made for tv

undergroundtoon

New member
I was looking thru a new catalog that i got in the mail. Under the NTG-2 shotgun mic it said "specifically designed for film and television production". Are they saying "specifically designed" because it can be put in a telescoping boom pole and mounted on a camera? I know tv uses a lot of neumann and diffrent shotgun mic's. Is a shotgun the official made for tv sound? I was thinking it would be a good mic to try for my portable studio since i will be recording in less than perfect settings and sometimes outdoors. I like the fact you can put a AA battery in them. I read somewhere that sennheisser makes a good one. Any thoughts or advice on this?

sidenote:
I went to a local radio station this week to check out the gear they used and i was supprised. The dj just used a sm58 with a windscreen on a desk top boom(no pop filter). No room treatment. It made me fell a whole lot better about my home studio :D
 
The reason it's 'made for tv'

is because it's a shotgun. Shouguns are used to pick up dialogue in outdoor settings where the subject is at a greater than normal distance from the mic. They're like the microphone version of a telescope, bringing something far away much closer, while rejecting sounds that are not what it's focused on.

Let's say your filming a scene where two people are having a discussion while walking through a park. You (the recordist) and the camera are 30 ft away so as not to be in the shot. You want to hear the conversation, not the car going by, the sound of your shoes on the ground, the bird chirping behind you.

Or, maybe you're trying to record a bird in a tree, without getting the traffic noise around you.

Of course now, with the improvements in wireless, a lot of the things that you would have used shotguns on in the past now are just done with wireless mics.
 
notCardio said:
is because it's a shotgun. Shouguns are used to pick up dialogue in outdoor settings where the subject is at a greater than normal distance from the mic. They're like the microphone version of a telescope, bringing something far away much closer, while rejecting sounds that are not what it's focused on.

Let's say your filming a scene where two people are having a discussion while walking through a park. You (the recordist) and the camera are 30 ft away so as not to be in the shot. You want to hear the conversation, not the car going by, the sound of your shoes on the ground, the bird chirping behind you.

Or, maybe you're trying to record a bird in a tree, without getting the traffic noise around you.

Of course now, with the improvements in wireless, a lot of the things that you would have used shotguns on in the past now are just done with wireless mics.
Ahh yes, I see what they mean now. I was not sure if its "sound" was the reason or not. I thought they were saying kind of like the re20 or sm7b is to broadcast. The shotgun is to tv "sound". I see these shotguns on telescopeing pole's all over tv production (almost always when they record with a live audience). They use them not to pick up the crowd i take it. This was kind of the reason i was thinking about one for a backpack studio. If I was going to record a friend in his untreated home the small field of pick up (40 degrees) would record less sounds bouncing off walls? On tv they seem to hold them only a few feet above the person talking(just out of the camera view). So this is not a direct mic in the sense that i cannot put it on a table top stand and have someone talk into it just a few inches away(6 to 12).

I read a post a while back that i cannot find. It was some kid that worked for a big tv station. he said when someone comes in to do voice work they only use a neumann or a shotgun mic and nothing else. Did they just put one up a few feet away in a sound both and let him talk in the middle of the room?

To me it sounds like the cure for sound treatment, But i am definatly no expert at all. I think i would read a few more post on "the shotgun mic" if this were the case.

I dont think it amplifys sound does it? would vocal "spoken voice" sound bad up close?

Vocals aside it sounds perfect mic for some of the sound clips i need
a car driving by
a car horn honking
a remote control car
gun shots
car doors opening and shutting
forklifts

And like a thousand other outdoor sound clips. My cartoon will take years to make, But making it is half the fun. ;). Everything i use in it is original and recorded by me :D. It sounds like a "shotgun mic" may be in my backpack at all times.
 
I have been going thru all of the treads with "shotgun" in the title for the last few hours. Got some decent info. All signs point to the sennheiser 416. Its only a grand :rolleyes: . You guys are killing me. If you made a chart of the money i spend in life over half the pie would be on my studio. looks like i am going to need to take a trip to the local news and pull a sound guy off to the side and get more info on these. Sometimes i think you guys just look up the most expensive mic and say "thats the industry standard" to spend my pay check :p

If you search ntg-2, ntg, or ntg-1 you get 3 post to chose from. not alot of info on it here.
 
Thanks for the input hairy larry. "How great thou art" made my day. Your my kind of people. I am "broke shopping"(spending money before i get it)and doing my homework before i buy. If i had an extra hundred bucks laying around i would buy you that ev 644 right now. Keep up the love.

May inner peace be with you always my brother,
Robert A.
 
Ev 644

Hi,

I'm not recommending it. I just think it looks cool as hell.

Neither am I disrecommending it. I've never had one.

But in general I do recommend EV mics.

Thanks for the kind words about my music,

Hairy Larry
 
Back
Top