Monthly Archives:

January 2021

Camera Gear

Cinema lenses, follow focus and compact rigs

January 7, 2021

After years of Nikon DSLRs for stills (from D70 to D810) I have recently adopted Micro Four Thirds (M43) for both stills and filmmaking: with close-focus like most in their 50s, a mirrorless camera with electronic viewfinder seemed a wise move, and I was getting sick of lugging a rucksack of full-frame gear up scaffolding ladders to the top of cathedrals and castles for the day job. I already had a couple of M43 bodies (Lumix GX80) and some Panasonic lenses, so added a few more lenses and a Panasonic Lumix G9: in 2020/2021 this is a real bargain, with 10-bit internal recording giving near-GH5-like video, on top of much better stills (not least the 80MP high-resolution mode).

But, for video, there is the real issue of manual focus: Panasonic lenses are all focus by wire, as is increasingly the way of the world (e.g. the new Nikon Z lenses). Without proper physical manual focus I wouldn’t be able to use a follow focus. I wasn’t that impressed using my manual focus Nikkor lenses with adapters. OK, I had manual focus, but they are not really designed for video. So begun a bit of research on proper cinema (or cine) lenses for M43 cameras, in the course of which I stumbled across the Meike T2.2 lenses (see Humcrush Productions for the most thorough review of these by far), and have just kicked off with the 16mm. This gives me 32mm full-frame equivalent (I wonder how long I will keep thinking in terms of equivalence?), which is (for my purposes) the most useful focal length – a slightly wide field of view. This changes using the Ex Tele Conv mode, which I have set up at the touch of a button, giving 45mm equivalent in 4k and 86mm equivalent in 1080p, so that is the effect of two or three focal lengths for the price of one prime lens. It is the first cinema lens I have used since university days and a revelation: tack sharp from fully open and with a lovely long-throw (270 degrees) manual focus, with, of course, the gears built in. And being an M43 lens, rather than a full-frame lens with an M43 mount option, it is a nice compact size. Taking my old Lanparte follow focus, using a compact Smallrig baseplate (1674) and 6″ rods, I now have a wonderfully compact rig (not some behemoth designed to impress) that is easy to handhold steadily. When really needed, I have an external monitor (Swit CM55-C), top handle, and a lightweight matte box/flag (Tilta MB-T15), but none of this renders the set-up too clunky.

Now which Meike T2.2 lens can I smuggle into the house next?

Minimalist rig with follow focus

Rig with top handle

Rig with external monitor and lightweight matte box

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Audio Gear Audio Projects

Something (not so) nasty in the woodshed: fun with figure of eights

January 7, 2021

It has been a drawn-out project, what with Covid-19 lockdowns and restrictions, but currently I’m midway through recording an acoustic album for Norfolk singer-songwriter Luke Chapman. It’s a long way from some of Luke’s other musical pursuits, such as the stoner grunge rock Rolodex of Gods. After an initial session at Oulton Chapel (lovely acoustics), we have since been using the woodstore part of his workshop on the edge of the Barningham Hall estate: by day Luke is a woodcarver.

With a sitting position and songs with a huge dynamic range, Luke’s voice and guitar playing need the mics to give as much separation as possible between the tracks. Early tests included using a ribbon mic on his vocals (a NoHype Audio LRM-V), but I have since been using three Rode NT2a mics, all in figure-of-eight pattern so that the nulls are used to great effect to cut out spill as much as possible: the guitar mics – a stereo pair – are parallel at 300mm spacing, one aimed around the 12th fret and one towards the bridge. The results are sounding good (to our ears): the Rode NT2a is often underrated, but the HF1 capsule (also used in the Rode K2 tube mic) is quite different from the harsher capsule of the Rode NT1a and is a pretty neutral beast. And so quiet (7dBA) that you can hear the rats running around in the roof as we record. The three mics are fed through to the ‘control room’ (the main workshop) to a Sound Devices MixPre-3: simple, but effective.

I’ll post more – with some audio – as the project continues.

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Audio Projects

Recording a singer-pianist: Ginny Dix

January 7, 2021

Recording a singer-pianist seems so simple, but it is nothing of the sort. Recording a piano itself is hard enough: do you go for one of the wide range of classical approaches to mic positioning (and if so which one?), placing the piano in its (hopefully) good room acoustic, or do you adopt a closer mic technique used more for jazz, rock and pop? And then how do you avoid spill from the piano in the vocal mic and vice versa? Avoiding, or reducing, such spill, of course, cuts the chances of phase issues and lets you edit or process the tracks differently: perhaps a bit more added reverb or compression on the vocal. Overdubbing would make life easier, but, naturally enough, not many singer-songwriters wish to do that: it is unfamiliar and risks the greater problem of a sterile recording. Norwich-based singer-songwriter Ginny Dix certainly wanted to play and sing at the same time and, just to make life fun, required her performance to be filmed at the same time during the recording of her new song, ‘Woman’, in 2017 (recorded in the Barbirolli Room in the Ethelbert Gate at Norwich Cathedral).

