My Experience as Soundman

Sound is a very neglected part of amateur film making. Most people seem to concentrate on obtaining the optimum picture quality but leaving the sound element to look after itself.

This should not be the case, as sound is so important for setting the mood of a film, with concise dialogue, good ambient sound and no outside interference from problems, such as, wind noise, electrical hum etc. In fact, a film with good sound but poor visuals is easier to accept than the reverse. Bad sound creates irritation to the viewer, who in turn, looses concentration and interest in the films content.

When “Valley Films” was in its infancy I struggled to obtain good clean sound, there was always a hum, click or buzz to contend with, and in extreme cases, recording could not take place as taxis, and on one occasion, French Radio were trying to get in on the act.

By this time I’d had enough so I started to research the internet and soon found out that using unbalanced leads and a consumer microphone was causing the problems I was experiencing.

Unbalanced leads are very prone to picking up stray electrical noise and in extreme cases will act as an aerial which can pick up radio, as I have experienced on a few occasions.

Balanced leads are used by the professionals, they have an inherent ability to only pass audio signals and reject unwanted noise.

To identify between the two, look at the cable size and the connectors.

Unbalanced are a much smaller diameter cable and the connectors are 3.5 mm jack and socket plugs, whereas balanced leads are a bigger diameter and the connectors are male and female XLR.

Changing to balanced leads would cause me two more problems, how to connect to the Sony VX9000 camera that doesn’t have an XLR plug and what balanced microphone is needed to suit our specific needs. Once again the Internet came into it’s own. I contacted BEACHTEC in Canada seeking advice on our specific requirements for connecting to our Sony camera. They were extremely helpful and recommended their DX8 sound adaptor. I couldn’t buy the adaptor in this country at that time, so back on the Internet I made contact with B & H in New York, who were also very helpful with advice and I purchased the DX8 from them.

I have found this unit to give excellent results and is very easy to set up and use, especially out on location. It is powered by a 9v battery so is self sufficient in power.

Last but not least was to find a compatible microphone. After more research the choice came down to a Sennheiser K6 modular system ME66 Shot Gun. The specification suits our needs very well. The advantage of this system is one powering module into which you can screw different specification K6 microphone heads. I managed once again with the aid of the Internet to purchase these in Germany at a very reasonable cost.

The story does not quite finish here, because interference of the recorded sound can also be caused by handling and wind noise. These two problems were solved by Rycote with an artificial wind shield to lessen wind noise and a pistol grip that insulates the microphone from noise transferred up the boom pole by moving hand grip or cable slap.

I feel that all the research has been well worth the effort and I feel more confident when I am on location that the equipment I use is supporting me to achieve a more professional sound.

This is where Valley Films Sound is at the moment. There will always be new challenges to overcome and we will always strive to improve, but who knows what the future may hold.

John Gibson.