XL2 Audio problem

[Brad Phillips]

does anyone know how to record audio using the XLR inputs and also record audio from the main mic at the same time but on different channels (so you can seperate them in post). I am getting ready to work on a documentary where I would like to use lavalier mics but it would be impossible to use a boom mic also.

[Brent Ray]

I had this problem. See this thread for suggestions, including what I did to solve the problem. Hope this helps.

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthrea...threadid=37976

[Chris Hurd]

It is not a problem. The XL2 easily records four separate channels of audio. The configuration you want is a common one and quite simple to do with the XL2.

To quote myself from the other thread that Brent has linked to:

The front mic included with the XL2 is a stereo mic. It always requires two channels. These two channels must be the first stereo pair on the XL2, this pair is labeled as Audio 1. The second stereo pair is Audio 2. Use this pair for two (or one) additional microphones, the inputs for which can be selected from the rear XLR jacks. This will of course require you to set the XL2 to record 12-bit audio from within the camera menu.

In 12-bit mode you can mix and match a total of four audio inputs from a wide variety of sources. It's like an audio buffet. The XL2 is basically a four-channel audio mixer. Hope this helps,

[Greg Boston]

Brad,

In addition to Chris's excellent advice, I would only add that when you get ready to capture into your NLE using 12bit/32khz audio (required when setting dv to 4ch audio), you will likely have to alter your NLE audio capture settings. Most NLE's assume that you will have the standard 16bit/48khz audio coming in. Also, some NLE's will only capture 2 audio channels in one capture so you'l have to do a second pass to get the other two channels into your NLE.

If you are using a Windows system, there is a neat utility called Scenalyzer that does capture only, but does it very well. If I recall correctly, it will even get all 4 channels in one pass. It writes the video to an AVI file and creates separate WAV files for each of the audio channels.

regards,

-gb-

[Brad Phillips]

Thanks for your help guys!

[Charlie Wilkinson]

I've noticed that when capturing 12bit/32KHz audio into Pinnacle Studio 9 (*cough*), the resulting DVD's have noticable digital artifacts. I don't expect anyone to solve my Pinnacle-specific problems here (if that's even possible), I'm just wondering if that is indeed a Pinnacle specific problem, and if other DV apps reduce or eliminate these digital artifacts by performing some smoothing/filtering when resampling to 16bit/48KHz for the final rendering step. I had expected Pinnacle would do that, but alas...

-cw-

[Richard Hunter]

Hi Charlie. I have no experience with Pinnacle software, but have captured 12-bit XL2 audio using Scenalyzer and edited it in Vegas. The sound was fine, with none of the artifacts you mention.

I remember that Premiere used to have a Quality setting for the sample rate conversion that is necessary to go from 32Khz to 48KHz sampling, and that results with the Off and Low settings were quite poor. Does your Pinnacle software have a similar setting?

Richard

[Greg Boston]

<<<-- Originally posted by Charlie Wilkinson : I've noticed that when capturing 12bit/32KHz audio into Pinnacle Studio 9 (*cough*), the resulting DVD's have noticable digital artifacts. I don't expect anyone to solve my Pinnacle-specific problems here (if that's even possible), I'm just wondering if that is indeed a Pinnacle specific problem, and if other DV apps reduce or eliminate these digital artifacts by performing some smoothing/filtering when resampling to 16bit/48KHz for the final rendering step. I had expected Pinnacle would do that, but alas...

-cw- -->>>

Although I stopped at Studio 8, I recall that you can manipulate your audio settings when you are in the make movie dialog. Depending on which codec you choose, you get more or less video/audio options. The bottom line is that if your source is 32/12 try to leave it that way and let the dvd audio encode just be a 32/12 WAV file. If you upsample audio, it's the same as uprezzing pictures, some 'artifacts' are going to show up. It reminds me of the old saying 'trying to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear'!

Also, if you can leave it at that setting, you will leave more room for video on your DVD because the audio track will be smaller. That will help you keep the video quality higher.

-gb-

[Charlie Wilkinson]

<<<-- Originally posted by Greg Boston : ... The bottom line is that if your source is 32/12 try to leave it that way and let the dvd audio encode just be a 32/12 WAV file. ... -->>>

Yes, that would certainly by preferable to a bad upsample! I'll explore the options again but as I recall, even the sample rate control for capture was grayed out (at 48/16).

The choice seems to be "stick with 48/16 for all my shoots" or "use better software." The latter option seems to make the most sense. A shame, because Studio 9 does do some really cool stuff. But it's overly dumbed-down and unreliable.

Plus, I just have fundemental problem with any software that costs $xxx to purchase and then (with no prior warning) $xxxx more to get the full functionality. Yes, Studio 9 has at least 13 additional features that are locked until you fork out more cash.

Just curious Greg, where'd you go after Studio 8?

--cw-