Good lavalier for radio docu's?

[petsy]

What's a great lavalier mic for radio interviews and documentaries? Will be recording primarily indoors but occasionally also outdoors. The productions are mainly music documentaries and This American Life:ish stuff. Want lav's for the covenience and the relaxed atmosphere they bring to an interview situation. And the portability.

 

[OKCRadioGuy]

I'd love to know too. I've never seen a lav I really liked for interviews on radio. Too much background noise ruins things most of the time...

 

[317C50KW]

There's no such thing as a good lavalier mic. 30 years of working in audio for TV has taught me that. On the high end you might want to consider offerings from DPA or Sanken. If budget is an issue pick up a Sony ECM-77 from E-bay, it's the best sounding of the Sony body mics. I've used Beyer, Tram and Sennheiser too over the years but I think the Sony wins out as a good compromise.

 

[fybush]

Agreed wholeheartedly. When I was doing TV news, I avoided using lavs whenever possible, especially in anything short of a very quiet room. My mic of choice was a Sennheiser MK66. I got much more natural interviews by keeping the shotgun down low, out of camera view and out of the interviewee's line of sight, than by pawing around the interviewee's neck to attach a lav. I miss that microphone!

 

[pellmell]

Since it's radio, consider getting something like a DPA4066 headworn mic. You will be amazed at the quality of the mic. It's expensive, but it's worth it.

 

[petsy]

Thanks. Yeah, it's a bit unorthodox perhaps, but I find that it really makes the conversation more relaxed if you're able to sit across from one another and not have an interview mic in your hand. Even if the person if used to mics, it affects their behavior somewhat, having that thing in their face.

 

[petsy]

...and I'm also alone on these things, so shotguns etc. are kind of out of the question (sadly). I get why they'd pick up less room noise though, totally. If I had an engineer with me, that'd be awesome.

 

[dtube1]

I'll second the Sony ECM-77 as the budget choice. On the high-end, the Sanken COS-11 sounds as natural as any lav could possibly hope to; but they're rather large and cylindrical (for reference, FoxNews uses them). For earsets, I've had best luck with the DPA 4066 - again though, expensive mic.
-D

 

[GeneSavage]

Is there any reason you couldn't sit down at a table? If you can, why not bring a couple of tabletop / desk mic stands? They're small, only comparatively heavy in the base, and would allow you to record your mic on one channel, theirs on the other, then balance the mix back in the studio.

A couple of SHURE SM58s, and you're ready to roll, seems to me... and maybe for a lot less than expensive lavaliers giving less-than-optimal results.

Unless you're recording in a bathroom, I wouldn't think ambiance even if they're not dead-on the mic would cause too many problems... make sure it's pointed at their mouth when they're in a natural sitting position, and go to it.

...Am I missing something in this process?

 

[317C50KW]

The DPA 4066 does sound quite good, better than its counterpart the Countryman E6.

Both are fragile though.

 

[petsy]

317C50KW: Yeah, I would imagine that's a problem with lavs in general, with the cable being so thin etc.

NightAire: Heh. No, you make a compelling argument. I should be able to do that in most cases, guess I didn't really think about stands before. In my mind, it was all about handheld or lav and nothing else. Or shotguns on booms but that's obviously out of the question in a one-man operation. But sure, I guess that might be an option. Wouldn't use a 58 though, but maybe a second 441 might work. Already got one of them. Or maybe 421's?

 

[OKCRadioGuy]

Just some extra BS I'll pass on to you that I've learned over the brief time that I've been at a public radio station that does lots of in-studio interviews and round-tables: If your going to get stands and have a little extra budget, think about floor stands with the small boom arms to go with them. Set them NEXT to the table on the ends but not touching. The mic arm then extends over to table long-ways to the guest. They can rattle and bang the table all the want that way and you won't suffer from the noise. Also, in our situation, we found a really, really easy way to control background noise is to use the right automatic mic mixer. My favorite is the Gentner MPAII with the preset #2 (green). It mixes like a dream and keeps the extra noise of the room to a minimal. It will also let more than one of the talk over each other, up to 3 people at a time with preset #2. You can find them on FleaBay for around 100 these days. Yeah, their old but boy do they work great. I have one in studio and one I've set up for a portable system (paired up with a Shure FP-16a mult box) in a portable rack for taking the show on the road. Especially on the road when there's PA systems involved, this deal can really make something normally unairable sound great.

 

[fybush]

...and I'm also alone on these things, so shotguns etc. are kind of out of the question (sadly). I get why they'd pick up less room noise though, totally. If I had an engineer with me, that'd be awesome.

I never had a sound guy working with me, either. The MK66 is a fairly short shotgun, and I usually used it handheld. But because it's a shotgun - and a good one, at that - I never had to hold it right in the face of my interview subject. I could casually hold it down at waist level, carry on a casual conversation, and end up with killer audio, without ever having to ask my subject to let me pin anything to their lapel or worse.

 

[Denny E.]

When I was working in television I did a lot of field production and if quality was a major issue, I would normally just use a Sennheiser 416 short shotgun with a stand adapter just off camera for sit down interviews. If the talent had to walk and talk, the Sennheiser MKE2 lavalier was my go to microphone. The MKE2 sounded beautiful. It has an omni directional pattern, very low noise specs and we used them both with 48 V phantom and also body packs. The only thing I had an issue with concerning the MKE2 was it's cable because it had sort of a springy feel to it. Sometimes we had to Gaffer tape it to the inside of the person's clothing. Another great sounding microphone we used was a Tram, but I no longer remember the model.

In the news studios in the seventies and part of the eighties we used Electrovoice CO 90s with phantom packs and later went with Sony ECM 55s on double clasps.

I don't believe you can get much better quality than a good quality shotgun microphone placed as close as possible (within reason) to the spokesperson's mouth.

Denny

 

[SirRoxalot]

You're not looking for pristine. You're looking for decent, "live" sound with a mic that doesn't sound like a tin can. Simplicity is a plus. Here's what I've been using in a low-budget TV studio quite successfully for several years:

http://www.shure.com/americas/products/microphones/sm/sm11-lavalier-microphone

It's a little big, it's a dynamic, but it takes a beating, and it sounds pretty darn good.

One other option might be a boundary mic. As long as they're isolated from the surface, they might be a reasonable alternative for both of you in a relatively quiet setting.

http://www.audio-technica.com/cms/accessories/2b5d7d48d0a25755/index.html

They're much less obtrusive than a shotgun, but surprisingly capable at picking up voice in an interview situation.

These solutions may be far less elegant than what's been suggested, but the price is reasonable and the quality should be more than acceptable for "in the field" sound.

 

[petsy]

Thanks for all the good advice. Seems like there's a few options here, for lavs and other mics. Always good to get a bit smarter before you drop and cash though.