Understanding the XLR's on the H1's

[Adrian J. Hare]

Guys , I've bought a Sennehiser ME 66 with a 25 foot cord. When I plug into the one XLR I get the sound from the one side. Plug it into the other side and the sound changes to the other side (Left or right)

I have a spliter cable and can plug into both at once to get sound in both Left and Right. Is this the proper way to set this all up ?

I also thought that the H1a could run both the on board Mic and a shotgun mic together, but I can not find a way to run them both at one time..

Thanks guys if you can help...

[Adrian J. Hare]

I guess we need an area on this forum for the inexperenced videophotographers to ask questions well below the knowledge of what there is on the main boards.

sorry for the question

[Chris Hurd]

Hi Wayne,

The only thing wrong with your question is that it's frequently asked. We have a pretty firm policy that says "there are no stupid questions here, ask us anything," but the problem in this case is that I've lost track of how many times we've already explained that XLR is a *mono* connection.

So yes, as you've found out, if you want to duplicate one channel over to another, you'll have to use a splitter for that.

Now the other part of your question, how to run both the on board mic and a shotgun mic together on the H1A, that is new and I'll have that procedure for you directly.

[Paul R Johnson]

This camera has routing similar to most others - under the flap you can route the front mic to one channel, and the xlr to the other one.

This is pretty much the way most decent cameras work. One thing - phantom power and y splitters is usually ok, but NOT good practice. There is a small chance of trouble as depending on the powering system in your camera (design wise) you're actually altering the current limiting of the 48V supply by putting the limiting resistors in parallel. I doubt it would cause problems, but it seems sensible to only use splits on dynamic, not condensors with phantom turned on.

[Chris Hurd]

See attached pic.

If you have a mic plugged into the left XLR jack, that is Channel One. On the audio controls panel, set the Input Select switch for Ch. 1 to XLR Mic. Next, set the Input Select switch for Ch. 2 to Front, to record the front mic to that channel.

If you have a mic plugged into the right XLR jack, that is Channel Two. So just reverse the input selections: on the audio controls panel, set the Input Select switch for Ch. 1 to Front, to record the front mic to that channel. Next, set the Input Select switch for Ch. 2 to XLR Mic.

Hope this helps,

[Chris Hurd]

Originally Posted by Paul R Johnson

phantom power and y splitters is usually ok, but NOT good practice.

Indeed, and a Y-splitter isn't necessary on this camera anyway. There's a much easier method for copying one channel to the other: attach an XLR source to Channel One, and set the XLR Rec. Ch. Select switch to Ch1.Ch2 which will duplicate the Channel One source over to Channel Two internally, negating any need for a splitter.

[Adrian J. Hare]

To start Thankyou this has helped a great deal.

Now for another question concerning the instructions here, Is it normal to have one channel registering higher on the scale in the View finder over the other ? when your running the on board Mic on channel 1 and channel 2 with the connected XLR Shotgun Mic ?

[Paul R Johnson]

In many cases, yes. I'm assuming you have the auto recording level switched on? The directional 'focus' of a typical rifle type mic often appears to give a lower than expected reading on the meter, but the agc on cameras tends to have a long release time to stop the unwanted 'pumping' up and down effect. So each momentary peak depresses the average level. The on-board mics while being directional to some degree, do pick sound from the side, and the rear - giving what appears to be more level on the meters. When you are on your own in a rapidly changing situation auto might be the only way to get controlled levels onto tape. Manual is always better but the controls are usually in an awkward place, and the cameraman tends to get sidetracked away from the viewfinder levels. The other thing is that the indications on the meters are not linear and when you look at the results when editing, you might find the difference between tracks is not as great as you thought. My JVCs very often end up with different levels, used as you describe. I'm pretty certain that the low level wind noise from the rifle is the cause - it isn't even tht audible, just the constant low level rumble that you normally filter out. The low cut switch takes the worst away, but there's still a bit left.

So my advice is that if auto gain works for you, and you're happy with the results, then just tweak the levels afterwards.

[Adrian J. Hare]

Paul and Chris, thanks once again. I'm sorry if this questions was bothersome but you both have made it easy for me to understand and I followed right along with the camera so I know it worked. You taught me something that I was looking for and just could not figure it out.

The video camera is not my full time job and for me to learn some of the things I use this forum to referance what I can. There is no place for hours that offer classes to learn of these cameras and some of the threads and posts are WAY above my level to understand.

Thank you both,