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Posted by Scott Dorsey on 03/10/06 01:14
<muzician21@yahoo.com> wrote:
>I may be video taping a friend's performance at a local country bar.
>Since it's a typical noisy cowboy/cowgirl type of place, we're thinking
>we should hook up my camcorder to the house sound board.
>
>Using a Sony Digital8 Camcorder, has an 1/8" mic-in jack, though I've
>never used it. Since the camera has onboard mics that record stereo, I
>assume the jack to be stereo as well. It also has one of these 3 into 1
>jacks on the side for analog audio and video input, but I'm guessing is
>strictly for use in VCR mode, and won't accept sound input in camcorder
>mode. Will fiddle with it further to confirm this.
Don't use it. Those things have AVC that cannot be disabled, and the
inputs are unbalanced, have plug-in-power and are incredibly flaky.
Go double-system.
>Going on the premise I'd be using the mic-in jack for taking external
>sound input, what issues do I need to be conscious of? Do these boards
>typically have some kind of auxilliary stereo output that can be routed
>out to something like this? I'm got penty of patch cords and size
>adapters since I assume the stuff on the board will be 1/4", but I'm
>concerned about impedance/compatibility issues with the in-house board,
>certainly don't want to fry my cam.
The board will have an XLR balanced output. If you absolutely HAVE to
use the shitty camera audio, you will want to run it through an isolation
transformer and then a DC blocking cap to get rid of the plug-in power.
You will also need to pad it down a LOT, but since those cameras do not
have trustworthy metering, it's basically a matter of cranking the pad
down until you don't hear it clipping in the phones any more.
Radio Shack sells a cable with a 40 dB pad and a blocking cap for just
this application. Two RCAs on one end, 1/8" stereo jack on the other.
Getting from the XLR to the RCAs is your job, although I would strongly,
strongly recommend transformer isolation.
Note also that the soundboard mix will not be balanced. It will be a
mix of everything that _isn't_ naturally loud in the room and needs
reinforcement. So there will be no drums in it, for instance. You can
use an ambient mike on stage, run that to one channel, then run the PA
to a second channel and mix the two in post. Or you can ask the PA guy
to make you an audio-for-video mix from an aux buss. If he is busy he
may not be willing, though.
But really, really, you want to go double-system if there is any way.
>This cam has no level meter, the sound is auto level, so I'd have to do
>some trial/error tape and playback while something is going on to make
>sure the levels aren't being overloaded. It has a headphone jack also,
>so maybe I could use that for level monitoring. Haven't used it yet.
Yes, you NEED to be listening on the phones throughout. Not only listening
for clipping but also for the inevitable AGC pumping. Problem is that the
levels in most of these places is too high to do it properly with most
phones.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."
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