Deity Microphones New Products - NAB 2019

On the show floor at NAB 2019, we met up with Andrew Jones of Deity Microphones. Andrew walks us through their newly announced lavalier, pencil, short shotgun, and studio condenser microphones.

If you’d like to learn how to make great dialogue audio for your film and video projects, please have a look at my courses including processing dialogue audio in Adobe Audition and DaVinci Resolve/Fairlight, recording sound, how to use the Zoom F8 and F8n, and how to get the most from the Sound Devices MixPre series of recorders.

Links to gear used in this video:

Deity Connect Dual Channel Wireless Microphone System

Deity W.Lav

Deity W.Lav Pro - B&H: Coming Soon

Deity W.Lav Micro - B&H: Coming Soon

Pencil Condenser Microphone (still to be named - useful for indoor dialogue recordings with omni, cardioid, and hyper cardioid capsules) - B&H: Coming Soon

Deity S-Mic 2S - shorter shotgun microphone then the original S-Mic 2 - B&H: Coming Soon

Deity Studio Condenser Microphone - Still working on which features will be included - B&H: Coming Soon

Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K

Panasonic 12-35mm f/2.8 OIS Lens

Electrovoice RE50L Dynamic Interview Microphone

Sound Devices 633 Audio Field Recorder/Mixer

Copyright 2019 by Curtis Judd

Music Copyright 2017 by TVAC. Used with permission.

RODE WIRELESS GO - NAB 2019

On the show floor at NAB 2019, we met up with Ryan Burke of RODE Microphones to have a look at their new WIRELESS GO system - a small, very simple to use wireless microphone system.

The audio in this episode was recorded entirely with the WIRELESS GO into a Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K. The audio was loudness normalized to -23 LUFS and no other processing was applied.

This was a brutal test for a wireless system - on the show floor at NAB with a ton of RF activity. The handheld mic I use during this was for backup but since the WIRELESS GO did so well, we muted the handheld in post.

The WIRELESS GO kit used to record the audio for this episode was provided free of charge to us. We were not paid further to produce this video.

If you’d like to learn how to make great dialogue audio for your film and video projects, please have a look at my courses including processing dialogue audio in Adobe Audition and DaVinci Resolve/Fairlight, recording sound, how to use the Zoom F8 and F8n, and how to get the most from the Sound Devices MixPre series of recorders.

Links to gear used in this video:

RODE WIRELESS GO

Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K

Panasonic 12-35mm f/2.8 OIS Lens

Copyright 2019 by Curtis Judd

Music Copyright 2017 by TVAC. Used with permission.

Zoom F6 - NAB 2019

Zoom just announced their new F6 field recorder for location sound audio recording. Rather than just tweak the form factor, which they did, they also moved to dual analogue to digital converters which record to 32 bit. So the way you record changes pretty dramatically. When recording to 32 bit, you don't set the gain trim (there is none), you simply adjust the fader for each input channel. If you missed the level, no problem, in post you can cleanly normalize to the levels you need with no degradation in audio quality.

They've also switched up a few other things: The screen is a slightly smaller version of the high resolution screen from the F8n, the back of the recorder is a Sony NP-F (L series) battery sled, and you can now power the F6 via its USB-C input. The same quality timecode generator from the F8n is on board, this time with a 3.5mm TRS input/output jack. The F6 has a single SD card slot for recording media and still includes the advanced hybrid limiter when you record in 24 bit.

Auto mix is included and the with an adapter, you can use the Zoom Control app for iOS. You can also use the Zoom F-Control control surface.

We'll have a full review after the F6 starts shipping, hopefully in June 2019. Pricing still to be announced.

Gear discussed and used to record this interview:

Zoom F6 at Amazon - Coming Soon

Zoom F6 at B&H

Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K

Panasonic 12-35mm f/2.8 OIS Lens

Electrovoice RE50L Dynamic Interview Microphone

Sound Devices 633 Audio Field Recorder/Mixer

Copyright 2019 by Curtis Judd

Music Copyright 2017 by TVAC. Used with permission.

Send Audio from Zoom F4 to Camera 3.5mm Mic Input

This is one segment from the upcoming Zoom F4 course which will be available soon at our school.

In this episode, I run through the process of feeding audio out of the Zoom F4 into the 3.5mm microphone input on your hybrid, mirrorless, or DSLR camera. Some cameras make this a little more difficult because their microphone inputs can only be “turned down” so far (lookin’ at your Panasonic), which is not enough. But we also show you how to work around this issue.

