I want to be able to hook a microphone up and record scratch narration and other sound directly into FCP. I see that FCP has a VO tool, but it doesn't seem to pick up a microphone hooked directly into my Blackmagic Decklink extreme card. I suppose I need a mic level to line level converter. Would that be all I'd need? I thought I'd see some level without a converter anyway. Has anyone done this?

Ideally l'd like to be able to hook up mics requiring phantom power too and record audio for final use. But I don't believe I should have to spend more than $200 or so for this. What's the best way to be able to do this short of buying another card and filling my last available PCI slot? I don't want to do that and believe this should be relatively simple.

Thanks,

Loch

Loch,
I only edit with DV through FireWire so I have no experience with the Decklink card, but I use Final Cut's VO feature all the time to record commentaries and sometimes sound fx. If the VO tool recognizes the audio in on your card, any amp should work. I use an old Fostex 4-channel mixer that cost well under $200, and I imagine anything at all will work to boost the signal. I've also used the head from a friend's PA system when I didn't have anything else, and that worked just fine, but the VO tool doesn't seem to recognize any mic without an amp in between the mic and the Mac. I've used a Sennheiser ME66 (low-cost phantom-powered shotgun) and a Shure dynamic mic meant for vocals, and both work well with the 4-channel mixer. Hope that helps.

Is it possible to run the firewire from your camera directly into the Mac? Thus giving you a way around the problem. If I take the mic from my camera and record live audio I am thinking it should work. The flow would be, voice to mic to camera to firewire into the machine. If I am totally wrong you do not have my permission to shoot me but you can feel free to laugh all you want. I will be finding out real soon as I already have FCP and will be getting the computer to run it on in a few hours. YEA!