"Diner in America" is a precarious journey with a punk rocker and his fan-turned-love interest as they travel through middle America. The film was shot in many different suburban locations, which presented multiple audio challenges for the sound team.

Daniel S. McCoy, CAS, owner of production sound company, ToneMesa, provided audio for the project. To capture clean audio in noisy locations, McCoy used a DPA 4061 Miniature Omnidirectional, 4017B Shotgun Microphone and 4018B Supercardioid Microphone, along with 6061 CORE Subminiature Mics.

McCoy found the high-quality sound of the 6061 CORE useful on the set. “Not only was it easy to hide the mic within the actors’ wardrobe, it also concealed better as a plant mic wherever we needed it,” he said. “The 6061 CORE does a great job of capturing nuanced sounds, more detail in rooms, actors’ voices and hard sound effects.”

It was in noisy, less-than-ideal filming conditions where McCoy found the 6061 CORE mic to especially excel. “We shot one scene in a pet shop with an incredible amount of animal noise,” he said. “Despite having to contend with birds chirping and a great deal of crosstalk, the 6061 CORE still provided the clarity of the actors’ voices that I needed. I never had to worry about distortion or the lack of intelligibility that you usually get with multiple hidden mics.”

During a concert scene, McCoy relied on both the 4061 and 6061 mics to capture an authentic sound. “I planted 4061/6061 CORE mics to capture the drum kit, bass and guitar amp,” he said.

“Using my 4017B and 4018B microphones on boom, with the 6061 CORE and 4061 miniatures on the actors and instruments, really took the audio to the next level. I did a mono board mix and positioned spot mics on every instrument and every head amp. It was a very pivotal, intense scene. All the music was beautifully captured, thanks to my DPA mics.”