Vegas 10 Audio Capture

[Dave Haynie]

[joann payne] ” I recently had an interview I had to video with a prominant sportsman, so I had a condenser Microphone on output (Channel 1) & an a wireless lapel Mic on putput (Channel 2) Both Stereo. “

No, that’s not what you had. The Sony HXR-NX5, like most pro models, offers only two XLR inputs. The usual 3-pin XLR is a balanced monophonic input, not a stereo input; neither are your microphones stereo mics.

The camera records the two tracks as a stereo pair, and that’s how it’s imported into Vegas. But it’s a trivial matter to adjust this. Take your single stereo track, right click on the information area left of the audio waveform view. Select “duplicate track”.

Next, right click in the waveform area on the first track. Select “Channels/Left Only”. Then move to the second track, select “Channels/Right Only”. You now have your separate mono tracks in Vegas.

-Dave

[Mike Kujbida]

There’s an option in Pro 9 and Pro 10 (Options – Preferences – Import stereo as dual mono) that will bring it in properly.
My only complaint with it is that each channel is hard panned to the left or right.
This isn’t a big deal as double-clicking on each channel’s Pan slider restores it to the center but I wish we had the option to bring it in this way or the other.

[Joann Payne]

Thank you Dave for the info. As I do this as a hobby and not a living
I appreciate the help. Can I pose this senario to you?. If I capture footage from the camera using 1 external microphone on the camera & I turned the other one off, then downloaded it to vegas. I would expect have 1 Video track and 1 Audio track (with 2 waveforms). If I used 2 external microphones wouldn’t I have 1 Video track 2 Audio tracks (totalling 4 waveforms) or is that to simplistic. Cheers
Jo

[Mike Kujbida]

“If I capture footage from the camera using 1 external microphone on the camera & I turned the other one off, then downloaded it to vegas. I would expect have 1 Video track and 1 Audio track (with 2 waveforms).”

Correct.

“If I used 2 external microphones wouldn’t I have 1 Video track 2 Audio tracks (totalling 4 waveforms)…

You’d still have 1 stereo audio track as above.
That’s just the way Vegas does things.
Do as Dave or I suggested to isolate these into 2 mono tracks.
BTW, I do this a lot when I record stage plays (ch. 1 is a shotgun mic for ambiance and ch. 2 is the feed from the audio board).
I separate the tracks in post so that I can control the amount of ambiance.

[Dave Haynie]

[joann payne] ” appreciate the help. Can I pose this senario to you?. If I capture footage from the camera using 1 external microphone on the camera & I turned the other one off, then downloaded it to vegas. I would expect have 1 Video track and 1 Audio track (with 2 waveforms).

Depends on the camera and mic, actually. And sure, you’re Vegas settings. In this scenario, you’ll have one video track and either two mono tracks or one stereo track, depending on how Vegas imports the audio. If you use a mono microphone on a typical consumer camcorder, you’ll see two tracks, but they’re identical. If you use a stereo mic, then you have two slightly different tracks (depending on whether your stereo mic is actually delivering any real R/L separation).

If you’re using a pro camera, you might have one blank track and one actual waveform. Depending on the camera, you may have a bit more. For example, when I use on mic on my HMC-40, I set it up in “run & gun” mode… one track with gain turned down, one with gain up, and the mic input set to double the one mic to both tracks. So it’s mono, but effectively higher resolution than just one mono track. This is probably TMI at this point, but I do like to be complete.

[joann payne]
If I used 2 external microphones wouldn’t I have 1 Video track 2 Audio tracks (totalling 4 waveforms) or is that to simplistic. Cheers”

Again, it’s dependent on many things. First of all, the nature of the camera. Most camcorders only record two tracks. Technically, DV has the ability to record two 16-bit tracks or four 12-bit tracks, and there are a few camcorders that actually supported a four mic configuration, but that’s rare. Some AVCHD devices have the ability to record 5.1 channel AC-3, but not usually via external mics. HDV supports only the two channels. In your case, the Sony HXR-NX5 only has two audio inputs, and it will only record two audio tracks in any mode. So you would see two waveforms, either one stereo or two mono, depending on how you have Vegas set up.

-Dave