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Tom Test · DC Joined: 23 Jan 2007 Posts: 629 Location: Chicago, IL

I'm trying to get an LCD monitor in my booth, and have a question I hope I can get a quick reply to. I know it is bad to run a mic cable alongside a power cord. Is it also bad to run a VGA video monitor cable alongside a mic cable?
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ccpetersen · Posted: Mon Jan 23, 2012 2:39 pm Post subject:

Funny you should ask that. A while back, I had a weird buzzing sound I was trying to track down and it turned out that my mic cable had accidentally gotten draped alongside the cable for my monitor AND the power line for the computer after a little desk rearrangement I did.

After I figured that one out and solved the problem by moving the mic cable away from the others, I noticed another fairly faint buzzy rhythmic signal that had probably been masked by the first sounds. Turned out that the power supply for my phone was also causing noise even though it was a few inches away from the mic cable.

Mind you, these were not loud noises, but I could definitely hear them through my headphones in quiet spots. I suppose I could go searching for a top-end mic cable, but at the time, it was easier to simply move the offending cables and isolate the mic line a foot or more away from the others.

YMMV.

Tom Test · DC Joined: 23 Jan 2007 Posts: 629 Location: Chicago, IL

Thanks CC!

I've had hum issues in the past very sporadically. I wonder if that will now go away entirely, since my mic cable is no longer right next to a power cable.

My guru George Whittam was able to answer this question very quickly (the answer is: it does not seem to cause any problems to have a mic cable alongside a VGA monitor cable), so I think I have this handled now.

I am very happy to have an LCD monitor in my booth (finally!), so I can stop printing out scripts (which not only wastes paper and ink, but slows me down when auditioning - which can make the difference between being heard or not). AND I can now read from PowerPoint scripts without having to tediously cut and paste the text into a Word doc. It sure feels good to cross this task off my "to-do" list!
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Frank F · Posted: Mon Jan 23, 2012 5:04 pm Post subject:

One trick,: don't run the cables parallel to each other. The second is: IF (and I stress the "IF") there is no alternative to running the cables parallel - then wrap the cable without power; i.e.: the microphone cable with aluminum foil for the length of the parallel parts plus six inches.

Frank F
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todd ellis · Posted: Mon Jan 23, 2012 5:54 pm Post subject:

would a ferrite core fix it?
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ccpetersen · Posted: Mon Jan 23, 2012 6:18 pm Post subject:

Tom,

Yeah, that power cable issue seems to be more of a problem than the VGA cable. I should have been more clear in my reply that the monitor cable that I thought was giving me problems was the power cable, not the signal cable.

I have often wondered about narrating in front of a monitor -- I don't do it, but I've seen pix of people who do. I wonder about the reflection of sound off the monitor. Or am I over-analyzing it?

My setup is to have the mic next to the monitor, not in front of it, and I refer to the text on the monitor to the left of the mic. So, I'm not narrating directly to the monitor.

Cheers,

CCP

Tom Test · DC Joined: 23 Jan 2007 Posts: 629 Location: Chicago, IL

Dayo · Cinquecento Joined: 10 Jan 2008 Posts: 544 Location: UK

Chuck Davis · Posted: Tue Jan 24, 2012 7:51 am Post subject:

I've got a 15" flatscreen in the booth. I ran the vga and mic cables in separate tracks and fed them into the booth thru the rubber plug with some separation as well. No additional noise noticed here. It really is nice to be paperless. You end up learning some "word tricks" to mark up copy as well.
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georgethetech · Posted: Wed Jan 25, 2012 1:20 am Post subject:

It is absolutely true that a large flat screen near your mic can cause reflections. you have be very careful to get your angles just right such that the screen does not bounce your voice right back into the mic. It's like a bank shot in pool, but in this case you want to avoid it!
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ccpetersen · Posted: Wed Jan 25, 2012 9:16 am Post subject:

George,

When I set up for a recording, I have the mic NEXT to the monitor about five or six inches to the right, and the monitor is angled sligtly left. I can read the copy just fine and I don't get the reflections. However, I was experimenting with a mic and wanted to test it with my laptop and that took a little doing to keep reflections from the monitor coming back to the mic. I finally did it with a combo of making the words larger on the screen (in Word) and a slight angle to the laptop and having the mic again to the right of the laptop. It's not a permanent setup - the laptop is useful for field recording, and of course we also have other field setups. But, it was a useful exercise in many ways.

I really do try to do monitor reading as much as possible to save paper in my own office/studio environment.

CCP

ricevoice · Posted: Wed Jan 25, 2012 10:30 am Post subject:

I would think the type of mic might make a difference in how those reflections get picked up. For instance, my 416 doesn't pick up reflections from the screen behind-and-to-the-left of it, but I have a feeling a U87 would.
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Rick Riley · Posted: Wed Jan 25, 2012 10:32 am Post subject:

I'm probably missing the obvious here. I would love to save as many trees as I can and I even have an extra monitor, BUT, aside from the fact I'm already running two monitors side by side as a split screen (I do a lot of multi-track productions and like to have as much real estate as I can) and from what I understand I can run a second video card for a third monitor, the question is... how do you control and scroll what's on the monitor when you're in your booth?

More often than not, I don't get scripts that just fit on one page. Hobo Laughing

F's that are story boards and such can be several pages. Right now, my conservation efforts have me copying and pasting those type of scripts onto word docs, so I can cut out the direction and conserve paper. To have a controllable monitor in my booth would save both paper and time.

What am I missing in the setup?
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Frank F · Posted: Wed Jan 25, 2012 3:18 pm Post subject:

Reflections are reflections. I use a monitor to read scripts much of the time, however it is a fair distance away from my mic.

If you must read from a monitor (or if you so choose) angle the monitor slightly to the left or right and slightly up and away from a perfect 180 degrees in back of the mic. Although there will still be reflections, those which get through will be sent at oblique angles from the rear of the capsule.

Line gradient or lo-bar mics such as the MKH 416 (shotgun) have good rear rejection and fair - side rejection of sound waves, That said, the reflection will still be heard by the "shotgun" microphone as the sound wave passes back past the microphones elements (yes, this is plural). The sound will likely be more of "woosh" or rushing air sound of harmonics; rather than reflective spoken word.

The U87 Classic, when set to true cardioid will reject approximately 80% of the reflected sound due it particular pattern. This cannot be said of the U87AI FET; it will reject maybe 30 to 40% as although similar in cardioid pattern this microphone has larger rear nodes in the pattern and the capsule bias is different making the microphone pattern more susceptible to side harmonics and reflections.

Frank F
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Jacob Ekstroem · Posted: Thu Jan 26, 2012 4:14 am Post subject:

As Rick, I too am running a dual-monitor setup and have the second monitor hooked up to a monitor splitter, so the monitor in my booth mirrors what's on the second screen. I could use this setup for reading scripts from the monitor; however I've tried it and it doesn't really work for me. I dunno, but there's just something about having a paper script that makes me concentrate better. Also, I do notes on the script all the time.

Obviously, this makes me print out piles of paper every year, and I'm not really proud about that. So here's an idea for those like me (haven't done it yet myself, though):
why not take all your used scripts and donate the paper to the local kindergarden? The kids do not care that it's printed on the back side, all they want is a blank page to draw on.
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