Good Mic for foley recording?

[joris de man]

Hi guys,

I'm looking for a nice foley recording mic; something to record cloth rustles, impacts and possibly footsteps with.
My knowledge of mics is somewhat limited, so any advice you guys can give me will be appreciated.

I currently use a Rode NT-1000 hooked to a DBX 386 clocked to a Lucid, which is nice for voice recording, but not too great for sound effects recording.

Incidentally, I was also thinking of getting a Rode K2 or a SE Z5600 for adding a different sounding mic to my (small) collection. it would be interesting to hear opinions on these also.

My budget for a new foley mic lies around the 500-1000 dollar mark.

Cheers!

Joe

[Berolzheimer]

The most common mic used for foley is the Sennheiser 416 short shotgun, although for beefier sounds some folks will enhance it with an LD condenser.
It's important to have a hi gain-low noise signal path as you'll be recording very quiet sources.
And, as I 've said several times here recently, if you don't have experience in post sound or specifically with Foley, get someone to work with you who does. You'll save yourself and your clients many headaches.

[Brad Lunde]

Can you actually get a GOOD mic just for foley for under $1000? Seems impossible, but.....maybe used? 416's are a bit above 1K I think new.

I sold a SoundField to Warner for foley, but that was well over $3000!

Brad

[Bob Olhsson]

You want to use the same mike that was used for the production sound since the Foley has to be inter-cut with it.

Years ago, it would often be the 416. Today, you're usually talking about a Neumann short shotgun or a Schoeps hypercardioid.

[e-cue]

Originally posted by joris de man
My budget for a new foley mic lies around the 500-1000 dollar mark.

Cheers!

Joe

414B-ULS. Probably your best option in that price range.

[ozraves]

Originally posted by Brad Lunde
I sold a SoundField to Warner for foley, but that was well over $3000!

Brad

Ted played me a piano track recorded with a Soundfield mic at his studio. I've been dreaming of uses. Foley did come to mind.

[jbuntz]

How about the earthworks line or on a budget, the stapes omnis. Of course omnis will require a good room.

[joris de man]

Thanks guys, for your responses.
I'm probably going to go with the sennheiser 416; it's within my range and I've read quite a few recommendations for it.
I do sounddesign for a games company and want to get away from just using the libs that everybody else uses (I'm already enforcing my personal rule of never using a sound straight from a library).
I realize that I can't do a foley artists' job, but for some basic stuff the custom recording has already started to pay off.
Since I'm working on a playstation 2 game a lot of the fx go down to 22khz or lower anyway:)

The dbx 386 I'm using is clocked to a Lucid and goes digitally straight into Protools; I usually record at 24 bit.
I know it's not the greatest preamp but so far it does the job admirably. Would love to get a focusrite or amek strip at some point though

Any opinions on the K2 or Z5600..would love to get one of those at some point too!

Cheers!

Joe

[Brad Lunde]

Originally posted by joris de man
Thanks guys, for your responses.
I'm probably going to go with the sennheiser 416; it's within my range and I've read quite a few recommendations for it.
I do sounddesign for a games company and want to get away from just using the libs that everybody else uses (I'm already enforcing my personal rule of never using a sound straight from a library).
I realize that I can't do a foley artists' job, but for some basic stuff the custom recording has already started to pay off.
Since I'm working on a playstation 2 game a lot of the fx go down to 22khz or lower anyway:)

<SNIP>
Cheers!

Joe

Joe, Best of luck on the sound thing for games. Take me up on a offer to try a SoundField at some point down the line when it makes sense. Electronic Arts has used it for games in 5.1, and it works flawlessly for things like real crowd noise, things in motion (motorcycles, cars), any source where the image or the ambient environment is the key to the effect. It will absolutely blow your mind-guranteed.
Brad

[Bob Olhsson]

Originally posted by joris de man
...I do sounddesign for a games company and want to get away from just using the libs that everybody else uses

Important distinction, you are talking about sound effects and NOT Foley which is personal noises and footsteps performed to picture and then used to fill out the real thing in the production sound. This means you don't need to worry about matching the sound on a production dialog track.

I would avoid short shotguns unless you have a very large room to record in. A Schoeps hypercardioid would be my first choice because of its extremely low noise level and ability to minimize room noise. If you have a LOT of room noise, a Beyer M-88 might do a better job than any condenser.