Lavalier Question

[kingdomlife]

So this summer, I’m going to be filming a lot of crowded areas this summer, for an example a few thousand people crammed on one street with loud live music playing everywhere. What Lavalier mic would be best for crowded area’s and still capture clear audio around me as I interview people. Pretty much I need the mic to capture my voice and people around me clear while blocking out the thousands of people around me.

[JackWolcott]

You would probably do better with a hand-held microphone with a cardioid pickup pattern. This focuses the mic’s ability to pick up sound directly in front and pretty much eliminates sound from the sides and rear of the mic.

A lavaliere mic will tend to pick up ambient sound from 360 degrees and while it might be o.k. for you when you’re talking it won’t do much for someone you are interviewing.

The trick will be to keep the mic as close to your mouth as possible to reduce the street sounds and the music background.

[Kevin Mc]

A lavalier mic is absolutely the wrong mic for the situation you’ve described. It will mostly pick up your voice, and will most likely lose your interviewee’s in the crowd noise.

A few years ago I picked up a Sennheiser MD46:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=&sku=223940&gclid=CjwKEAiApOq2BRDoo8SVjZHV7TkSJABLe2iD3hOy5lAWdJlhHCTVPOT2vY4lvICz39p3p1DnPLvTLRoCPIPw_wcB&is=REG&ap=y&m=Y&A=details&Q=

This thing is *highly directional* and does a remarkable job of picking up only what it is aimed at. It falls into the category of being a reporter’s mic, and is designed for the exact situation you’ve described.

[paulears]

Absolutely correct advice here – lavs are great for capturing sound from all around, exactly what they’re designed for – but have no capability to reject anything! You can get cardioid lavs, but they need careful aiming, and if your person moves their head, then they vanish. For worst case examples, look at motor racing and shooting in nightclubs. Only a mic as close to the mouth as possible works. Even shoguns held in shot aimed at the mouth still are the wrong tool for the job.

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