lavalier vs shotgun (recording course at home)

[Yoni Goldberg]

Howdy. I'm about to record a professional course in an untreated room including talking head. Need to pic a mic up to 350$. Already own focusrite interface with XLR. I'm having doubts between lavalier and shotgun, I tend to choose shotgun has is presumably has crispier and deeper sound. What do you think? should I opt for a shotgun, I liked the sound of senheissner mke 600. What do u think?

 

[keith.rogers]

"Untreated" often means "sounds bad" but rooms are different. I don't think you need to spend a ton on a mic for this kind of production, and you might want to consider building a frame or two (PVC has been suggested) backing with some heavy drape material or just moving pads if it's not in the video frame, to help with reflections.

For your budget, you could go with a decent shotgun (RØDE NTG1 works fine for that sort of thing in my treated room) a wireless lavalier, or (cheapest and probably as good an outcome) almost any wired lavalier plugged into a digital recorder and copy/process the audio in your DAW afterwards. You could go out on a limb and get both a shotgun and lavalier, test them, and only keep the better solution.

 

[Yoni Goldberg]

Thanks a lot. Can you clarify what that mean + maybe a link to Amazon page:
"building a frame or two (PVC has been suggested) backing with some heavy drape material or just moving pads"

 

[keith.rogers]

Thanks a lot. Can you clarify what that mean + maybe a link to Amazon page:
"building a frame or two (PVC has been suggested) backing with some heavy drape material or just moving pads"

I'm just talking about using some kind of moveable acoustic "thing" that you can throw together if you need something to address echo in the room.

Lengths of PVC pipe with a couple of 90º connectors glued together and anchored to a plywood base can make a frame for hanging an old bedspread, for instance.

I've used boom mic stands (without a mic) and a heavy quilt or similar draped over them.

You can buy these things, but they're not cheap, and something you put together is often all you need, especially if it's a temporary situation until you figure out what/where/how/when you really want to treat the space. (These are sometimes called "gobos" and here's one seller, but really, just get something to hold up heavy material that will stop early, hi to mid-hi frequencies from getting to the walls and creating a mess in your recording.)