My Challenge and dilemna..HELP!!!!

[Bruce Pelley]

Present situation:

1)I do not personally own a wireless mike system or a mic to hook up directly to the hotshoe.

2)Mainly I use the GL-2 in a church ministry and due to the distance away from where I'm positioned to the pulpit,the onboard sound system capabilities is very limited,especially when it comes to voice/speaking.

3)The church basically doesn't have enough trained audio personell to solve the problem(which will be related below )nor can I without outside assistance form this forum.

I need to physically hook up the GL-2 to the pulpit mike or the main audio feed from the front to get a high level of quality and therefore usuable audio!

Of course as is,it has no XLR or 1/4 inch connections on the unit itself.

Apparently the AV jack in the back is only used for dubbing & to transfer pre-existing data/pre-recorded media and is not usuable in live recording situation,is that generally correct?Please confirm,deny or clarify.

So,my first question is what potential does the 1/8 " stereo mike jack in the side of the unit have to accept a line in from one of the outputs from the main mixer board and thus record the audio direct from another source while shooting live and therefore sucessfully bypassing/defeating the onboard system simultaneously?I also noticed there is a mic attentuation on/off control in the menu.Is that good for anything because one can control either audio channel from the side to record at the best level.

What is your experience when using the mic in jack?

Alternatively,what sort of an add on unit do I need in order to achieve the above?What are the pros and cons of each?

My perference is to have standard phone jacks as opposed to XLR's,but a combination of both would be acceptable.I don't need something fancy and expensive with a lot of bells & whistles,just something that is solid,reliable and does the task at hand well,"marrying" the GL-2 to the main audio system in the church.

Any and all thoughts on the challenge at hand,comments,reccomendations and education on any possibility would be welcome.

Need to impliment this enhancement quickly.

Thank you in advance.

Bruce

[Mike Rehmus]

If you indeed can get a line-level feed from the mixer, then an Attenuator will readily take care of the level issue. About $40 from Shure.

Alternatively, a Direct Connect box may take care of it.

You haven't provided enough specific information about connectors and levels for someone to draw you a hookup diagram.

[Bruce Pelley]

I do not know the level of the signal in db flowing along the various audio paths and have no way of measuring them.

I want to connect the 1/8 inch stereo mic jack from the GL-2 to either:

1)a standard phono/rca jack in the back of the main mixer OR:

OR alternatively:

2) a XLR output,also coming from the back of the mixer.

Besides Beachtek,(which appears to strictly be XLR),what are some other "Direct Connect" box possibilities?

Are there "Direct Connect" boxes that also offer adapters
from 1 eighth inch stereo mini jack( which is the size that fits into the mic jack) to the phono size?

Thanks for continuing the dialogue.

Bruce

[Mike Rehmus]

<<<-- Originally posted by Bruce Pelley : I do not know the level of the signal in db flowing along the various audio paths and have no way of measuring them.
----------------------
If you cannot do some homework and find out, you are going to be guessing when you go to the store and may waste some $.

Without that information, we cannot really help you with specific equipment recommendations.
-------------------
I want to connect the 1/8 inch stereo mic jack from the GL-2 to either:

1)a standard phono/rca jack in the back of the main mixer OR:

OR alternatively:

2) a XLR output,also coming from the back of the mixer.

Besides Beachtek,(which appears to strictly be XLR),what are some other "Direct Connect" box possibilities?

Are there "Direct Connect" boxes that also offer adapters
from 1 eighth inch stereo mini jack( which is the size that fits into the mic jack) to the phono size?

------------------------
A Direct Box should do this but you will or may require some adapters depending on the Direct Box (that's the name of a product sold by many companies, not a description).
------------------------

Thanks for continuing the dialogue.

Bruce -->>>

[Douglas Spotted Eagle]

Bruce,
your mixer will either offer 1/4 or XLR outputs, or both as an aux or monitor output. These can be used. If the cabling distance is shorter than 12 feet, then you can use high impedance cable with no balancing adapter. You'll only need an adapter that goes from either XLR or 1/4" to the 1/8th (3.5mm) input on your cam. If the distance is longer, you'll need to:
Get a DI/Direct box that will connect to the output of the mixer if it's 1/4" output.
Get another DI that will go at the camera end. Then you'll still need the 1/4" adapter to size down to 3.5mm.
Keep cables from the mixer to the DI as short as possible. Keep cables from the DI to the camera as short as possible. Cables between DI's can be as long as you'd like them to be, since they are balanced cables. from DI to DI.
If you are running from a balanced output on the mixer to a DI connected to the camera, again length won't matter.
You'll likely need a -50dB attenuator from Audio Technica or Shure to pad the mixer output. Be cautious and aware of your input levels on the GL, and monitor with headphones.

[Scott Brickert]

Doug:
Would something like this 3-setting Shure do the trick?
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=productlist&A=details&Q=&sku=135091&is=REG

Was there a reason for suggesting a -50dB pad specifically?

What happens if I place two attenuators in series? Are the values added, e.g. a -10 followed by a -50 equals -60dB of attenuation?

Is it safe to say when I'm monitoring the levels, I'm looking for overloads and spikes above 0 dB? Or levels so high even if the levels are manually set low, they spike over 0 dB?

looking for more light,
Scott

[Douglas Spotted Eagle]

-50dB is a pretty common pad, hence the recommendation. Yes, if you place two attenuators in series then you'd combine their values. Not sure why you'd want/need to do that in this case.
You NEVER want to exceed 0dB in a digital environment. You can exceed 0 in an analog environ, but never in dig. Peaks should hit no hotter than -3dB in dig world. I typically shoot for -6 or so, leaving a little room for that "oops" moment where a peak is hotter than checked in sound check.