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Using Audio Mixer With Camcorder
Hello everyone. At our church, we are beginning to live stream our services. Everything looks great, but the sound is not all that great. Right now we are using the camcorder’s microphone to record sound. We are using a Canon HFS100 camcorder.
My question is this, how do we use our soundboard, a SoundCraft Spirit 32 channel to provide the audio to the camera? I believe, the camera only has a mic input. I read somewhere about getting a XLR to micophone adapter. Would this work? Also, I seen someone talking about a BeachTek box, found here: https://www.amazon.com/BeachTek-DXA-2T-Universal-Adapter-Camcorders/dp/B0039QWR5I . We want to get that clean, crisp sound we get from recording our services on CD. Thanks
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3 Replies
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HI
yes youre on the right track.Take a mix feed from the desk on a BALANCED output. Then buy or make an XLR cable to get the audio to the camera, and make or buy a Female XLR to 3.5mm jack cable (NOT an adapter – its too heavy for the camcorders jack input to have all that weight hanging off it.
Now the problem is that the line feed from the desk is Too hot. It needs to be PADDED down.
Buy (or make if youre an electronics wiz and can use resistors correctly) a 40db PAD. This will have an XLR to XLR (female to male) Insert this just before the adapter cable to the camera(which should be only a foot or so long to minimise rf interference as it unbalancing the signal.
The signal is now MIC level and correct for the cameras mic inputs.USE manual gain control and USE headphones so you can react if its too low or quiet, but really the mixer operator has to understand that his levels need to be correct (not to his speakers) but as an electronic signal leaving his desk to you. He should have s sub group he can give you so this level can be reacted to promptly.
If you have some cash, you might consider transmitting the signal to the camera. No tripping cables etc. The radio (depending on which you buy need to be able to be padded down on the input to the transmitter by 40db, and will save you the pad purchase) A sennheiser G3 does all this for you. I ddo this every day and use a g3 for it. No problems.
Peter
Post Production Dubbing Mixer
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Hi
A common issue with streaming is that the audio becomes out of sync to the pictures as they are delayed. A good trick is , to avoid having to delay the audio, put the audio feed from the desk directly into one of the cameras. Then allow the camera to embed the audio into an hd Sdi signal, which will then be and led by the encoder and be automatically delayed correctly.
So I’d check you can run Sdi and get a camera that does this. Perhaps the Sony ex1 or ex3
PeterPost Production Dubbing Mixer
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Ok
Im not familiar with your setup or software so in general terms.
Start at the ComputerWhat video capture card are you using and will this accept SDI (serial digital Interface) video either HD or SD. If it will then great. If not, then either you need a new capture card or ditch the sdi digital video idea. Whatever way, the camera feed needs to get into the computer via the card and these must be compatible.
If it wont accept sdi then you cant embed the sound at the camera, so your sound will have to go into the computer separately and likely be out of sync with pictures.If the card will accept sdi, then you can take th output of your sound mixer LINE LEVEL into the cameras LINE LEVEL inputs. The camera like an ex1 or ex3 will embed this audio into the picture feed so it goes into the computer via this route and nOT from the mixer. Sync then should be automatically taken care of by the capture device.
Many other cameras will support line in. Youre basically looking for a camera with and XLR audio input on it AND a switch between LINE and mic levels. These will tend to be of the nmore pro end.
Peter
Post Production Dubbing Mixer
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