Both Boom and Radio in Dialogue mix

[fullcode]

Does anyone uses both Boom and Radio to add focus to a Dialogue. And in case the answer is yes, how do you deal with delay between the two?
I'm working on a documentary where sometimes the Boom mic it's definitely too off axis and the radio alone is realy poor. Should I use the lavalier and add reverb and roomtone ecc. or could I think of mixing both mics.

[matisrei]

Sometimes i do.
You have to correct the phase, otherwise those two tracks are out of phase and sound weak/robotic when mixed together.

In your case maybe its good if you get lower end from lavalier and higher end from boom. Separate them a bit with eq and use compressor to mix them smoothly.

Thats what ive been doing when needed - not sure if its the best way tho, has worked for me.

[Etch-A-Sketch]

the tough thing about mixing the two together in the context you mentioned is when the character moves off the boom you will hear it.

I have used the boom and lav together when mixing dialogue. But the most important thing is that the sound of the dialogue isn't distracting.

Without hearing it, it's hard to tell what the right choice would be. But from what you described I would think in this case using the boom (by itself or mixed with the lav) would be a bad choice. If the lav itself doesn't sound great, you can try to fix that with EQ, noise removal and room tone. So long as it is consistent, the audience will tune out any small problems with it.

But if the tone of the voice is changing as it goes from Boom/lav to Lav only (boom off axis) and back to boom/lav again, then the audience will probably notice that more than the less than stellar sound of the lav on its own. But again, it really depends on what it sounds like. Without hearing it, its hard to give specifics.

[danijel]

Absolutely, in wider shots this is a very useful technique. As far as phase issues - if it sounds good as it is, I don't play with delays. If it sounds too thin, chances are, lower frequencies are getting canceled, so instead of EQing, I will try and slide the lavs a little later in time. Aligning the two mics perfectly usually results in too much low end for me (probably because the lows add up perfectly, highs not as much). Problems with actors moving are sometimes very hard to deal with though....
And you can sometimes get small miracles with an off-boom and a rustly-lav.

[philper]

I've found that most of the time this doesn't work. If it works for a particular line then it usually STOPS works a few lines later and hands you a matching problem in the middle of a scene. However, when you are really stuck with a gnarly scene to even out with issues on both types of mics (if you have both to work with....)...whatever works, try anything.

Philip Perkins

[Andrew Mottl]

Hey there,

you might want to try splitting frequency ranges - I sometimes take low to mid from the lav, cut off the annyoing rustly HF, and use the boom's highs to get a little ambience and liveness to the track. Try to not have too large a frequ. range overlap between the two, so as to avoid comb filtering/phasing.

Hope it helps!