Music & Sound for Film and Video

To Lav or Not to Lav

By Bryant Falk
posted Feb 18, 2005, 15:24

By Bryant Falk
What I would like to do with my time here is try and de-mystify the world of audio, and give you, the reader, a very practical hands-on approach to all things technical.

Often I am confronted by new and used filmmakers who are caught in a dark place of bad audio. They spend so much time working on their sets, cameras, actors and makeup, etc. Audio is the last thing on their mind. When I ask who handled the location recording, I usually get the same answer: “Oh just a friend of mine who wanted to help out, he had no idea what he was doing”. As I probe a little deeper the truth really emerges: “I don’t think we even had a sound person, we just kind of winged it”. Well, if you’ve ever tried winging something in the past, you’ve probably realized how much better it could have been had you just prepared a little!

With the above being said… Hello! My name is Bryant Falk, and I am an audio engineer/producer. For the last 14 years I have worked on audio and video projects ranging from a friend’s independent film to having just mixed promos for AMC (American Movie Channel). Also, I am an instructor at Mercy College teaching Sound Design and Audio Production. What I would like to do with my time here is try and de-mystify the world of audio, and give you, the reader, a very practical hands-on approach to all things technical. From time to time, I will be getting my hands on the latest industry gizmos and gadgets and getting you a no nonsense review of said equipment.

As I respect the fully funded feature, I applaud the independent gorilla filmmaker and will do my best to bring answers and not more questions to adventure you have chosen.

To lav or not to lav
Since I come from an engineering background you might think I would share production techniques with you in a methodical and organized manner. Not! First off, like most of you, I come from the creative side! Having fallen into this business after being a lead singer for a cover band more years ago than I would care to admit. Yes, that was me carrying those huge speakers and PA into the Jolly Tinker up near Fordham and all over the Bronx for that matter! I slowly, through wanting to record my own songs, got pulled into the dark and mysterious world of audio recording. So as my first lesson in mixing goes, whatever annoys me the most is what I work on first!

What is a lav mic? Good question. Find a television and turn it onto a news program. The kind that has a very well groomed man or woman sitting behind a desk that has no drawers and has nothing on it except for a coffee mug and useless papers. Notice that little black bug stuck to the anchorman’s tie? That is a lav mic! Yes microphones have been getting smaller and smaller as time has gone by, and believe it or not, those reporter lavs are the big ones! There job is to capture voice (dialogue) as cleanly as it can. It has the advantage of being closer to the source (your mouth) than any other mic. This also gives the advantage of not capturing all the sounds in the room. So here’s the answer to your question. Lav mic as much as possible! It not only sounds better, it is the type of sound we are use to when it comes to commercial programming.

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