Mics in the Fast Lane: Senal MC24-EL & ES Shotgun Microphones 

Will Eifler Was it good?

Can you follow up?

It's been 6 years man. Are you going to follow up or not? I thought you were a man of your word. Guess I was wrong.

Badmash, Thanks for the comment! I'm glad you dug the reference. I almost wrote a "Please Hammer, Don't Hurt 'Em" line about shooting near the pneumatic concrete-crushing of NYC street construction... but that's another video :) I believe having an ES vs. EL discussion is best served without measuring "better" as a global attribute and, rather, considering which is best for a specific job. I love the EL's rejective properties in noisier environments but I also understand there has to be more precision with placement to keep the subject in the sweet spot. I love the compact size of the ES, letting a boom operator squeeze into tight corners and low-ceilings while having more margin around the target. I'm fortunate to have both in my kit but, if I had to choose, I'd let the set/location be the deciding factor. Interior with a tight room? Grab the ES. Large hall or exterior? I'd take the EL. They're both great; you can't go wrong by trying them out. I checked out your production company's reel. Great work! If you end up getting/using a MC-24, please let me know your experience. I'd love to learn a thing or two from your unique perspective. Best, Shawn from Senal

Hi Tim, Thanks for your astute observation. By “real-world use case” we meant filming run and gun in a busy, noisy environment. We wanted to show the off-axis rejection properties of the mic, not a how-to for boom operators. We also wanted to show the mic in context with the subject for reference - something almost no one ever does. Does that make sense? That explains most of the wide shots. Is it a bit close? Perhaps. But the rough positioning, angle, and distance from the subject are what one might aim for as a boom operator. Look at the shot at 1:35-1:44 ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-WEKp9jNFLWQ.html for traditional framing and hiding of the boom. As for boom operator form on various shots, check out these videos featuring pro sound mixer Josh Allen: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-o5aLqW2Wncg.html & ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Uy4zFaMmfyM.html. He is on point. Regards, Kevin

Flying Ace Films, Thanks for reaching out. First, please let me apologize for the slow response; your comment slipped past my radar. I checked out your Domino's spots. Very cool! I loved how you directed the Domino's smartcar to peek out from behind the Rolls Royce and exotic cars. Also loved the POV shots from the roof. Thank you for your link courtesy and for sharing your work. I noticed opportunity to improve the audio on the videos you shared but, without being part of your production process, it's difficult for me to specify just where tweaks could be made. I'm inclined to think something wasn't ideal in either the signal chain or placement. I've used the MC24-EL several times with really great results. It's possible that the Zoom H1 wasn't the best tool for this job. For example, the MC24-EL has an XLR connection and the H1 does not. I know B&H sells MC24 kits with an XLR to 3.5 mini cable but when working with a big name client such as Domino's, I might consider limiting unecessary complications to the signal path. The H1 is a great piece of gear but I think this job may have benefited from something with more robust options, improved pre-amps and an XLR connection. On Mics in the Fast Lane we used a Sound Devices 633. While we were shooting in one of the nastiest areas in New York, with respect to noise, the clean preamps on the Sound Devices and rejective properties of the MC24 allowed us to get a usable signal. This mic can really shine in a controlled environment but the purpose of this video was to get extreme. As a general rule of thumb, I like to position the microphone as close to the subject as possible (without being in frame) and adjust the gain so that dialogue falls and rises between -12dB and -6dB, give or take. This tends to average out at around -9dB. Unless I'm live-streaming, I tend to record without any high-pass filtering enabled and allow myself flexibility to EQ in post-production. The placement is extremely important with any microphone but especially when dealing with sensitive shotgun mics. Turned just an inch or two in the wrong direction and the polar pattern suddenly becomes incredibly unforgiving. I've seen all too many folks just camera-mount their shotgun mic and expect it to deliver rich, intimate audio from across the room. Do you have any behind-the-scenes photos of your approach and positioning? For a refresher on placement, here's an easy-to-digest video that I like: wistia.com/blog/top-hat-tuesday-mic-placement You've demonstrated good decision making, particularly in Rae's Domino's video at ~:56, where a shotgun microphone is probably not the best approach. Because of how wide the shot is, getting a boomed mic close enough to produce a clean signal is going to be difficult and I believe you've best served the video by lav'ing the talent here. The tighter shots, such as inside the pizza shop, should have been ideal for a properly placed MC24 -- which makes me think something may have been wonky with the H1. I've been on sets where Zoom's have been used and, because of spinning many production plates and lack of a dedicated sound person, the director accidentally activated the built-in stereo microphone, as opposed to the boomed shotgun mic's input, and captured all of the ugliness of a room's acoustic character with very little emphasis on the subject. Any chance something like that happened? With respect to the longboarding question, if the goal is to record dialogue, I'd suggest good lavalier mics and a wireless system. A boom operator would likely need to be an gold medalist olympian to keep up consistent hypercardioid proximity while chasing skateboarders down a mountain and I'm sure production insurance wouldn't be cheap. Grab a Senal AWS-2000 wireless system, a Senal UTM-86 lavalier mic and have the receiver trail safely behind the action (up to 500 feet away, depending on the RF environment). I hope this helps. Thanks for watching! Shawn from Senal