If you’d like to learn how to make great dialogue audio for your film and video projects, please have a look at my courses at https://school.learnlightandsound.com including processing dialogue audio in Adobe Audition and DaVinci Resolve/Fairlight, recording sound, how to use the Zoom F8 and F8n, and how to get the most from the Sound Devices MixPre series of recorders.

Links to gear used in this video:

Zoom F4 (Amazon) - Audio Recorder and Mixer. Course on how to get the most of your Zoom F4 coming soon!

Juicebox 95Wh Cine Battery (Amazon) - I use this to power my F4 for 8 hours. Need the cable below as well.

And you’ll need this cable:

D-Tap to Hirose 4-pin cable (Amazon) to power the F4 with Cine Batteries

TalentCell 22,400mAh Battery (Amazon) - a less expensive rechargeable battery to power the F4 for many hours

And you’ll also need this cable:

DC Barrel to Hirose Cable (Amazon)

Aputure COB 120DII LED Light (Amazon) - this is my main workhorse light for 90% of my video work.

Nikon Z6 & 24 - 70 f/4 Lens - used in this video to demonstrate how to feed sound from the F4 to camera

Panasonic GH5

Olympus 45mm f/1.8 Lens - wow, super sharp, fast lens. Love this for product shots like this video

Copyright 2019 by Curtis Judd

Music Copyright 2019 by Cary Judd. Used with permission.

Help Please: GH5, ATOMOS, MixPre HDMI Timecode and Control

I'm hoping that our community might be able to solve this together.

I've received the same question 4 times this week alone: How do I get timecode and Record Start/Stop controls to work with the GH5, ATOMOS (Ninja V, Sumo, Shogun, etc.), and the MixPre (3, 6, 10T) via HDMI?

I was NOT able to get all of them working by routing and HDMI cable from the GH5 to the Sumo, and from the Sumo to the MixPre. However, I confirmed with the same cables that it works when you use just the GH5 and MixPre or just the GH5 and ATOMOS recorder.

One hypothesis is that an HDMI splitter might solve the problem: Route an HDMI cable from the GH5 to an HDMI splitter, and from there, one of the splitter outputs to the ATOMOS and the other output to from the splitter to the MixPre.

Has anyone had success with this?

If this works, there's still the problem of how to power the HDMI splitter as most of them require power. But I believe there are some which are USB powered so that might work.

Thanks if anyone has information on whether the HDMI splitter approach or any other approach works. I'll create another video if we are able to find a solution.

I know that this is a bit of a Frankenstein type of rig. I don't usually shoot this way but I used to and many others still do for various reasons.

Thanks!

Copyright 2019 - Curtis Judd

Sound for Video Session: Q&A 25 March 2019

In this episode, we answer your questions on sound for video.

00:20 Recording Cars

03:57 Zoom H4n & Samson CO2?

06:22 How to sweeten dialogue sound

11:10 Which boom microphone for indoors?

13:00 Apps to automix dialogue in post?

15:00 MixPre as audio interface - does quality degrade when recording to screen recording app?

16:54 How much PC do I need to run Premiere Pro and DaVinci Resolve?

18:32 How to capture a noise sample? (Need more info)

18:57 Zoom H6 - remote reduces handling noise?

19:36 How to aim a super cardioid boom microphone

20:50 Replacing lavalier microphone for RODELink

22:28 RODECaster Pro multitrack recording to SD card?

24:12 Batch processing audio in RX and Audition?

25:14 Which sound effects should I record when I'm the mixer for a video?

28:05 Why is my compressor letting peaks through?

29:24 Boom and lavs to director's audio feed? AES42 digital audio with A10 and SD 633?

32:08 Panasonic 991 and timecode and post sync?

35:01 Pocket Cinema Camera 4K and MixPre - line level feed

36:28 Which specs can help you choose a recorder or microphone if you can't try it hands on?

41:11 Which boom mic and recorder do you recommend for interviews for $1200 or less?

43:18 RODE NTG3 or Deity S-Mic 2 sounds closer to the 416?

44:27 What is the difference between the Sound Devices MixPre-3 and MixPre-3M and can I use the "M" version for film and video?

47:55 How do I gain stage a Sennheiser G3 wireless system and Zoom F8n?

49:42 What is a timecode workflow for shooting music videos?

See this workflow information: 

https://www.bamfsound.com/how-to-music-video-playback-with-ltc-timecode/

---

Gear discussed/used in this session:

RODECaster Pro - used to record this session

Sound Devices MixPre Series

Zoom F8n - Very good value for money on a pro/prosumer audio recorder

Sennheiser G3/G4 Wireless Microphone system - note that you need the correct version with frequencies you can use in your region. Contact a reseller in your country for details.

