Filming Live Music in a home studio at DVinfo.net

Ryan Biggin · July 12th, 2011, 09:18 PM

Hi all,

I have done the introductions in the 'get to know you part' .....this is my first post...question....PLEAD FOR HELP!!

Ok so I have brought a Canon XA10, I have a Rode Video Mic Pro and also a Sennheiser EW100-ENG-G3 Wireless Microphone Set.

I have a friend with a home studio which is state of the art...mixers etc and I was hoping to go in with as much advice as possible. My camera has XLR inputs, so what is the best way to record the audio to the camera. Or is there another way? Any other advice would be fantastic.

I know this might be a stupid question but I really am very new to this and trust that someone somewhere has done this before.

Thanks to you all

Regards

Ryan

Aaron Courtney · July 12th, 2011, 10:19 PM

Don't understand your question. .Just have your friend track the audio separately and then sync up a stereo track in post

Sareesh Sudhakaran · July 12th, 2011, 11:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ryan Biggin

Hi all,

I have a friend with a home studio which is state of the art...mixers etc and I was hoping to go in with as much advice as possible. My camera has XLR inputs, so what is the best way to record the audio to the camera. Or is there another way? Any other advice would be fantastic.

If you're shooting for video, XLR is the way to go.

However, if you want perfect sound quality, and might use that sound separately for other purposes, or a music video, etc, then you might be better off recording sound with his equipment. Otherwise there's nothing wrong with XLR. The weak links in the chain might be:

1. The microphone (I don't have experience with the Rode, but the Senhessier wireless mic is good). Conduct a test and ask your friend to judge.
2. The audio codec on the XA10 - ask your friend whether the frequency and bit-value is okay for his purposes.

Chad Johnson · July 15th, 2011, 03:10 PM

You definitely should set up for recording the band as multi track at the studio, just as if there were no cameras there. There's no way you'll get a good recording otherwise, as it's probably not set up like on a stage with everything pointing in the same direction. Even if you mixed everything using the mixer, and sent that to your camera, it wouldn't be optimal, as you couldn't tweak it later. So hopefully your friend will track the band for you and allow you to just concentrate on the video.

Now, the video... You should make sure you have plenty of room for the band and the cameras int eh studio. I recently did a shoot the same way - live band in the studio. What really helped my situation was being able to rent dollly tracks from a friend. Due to the size of the room there weren't too many spots you could fit the whole band in one shot. I could but that shot would get boring. I had t cameras - one could not fit everyone in, and one could barely. I put that camera on the dolly and moved back and forth getting an array of great angles to work with, and I could always go back to my shot with al the band in. So try for 2 manned cameras at least, and if possible 3, or at least on set up to fit the whole band in in a corner somewhere.

Anyway, here's the result. There was one gaff in the recording though. The engineer forgot to engage the bass to record!!! So I took the camera's audio (omni built-in mic) closest to the bass, and eq'd out everything but the bass, and we sort of got a bass track to use. Lame, but you gotta do what you gotta do.

Les Wilson · July 15th, 2011, 03:24 PM

Lacking a recorded mix from the studio equipment, you can record it off the board to your camera. But remember, any instrument not mic'd in the board will not be in your mix.

With a 1/4" TRS to XLR Male cable, you can feed a line level auxillary output from the studio mixer into one of your camera's XLR inputs. For stereo effects you'll, of course, need 2 cables and the mixer setup with left and right mixes on two aux outputs. Make sure your camera is set to line level inputs (not mic). If the mixer can send a 1KHz tone to your camera, send the tone and set your levels at -14db to -18db depending on the type of music. Your recorded volume will then track that of the sound operator running the mixer. Search on Set Tone for more about that technique.

You should have headphones on monitoring what your camera is hearing. I always display the levels on my screen as a double check.

July 12th, 2011, 09:18 PM	#1
Ryan Biggin Tourist Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Townsville Posts: 3	Filming Live Music in a home studio Hi all, I have done the introductions in the 'get to know you part' .....this is my first post...question....PLEAD FOR HELP!! Ok so I have brought a Canon XA10, I have a Rode Video Mic Pro and also a Sennheiser EW100-ENG-G3 Wireless Microphone Set. I have a friend with a home studio which is state of the art...mixers etc and I was hoping to go in with as much advice as possible. My camera has XLR inputs, so what is the best way to record the audio to the camera. Or is there another way? Any other advice would be fantastic. I know this might be a stupid question but I really am very new to this and trust that someone somewhere has done this before. Thanks to you all Regards Ryan

July 12th, 2011, 10:19 PM	#2
Aaron Courtney Major Player Join Date: Feb 2006 Posts: 229	Re: Filming Live Music in a home studio Don't understand your question. .Just have your friend track the audio separately and then sync up a stereo track in post

July 15th, 2011, 03:10 PM	#4
Chad Johnson Major Player Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Arcata, Ca Posts: 750	Re: Filming Live Music in a home studio You definitely should set up for recording the band as multi track at the studio, just as if there were no cameras there. There's no way you'll get a good recording otherwise, as it's probably not set up like on a stage with everything pointing in the same direction. Even if you mixed everything using the mixer, and sent that to your camera, it wouldn't be optimal, as you couldn't tweak it later. So hopefully your friend will track the band for you and allow you to just concentrate on the video. Now, the video... You should make sure you have plenty of room for the band and the cameras int eh studio. I recently did a shoot the same way - live band in the studio. What really helped my situation was being able to rent dollly tracks from a friend. Due to the size of the room there weren't too many spots you could fit the whole band in one shot. I could but that shot would get boring. I had t cameras - one could not fit everyone in, and one could barely. I put that camera on the dolly and moved back and forth getting an array of great angles to work with, and I could always go back to my shot with al the band in. So try for 2 manned cameras at least, and if possible 3, or at least on set up to fit the whole band in in a corner somewhere. Anyway, here's the result. There was one gaff in the recording though. The engineer forgot to engage the bass to record!!! So I took the camera's audio (omni built-in mic) closest to the bass, and eq'd out everything but the bass, and we sort of got a bass track to use. Lame, but you gotta do what you gotta do. Dave Hinz - Flute Jam 2 on Vimeo __________________ My Work: http://www.youtube.com/ChadWork1 Sony FS5 :: Panasonic GH4 :: Sony PMW-EX1 :: FCPx :: AT4053b :: Rode NTG-3,

July 15th, 2011, 03:24 PM	#5
Les Wilson Inner Circle Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Boca Raton, FL Posts: 3,014	Re: Filming Live Music in a home studio Lacking a recorded mix from the studio equipment, you can record it off the board to your camera. But remember, any instrument not mic'd in the board will not be in your mix. With a 1/4" TRS to XLR Male cable, you can feed a line level auxillary output from the studio mixer into one of your camera's XLR inputs. For stereo effects you'll, of course, need 2 cables and the mixer setup with left and right mixes on two aux outputs. Make sure your camera is set to line level inputs (not mic). If the mixer can send a 1KHz tone to your camera, send the tone and set your levels at -14db to -18db depending on the type of music. Your recorded volume will then track that of the sound operator running the mixer. Search on Set Tone for more about that technique. You should have headphones on monitoring what your camera is hearing. I always display the levels on my screen as a double check.