In Practice

You've read about the equipment and you're keen to try a bit of sound recording? Good. But remember to take along your ears.

The best way to hear a track is to close your eyes! Strange, but that way you'll concentrate on what the headphones are giving you, rather than letting what you hear be coloured by what you see.

So if you see a sound recordist reclining in a chair, don't worry. He's not sleeping off a hangover; he's hard at work.

MACRAME FOR BEGINNERS

The best way to learn more about the sound recordist's job is to do it for a while under guidance on a simple shoot. Right. Let's say you're doing a cookery programme. The main sequence is one cook, nobody else. Easy. The rifle mic will be perfect.

The first thing to do is to plug in everything. The microphone plugs into the mixer, the mixer into the camera, the headphones into the reverse feed from the camera and…

Right.

UNTANGLE YOURSELF AND TRY AGAIN

Try to keep any trailing wires to a minimum. Coil up any spare and keep it either in your hand or in a soft clip (Velcro loop) attached to the mixer. That's better. Switch on the mixer and fade up the microphone channel just to check. If the camera isn't switched on yet you may not hear anything; plug your headphones into the mixer and try again. Check that the volume control is at maximum and try again. Check that the battery power indicator is fine and try again. Check you're fading up the right channel and try again.

If you're still in trouble ask for help. There are settings on the mixer that need to be set for different microphones (e.g. phantom power), but don't fiddle with them unless you know what you're doing.

But, almost certainly, you'll be hearing the microphone output okay. Try listening with your eyes open and your eyes closed. Different? Good.

LEVEL-HEADED

Now you need to check that the recording level on the mixer and the one on the camera are the same. Unfortunately a bit of technology is needed at this (otherwise simple) stage:

There are generally two kinds of meter and two kinds of readout. First the readout: these are either mechanical or electrical. The mechanical ones have a little pointer that swings about; the others have a series of little lights or blobs in a little indicator screen (the blobs are often arranged so that they form a bar rather than separate bits). That's easy enough.

The two kinds of metering system are the VU and the PPM. The letters stand for something like 'Volume Units' and 'Peak Programme Meter'. The VU is cheap to make; the PPM is much more accurate. They work in different ways; more of that later, but first you need to know which one you've got.

Luckily they're easy to tell apart. The VU meter has a scale that reads in decibels (db) - just a way of measuring the loudness of a sound. The scale goes from something like minus thirty to about plus three db (the plus area is usually indicated by red). The PPM has a scale from zero to eight - simple numbers, no red area, no db markings.

MIND THE CEILING

When the cameraman is ready, fade out the microphone and press the button or whatever that sends reference level tone. This is just a nasty constant whine that recordists seem to enjoy and which drives everybody else mad. Check the reading on the mixer; if it's a VU meter it should read zero; if it's a PPM it should be four (mid scale).

Now check the camera end and adjust so the readings match… But here's where it does get a bit complicated. If you're working with an older camera (Beta SP or something) set the level exactly the same - zero. But if you're using a newer digital camera you should set the camera level to minus 12 db.

This apparent nonsense is to do with something called headroom. If you overload an older analogue camera it doesn't sound too bad at all; if you do the same to a digital recording it's dreadful! So - give yourself a bit of for error. You can record without worrying about banging your head on a low ceiling.

Right. That's all the technical stuff for now. Switch off tone and fade up the microphone channel. If you've plugged your cans into the mixer, move to the camera feed again. Hang the mixer round your neck so it's in front of your body, not to one side. You're ready to start work on the first shot.

MICROPHONE PLACEMENT

So find out what that shot is. If you don't know ask the director, the cameraman, the production assistant. Let's say it's a slightly wide mid shot of the presenter plus table top. You could try working with the microphone direct but, as it's slightly wide and the presenter might move around, you'll probably find the boom pole or fishing rod useful. If it isn't already mounted, screw the microphone in its windshield to the end of the pole.

Look around at the lighting and see if you can work out which light is the key light. If you don't know, ask the cameraman which side he'll use for the key. Then go and stand on the other side of the camera.

If you work on the same side as the keylight your microphone could make a shadow on the wall or backdrop (or even on the presenter's face). You're not guaranteed a shadowless life on the other side, but it's a good start. Stand a few feet away from the camera (walls, light stands, etc., permitting) and face the camera, not the performer.

