Los Angeles, CA (August 26, 2020)—When rapper and singer Dominic Fike jumped out of a plane to reveal his new album What Could Possibly Go Wrong, Jack Goodman helped chronicle the adventure using a Lectrosonics MTCR miniature timecode recorder, UCR411a receivers and legacy UM400a transmitters.
“I discussed the Fike shoot with the rental folks at Trew Audio in L.A., and it was clear we needed a recorder on Dominic’s body,” says Goodman. “It needed to hold onto timecode once we’d jam-synced it. Being extremely compact was also a bonus.”
The wireless was basically for everything except when Fike was falling, he says. “For that, we needed to capture anything that he said as well as ambient sounds like the wind and the chute opening. Sound from a GoPro was not going to give us that vibe. We taped up Dominic with a Sanken COS-11D lav mic, which fed both the MTCR and his transmitter.”
Goodman says he is mainly a post mixer: “So good timecode is important. We jam-synced the MTCR, my Sound Devices 633 and cameras from a Betso Box, and the MTCR must have run three hours total. Lectrosonics recorders are more stable holding on to jammed timecode than their major competitors.”
The MTCR’s split recording mode ensured that Goodman had a workable track for post-production. “It records two tracks at once—one with 18 dB less gain. When Dominic jumped, I didn’t know how loud he would scream. I didn’t know how loud the parachute would sound when it opened. I didn’t know what to expect, and we only had one chance. Between those two tracks, I knew that I’d have material that worked in post no matter what. That feature was essential for us being able to do this shoot at all.”
According to Goodman, the results exceeded expectations. “When he jumped, I was surprised at the range. I heard him scream for about 30 yards, but the signal didn’t cut until over 100. Of course, all that audio was still going into the MTCR. I was surprised that nothing clipped. At any rate, I was able to assemble everything from his lav into this hyperreal moment.”
Fike’s parachute jump can be seen in the YouTube video “Dominic Fike Presents: Fight or Flight.”
Lectrosonics • www.lectrosonics.com
Trew Audio • www.trewaudio.com
Betso • www.betso.eu/sbox-1n
Sound Devices • www.sounddevices.com
Dominic Fike • dominicfike.com
