Booming With Large Diaphragm Mics & The Purpose Of Lav Mics: Sound Speeds Podcast E8

For this 8th installment of the 2024 podcast I'm going to answer two questions that I'm occasionally asked but too often to ignore. Can you boom with Large Diaphragm Microphones (or should you) and what the real purpose of lav mics are. Enjoy.
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[@WORTHITORNOT]

I would love to see you boom the EV643 🙂

[@SoundSpeeds]

You and everyone else that watches my videos. Maybe I could mount it on my Junbo boom so it would look more normal sized.

[@WORTHITORNOT]

😜

[@SoundSpeeds]

😎

[@kartanosaka]

I always thought about using a large diaphragm mic to boom sound just for shits and giggles. Interesting to know that it is technically* possible. I very much enjoyed this episode! On a somewhat related note: Ever since you uploaded your announcement about the in-person-course-adapted-into-a-online-video-teachable-format (or however the exact wording was), I haven't been able to get that out of my head. Is the course still available and will there (finally) be a "how to boom"-course?

[@SoundSpeeds]

The course is available. Email me and I'll give you more details. As for how to boom... in time I hope to.

[@raphaelherzig3316]

Hello Allen, as always thanks a lot for your contents! I could argue that since the industry standard “auto-align post” plugin has been widely used, lav could also serve the purpose of getting an “in your face” fat dialogue yet preserving the air and ambience by mixing boom and lav together since they are in phase. I’ve been achieving great results doing but I am by no means working on huge commercial shows

[@SoundSpeeds]

You are correct. Autoalign has been a game changer in post but 99.9% of the time, post will the boom and won't mix the lav in the fatten it up. Production mixers do it often on set though.

[@yanns559]

Meh the mixer in the (big) studio i worked in regularly did exactly that. To me its comparable to injecting an acoustic guitar DI input in the mix, alone it doesn't sound great but it just add the bit of presence you could lack with the main Mic.

[@SoundSpeeds]

I've not seen it done in years but that doesn't mean it's not done. Cool.

[@yanns559]

@@SoundSpeeds It's possible it is also more an European or French thing as ADR is also slightly less frequent

[@NadirNovelties]

Also worth noting that making an LD mic hypercardioid is extremely difficult and will never be as good as an SD.

[@SoundSpeeds]

👍

[@dannepedersen]

Very interesting history lesson :)

[@SoundSpeeds]

👍

[@heymrcody]

do you get preproduction time in tv/film for planning audio solutions, or is your only planning time during rehearsal or on the spot? Like do you get time to think "this scene will have 2 plant mics here and here, and 2 booms for shots 2 and 6?"

[@SoundSpeeds]

Very seldomly will be get a heads up to something prior to watching it during the rehearsal. Usually it would happen on a tech scout for a movie (if then) or the 1st AD, Producer, UPM or another crew member may mention it if sound was mentioned in a meeting for some reason like "We need a podium mic for this scene. Is that something the sound department can provide?"

[@heymrcody]

@@SoundSpeeds so weird how much of an after thought sound is! 😲

[@SoundSpeeds]

Seriously. It's because we're always prepared and sound seems to just magically work when people put on their headphones.

[@shingAMarie]

I had another quick question if you don’t mind me asking. What is a decent lavalier that has the lowest self noise? i’ve been trying to use lavs for voiceovers now, because I have been playing around with them and hiss has been a problem, but was wondering if you could answer that for me so I could use one of those. Thanks again! also, have you heard anything about the apogee clickmic digital-two lavalier?

[@SoundSpeeds]

I've heard of it but don't know much about it. I'm an expert on pro gear. The lowest self noise lav is the DPA 6060

[@vampula12]

But what about the ambient recordings? They are pretty good with their sensitivity and majority of the lavs are omni, so why not? Some foley too?

[@SoundSpeeds]

If they ADR, they'll have to add SFX and Foley.

[@vampula12]

​@@SoundSpeedsGot it, thank you!

[@SoundSpeeds]

👍

[@BandrewScott]

Good podcast episode.

[@SoundSpeeds]

Thanks dude

[@shingAMarie]

this all seems true, but I feel like in big film productions the post is so good that you can’t tell a difference between the lav and a boom. I mean how many average people have watched a film and be like man the dialogue doesn’t sound natural in the scene they probably used a lav. Obviously audiophiless may be able to detect it but 99.9% of people can’t. by the way, do you have any knowledge of major films that you know for sure they used a lav in a particular scene. I would be interested in revisiting them and see if my ears could detect it. Thank you!

[@SoundSpeeds]

Keep in mind that on yhe big budget features, is not uncommon for post to ADR the entire movie so the editors can pick which they like the best between production audio tracks and ADR.

[@shingAMarie]

@@SoundSpeeds the big news networks seem to be pretty good at minimizing the chesty sound of their lavs. Do they have like a formula that they use for everybody because obviously, how much time do they have to do original processing when they interview somebody new every time on their show. If so, do you know how they would do it what frequencies can generally be decreased parametricly? i’ve seen some KZbin videos on this, but they don’t seem to be that effective, or at least, as effective as these big networks do at making it sound natural. Thank you!

[@SoundSpeeds]

There are guidelines you follow but most post guys will create presets for common sets used on a show but even then, they have to be flexible about changing.

[@imark7777777]

I've seen a handful of films this year where I could pick out the automatic dialogue replacement.