So i've noticed (because boom guy brought it to my attention) that after holding the boom up for awhile you can start to slightly hear his heartbeat through his hands...
Probably because he's getting tired. When the body gets tired the heart beats harder. He needs to get in shape. Professional boom-ops have very strong arms and upper bodies.
Also, he needs to hold the boom properly. It should be held very lightly in the hands, not squeezing it in a death grip.
Try getting some pipe wrap insulation from Home Depot - about $2 for a few feet.
BTW, that's why professionals use carbon/graphite boom-poles (they're very light - and very expensive), and why pro shotgun mics are expensive (besides sounding great they are also very light).
I am using the RODE Videomic and an 8ft RODE boom. The handle area has a foam liner but its not enough to hide this. EVERY movement is also heard. If he turns the mic a little as the actors turn or something it picks up.
The internal shock-mount of the RVM is not that great, so will transmit a lot more hand and motion noise than shock-mounts used by professionals. Keep in mind that they RVM is a consumer device usually mounted on the camera, so was not really meant to be used on a boom-pole.
Booming is a very difficult skill to master, and using substandard equipment makes it
A LOT harder.
Our Gain levels are very low around the 30-40 at max. Has anyone else used these and had problems or know what i can do to resolve this issue.
Your gain level references are meaningless. Is it the camera level? Audio recorder level? NLE level? DAW level? Is it db? dBu? dBv? How was it measured?
If you mean you are recording low levels you need to look at your gain-staging and make sure that you have fresh batteries in the RVM. Is the mic is as close as possible? Is it correctly aimed? There are too many variables that need precise details in order to answer for us to try to your question.
