Need to record EXCELLENT audio directly into 60D

[Noah Kadner]

Juicylink- you get what you pay for. If you want cheap you get cheap sounding audio. But as important as the box to feed the camera is- you also need proper mic placement and quality mics and connections. Otherwise what’s the point?

Noah

Unlock the secrets of 24p, HD and Final Cut Studio with Call Box Training. Featuring the Canon 5D Mark II and 7D.

[Michael Sacci]

Excellent and cheap is an oxymoron, especially with audio. I have the Zoom H4n and the MicroTrackII both have audio out that could be plugged into the camera with a RCA to mini adapter. Overall I think the Juicedlink would be easier all around.

[Phil Balsdon]

The 60D has manual audio controls if you want to plug a mic directly into the camera and set adequate levels.

However the pre-amps in these cameras don’t allow for excellent quality only getting adequate levels. If you want excellent you’ll have to record double system to a quality field audio recorder and re-sync audio in post.

Excellent + cheap…. difficult, verging on impossible.

Cinematographer, Steadicam Operator, Final Cut Pro Post Production.
https://www.steadi-onfilms.com.au/

[Jairo Gómez]

OK thanks everyone, I know its very difficult to find something excellent + cheap, im planning to get everything i need with time, but i’m in a hurry right now. And I was wondering what could be the best solution for me right now without having to buy too many equipment. I liked very much the way the Zoom H4n looks and feels, but i have heard many good comments about the tascam dr-100. Another reason why i dont want to buy the juicedlink it’s because i need to use a battery grip, and my camera it’s going to look like a bulding, and everyone says that it’s better to record the audio separately, so, the question would be: if i have only the handheld recorder i could use it to get a decent audio directly to the camera when i need it, and an excellent audio recorded in the actual recorder?

[Phil Balsdon]

You won’t need the Juicelink with the 60D if you are recording to an external audio recorder.
What you will need is a padded mini jack to mini jack cable to take a line out of the recorder into the camera, which requires a mic level audio input.

The main purpose of the Juicelink or Beachtek units is to disable the audio auto gain only feature of the original Canon HDSLR cameras. (and still the only option in the 7D). The 60D has a manual levels option so this is not an issue. This will give you reasonable audio with consistent levels on the camera files, that if you wish can be re-synced with the higher quality audio from the Zoom H4, Tascam or Marantz recorder. One of the reasons the Zoom H4 is so popular, apart from price, is it is very lightweight making it easy to mount on the camera hot shoe.

To dual record and post sync the most basic way is to put a clapper on each take. This can be a simple chalk slate or an iPhone or iPad app. You can also use PluralEyes or DualEyes from Singular Software in post production that syncs the tracks by analyzing the waveform files.

However the most important part of “excellent” audio is choice of microphone, placement of microphone and the environment’s acoustics when recording. Monitor the audio when shooting using a good quality set of headphones.

Cinematographer, Steadicam Operator, Final Cut Pro Post Production.
https://www.steadi-onfilms.com.au/

[Noah Kadner]

Yeah never confuse high quality recording with high quality audio. I can record hours of horribly overmodulated too far away on-board mic H4N sound in full 24-bit 96Khz. It will be high quality files of complete crap though…

Noah

Unlock the secrets of 24p, HD and Final Cut Studio with Call Box Training. Featuring the Canon 5D Mark II and 7D.