12-bit or 16-bit sound?

[Patrick King]

Originally Posted by Graham Bernard

Yeah, full of questions today.

1/- How do I set this up and then Capture to NLE?

2/- What would I use this for? It appears from the User Manual that I get 2 x 2 channels of stereo? This a good thing?

TIA,

Grazie

Graham,

1. I think I recall you are a Vegas user, or PPro, neither of which will capture 4-channel audio. Ed Troxel and others here have indicated they use Scenalyzer to capture 4-channel audio from DV. Setup for 12-bit I'm not certain about in the GL series, I think my XL switches and menus are different. Its got to be discussed in your manual though.

2. I've used 4-channel audio only once to prove it works on a new cam. I captured two channel stereo to 1/2 and another lav mic to channel 3/4. Since my mic wasn't stereo, it recorded the mono to both tracks.

Note: Using all four channels has the drawback of reducing the audio sample rate from 16bit to 12bit.

[Graham Bernard]

"I think I recall you are a Vegas user, " . . Indeed I am.

" . . neither [both NLEs] of which will capture 4-channel audio. " And for Vegas, it can't - hence the question how do I.

"Ed Troxel and others here have indicated they use Scenalyzer to capture 4-channel audio from DV. " Yes they have and they do. And if it can, how would I do it with my XM2?

"Setup for 12-bit I'm not certain about in the GL series, . . " ok . .

"Its got to be discussed in your manual though." Well kinda! In my PAL manual it appears on p54 (Audio Mode); p106 (Audio Dubbing) and p109 (Audio Mix) - and, IMHO, it is a tad opaque. Hence my question here. I'm looking for an individual/XM2 user who has successfully attempted this process with the XM2 to allow me to make use of the "extra channel/s" - if in fact they can be created at the point of filming.

And yes, I understand the 16bit to 12bit reduction in quality.

So, until I hear differently:

1/- Recognizing the porsity of responses - thank you Patrick in taking the time to do so - not a lot of people have made use of this option - if in fact it IS an option.

2/- That it would appear it is ONLY used to allow dubbing to a "vacant" 2nd Channel / Track, this having been "created" during a filming session.

Would somebody please confirm or deny this?

TIA,

Grazie

[Jeremy Davidson]

If I'm understanding everything correctly, the "extra" two audio channels you gain by using 12bit mode are only accessible as a "second take," meaning that since the GL2 only has two inputs, you have to play the tape back and dub the 3rd and 4th tracks on during a second pass through the tape. I believe the XL1 and XL2 give access to all four tracks during the original recording pass, but I'm not aware of any way to do that with the GL2.

Personally I've never seen the need for this as any additional audio that I need to overlay I can do in my NLE. Since I never use more than two audio channels (on the camera, again due to hardware limitations) I always leave my equipment set to 16bit. I'm amazed, however, that every DV camera (of any make or model) that I've picked up has always been factory set to 12bit. Also note that while the bit depth changes from 16 to 12 the sampling rate also drops from 48Khz to 32Khz.

That said, if anyone can come up with a scenario where you would use all four channels on such a camera, I'm all ears. Perhaps a commentary track on the original tapes???

Hope this helps. I have to admit I'm kinda guessing on some of this since I've never really tried it (and I'm using Premiere, so capturing would be a chore).

[Graham Bernard]

Thanks for getting abck to me . . Yeah, I'm not going near it too! I was interested to know if I was missing out on anything. . .AND the resounding response has been?


NO! ! !


. . Yup, I'll stay with the 16bit and the 48k sampling . . .

Grazie