Now extend the fishing rod a bit - and then a bit more. It's called a fishing rod, but don't hold it like one - with the thick end against your body. Instead hold both arms over your head. Try to take the weight of the thing on the arm nearer the action. That means having your arm roughly halfway along the pole, not at the end. Keep that arm steady and straight, and use the other arm to position the microphone.

Not like this…	…but like this.

Hang it over the presenter's head and a little in front of him. If the cameraman has finished setting up, dip the microphone into shot and wait. He'll signal up, up, then clear. Go up another few inches for safety, then try to find some marker on the background that lines up with the microphone so you know the safe height. Wiggle the microphone about and check for shadows.

Now close your eyes and listen. Can you hear a lot of extraneous noise? Move the microphone about a bit (you'll have to twist the fishing rod to keep it pointed at the presenter). Close your eyes again and listen. Hopefully you'll find a position where you get maximum wanted noise and minimum unwanted.

REHEARSAL

Don't ask the presenter for sound level. Wait for rehearsal. Then adjust the meter so it's swinging a little bit (VU) or averaging 4 (PPM). Here's the other reason you've got the fishing rod balanced in one hand!

You'll get to know your mixer and its meter, but not all meters are equal. The Shure, for instance, has a very slow meter; short loud noises can completely overload the system, but only read minus ten db on the meter. Shure, and other makers of budget mixers, know that and supply an overload light as well as the meter. This light is usually near the meter and red. If it comes on more than rarely, wind down the mixer knob; too low a recording level can sound hissy, but an overload sounds dreadful.

Anyway, you're working in a quiet environment with a professional presenter, so you should be able to get a reasonable level without overload. Watch out for not-so-professionals, though; they tend to speak quite quietly on rehearsal, then boom out for the take.

If that does happen and it's hugely over the top, adjust your level to match, then ask for another take. Of course, if it's a long take and the beginning was no good, you should indicate signal to the director that it was no good. Don't, though, shout out, 'Cut'. It's the director's party, and he might have reasons for letting things go on.

There are exceptions to this rule. If you're in the middle of a tender love scene and a 747 roars right overhead, the director will almost certainly notice. But many of them tend not to hear more common sounds that can ruin a track. Let the take go on, but report it as no good.

There are other times when only you know if the track is good enough. If the director calls cut right in the middle of a door squeal, maybe. (Though you could just re-record the squeak on its own - sync isn't likely to be a problem.) The main thing is that you should listen with your ears (quality) as well as with your eyes (quantity).

AND ANOTHER THING

This is only meant to be an introduction to sound recording, so I'll keep it short. But there is one major fact about sound you should always bear in mind, whether you're producing, writing or directing; you can add sound to a track, but you can't subtract it.

A buzz track (room tone to Americans) is a recording of silence! Well nowhere outside of an anechoic room is really silent. It's a recording of the background noise minus the dialogue. After you've finished with a location, it's a very good idea to call for silence, put the microphone into the basic position you used, then ask the cameraman to record. Call out at the start of the recording to identify what you're doing and help the editor. Then wait forty or fifty seconds, and call 'cut'.

Imagine you've shot an interview in a field. It's a fairly quiet location - just the occasional car passing by. If the editor wants to cut an answer just as a motor bike has appeared on the track, the viewer will notice the edit and be distracted. But add buzz track of a similar bike at that point and the edit will be totally invisible.

You need to bear this 'inability to subtract sound' in mind when you're dealing with things like music. If a character turns on the television or plays a CD, you should insist that the television, CD player or whatever makes no noise. Add it later on the edit.

The same thing goes on a bigger scale. I've seen a ballroom scene with maybe a hundred dancers waltzing around in perfect time to silent music. Uncanny. But when the music was added to the dialogue track it was perfect. How did the dancers keep in time? Well that's a long story…

And too long for here. That should be enough to give you a flavour of location sound recording. If you want to know more, try the Focal Press book on multi-skilling - it has a really good section on sound as well as loads of stuff on camerawork and lighting.

On the next page you'll find a quick reminder of the basic steps.