Audio recorder or Direct to the camera?

[John Travis]

Just wanted to know what those of you who shoot with DV thought about using an audio recorder in the field vs. just plugging into the camera.

 

Is there any point to using a seperate audio recorder if you're shooting with DV?

[Mark Allen]

Just wanted to know what those of you who shoot with DV thought about using an audio recorder in the field vs. just plugging into the camera.

 

Is there any point to using a seperate audio recorder if you're shooting with DV?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I shot something on DV once with a DA88 seperated - but also with a line in to the camera (it was a PD150).

 

My conclusion afterwards was - the advantage of having the audio separated onto so many different tracks really didn't help a great deal in the end compared to the pain in the ass it was to arrange for that as well as edit it (because most editing systems do not allow for cutting 10 audio tracks simultaneously with simple ease... now you could always go back and just reconform it in post or just pick the scenes you needed the separated audio out for - but by that point, why not just ADR if it is just one scene?

 

So - if I were shootin gsomething on DV, I'd take advantage of the whole stealthiness of the DV phenomenon and record into the camera. You have two options with the tracks. 1. recrod stereo dialogue which is not traditional, but I've heard to some people starting to use stereo dialogue for their mixes. or 2. record one track at one level and the other track at a vastly reduced gain level to make sure you don't have any peaks. I suppose there are more options, you could limit/compress one and not the other etc. But you get the idea.

 

To sum up - if I were shooting DV, I'd keep in mind that I'm trying to keep things imple and commit to that. Otherwise, I'd be shooting HD or film or CMOS.

[jasarsenault]

"2. record one track at one level and the other track at a vastly reduced gain level to make sure you don't have any peaks."

 

This is what I have done. It seems to work, but im no expert!

[Guest Daniel J. Ashley-Smith]

Thing is a lot of the sound quality has a lot to do with the amp, generally the mic amps in camcorders seem ok, but to get top notch quality really you're looking at a good microphone plugged into a good mic pre-amp plugged into a good sound recorder.

 

An example setup (what I would use):

 

Laptop / Mac or Wndows - For recording

Alesis Multimix 8USB / 6 Inputs, 2 which are stereo - Hardware Interface and Mixer

Behringer Shark DSP110 / Pre-amp, gate, compressor e.t.c. - Signal Processor