Audio
July 2, 2023
In this episode we walk you through a quick and easy way to hide a lavalier microphone under a T-shirt.
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Gear used or mentioned in this episode. The links below are Amazon.com, B&H Photo, Sweetwater, DVEStore, Perfect Circuit, Trew Audio or other affiliate links. As an affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases:
- Petrushkha Mierzwa’s book ‘Behind the Sound Cart: A Veteran’s Guide to Sound on the Set’ — Amazon https://geni.us/gEMt7
- Transpore Tape — Amazon https://geni.us/GaLA
- SHURE Twinplex TL-48 Lavalier Microphone — B&H, Sweetwater https://geni.us/GI3A
- Amaran 200x S LED light — B&H, Amazon, Aputure https://geni.us/y6ym5V
- Aputure Light Dome II soft box — Aputure, B&H, Amazon https://geni.us/AuMKRr
- Aputure Spotlight Mount — Aputure, B&H, DVE Store. Amazon https://geni.us/kfAj
- Rosco Prismatic Glass Gobo in Cool Lavender — B&H https://geni.us/GWKt
- Canon C70 Cinema Camera — B&H https://geni.us/ABYB
- Canon RF 24-70 f/2.8 lens — B&H, Amazon https://geni.us/qwsEs
- Panasonic GH5 camera — B&H, Amazon https://geni.us/InspOl
- Panasonic 12-35mm f/2.8 II lens — B&H, Amazon https://geni.us/gr47
The intro and outro music for this episode is from Musicbed - “Dynamo” by Virgil Arles. Take your films to the next level with music from Musicbed. Sign up for a free account to listen for yourself: https://geni.us/G7by
Copyright 2023, Curtis Judd
Here's a way to hide a lavalier microphone under your t-shirt. In fact, I've got mine right here.
See right there. The nice thing about this particular approach– this is one approach. It's not 'the' approach. It's not the best approach necessarily, but if you're especially struggling with getting a lot of clothing rustle, this one works pretty well. You can have people waving their arms and still get a pretty good sound. Now, there are a million techniques out there. This particular one I learned from Patrushkha, who wrote the book 'Behind the Sound Cart: A Veteran's Guide to Sound on the Set'. Great book too, by the way. Again, link for that down below. So this is how you do it. First of all, we're going to use Transpore tape. This is a medical tape that's made by 3M. I'll put a link for it down below.
You can also get it at most drug stores.
And the reason we use this tape is, first of all, it's pretty mild. So it's made for using on skin, so it shouldn't irritate most skin. That's good. And it's also pretty gentle on clothing as well.
So the first thing I would do is get the t-shirt and turn it inside out. And the whole strategy here is that we're going to use the seams of the t-shirt to hide the lavalier microphone and the cable. So we're going to place the, first of all, the lavalier microphone right here at the opening of the neck underneath the ribbing there. And usually that'll make it so that it won't show through. And then we route the cable through the seam, along the seam, again using the Transpore tape to attach it. You can run that up to the top seam, the shoulder seam, and tape it along there.
Then down along the seam for the sleeve, and then finally along the seam for the side of the shirt until you can run it down out of the bottom of the shirt.
So that's really all there is to it.
It's a technique that works pretty well. The only problem from my perspective is it does put the microphone here at the throat. You may have to EQ it just a little bit to get the sound coming out just right, but overall it's going to get you a pretty clean sound, especially if you're working with a form-fitting t-shirt and you don't want the mic to be obviously showing through. This is a pretty good way to do it. So get out there and make some great sound and we will talk to you again soon.
