Posted by Steve Guidry on 06/11/06 13:53

In my experience, all that a "zoom" mic does is turn up the gain when you
zoom in, resulting in more of the same annoying buzz and off-camera chatter
that you already have.

Audio gurus - - please correct me if I'm wrong, but that's what i think I'm
hearing . . .



"Rick Merrill" <rick0.merrill@NOSPAMgmail.com> wrote in message
news:u8qdnXaRoem6Hh3ZRVn-ig@comcast.com...
> blackburst@aol.com wrote:
>
> > I compsed a long reply to this yesterday, and when I went to send it,
> > Google required me to sign-in again, and the post was lost. I hate
> > that.
> >
> > Rick Merrill wrote:
> >
> >>blackburst@aol.com wrote:
> >>
> >>>I just think that ther's NO substitute for closer miking, if at all
> >>>possible. I've done a demo for TV students, recording the same
> >>>materials with a closeup mic on one track, and the shotgun on the
> >>>other. When I isolate them, they all go "wow" and pick the closeup as
> >>>much better sounding.
> >>>
> >>
> >>Absolutely. Interesting technique you have there: maybe you can tell me
> >>if you turn off AGC/ALC/auto-sound when doing that?
> >
> >
> > It was done as a segment of a college course on TV production. I used a
> > Tascam 2488 HD multitrack. The objectives were to show the students:
> >
> > 1) How to distinguish between direct sound and leakage ("signal to
> > noise", in a sense). For this, I used a person speaking, and I set up
> > six Behringer XM8500 mics, starting about 6 inches from the speaker's
> > mouth, with the other mics at 2 foot increments but aimed at the
> > speaker. (one at 2 ft, next at 4 ft, next at 6ft, and so on.) The
> > students recognized that ACAP - as close as possible - sounds better.
> > (The exceptions are when close miking is impossible, or when the mic
> > becomes overloaded.) In a related exercise, I used a caller on a phone
> > hybrid to illustrate the difference between the DIRECT feed from the
> > hybrid vs the foldback leakage into the host/guest mics.
> >
> > 2) How to hear phase cancellation and comb filtering in a multiple open
> > mic situation, using a similar setup. The objective here was to
> > position the mics properly, and open and close them only as needed.
> >
> > 3) How to distiguish between different mics. For this, I A/Bed between
> > various mics: omni vs uni, dynamic vs condenser, closeup (condenser) vs
> > distant (shotgun), lavalier vs stick, etc. Again, lots of "wow" and
> > "a-ha" from the students.
> >
> > We recorded each exercise, so that in playback, we could isolate
> > tracks. On the closeup vs distant (using distances ranging from 20 ft
> > down to 3 ft), even seasoned audio people were amazed at the difference
> > in the sound of the tracks.
> >
> > I don't mean to knock shotguns: In a very limited number of
> > circumstances, they are the best choice; but too often, they seduce the
> > user into making the lazy choice. ACAP is better at least 99% of the
> > time.
> >
> > Hey, you're a cable access guy, aren't you?
> >
>
> If fooling with cable access were like fooling with guns I'd have no
> toes left!-)
>
> I confess I'm enamored of the "zoom mic" that reads the camera zoom
> setting to adjust it's own setting. The perfect application IMHO is
> audience interaction of a medium sized room where all the participants
> think, "ve don't need no stinking mic".
>

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