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440 Forums _ Getting Started _ Sound Inferface For A Camcorder

Posted by: boilerblues Fri 30 Jul 2004, 12:34

I like to video tape concerts (with band permission) as well as audio recording at concerts. With my video tape the sound is too loud for the camcorder microphone so I end up clipping. What suggestions do you have as to how I can get good sound on the camcorder? It's a Sony TRV22.

I have been recording in with my minidisc and then running out the headphone out through an attenuator cable into the mic in on the video camera. The problem there is that my connections are not real clean and I often end up with a lot of static on one channel of the audio on the video tape.

Posted by: td3k Fri 30 Jul 2004, 14:19

What about patching a line level out [tape out possibly] from the PA board into the mic jack of the camera? Use good cables and adapters to avoid noisy connections. You will have the same mix as the front of house.

( Always be careful of levels when hooking into equiptment from a PA system to avoid damaging your gear )

Posted by: dasasoul Fri 30 Jul 2004, 20:45

the IMIC (USB)it is a pre amp. $35 will clan the audio signal

Posted by: boilerblues Fri 30 Jul 2004, 21:22

The iMic doesn't appear to have a compressor. My biggest problem with going into the camcorder is overwhelming volume.

Most situations I can't plug into the sound board, and a lot of times the sound board feed isn't that good.

Thanks for the thoughts, I don't think those options are going to work.

Posted by: fabulousray Sun 1 Aug 2004, 00:26

Plug into an open sub out in the sound board (each of the tracks being punched in to that sub). Control the level that gets fed to the camera by that sub, keeping a minimal level of audio feed to the camera, you can always normalize the tracks later on with Peak.

Posted by: boilerblues Sun 1 Aug 2004, 04:48

At the shows I don't have access to the sound board, plus the band has to be really well mic'd for it to sound worth anything. The primary person I record it wouldn't really work very well. Ambient recording is the only option and it's better.

Posted by: jerviswest Sun 1 Aug 2004, 06:14

You need a BeachTek DXA-4 DV camera adapter

Regards

Mike

Posted by: Riverdog Sun 29 Aug 2004, 22:05

Another answer can be to use a simple mic pre-amp to attenuate the volume before it gets to the camera...
I also believe that I read somewhere that Sony has some type of resistor "attenuator" you can attach to the camera to control the sound...

If you're going to be editing your video for any purpose...
The final - And I believe most professional solution - would be to bring your MiniDisk or some other audio device and record the audio directly to THAT - Then mix them together upon completion...

Most digital gear now is clean and stable enough to provide a good sync almost without any timing... And if you're going to be cutting up your video anyway - It'd be nice to have the best possible audio available...

Hope this helps...

Posted by: Riverdog Sun 29 Aug 2004, 22:08

EPP! I spoke too soon...!
jerviswest - You're right...
I looked that unit up on the net...
I should get one of those myself!!!!

Posted by: boilerblues Mon 30 Aug 2004, 13:12

I've tried syncing my video with my minidisc audio, they don't sync well.

I'm going to try using an M-Audio mobile pre with my laptop to be able to control the sound level coming out better, hopefully it'll be a cleaner signal. We'll see how that works.

The BeachTek unit looks great, but I don't want to mess with 2 sets of microphones (I still want a seperate audio recording). That's plan B if the mobile pre doesn't work.

Posted by: Presto Mon 30 Aug 2004, 21:03

Thanks for the tip jerviswest. The dxa6 seems appropriate for my needs.

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