When an experienced client books a sound mixer “two wires and boom” is often where the negotiation starts when it comes to equipment. It’s also the minimum amount of kit required for many jobs that sound recordists who work out of a bag might need on many of their jobs.

First, what does “two wires and a boom” mean? It means a basic sound mixer’s kit that includes a recorder, two high-quality wireless lavalier microphones, and a boom microphone. This basic kit covers most circumstances that “bag mixers” are hired for. These include interviews, simple dialog scenes, documentary shoots, electronic news gather, and corporate videos.

When hired from a mixer, this kit is a significant discount from what production would pay from a rental house when all the incidentals are included like patch cables, lav mounting supplies, backups, and adapters.

From this point, all other gear is negotiated. Do you need timecode boxes? Do you need a smart slate? Do you need extra lavs? What about IFB?

All these can be provided by the sound mixer on top of two wireless lavs and a boom. It’s up to negotiation what else the production would like the mixer to provide. Typically a production would pay something like 75 dollars per channel for wireless, also 75 each for slates and lockit boxes.

Many mixers also provide “cart packages” in addition to the standard two wires and a boom set up. A cart package would include a sound cart with a more extensive set of gear and also might include things like a director’s monitor, a slate and a wiring station. Have more questions about what included in a sound mixer’s package? Please reach out and we’ll discuss what might be right for your next production whether it’s two wireless lavs and a boom or a whole lot more.

Posted on: July 5, 2019, by : Jimmy Gilmore