Audio capture w/ TRV-950: tracks?

[Matthew Lewis]

Hello,
i'm working with an audio/visual rental company who says that i will have to seperate out recorded audio "tracks" in editing. (I will be using 2 mics and a beachtek adaptor). Is this possible? Whenever i import from my TRV-950 to Vegas 5, i don't get the option of splitting out audio tracks. Am i missing something? I always thought that whatever you put "in" as far as audio just got pressed into one mono track that you could pull up in your NLE program.
Ideas?
Kind Regards,
matt lewis

[Jeff S Smith]

Vegas will recognize stereo audio tracks. The problem is probably that your capture software (Vegas Capture?) is only capturing mono from your video camera.

There are various solutions if you want to capture audio in stereo: Scenalyzer software (sp?) is used by several people on this board to capture in stereo:
http://www.scenalyzer.com/main.html

You can sometimes use another camera. I capture my stereo audio using my Canon GL2 camera and Vegas Capture.

Hope that helps!

-Jeff

[Jay Massengill]

To go further, your situation may not be the known problem that Jeff mentions where Vegas has difficulty capturing the two tracks recorded with some Sony cameras (mainly the PDX-10).
Under normal circumstances with other cameras, Vegas captures the two audio tracks from a tape and makes them a "stereo" track. What was recorded on track 1 stays on the "left" and track 2 audio stays on the "right". Unless you're specifically doing a stereo recording, this isn't usually what you want in your final product.
If you've recorded with two mics but not in stereo, for example a boom mic overhead and a lavalier mic placed on someone, then you'll need to split these tracks so you can manipulate them individually and re-center them so the audio comes out of both the left and right for each track.
Vegas allows you to do this very easily. Capture as you normally would and put the clip on the timeline. Duplicate the stereo audio region onto a new track. Then right-click on a region and set the channels as needed for what you want to accomplish. For example "Left Only" and "Right Only".
Make sure the video and two audio tracks are grouped together so they stay in sync when you move things.
When you're making your original recording, make sure the BeachTek adapter is in the "Stereo" position if you want to keep each track separated. This is the normal method for recording two mics onto separate tracks and editing them later.
If the BeachTek is set to "Mono", then both mics get mixed to both recording tracks of the camera. You would only do this if you can't do any post-production on the tape. Once it's recorded that way, you can't undo any problems or make adjustments separately to each mic.
If this is the problem that Jeff mentioned where the two tracks get mixed to mono during capture, then you can use the ScenAlyser software to capture correctly and separate the tracks later.

[Matthew Lewis]

Jeff and Jay,
Thank you so much for your replies! Jeff, i have read (here) about that specific problem. I will just have to cross that bridge when i get there.
Jay, your post really helped me understand what i was lacking... let me see if i have it straight:

1) i didn't know about "tracks" because i've never had to use external mics before, and thus have always recorded with the built in mic and thus Vegas has always captured one "chanel".

2) When i get the beachtek/2 mic setup going, (and am in 16 bit mode) i will be recording 2 seperate tracks. When i go to capture using Vegas, it will automatically capture the 2 tracks seperatly (provided the beachtek is not in mono), in the manner you stated (unless i have the specific problem Jeff mentions). I can then edit and mix them in the NLE.

Great.. hopefully i've got that right. Your post was *very* helpful. I really appreciate the responses on a topic that i understand has been talked about at nausium. Sometimes being a beginner and missing some very basics, it's difficult to go through the search and apply that info to your situation when. It all seems psudo-out of context. Thanks again.. much appreciated.
Matt lewis

[Jeff S Smith]

You're welcome and good luck with your audio capture!