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Home: Video University Forums: Wedding & Event Videography:
When Mics Attack! Gear Gone Bad.

X-Rob_Stevens
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Nov 13, 2002, 6:15 PM

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When Mics Attack! Gear Gone Bad.	Can't Post

I hate giving clients anything sub-par. I have to give a client a copy of their wedding video with very poor audio. The lapel mic crapped out (it was going to MD). So the only audio I have is from the camera. Luckily you can still hear them, and even after a whole bunch of NR filters and such it's better, but still not as good that that nice, up-close sound from the lapel. I'm giving them a free extra DVD as consolation, but I am still debating whether I should mention it. BTW, this was not a wedding I shot, but I sub-contracted the wedding to a local semi-pro videographer. Lesson learned. From now on, I only book those that I can shoot. I feel bad having to give them something other than the best, because it's what I promised, but I still think it's a good video, and they did get a good price ($800 for full 2 cam coverage in pre-wedding prep, 2 cams and operators for ceremony, and reception coverage until 10:30 DON'T ASK WHY IT'S SO LOW!! ANOTHER DUMB MISTAKE! That's not happening anymore either...), but I don't feel like it's as good as it could be. The wedding I did the weekend before is amazing by comparison.
Just needed to vent. I never post on this board, just read stuff. Thanks for all the great info and tips, and hopefully you learn from my mistake... Always double check gear before the weddings!

X-Dan_Holden
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Nov 13, 2002, 6:22 PM

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Re: When Mics Attack! Gear Gone Bad.	Can't Post

I'm sorry to say I've had the same thing happen, except I didn't push HOLD on the MD Player, and the groom patted his jacket and hit stop before the ceremony even started. A week or two later when I went to input the audio on my cpu, I was VERY upset, but luckily I was in the front row with my main cam and got close enough that the audio was okay. Yes, not great, but audible. I could only blame myself for not pushing HOLD, but I learned my lesson too! Dan Holden

X-Paul_Holt
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Nov 13, 2002, 8:33 PM

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Re: When Mics Attack! Gear Gone Bad. [In reply to]	Can't Post

May I respectfully suggest that the primary audio source should always! be monitored through your Headphones..To any newbie sell your mother;-) if it means getting radio mics...Always monitor your audio...MD,s in my opinion are Backup devices! pure and simple......see also post on new Sony Radio Mics.

Regards Paul Holt

: I hate giving clients anything sub-par. I have to give a client a copy of their wedding video with very poor audio. The lapel mic crapped out (it was going to MD). So the only audio I have is from the camera. Luckily you can still hear them, and even after a whole bunch of NR filters and such it's better, but still not as good that that nice, up-close sound from the lapel. I'm giving them a free extra DVD as consolation, but I am still debating whether I should mention it. BTW, this was not a wedding I shot, but I sub-contracted the wedding to a local semi-pro videographer. Lesson learned. From now on, I only book those that I can shoot. I feel bad having to give them something other than the best, because it's what I promised, but I still think it's a good video, and they did get a good price ($800 for full 2 cam coverage in pre-wedding prep, 2 cams and operators for ceremony, and reception coverage until 10:30 DON'T ASK WHY IT'S SO LOW!! ANOTHER DUMB MISTAKE! That's not happening anymore either...), but I don't feel like it's as good as it could be. The wedding I did the weekend before is amazing by comparison.
: Just needed to vent. I never post on this board, just read stuff. Thanks for all the great info and tips, and hopefully you learn from my mistake... Always double check gear before the weddings!

X-Rick_K
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Nov 14, 2002, 2:25 PM

Post #4 of 4 (791 views)
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Re: When Mics Attack! Gear Gone Bad. [In reply to]	Can't Post

We had that happen with a wedding we did... We were using a MD on the groom. We had just bought a new stereo lapel mic from Radio Shack (our first mistake), but we never tested it... The connection to the MD was fine... unless you touched it. Because the MD was in the grooms pocket, all the audio was crackly and (aside from a lucky 30 seconds during the brides vows) everything was unusable... We were excited about the ceremony, because the bride and groom were a good looking couple, and it was a beautiful church. We thought it was going to be great.... The video all turned out nice, but the sound was pretty bad. For me, it wrecked the whole video. I cringed when I watched the final product. I never mentioned anything to the bride and groom, because they didn't pay much. Also, we were still in our first year of business, so (I'm sad to say) it was still one of our better weddings that we had done at that time. The couple said they loved their video. I did not love it, but like I said, we were newbies, so perfection was not expected. I don't know your situation. If you are a reputable pro, you may need to tell the B&G about the mistake... However, telling them about it, will definitely draw their attention to the crappy sound. It's tough to say what you should do.
Since then, we have purchased UHF wireless microphones. We have about a 90% success rate of having the pastor/presider wear one of the UHF units. The sound is amazing! We also put a UHF unit on the groom.
We still use minidisc as backup sound, but we no longer have anyone wearing it. The last wedding we did, we were able to hook the md to the AUX out on the main mixer board of the church. That was pretty cool! The first time we have done it successfully. It worked nicely, because there were two pastors and neither one wanted to wear our UHF unit. Luckily, their mics went into the mixer, so we basically got a "soundtrack" of the entire ceremony.