no worries on the response :-) it is possible that the Zoom connection was tampered with, was on such a tight budget I did everything myself & Dominos provided 1 marketing person to handle the boom pole for me, such a brief tutorial on using it with them but it was not ideal to say the least. It was hard when you are basically a 1-man crew. I'm sure the SD 633 would've sounded better but that is currently out of reach $$. Working toward it though. Thanks for the reply and I enjoy watching and learning. Need an extra hand in a vid project lmk. Cheers!

oh yeah, the longboarding question was thinking of longboarding down myself trailing, beside, or in front...could also pass the camera/mic to another rider, something like that. Just looking for something that would really cut out the wind noise and give me some good ambient sound and sound effects. well cheers!

Hi Connor, I assume you is looking for a portable recorder? There are many great recorders on the market, depends on what your price range is. Zoom makes very good products like the H4N, H5, H6 Handy recorders. They also make the F4 and F8n recorders which are a step up from the H4, 5 & 6. Of course, if you're willing to pay top dollar, Sound Devices make top of the line pro recorders. In short, it all depends on your needs and price range. Hope this helps.

Hey, Manuel! I'm Shawn, from the video. I directed and edited this piece. Thanks for checking it out! I love your level of observance and you've got a great eye. First, let me assure you that there are zero lavaliers in play or even on set. The MC-24 shotgun microphones feature a hypercardioid polar pattern. Check out this illustration from Microphone Geeks: imgur.com/a/LJIqW You'll see that, while most effective at frontal address, there is some sensitivity toward the rear of these pickup patterns. When pointed at the sky, my mouth is behind the microphone and, as you detected at 2:03, being picked up to some degree. To give you some insight into the gear used, we mounted our mics to Auray boom poles with Auray windbusters and fed the MC24-EL and ES via Kopul XLR cables into a Sound Devices 633 6‑Channel Field Mixer. We DID use some production trickery on set and I'll let you in on the secret: David's Ruggard bag is empty and just for show! His XLR cable is feeding into Tommy's Ruggard Fast-Action Bullet 55, which is housing the Sound Devices mixer (and recording both microphones from there). I thought it looked better for both actors to be fully-kitted even if just one was doing the mixing. I'd ask you not to tell but I guess the cat's out of the Ruggard shoulder bag, now. :) Tommy and Dave used Senal SMH-1000's to monitor their audio. My DP, Kevin, shot this on a Sony FS7 and I used Plural Eyes to synchronize in post (Adobe Premiere). It's conceivable, due to synchronization, that there may be a slight offset (80 milliseconds or so) between the image and the audio, which may be contributing to your suspicions but it meets my standards. You raised a great question and I hope I provided some clarity. Thanks, again, for your discerning eye. PS - Want to be my script supervisor on the next shoot? ;) Best, Shawn

I found out about this company about 15 minutes ago. After seeing the video I thought they might be one of those hidden gem small companies and now after reading this comment, I realize these guys are just totally savage.