Excited to be visiting Saturday the North River Mills Old-Time Musical Festival in the little hamlet of North River Mills, West Virginia. The festival is small but attended by some of the finest musicians playing Appalachian traditional music. Need to get some great sound! Worked most of the day testing and configuring an optimum field package from various camera gear I’ve accumulated over the years. My Sony RTX-P2 receiver is connected to the bottom 1/4” thread to a hot shoe for quick removal ( when the Hoodie arrives... it will be on top). Monitor out to a Rode SC4 TRS to TRSS adaptor to the IPhone X lightning dongle ( oh... Apple why?)! The RTX has two transmitter packs, one for its Sony lav and another to XLR Pack attached to a Sennheiser shotgun (Mrs. Woody is an expert audio assist!). Bringing my Sennheiser MKE-400 shotgun for backup. For still work I have been using the DXO One iPhone camera. Stunning super raw stills! Tripod plate for the small Manfrotto tripod. Now if the weather cooperates... should get three hours of shooting. Can’t wait! John Woody Retired Professor Emeritus
Hi Rorick, Just got back from WV and edited a rough segment. No color correction yet. I had to use the Sony lav on the floor. Long story. Just wish I had a better mic set up. Here it is... all Movi. Stills are from my DXO One camera. https://vimeo.com/269547407 John M. Woody
Hi John, Nice video footage and still photographs, and the variety of shots/perspectives illustrates perfectly why sometimes you have to plant the mike in one place and either use a separate sound recorder or, if you want to record sound to the iPhone on the Movi, use a transmitter/receiver/wireless system, which I gather you did here. You’re a braver man than I am. I typically record to a separate recorder and live with having to sync in post, mostly because the whole idea of wireless spooks me
Rorick, I had scheduled to borrow an Edwina mic which we use for small bluegrass/old time bands. It’s really an awesome mic. But, alas, my buddy forgot he needed to use it that day. I’m checking all options and appreciate your counsel on all things sound. http://www.eartrumpetlabs.com/ John
John, Thanks for introducing me to Ear Trumpet Lab microphones. They are certainly distinctive looking (great for a video shoot), and YouTube videos featuring artists who use them suggest that the sound is really nice. A Sound on Sound review says that the Edwina is based on older Schoeps circuitry, which is impeccable pedigree and makes me want to audition their mikes. Have you used the Edwina to record an ensemble? I ask because Ear Trumpet and the Sound on Sound review both say that it works best for one or two performers, and Ear Trumpet recommends three other mikes for single miking of an ensemble: http://www.eartrumpetlabs.com/faq-page/acoustic-band-single-mic Ear Trumpet also has an interesting page on single miking technique: http://www.eartrumpetlabs.com/faq-page/2015/8/25/whats-the-deal-with-single-micing My two cents on recording this ensemble... Given how the musicians were seated, personally I would use an omnidirectional mike. Omnidirectional is of course what the Sony lavalier that you used happens to be. If you aren’t entirely happy with the sound, I believe that it isn’t due to the Sony’s pickup pattern, but rather because it’s a tiny mike of mid-level quality trying to pick up four musicians It might have helped to get it three to four feet off the ground (if I understand correctly, it was at floor level). That said, I think that the sound is OK, all things considered, and that a full-sized omni would have given you a great sound track. If I could get the musicians to form more of a semi-circle, I would also consider a cardiod, which is what Ear Trumpet’s mikes are. I would only use your Sennheiser 416 or similar shotgun in this situation if I didn’t have an omnidirectional or cardiod mike or there was a lot of ambient background noise to deal with.
John, I want to thank you. Watching your video a few times has really helped me think through how I want to approach sound recording with the Movi/iPhone combination. I learned a lot from your initial post, the gear in the accompanying photo, and the video. I was struck by the amount of gear. I feel that I have to use the Movi/iPhone with a lot less gear, and I’m currently working out how to do that. I’m also intrigued by your technique of combining still photographs with video.
Rorick, Go to Boinx and download a trial version of Fotomagico. Been using it for many years to work with stills in motion. https://boinx.com/fotomagico/ Here is a video I produced entirely with Fotomagico. John