcom Rx is the receiving end of a hop from a mixer, and not a direct talent-to-camera type of link.

 

[Alexander Thomson]

Furthermore, what would be badass is if RED, or Sound Devices, or Zaxcom, made a DSMC2 Rx module that gave you two channels of 24/48 audio. Or, for even more flexibility, just a module that had a SuperSlot in it, so you could bring your own receiver from Lectro, Wisycom, Sennheiser, etc. It'd essentially give the RED camera lineup the same type of slot receiver audio capability that broadcast cameras have had for years.

 

[Marc Wielage]

The flaw with that is that you still need an on-set sound mixer to ride the levels and constantly monitor the signal to solve any problems of interference, mike placement problems, clothing noise, and any number of problems. You can't just slam a bunch of wireless mics together at one time -- often with multiple mics, only 2 are up at any one time, depending on how many people are talking, and you have to avoid having actor A's mic up when actor B is talking. It's not an automatic process.

I don't have a problem with people shooting this way when it's news footage and nothing is scripted, especially if the crew is operating under dangerous or surreptitious circumstances.

 

[Alexander Thomson]

Oh yeah, absolutely, a mixer is imperative. Dugan/Mix Assist doesn't count. Simplifying the wireless hop from mixer/recorder to camera is where a DSMC2 SuperSlot module would be advantageous.

 

[Marc Wielage]

Oh yeah, absolutely, a mixer is imperative. Dugan/Mix Assist doesn't count. Simplifying the wireless hop from mixer/recorder to camera is where a DSMC2 SuperSlot module would be advantageous.

Yes, I agree completely with that. But note that there are a ton of shows and films where they don't do a wireless hop at all. I would always rather have one just in case the sound equipment fails (which is extremely unlikely), just as a second safety net.

One problem nowadays is the large number of wireless channels going on. The last feature I did -- wearing my sound hat instead of my colorist hat -- we ran 10 tracks every single day on almost every single scene. Multiple lavs, wireless boom, and a mono mix, plus 10 sets of headphones for the crew and a wireless (mono) feed to camera and video assist. Nothing was automatic; it was all just hard work and a lot of running around. And a lot of batteries.

 

[Chad Lancaster]

So is the audio going to the xenomorph likely just all the channels into 1 so its easy for them to replace it with what the on set mixer recorded or is multiple channels being sent to the camera and recorded alongside the r3d?

 

[David Peterson]

Yes, I agree completely with that. But note that there are a ton of shows and films where they don't do a wireless hop at all. I would always rather have one just in case the sound equipment fails (which is extremely unlikely), just as a second safety net.

One problem nowadays is the large number of wireless channels going on. The last feature I did -- wearing my sound hat instead of my colorist hat -- we ran 10 tracks every single day on almost every single scene. Multiple lavs, wireless boom, and a mono mix, plus 10 sets of headphones for the crew and a wireless (mono) feed to camera and video assist. Nothing was automatic; it was all just hard work and a lot of running around. And a lot of batteries.

What were those ten tracks being recorded?
I'd guess say two booms, plus the mono mix, which leaves.... 7 wireless?? Seems like a lot of talent wired up for every scene.

 

[Marc Wielage]

What were those ten tracks being recorded?
I'd guess say two booms, plus the mono mix, which leaves.... 7 wireless?? Seems like a lot of talent wired up for every scene.

Exactly. I would say every other scene had more than 8 actors talking. There were some quiet scenes with no more than 3 actors, so for those we only had five channels: mono mix, boom, wire1, wire2, and wire3. I never went less than 5 in the entire show except for some basically MOS shots of a guy on a motorcycle or non-dialogue shots of kids walking through the city.