Dealing with the DJ and recording audio

[Kelly Langerak]

I'm just curious how you guys record your audio when the party uses a house mic that is hooked up to the DJ booth. I've used the record out on dj mixers and it sounds pretty good, but other times it sounds ok in the headphones but really loud and somewhat distorted on tape.

What I did for my last wedding is hook up my extra video camera to a wireless mic and put the transmitter connected to the DJ.

I should of used my h4n, but nobody had a proper connector for it.

How do you guys record the speeches, toast and anything that comes through the mic.

Any tips to improve the quality and make sure the DJ doesn't turn up the volume too loud throughout the night.

Note: I shoot on a Canon 7D. I have a h4n device and a Senheiser Wireless G2 system.

[Susanto Widjaja]

Hi Kelly,

We have h4n with wireless g2 and also an Olympus digital recorder.

This is what we do:

SCENARIO 1: RECORD OUT IS AVAILABLE AND THE DJ LOOKS RELIABLE
mic the board to h4n through wireless g2
put Olympus on the lectern/speaker system.

SCENARIO 2: RECORD OUT IS NOT AVAILABLE OR THE DJ DOESN'T LOOK RELIABLE
mic the speaker system with h4n with wireless g2
put Olympus in the lectern

:)

Santo

[Chris Davis]

I have an old beat up Sony MiniDisc recorder that I connect to the DJ mixer tape-out jacks. It has automatic level control which apparently does a very good job because in ten years I've never once had unacceptable audio. In mono mode it'll record for about 4.5 hours, so I set it up as far ahead as I can and just hit record. Unfortunately, I have to ingest the audio at 1x speed. That's not a big problem, I just advance to the part I need and start it playing.

[Alex Khachatryan]

Kelly, I use XLR cable for the feed from DJ's board, connect it to my sony UTX transmitter and capture a great sound. I found those XLR-RCA, XLR-stereo adapters really useful since some DJs may face you with the fact. I control levels from the camera end, but in your case you may find this a useful tool to avoid picking http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/68600-REG/Shure_A15AS_A15AS_In_Line_Attenuator.html

[Adam Haro]

As someone who DJs and does video I can tell you for the most part DJs have the technical proficiency of a rock. If its not one of our own DJs or someone I know we usually just use our shotgun mics and a wireless mic on a stand close to the speaker. Never had any problem doing it that way.

[Ilya Spektor]

I also have a H4n and Senheiser Wireless G2 system. I made myself a cable, which splits signal from DJ board (from Tape or Record Out) into both G2 transmitter, and H4n. My cable has 2 RCAs on one end (from my experience, mostly available is RCA Tape Out) going to 2 1/4" for the Zoom in parallel with 1/8" for the transmitter. I have multiple adapters to accommodate XLR, RCA, or 1/4" out - you never know, what is available on the board...

Very important is to use right cables for Line level output: Sennheiser makes one for their transmitters:
Sennheiser | CL-2 Transmitter Line Cable 1/8"-M to | CL2 (uses the middle ring, not the tip of the connector; the tip is grounded...) For very loud DJs use -30db sensitivity on the transmitter. Also, for H4n you need to use 1/4" tips, not XLR, for Line-in...

Using correct Line level cable also guarantees you won't blow the board because a typical board Line-out (impedance 47K or even less) goes to at least, 100K Line-in of a recorder or transmitter...

If it is not possible to connect to the board, I use mic (with wireless plug-in) and H4n (using internal mics) into DJ's speaker.

[Rickey Brillantes]

I also put a wireless transceiver mic in front of the DJ's speaker, with this I can go around while maintaining the same audio level, monitoring it at the same time, also I use the Tascam DR 100 and connect it to the DJ'd audio input, to capture the whole recorded event.

[Don Bloom]

Originally Posted by Adam Haro

As someone who DJs and does video I can tell you for the most part DJs have the technical proficiency of a rock. If its not one of our own DJs or someone I know we usually just use our shotgun mics and a wireless mic on a stand close to the speaker. Never had any problem doing it that way.

I like the way you put it. Some years ago I worked a "DJ" that had less technical knowledge than my 2 year old grandkid. Seriously, he didn't have a clue. I don't how he even got the gear setup. Anyway, I plugged in as usual, and intros, toasts and the first dances went fine. When he opened the dance floor up he cranked his levels of course (about the level of a 747 taking off) and it took me about 15 secinds to get to the mixer and pull my plug. Needless to say the first part of the song was the worst audio I had ever heard.
Immediately after that I started using a mic in front of the DJs speaker (Sennheiser E604 drum mic) and a hypercaroid on the camera. I haven't had a single problem since then. Good muci track thru both mics with the 604 doing most of the heavy lifting and the hyper gets nice ambient and music. It took me a while to figure out the best mic to use, I tried shotguns, lavs, a couple of different handhelds and then someone here mentioned the 604 and I haven't looked back since. I've never had a complaint about audio using this system.

[Thomas Marshall]

*Slighly Off-Topic*

To hook into the DJ's Mixer with a Zoom H2, I would need a XLR to 1/8" miniplug cable right?

[Don Bloom]

Depends on what the DJ has open in his mixer. It might be XLR or 1/4 or RCA. Gotta have a little bag with all the connections. I'd be lost without my little bag of audio and video "tricks". Ya never know what you're gonna need or when you're gonna need it.

[Kelly Langerak]

Thanks for all your input. I def have all the parts to do anything that comes at me.

[Thomas Marshall]

Sorry, got another noob question. For plugging from an H2 into the DJ's Mixer, the cable (whether XLR or RCA) would have to be female on the end connecting to the mixer right?

[Ben Moore]

No the cable would be male. Inputs on the boards are female.

[Thomas Marshall]

Thanks for your responses guys, I appreciate it. My primary area of knowledge is video, so I'm struggling a bit to learning the audio side of things.

[Hameed Aabid]

I now use Zoom H4n.