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Recording Voice Over with M90
Hi, I wasn’t sure which forum to post this in, but since I’m using CS3 Premiere and On Location….thought I’d give this a shot. I have a Dell M90 laptop and have to record a physician narrating a surgery. This is audio only, so no camera. What is the best way to go about this, I only have XLR mics, but the laptop input is mini. I have Mackie and Shure mixers, but not sure of the actual setup. Thanks for any direction with this.
Jeffrey S. Gould
Action Media Productions -
10 Replies
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Do you have a audio program? is the input on the laptop line or mic?
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Do you have a audio program? is the input on the laptop line or mic?
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Hi, I have soundbooth installed on the same laptop. Pretty sure it’s mic in. Thanks.
Jeffrey S. Gould
Action Media Productions -
You should be able to record with soundbooth, the mic interface is a little iffy with a mixer as there would be a level and impedence problems, a inexpensive addition would be something like a Behringer USB interface(UCA202)(about$30) with which you can run the output of one of your mixers into the computer, if the main out of your mixers is XLR, the control room out is usually 1/4″ phone, You would just need some 1/4″ to RCA adapters and some RCA cables or if you have RCA tape outs on the mixers, just RCA cabling.
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Thank you Blast…never even considered a USB mic, that’s genius. I’ll look into it and make the $30 investment. Sound quality is not a major issue here, clips of surgeries being compressed for web with narration. Appreciate your time and knowledge.
Jeffrey S. Gould
Action Media Productions -
Jeffrey,
The simplest thing to do with the least amount of hassle and equipment involved is to record the audio using your miniDV camera and an XLR hard-wired or wireless lav mic, directly into the camera on miniDV tape.
Then, capture into PPRO, but instead of capturing audio and video, you can select AUDIO ONLY as an option to capture to.
We do this all the time and it works like a charm.
Simple setup, only a camera, tape and a mic are necessary, and the whole rig is much more portable than using a laptop to capture to.
Scot
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Thanks Scot, I actually thought of that myself, but didn’t want to waste the video tape…but how about I use my camera and then record that into On Location…I would still get the video though when I brought into PPro, but better than throwing tape away. What do you think?
Jeffrey S. Gould
Action Media Productions -
One of the reasons I was suggesting to turn your laptop into a DAW using soundbooth and one of your mixers is audio control, second is time, recording to tape is out as you are limited to the ammount of time on a tape, if you record using On-Location you are recording useless video along with the audio plus each hour is 13GB, a long session would need larges ammounts of disk space compared to audio only, using your cam as a converter would work but you are using a expensive item for a simple job, as a consultant I have setup recording medical procedures in the past, then there was the advantage of recording video and sound to Svhs up to 6hrs, depending on the procedures done would determine the time length, that is something you would have to work out with the medical personal, another thing if the mics are going to be in the ops theater with the personel is sterilization, we worked around it by using wireless mics, the packs and mics were under the gowns.
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Thanks Blast, I agree with all you said, especially bringing an $18,000 camera on location and decided to purchase these two items:
1)M-Audio Fast Track US44010 USB Audio Interface with Software
2) Shure Pro Microphone System 8900WD with Cable, Adapter, Microphone Bag, Holder and Tripod Desk StandJeffrey S. Gould
Action Media Productions -
When you are calculating the total file size per hour with captured audio, you need to remember that this file will be much smaller than capturing with video.
A full audio / video capture will indeed weigh in between 12 and 13 GB’s per hour, however, with the recent real-world actual practical use of this method by our studio the total per minute for audio only is about 12 MB (Megabytes, not Gigabytes), which equivelates to around 720 MB’s per hour (not even a full Gigabyte).
I agree, a hardware solution like an Edirol or even an iRiver is even more preferable for the portability and overall recording duration. I was advocating using something along the lines of a Panasonic AG-DVX100B camera, not an $18k camera.
At any rate, it sounds like you have the situation under control.
Good luck!
Scot
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