shotgun mic playback at DVinfo.net

Nicholi Brossia · August 3rd, 2003, 06:43 PM

Recently, I tried out my Azden SGM-1X for the first time (by using a 1 foot long, xlr-to-mini cable straight into the mic-in jack). My entire shoot seemed to be going along wonderfully, levels were nice and sounded good through the headphones (very low noise, no distortion). However, when the video was played back, no sound came from the GL2's onboard speaker by the lcd screen. I adjusted the speaker volume level, but even at the highest level, all I can hear is a very very faint audio track. The strange thing is that the entire tape sounds wonderful through the headphones and even on my television (via the a/v out). I went back and changed the attenuator and bitrate settings and recorded with the shotgun. This reduced volume and improved quality, but still nothing came out of the speaker but the headphones were great. Also, anything recorded with the GL2's onboard mic comes out of the speaker just fine.
Originally I didn't think that this was a big deal because the audio is obviously on the tape, and I'm not exactly a fan of that dinky speaker anyway. But, today I digitized (via firewire) my footage only to find the audio extremely low even though the meter shows nice levels. I know its not my digitizing settings (well... pretty sure its not) because I also digitized another tape which turned out great.
So basically, I'm stumped at the moment. I've fiddled for a few hours today, but didn't really get too far. If anyone has any ideas or pointers, even guesses, I will appreciate it very much.

thanks

Devin Doyle · August 3rd, 2003, 07:26 PM

Nicholi - Dunno what to tell you! I don't have a solution to your problem, but am very interested to hear how this snafu is solved. This may be a shot in the dark: maybe it has something to do with the unbalanced line?

Graham Bernard · August 3rd, 2003, 11:21 PM

Nicholi, on both times you tried the audio to speaker and TV did you have the headphones still plugged in?

Grazie

Nicholi Brossia · August 4th, 2003, 09:57 AM

Devin:
Being relative to the unbalanced line was the only thing I could think of too. But the GL2 & SGM-1x seems to be a fairly common setup, which means if it is the balance issue, then they should all be experiencing this... whatever it is. I also thought it might be how the xlr is wired to the mini. I'm using a cheap Hosa cable. Its wired like this: 1-bare/ground, 2-red, 3-white. How the xlr is wired doesn't really help me much because I can't see how the mini plug is wired, or even if they're crossed or anything in between. Also, if the cable is the issue, then I wouldn't be getting any audio recorded, or it would all be low quality. I think I'll try using a little computer mic to see if that works. i dunno.

Grazie:
Its sort of strange with that. I was sure to unplug the headphones each time I tried listening to the onboard speaker (otherwise the speaker isn't active), but when plugged into the tv, it didn't matter whether the headphones were in or out.
Hopefully, you're on the right track though. I tend to be the person that has checked every cable and connection 5 times before somebody else comes along and notices the power isn't on. At this point, I'm hoping that there is some setting that I'm skipping over or don't know about.

Thank you guys for the replies. If you think of anymore ideas, please let me know. At this point I'll definately try anything.

nicholi

Nicholi Brossia · August 5th, 2003, 10:30 AM

I've been searching all over the place trying to find some sort of answer to this problem. On the Apple Final Cut Express forum, someone spoke of dealing with this exact same situation but hasn't solved it yet. He's using an XL1 and speaks of stereo1 (onboard mic) and stereo2 (mic-in jack) tracks. Does this apply to the GL2 as well? The strange thing is that FCE does not recognize the second track, but Quicktime/iMovie does... wonderfully. It seems like every time I figure out how to pin the problem on one component (mic, cable, camcorder, firewire, computer) something else happens that proves its not to blame. This is all just baking my noodle right now.

