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Camera frame rate effect on audio
For years my camera recording 29.97 frames of video happily captures the audio in perfect sync. Now with DSLRs, more shoots are being done at 23.98.
When using a digital recorder such as a Zoom H4N is there a setting to indicate what frame rate is being recorded on the camera side? I know I want it at a 48K sample setting but do I need to worry about the camera frame rate?
thanks,
Jim McNally
The Commercial Factory
http://www.commercialfactory.com -
3 Replies
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There is no frame rate setting in the Zoom H4n. Most consumer portable recorders don’t have frame rate settings. I researched what settings people were using with success with the H4n, and I found equal praise for 48kHz 24-bit and 48kHz 16-bit.
Personally, I always set my recorder for 48kHz 24-bit and so far everything has been going smoothly.
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Great, thanks for your response Sam.
Jim McNally
The Commercial Factory
http://www.commercialfactory.com -
Jim, Sam,
I did have a near space anomaly recently that I can’t explain fully.
I ran a Canon XL2 for an hour and also recorded audio to a Sound Devices 744T. The 744T was set to 30 fps NDF
In the current version of FCP, the 744T track was out of sync with itself. That is, when I visually aligned the waveforms of the XL2 and 744T, the audio from the 744T was not in sync with itself.
That is to say that when I soloed the 744T and watched and listened as those tracks played, the sound I was hearing was not synced to its own waveform.
I used wave agent to change the frame rate to 29.97 and the sync problem went away.
I don’t know if this was due to a idiosyncratic glitch or not. I have not had time to experiment further.
Time code is only stamped at the header in file-based audio. There is no longitudinal time code, so, over time, there is no continuous sync.
The 744T does have a setting for no time code I wasn’t aware of. So it can record w/o time code.
I know this may muddy the water a bit, but I thought I should put it out there.
Regards,
Ty Ford
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