Topic: Camcorder/Soundboard combo

[toodiesel]

Hey all,

I'm getting into taping, especially videotaping, but would like quality audio to go along with it. 

I noticed some camcorders have a cold accessory shoe, and others a hot accessory shoe.  If I'm going to a run a soundboard feed into the mic in for my camcorder (Canon Optura 50), do I need a hot accessory shoe?   

Thanks for your time,

Damjan

[gratefulphish]

Probably not.  As long as there is a mic in plug, that should be all you need, although you should be aware that some board feeds are hot enough that they can overload a camcorder mic in.  You may want to test it out in advance, and if necessary, get some attenuators.

[toodiesel]

hey gratefulphish - thanks for the info!

[taperroy]

this subject is well covered in the video taping section

[willndmb]

i don't know what cold/hot is
but when i run sbd into a camcorder i have always had to use a -20 attenuator

[Church-Audio]

Hey all,

I'm getting into taping, especially videotaping, but would like quality audio to go along with it. 

I noticed some camcorders have a cold accessory shoe, and others a hot accessory shoe.  If I'm going to a run a soundboard feed into the mic in for my camcorder (Canon Optura 50), do I need a hot accessory shoe?   

Thanks for your time,

Damjan

You will need atleast a -40 db attenuator.. actually to go line out into your mic in and not drive the AGC crazy..
Chris

[guitard]

Hmm... most camcorders just aren't made for audio recording and can really be a pain in the ass when you do try to "cover two bases" with them.

On a couple of occasions when using a nice mic w/ battery box to record audio into my videocam while filming, the plug became a little loose and I ended up with either no audio or only audio in one channel.

Even a crappy little MD recorder with a cheap mic will usually get you much better audio than you'd otherwise get with your videocam's audio capability.  If there's anyway you could swing something like an MD recorder, I think it would make life a lot easier for you.  And if something goes wrong with the MD recording, you at least still have the audio you recorded with the cam's mic.  It might not be that good - but still better than nothing. 

[Church-Audio]

Hmm... most camcorders just aren't made for audio recording and can really be a pain in the ass when you do try to "cover two bases" with them.

On a couple of occasions when using a nice mic w/ battery box to record audio into my videocam while filming, the plug became a little loose and I ended up with either no audio or only audio in one channel.

Even a crappy little MD recorder with a cheap mic will usually get you much better audio than you'd otherwise get with your videocam's audio capability.  If there's anyway you could swing something like an MD recorder, I think it would make life a lot easier for you.  And if something goes wrong with the MD recording, you at least still have the audio you recorded with the cam's mic.  It might not be that good - but still better than nothing. 

Good audio can be done on a camcorder, you just need to pad the living hell out of the signal.. I have used camcorders to record many of the shows I have mixed. Because the band wanted to see what they looked like on stage. I always found that a 30 to 40 db pad and it worked. But again that also depends on the camcorder. I was mostly using Sony Hi8 stuff....

Its really hard to sync up a md to a camcorder but it could be done in a good editing program. All you need is a visual and audio event to be able to sync the image to the audio.. Like a slate that they use in movie shoots. with a microphone attached to it so you can see the slate close and hear it at the same time and use it as a reference to sync them up. Or you can always use a pro camera and a digital recorder with time code and call it a day...

[guitard]

Its really hard to sync up a md to a camcorder but it could be done in a good editing program. All you need is a visual and audio event to be able to sync the image to the audio.. Like a slate that they use in movie shoots. with a microphone attached to it so you can see the slate close and hear it at the same time and use it as a reference to sync them up. Or you can always use a pro camera and a digital recorder with time code and call it a day...

I do this all the time - to include synching audio and video from old analog sources that are way out of synch in terms of speed/length.  Like anything, it's just a matter of practice and experience.

With modern digital video and audio recordings, getting them synched is usually really easy because the speeds are virtually identical in most cases - even after they've been running for an hour.  So once you get it synched at the beginning, you generally don't have to worry about it drifting out of synch later in the recording.

[dxtreme]

if you dont have a slate, just use your hands and do a clap. Make sure you point your cam to the clapping hand. Once in post, line up that audio spike waveform with the picture of the hands clapping. This is how they do it in the old days before TC this and TC that. However, they use a wooden slate instead of clapping hands, but the principle is the same.

good luck