Deity S-Mic 2 shotgun microphone

RODE NTG3 shotgun microphone - I prefer the sound of this on most voices.

Sennheiser MKH416 shotgun microphone - the classic shotgun microphone that seemingly everyone is trying to mimic at enthusiast prices

Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K - I find that I use this more often than any of my other cameras these days.

Tentacle Sync timecode generators

Izotope RX7 - my favorite app for cleaning and optimizing audio clips

Samson C02 - budget boom microphone - comes in a set of 2. Good budget option for interviews.

Zoom H5 - budget recorder with 2 XLR inputs

Tascam DR-60DmkII - budget recorder with 2 XLR inputs

Zoom H6 - budget recorder with 4 XLR microphone inputs

Copyright 2019 by Curtis Judd

Outro music from Artlist by Kick Lee. You can receive a 2 month discount on a subscription to Artlist, a subscription service for stock music you can use with your videos. Check it out at Artlist.io.

Audio Recorders for Filmmaking 2019: Choosing a Sound Recorder for Your Video Projects

In this episode, I explain my opinions on each of the sound recorders and mixers I’ve used for filmmaking. This includes the following. Click the links to jump ahead:

00:36 Zoom H1, H1n, and Tascam DR-05 Handheld recorders

03:00 Zoom F1 lavalier and on-camera recorder

05:17 Tascam DR-10L and Lectrosonics PDR mini body pack lavalier recorders

06:43 Tascam DR-60DmkII, Zoom H4n Pro, Zoom H5, Zoom H6

11:53 Centrance Mixerface R4R

12:50 Roland R-88 (Discontinued but can find used)

13:48 Zoom F4/F8/F8n, Sound Devices MixPre, Tascam DR-701D

32:21 Sound Devices 600 Series and Zaxcom Maxx, Nomad, & Deva

Recorder/Mixer Reviews - If you want more detail:

Zoom H1n: Handheld recorder which is a good option for using it like a wireless lavalier recorder

Zoom F1: Small recorder made for recording lavalier microphones or as a camera-top shotgun mic

Tascam DR-10L: This is my favorite tiny recorder for using in place of a wireless lavalier microphone

Lectrosonics PDR: Pro level lavalier microphone recorder.

Tascam DR-60DmkII: My favorite budget recorder with XLR inputs for recording on location

Zoom H4n Pro: Ok option if your XLR microphone has a strong output signal. Not a good option for mics like the RODE NTG2

Zoom H6: Much better option than the H4n Pro. But the screen is hard to see in direct sunlight

Centrance Mixerface R4R: Incredibly durable handheld recorder with 2 XLR inputs, great preamps, but no screen

Zoom F4: 4 XLR microphone inputs. Very good preamps and timecode generator

Zoom F8n: Probably the most value for money. 8 XLR inputs with great preamplifiers and durable build

Sound Devices MixPre-6: 4 XLR inputs, very good preamplifiers, analogue limiters, and durable build

Sound Devices MixPre-10T: 8 XLR inputs, very good preamplifiers, analogue limiters, timecode generator, and durable build. This is my backup recorder/mixer for paid jobs.

Zoom F8, Sound Devices MixPre-6, and 633 Sound Sample Comparison: Hear the difference between the Zoom F, Sound Devices MixPre, and Sound Devices 633. You’ll need some good headphones or speakers.

Zoom F vs Sound Devices MixPre - Which should you buy?: A little perspective on which might be best for you.

Sound Devices MixPre Control Surfaces: If you’re at a table, desk, or cart, these control surfaces can make mixing a little easier.

Zoom F-Control Control Surface: If you’re at a table, desk or cart, these control surfaces can make mixing a little easier.

Sound Devices 633: Why pros use expensive recorders/mixers like the 633

If you’d like to learn how to make great dialogue audio for your film and video projects, please have a look at my courses including processing dialogue audio in Fairlight and Audition, recording sound, how to use the Zoom F8 and F8n, and how to get the most from the Sound Devices MixPre series of recorders.

Links to gear used in this video:

Zoom H1n

Tascam DR-05 (Amazon)

Zoom F1

Tascam DR-10L

Lectrosonics PDR

Tascam DR-60DmkII (Amazon)

Zoom H4n Pro

Zoom H5

Zoom H6

Centrance Mixerface R4R

Zoom F4

Zoom F8n

Sound Devices MixPre-3

Sound Devices MixPre-6

Sound Devices MixPre-10T

Sound Devices 633

Zaxcom Maxx, Nomad, Deva

Anker USB-C Battery Bank (Amazon)

Aputure COB 120DII LED Light (Amazon)

Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K

Panasonic 12-35mm F/2.8 OIS Lens

Panasonic GH5 (Amazon)

Panasonic GH5S (Amazon)

Copyright 2019 by Curtis Judd

Music Copyright 2018 by Cary Judd. Used with permission.

