4. On the Shoot

The Shoot.

I had visited the venue a few days prior to booking out the equipment to see exactly what equipment would work best, as this venue is situated in an open plan bus station and due to recent weather I discovered that there was a lot of cross winds sweeping through the station, this would mean that any audio captured in this location had the possibility of being disjointed and even lost in some cases, and as we where only going to be recording once there was no margin for error and this meant that the equipment required would need to accommodate this.

Due to a booking error I only took the Sennheiser ME67, Zoom H4N and the Marantz PMD 660 to the shoot. I found that during the setting up process as I had less equipment it was far easier to set up quickly, this would come in handy later on as I found out the interviews where not set up and more “on the spot” so I needed to be able to capture sound at any moment.

The Zoom H4N was the only solid-state recorder I used that day as the Marantz PMD 660 was just as a back up recorder. As there where no radio mics I was a bit concerned with being able to focus in on the audio from the subjects but as the

ME67 is a highly direction microphone I found that the audio was coming through clear from the subject and there was no need for the radio mics after all and I had found that the reviews for the ME67 on certain forums and websites where very true when it came to the shoot.

Even though there was still a bit of background noise on the captured audio I found that it was essential to the piece, not only to add a soundscape to the audio captured, but also to place it within its surroundings something I feel that if I had used the radio mics that a lot of that background chatter would have been lost and I would have needed to record a separate wild track to run underneath the audio from the interview subjects. 

Brief History of sound recording

In order to place this research project within a context i have chosen to mention a very brief history of recording sound.

The earliest known audio recording was said to be from 1860 and recorded by Eduard-Leon Scott de Martinville on a Phonoautograph.

Eduard-Leon Scott de Martinville

Scott de martinville's Phonoautograph

Here is a video of that very recording...

This is now known as the earliest device for recording sound but, we also have Thomas Edison the inventor of the phonograph in 1877, this device would be used to listen to the sounds that had already been recorded. 

Edison (ladies man)

Edison's home phonograph

Edison was one of the first to market the "Edision Home Phonograph", this meant that people could listen to  recordings of sounds at home for the very first time.

Family Fun

Also in 1877 saw the arrival of the first microphone, invented by Emile Berliner and Edision both creating different models of the same device. 

Edison's Microphone

Berliner and his Microphone (same right?)

 

3.Pros and Cons

With any equipment that you use and for whatever reason there is always both advantages and disadvantages to using that specific equipment.

As for this project I have already chosen my equipment and because there is a limited range to choose from, this section of the project shall reflect the pros and cons of using the equipment I have already chosen.

The sources for the pros and cons of this equipment are opinions of others who have used this equipment and others like it via books, websites and forums, and the opinions of myself that I shall then be concluding at the end of this project.

Sennheiser ME67

The set up for the ME67 will be made up of three parts, the first being the K6 which houses a 1.5 volt AA battery this works in harmony with most of the modern solid state recorders feature which phantom power.

The ME67 itself is a unidirectional shotgun microphone (See diagram of this bellow), this means that the main range for captured audio is in one direction, this makes it ideal for this shoot. 

However this does mean that you need to be careful where you place your microphone and make sure it is directly pointed at your subject.

sources: http://www.microfilmmaker.com/reviews/Issue65/SennK6y.html 

When the reviewers of this website did a couple of comparisons at ranges of 2,4,10 and 30 feet away from the subject and by only adjusting the level each time they recorded they found that the sound was "incredible" and when compared to other leading brands like Shure and AKG they stated that the Sennhieser was the clearest of the lot. 

With my own personal experiences i had found this microphone to be very powerful indeed, my only concerns with using such kit, is that it can be quite bulky and awkward to carry from location to location when it is correctly housed within its "blimp" windshield. Though i do see that such a piece of equipment deserves the correct treatment and is required to be protected at all times. 


Marantz PMD 660 


The PMD 660 was designed specifically with journalists in mind, it is very light and fairly compact but it does seem very fragile and feels like it would shatter if dropped. With most dynamic mics there is a very low hiss but there doesn't seem to be the same problems when using a unidirectional mic like the ME67.

The built in mics seem to only be for dictation as the quality is poor, the options within the menu on the recorder are difficult to find and therefore it takes longer to set the device up.  


I feel that this a recorder that has maybe had its day when compared to the Zoom h4n, it is greatly over priced for the quality of the recordings and its bulky exterior make it a chore to use on location. When needing to set up quickly the PMD 660 is a pain if needing to capture the audio there and then, however i cant help but love using it for capturing audio off location. 

Maybe its because I always root for the underdog or maybe I can see past its out of date technology either way my opinion is purely based on aesthetics, it looks and feels like a solid state recorder rather than a dictaphone crossed with a ipod, for me the big perk even though it seems tiny in comparison is the XLR input clips, this actually holds in place your XLR cable rather than it constantly popping out and ruining a perfectly good cable. 
In short if i where recording foley on location or wild-track then this would be my choice  


Zoom H4N


This is a fantastic piece of kit, its cheap reliable and records exellent quality both as .WAV and .MP3's. It has clearly been designed with musicians in mind, from its four channel recordings (two built in mics and two ext. inputs) to its numerous effects like phasers, chorus, delay and reverb. It is easy to set up and start and therefore makes it fantastic for recoding on location quickly.

My main problems with this piece of equipment is the lack of clipping inicator on the LED screen, this makes it so you are never quite sure if you are going over the recommended levels for recording, this can often make it difficult when capturing audio in a busy location using an omni directional microphone as you have to rely on your ears to make sure that the audio being captured is not being distorted.

When using the built in mics they seem to pick up alot of clicking noises as you change the volume levels or even scrolling through the menus.

Due to its ease of use and compact size for a quality recorder of this kind it is perfect for the location recordings and interviews, and therefore will be a fine addition to the kit which i have already booked (ME67).