Video Production Location Sound Mixer / Recordist

While it can be an easy task finding a videographer in Des Moines – Iowa, finding a freelance video production location sound mixer / recordist or boom operator is another story.

How I become a Location Sound Mixer / Recordist

As most, I started my video production career allured by the camera department but it wasn’t long that I discovered Iowa video production sound was vastly underutilized or sometimes completely ignored altogether. While videographers strive for better and better image quality and continue to buy fancy gadgets, audio recording has fallen to the wayside. Don’t get me wrong, video gadgets are cool, but if your don’t have a good sound mixer and a good audio recording your image wont live up to its potential.

To the average ear good sound goes unnoticed, but to everyone, bad sound production stands out and yells “amateur!” to your whole audience.

Due to this lack of sound production in Iowa I found it a necessity to start working my way into sound mixing and recording. Since then, I have started to develop a better and better ear for sound and my audio gear list continues to grow along.

Whether it was audio for a simple interview, a stereo recording of nat-sound, or folly work, I noticed that the more I grew as a boom operator and sound mixer / recordist the more I was able to add depth to the video projects I was involved in. I found that good sound is the missing component (motion cinema’s secret sauce) that pulls you into video as an immersed experience instead of leaving you observing at a distance.

Location Sound – Boom Operator – Gear List

  • Lectrosonics DCR822/DBSMD Wireless
  • Lectrosonics 400 Series & SR Series Wireless
  • Sanken COS-11 & DPA 4060 Lav Mics
  • Sennheiser G3 Wireless
  • Sennheiser G4 500 Series Wireless with plug-on transmitter
  • Sennheiser MKH-8060 Shotgun Microphone with Rycote Softie (x2)
  • Rycote Cyclone blimp wind screen
  • Short K-Tek Avalon carbon boom pole
  • Long K-Tek Avalon carbon boom pole
  • Schoeps CMC641 Supercardioid Microphone – MK41 Capsule CMC6 Amplifier
  • Stereo Paired Schloeps CMC641 for nat sound recordings
  • Electro-Voice RE50 handheld mic (x2)
  • Sound Devices 664 field mixer & recorder
  • Timecode System Wave and MiniTRX+ for wireless timecode sync
  • Tentacle Sync E
  • Betso TCX-2 wireless timecode sync
  • Zoom F8 field mixer & recorder
  • Zoom h6 hand recorder
  • Zoom h4n hand recorder

Work Seen On

PBS, ABC News, TBS, Showtime, FOX News, Discovery, History Channel, National Geographic, IndyCar Series, Iditarod Insider, AOL, along with Hillary Clinton, Al Gore, Ted Cruz, Terry Branstad, Pete Buttigieg, Andrew Yang, Cory Booker, and Bernie Sanders.

Contact: dave@desmoinesfreelancer.com // 515-650-3321

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