I’d previously recorded and filmed Ginny’s song ‘Run Away‘ at the Wharf Academy in 2016, with help from three others. This time, however, I was on my own, so cut out the crane shots and kept it simple: one locked-off shot along the piano, a second tripod shot mostly locked off for close-ups, and one handheld camera moving around, all the time while monitoring the sound and watching those meters. A couple more arms would be helpful. Kit was small and simple as usual: a Lumix GX80, a Lumix LX100, a Nikon D810, a Rode NT55 omni pair for the piano, and an AKG CK93 hypercardioid for vocals. Far from perfect, I know, but it worked out OK: it was interesting to use an SDC on vocals instead of just grabbing the usual LDC. And, yes, Ginny prefers quite a bit of reverb on her voice so that was enhanced with a convolution reverb while editing in Reaper.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy Ginny’s performance.

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Audio Gear DIY Projects

Windshield for LDC mics

January 7, 2021

TIG welded cage

Sometimes, however impractical it seems, it is useful or at least tempting to get a low-noise large-diaphragm condenser (LDC) microphone pair outside. Various set-ups have been tried over the years by nature recordists, often taking advantage of a pair of the affordable and low-noise Rode NT1a mics. I have been particularly impressed by Magnús Bergsson’s recordings with NT1a mics, not least as he often runs these in parallel to Sennheiser MKH20, 30, 40, 8020 and 8040 mics: see his website at HLJODMYND – SOUNDIMAGE.

For use when I need lower self-noise than provided by my usual small-diaphragm condenser (SDC) options, I wanted a mid-side pair of LDC mics (i.e. a coincident stereo pair comprising a figure-of-8 mic for the sides and, in this case, a forward facing cardioid mic), so having a Rode NT1 (the more neutral successor to the NT1a: 4dBA) and a Rode NT2a (7dBA) to hand I have put together an oversize windshield or blimp for a vertical mid-side set up.

For better stiffness than the usual plastic, I have gone for TIG-welded stainless-steel wire (2mm diameter), with the blimp cage incorporating (isolated) spigots to fit a Manfrotto 154 stereo bar. The blimp disassembles into two halves, but, in reality, I just leave it assembled and insert the mics through the spaces in the cage. For the covering, I have gone for Rycote’s red lining cloth and Rycote long fur (all supplied by the metre direct from Rycote: amazingly helpful people there), with the usual elasticated drawstring tightly closing the side opening. The cage was built to my design by a friend of mine, who works with stainless steel wire for rolling-ball sculptures – all for a few pints of beer – and the fur covering was made by another friend with professional sewing skills.

Blimp with fur

Initial testing met expectations, not least with the better windnoise attenuation resulting from a larger diameter windshield than those usually designed with necessary compromises for boom-pole use: it’s the distance from the sound generating surface (the outer side of the blimp) that matters, with the inverse-square law applying.

Needless to say, I am by no means claiming this as a sensible/feasible option for most usage (and I have much more practical alternatives for most projects): it is heavy and I wouldn’t want to carry it and its stand (I use a Manfrotto 1004BAC) more than half a mile or so. There are, of course, many lighter, more robust and less humidity-sensitive microphone solutions that will be preferable for most projects (e.g. a Sennheiser MKH 30/40 pair).

However, this DIY approach might be of interest to anyone else was thinking along similar lines with LDCs (and there is no need to be afraid of getting large studio mics outdoors): LDC mid-side arrays are feasible for such use and it makes good sense to consider (affordable) purpose-built windshields as alternatives to shoe-horning LDC mics into undersized windshields or adaptation of less than ideal items from the local DIY store!

In action, recording musicians in the grounds of Mannington Hall

And for anyone really keen, here’s my design

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Film Projects Live Music

Busking in Andalucia

January 7, 2021

As live music goes, this was about as easy as it gets for the sound-engineer: the band (Rattlebox) decided on a long weekend in the south of Spain in May 2019, to play a largely acoustic gig at a bar and to busk for the first time. That meant no PA and no mixing, but I tagged along for the craic and took the chance to make a short film. Not as simple as you might think: the handy flight from Norwich to Malaga was delayed, and we only arrived in La Tahá in the Alpujarras in the early hours, and there was never a chance to catch-up on sleep. The band kept pace with the lack of sleep and the booze, but, goodness, I felt rough: getting too old for the rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle? And equipment-wise, things were tricky: it was nearly all hand luggage to keep costs low and to squeeze into the single seven-seater hire car, with underpants and socks stuffed into musical instruments, and my cabin baggage allocation mostly given over to the band. So I bought a Páramo Halkon traveller jacket with 15 pockets, which I stuffed with gear for that low-rent Hulk/shoplifter look. As for the gear, well that was mainly a Lumix GX80 camera with a Zhiyun Crane M gimbal, and a Sony M10 recorder with a stereo pair of Primo EM172-based Clippy mics): can’t get much more minimal than that.

It was a lively gig at the La Cueva de Mora Luna in Mecina Fondales on the Friday night, even if slightly surreal with cars driving past between the band and the audience. Spectacular pizzas afterwards on the house. The next night we were invited to a wake in the neighbouring hamlet of Ferreirola (never met the chap alive) and ended up muscling a grand piano down impossibly narrow streets followed by a local on her penny whistle. And on the Sunday we made it to Granada for busking. No time to visit the Alhambra, but made enough for dinner. Satisfying.

Anyway, here’s a rather rough and ready film that captures something of the weekend. The first song (Hares on the Mountain) was recorded back home in Norfolk, outside in the woods with a pair of Rode NT55s with the omni NT45-O capsules.

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