Question on Running from Board into Camera

[Jordan Wolf]

Well, you could go a similar route.

If I were you, I would buy an “iso box”. It’s very much like a direct box, but it uses a 1:1 turn ration to keep the signal at the same level instead of knocking it down to mic level. ProCo makes one that I use and see commonly and Whirlwind makes one, as well. If you do ANY camera work at all and plan to have audio involved, either from a mixing board or an outboard mic, either of these units would be well worth their weight in gold.

Wolf
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[Jordan Wolf]

Oh, and the iso boxes will take XLR(M)/XLR(F), TRS, and TS connections. They have an XLR out output and will not allow phantom power hum/buzz from the camera’s mic jacks to get into the console’s outputs (a sticking point among audio guys, I will say).

Wolf
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[Jared Smith]

so i was going to go buy one tomorrow and found this one online and hoping they have it in stock at the store, otherwise i won’t have time to get one in before the shoot… it is this one:
https://www.guitarcenter.com/Radial-TWIN-ISO-Passive-Line-Level-Isolator-153921-i1124784.gc

but my question is still about 1/4 jacks… i suppose i would still need to buy 1/4 to xlr adapters in the event that the board cannot take the xlr input???

[Jordan Wolf]

Okay…you’re phrasiology is a bit confusing.

In the last part of your post, you mention something about the mixer board not being able to take an XLR INPUT. Now, just to clarify, you never mentioned anything about the camera feeding signal into the mixing board. If you could clear this up for us, it would help.

Onto the Radial unit…

The pro audio industry loves XLR connectors because they are robust, can lock together, are balanced, and you can connect them without needing a barrel adapter (like RCA’s or Speakon’s).

I would go for the ProCo unit since it has XLR and TRS/TS jacks for BOTH inputs and outputs. The Whirlwind unit only has them on the input side (not a bad thing, just not as useful). I love Radial Engineering’s products, but I think that you should consider a more Swiss Army knife box. The Radial unit ONLY has XLR jacks, which is fine if you have all the appropriate adapters and turn-arounds. You would have more connections to troubleshoot, though. And, if you are on have a strict timeline, troubleshooting needs to take as little time as necessary.

I would buy the Radial as long as the return policy lets you take it back after you try it out. Buy adapters and turn-arounds, as they always come in handy. Oh, and label them, too. Bright, obnoxious colors work well to keep them from walking.

Wolf
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[Erik Holder]

I have a graduation ceremony to film tomorrow night. The sound tech helped me hook up my Sony DSR-PDX10 to the sound board. We ran an XLR to inputs 1 and 2 (two mic cords) and an S-Video out to their jumbotron type screen. He left to go produce a video, so he’s unavailable.
When testing the sound through headphones, there is a constant buzz. I’ve tried connecting the XLR cord straight to the XLR adapter on my camera, where they had two cords joined together to make a longer cord. Still had buzzing noise. The noise is still there when I tried to run everything off of the battery instead of plugging it in. I can hear the voices from the mics on stage, but it just has that constant hum or buzz. This is not the case when I just use the directional shotgun mic that came with the camera (only when I plug it into a sound board). Any suggestions of what I can try, would be greatly appreciated.

[Ty Ford]

Hello Erik,

Hard to diagnose at a distance, but I’d try to listen to the console to the audio being sent you (or your camera). If the buzz is coming from the console, you have to look there first.

Could be a half million things. From nothing, as in the faders are higher than they would be because no one is talking into the mics, to interference from lights, to bad grounding elsewhere.

I’d try to find the person running the console to see if he/she can fix the feed you’re getting.

Regards,

Ty Ford

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