Hopefully this can somehow help discover an answer, because I certainly need one, and seriously doubt that I'm the only one.

nicholi

August 3rd, 2003, 06:43 PM	#1
Nicholi Brossia Major Player Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Oklahoma City, OK Posts: 389	shotgun mic playback Recently, I tried out my Azden SGM-1X for the first time (by using a 1 foot long, xlr-to-mini cable straight into the mic-in jack). My entire shoot seemed to be going along wonderfully, levels were nice and sounded good through the headphones (very low noise, no distortion). However, when the video was played back, no sound came from the GL2's onboard speaker by the lcd screen. I adjusted the speaker volume level, but even at the highest level, all I can hear is a very very faint audio track. The strange thing is that the entire tape sounds wonderful through the headphones and even on my television (via the a/v out). I went back and changed the attenuator and bitrate settings and recorded with the shotgun. This reduced volume and improved quality, but still nothing came out of the speaker but the headphones were great. Also, anything recorded with the GL2's onboard mic comes out of the speaker just fine. Originally I didn't think that this was a big deal because the audio is obviously on the tape, and I'm not exactly a fan of that dinky speaker anyway. But, today I digitized (via firewire) my footage only to find the audio extremely low even though the meter shows nice levels. I know its not my digitizing settings (well... pretty sure its not) because I also digitized another tape which turned out great. So basically, I'm stumped at the moment. I've fiddled for a few hours today, but didn't really get too far. If anyone has any ideas or pointers, even guesses, I will appreciate it very much. thanks

August 3rd, 2003, 07:26 PM	#2
Devin Doyle Regular Crew Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Los Angeles, CA Posts: 188	Nicholi - Dunno what to tell you! I don't have a solution to your problem, but am very interested to hear how this snafu is solved. This may be a shot in the dark: maybe it has something to do with the unbalanced line? __________________ http://devin.par-t-com.net

August 3rd, 2003, 11:21 PM	#3
Graham Bernard Old Boot Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: London UK Posts: 3,633	Nicholi, on both times you tried the audio to speaker and TV did you have the headphones still plugged in? Grazie

August 4th, 2003, 09:57 AM	#4
Nicholi Brossia Major Player Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Oklahoma City, OK Posts: 389	Devin: Being relative to the unbalanced line was the only thing I could think of too. But the GL2 & SGM-1x seems to be a fairly common setup, which means if it is the balance issue, then they should all be experiencing this... whatever it is. I also thought it might be how the xlr is wired to the mini. I'm using a cheap Hosa cable. Its wired like this: 1-bare/ground, 2-red, 3-white. How the xlr is wired doesn't really help me much because I can't see how the mini plug is wired, or even if they're crossed or anything in between. Also, if the cable is the issue, then I wouldn't be getting any audio recorded, or it would all be low quality. I think I'll try using a little computer mic to see if that works. i dunno. Grazie: Its sort of strange with that. I was sure to unplug the headphones each time I tried listening to the onboard speaker (otherwise the speaker isn't active), but when plugged into the tv, it didn't matter whether the headphones were in or out. Hopefully, you're on the right track though. I tend to be the person that has checked every cable and connection 5 times before somebody else comes along and notices the power isn't on. At this point, I'm hoping that there is some setting that I'm skipping over or don't know about. Thank you guys for the replies. If you think of anymore ideas, please let me know. At this point I'll definately try anything. nicholi

August 5th, 2003, 10:30 AM	#5
Nicholi Brossia Major Player Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Oklahoma City, OK Posts: 389	I've been searching all over the place trying to find some sort of answer to this problem. On the Apple Final Cut Express forum, someone spoke of dealing with this exact same situation but hasn't solved it yet. He's using an XL1 and speaks of stereo1 (onboard mic) and stereo2 (mic-in jack) tracks. Does this apply to the GL2 as well? The strange thing is that FCE does not recognize the second track, but Quicktime/iMovie does... wonderfully. It seems like every time I figure out how to pin the problem on one component (mic, cable, camcorder, firewire, computer) something else happens that proves its not to blame. This is all just baking my noodle right now. Hopefully this can somehow help discover an answer, because I certainly need one, and seriously doubt that I'm the only one. nicholi