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 parts.

3)The church basically doesn't have enough trained and knowledgable audio personel 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 personal preference 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 and 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

Hi Bruce, I had a school presentation to record a few months back and like you was unsure of the suitability of using the mic in mini jack as feed from the schools mic system.
So I experimented a little and found that by using the attentuation on and getting the school operater to alter the levels on their mixer I was able to get a clean clear direct feed from the mic on the stage while I was at the back of the Hall.

It did take a good ten minutes of experimentation to get the right mix but it did work.

Regards, Cliff Elliott

I use my mini jack all the time. Usually it's with a wireless system that I bought at the same time I bought the camera, but what might help you is this: I had a multi-mic shoot and was using a mackie sound board. I was able to use a split XLR to single mini cable to go from the board into the camera. So if you can get a feed out from the church's sound board you can get into the camera.

(Unfortunately, I have no idea where to purchase such a cable if you need it quickly. It doesn't seem like a standard thing Radio Shack would have. I discovered mine in a filing cabinet along with several dozen other assorted cables. After a year and a half I'm still organizing the last guy's mess.)

You will want to test your levels before the service/event begins and you can do that either at the board or at the camera, or some of each. But that's no different than setting levels any time you're in a new setup.

Does the church have anyone at the board during the service, even untrained? If so you'll want to work with him/her during sound check so they understand your needs and don't change your send mid-event.

Good luck and let us know how it goes.
Kris

IMO bring in a mini disc recorder or other stable recorder and either pull audio from main board or put/tape mini disc & mic on pulpit ( i think it can record for 3 hrs straight ) ...
you can later sync up the mini recorder and the audio from the camera then MUTE the camera audio or do a mix .

Bruce,

I don't have an immediate answer to your question but just a suggestion for a permanent solution. I don't like plugging into church audio systems but rather rely on this setup:

1. Get a BeachTek audio adapter and you'll have 2 XLR audio channels.

2. Get at least one UHF wireless system for the primary speaker or podium for channel one.

3. Get a quality on-board shotgun for ambient sounds and plug into channel 2.

4. Better yet, get a second UHF wireless system and attach the lav to a secondary location near other audio/vocal sources.

We started using 2 wireless systems for churches this year and it greatly enhanced the overall sound quality. This is not a cheap alternative however...total investment might come in around $1400 or more.

Bob