Sennheiser XSW-D Review: Simple Wireless Lavalier System for Solo Shooters

In this episode, we take an in-depth look at Sennheiser’s new entry level digital wireless microphone system, the XSW-D. In particular, we put the portable lavalier set to the test. The XSW-D is made to be as simple to use as a cable, according to Sennheiser. And based on our tests, we agree.

The transmitter and receiver are very small, include in-built batteries with over 5 hours of powering time, and there’s only a single button so you don’t have to fuss with a bunch of settings. Of course, there are trade-offs when you make things this simple, but overall, it seems that Sennheiser has made a winning option for solo video shooters and those who don’t know a lot about audio production but want high quality audio.

If you’d like to learn how to make great dialogue audio for your film and video projects, please have a look at my courses including processing dialogue audio in Fairlight and Audition, recording sound, how to use the Zoom F8 and F8n, and how to get the most from the Sound Devices MixPre series of recorders.

Links to gear used in this video:

Sennheiser XSW-D Portable Lavalier Set - the wireless lavalier kit we reviewed here

Sennheiser XSW-D Wireless Microphone System - all the options, kits, add-on receivers and transmitters

RODELink Filmmaker Kit - this is the set with a transmitter, a receiver, and the RODE Lavalier microphone

RODELink Wireless Microphone System - all the options, kits, add-on receivers and transmitters

Aputure AL-MW LED Light (Amazon) - used as the background light in the talking head shots

Aputure COB 120DII LED Light (Amazon) - this is my main workhorse light for 90% of my video work.

Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K - I used this to record most of this episode

Panasonic 12-35mm F/2.8 OIS Lens - Used on the Pocket 4K camera

Panasonic GH5 (Amazon)

Panasonic GH5S (Amazon)

Copyright 2019 by Curtis Judd

Music Copyright 2019 by Cary Judd. Used with permission.

Sound for Video Session: Fairlight Questions

A week after publishing our new mini course on editing and mixing dialogue audio in DaVinci Resolve's Fairlight, I received a few interesting questions from my friend Jacob Fenn. Here are his questions and my answers.

While processing the audio for this session, it occurred to me that one of my answers was not very clear. Jacob asked, “Is it possible for Fairlight or any other digital audio workstation app (DAW) to clip since they do all of their processing in 32-bit float?”

This is the short answer: The internal processing of Fairlight will never lose data to clipping as long as the source audio was not clipped. However, when you export your mix, if the audio exceeds 0dBFS at any point in the mix, the exported audio will be clipped.

Aputure AL-MW LED Light & Fresnel 2x

In this episode, we take a look at two new lighting products from Aputure: The AL-MW and the Fresnel 2x. The AL-MW is a tiny LED video light with a daylight color balance and is waterproof to 10 meters or 30 feet. Its in-built battery will power the light for 85 minutes at high power. The color quality is very good with a CRI of almost 98 and the light puts out enough light to use even as a key light.

The Fresnel 2x is a new add-on focusing lens for lights with a Bowens mount like the Aputure COB series of lights along with lights from several other manufacturers. The lens focuses the light beam between 12 and 40 degrees so you can add a good bit of drama, texture, and dimension to your lighting design.

If you’d like to learn how to make great dialogue audio for your film and video projects, please have a look at my courses including processing dialogue audio in Fairlight and Audition, recording sound, how to use the Zoom F8 and F8n, and how to get the most from the Sound Devices MixPre series of recorders.

Links to gear used in this video:

Aputure AL-MW (Amazon) tiny, waterproof LED Light

Aputure Fresnel 2x (Amazon) - Lens to focus your light into carefully defined beams.

Aputure COB 120DII LED Light - this is my main workhorse light for 90% of my video work.

Aputure COB 300D LED Light - a BIG light for BIG jobs

Aputure Barn Doors - You can use this on its own, or with the Fresnel 2x to cut the light for even more dramatic lighting designs. I use this a LOT for lighting backgrounds.

Sennheiser XSW-D Portable Wireless Lavalier Set - used this to record all of the audio for this episode. Review coming soon.

1/4-20 to Light Stand Adapter - the adapter I use to attach the AL-MW to a light stand

Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K - I used this to record most of this episode

Panasonic 12-35mm F/2.8 OIS Lens - Used on the Pocket 4K camera

Copyright 2019 by Curtis Judd

Music Copyright 2019 by Cary Judd. Used with permission.