audio manual or auto

[John Doran]

hi
i was doing 2nd Camera at a wedding (jvc101e), i was quite close to a childrens choir, i needed the priest's voice as well so i went manual, now i hear the audio is up and down by the editor , other words terrible, i think i should have used manual- am i right?, i use the onboard mic but have a rode but did not use it, camera noise-should i have?, what audio do you people use at a wedding, manual or automatic.

john

[David Ennis]

Welcome to the forum, John.

You'll find that people here have invested seriously in audio equipment. Different situations call for different equipment. While you were running the second camera, what was used for the main audio track?

Anyway, even for a backup audio track, few pros would rely on the built in mic--either in auto or manual mode.

[Jeff Miller]

I used both on a movie shoot once. I put an XLR splitter on the line coming from the shotgun mic and put both inputs into the camera. Then I simply set one channel for manual and the other for auto. I would change the 1st channel around shot to shot, take to take, depending on the action. But I wasn't always at the camera (I had many roles) and sometimes that second channel on automatic would save the day.

I later learned I wasn't the first to do this, it's an established technique called "second channel redundancy".

[Michael Liebergot]

I use several setups depending on the situation.

First off I never use the cameras built in mics. Now with that said, I record wedding audio mainly in this fashion:

1. shotgun mic attached to cameras XLR (or XLR box like Beachtek) and in right channel.
2. Wireless reciever plugged into L channel (I either setup wireless handheld on a mic stand or wireless transmitter fed through mixer) for constant set level audio feeds. As you move throughout the room, your audio source will constsantly change, which is the reason for the stationary feed.
3. Mic feed, fed into digital recorder (M-Audio Microtrack or Edirol R-09) for ambiant backup audio. Sometimes I might use the same mic that is used for my wireless, for redundant backup audio that I can monitor.

Now with all of this being said I will always use manual audio and adjust accordingly, when needed. Using the cameras AGC can cause clipped audio, I ahve found.
Also ALWAYS WEAR HEADPHONES to monitor your audio that's being recorded to the camera.

In your situation the chior should have been micced seperately for ambiant audio purposes.. Also your camera mic should not have been used for getting the preist, as you were probably too far away to be useful. In this case a wirelss should have been used to pickup the preist, or at least a small digital recorder that the preist had on him.

I'm not trying to bust your chops here, but something to think about for the future.

[John Doran]

thanks michael


audio recording on jvc101e is not my strongest, i did wear headphones but obviosuly i did not monitor the sound right, do you have a 101, if so how far should the levels on the display reach.i bought a rode mic and wireless seinnhisers,but kinda a bit nervous about using them.
regards

john

[Michael Liebergot]

Originally Posted by John Doran

thanks michael


audio recording on jvc101e is not my strongest, i did wear headphones but obviosuly i did not monitor the sound right, do you have a 101, if so how far should the levels on the display reach.i bought a rode mic and wireless seinnhisers,but kinda a bit nervous about using them.
regards

john

John, I don't have a JVC101e so I'm not familiar with it. I record using 2 Sony VX2100's currently and a Beachtek DX4 XLR box. I am able to adjust either Left or Right channels independantly on the DX4 box, but still do manual adjustment in the cameras audio input level.
I watch the levels in camera to make sure that I am not clipping my audio, wearing the headphones helps in that regards too.
The Rode mic is a good one from what I have heard and if you have the Seinhesier Eveolution 100 series wireless, then you have a good one too.
The key is that you should be using both when available in your camera, don't be nervous about wireless.

Here's what you do if you are worried about interference...
When you get to the venue, while you are setting up, turn on your WIRELESS RECEIVER only, and see if there is any action on the meters of the unit, if there is then try another frequency, until you see no action on the meters.

This is called scanning the room...
Also, the Evolution series, has a scan feature that will scan for available frequencies, just make sure that you receiver and transmitter are on teh same frequency and you'll be fine.

But another good idea for you would be to pickup small digital recorder (Take a serious look at the New Edirol R-09 which has built in stereo mics and uses removable SD media to record audio, at $399 it might be a bit pricey for you but will really come in handy) or a new HD mini disc recoder for recording backup audio, like the choir, as this will save you alot of headache in post. As you would just take your ambiant audio recorded from your recorder and mix it in with your video and camera audio in post.