xenyx 802 ok for sound?

[Daniel Miller]

thats the adapter, its made by ATI, its plugged into an ati x1950 pro that resides in a PC. The control panel for the x1950 card is set to 720p output. As you can see the cables plug into the RGB input of my KONA card that is in my mac. In the control panel for my KONA it tells me that a 720p 59.94 signal is coming in through the analogue inputs. Is this the best way to do this…no, i know this, is this the only way I can afford right now, yes. Im using this whole setup to record a narative program filmed inside a video game. Now that you all know how massive a dork I am I hope I am not laughed out of the internet.

Bob, I looked at the Matrox MXO you mentioned, that would do exactly what I want, but I cant drop another grand for another piece of equipment. If Im dumb and wasting everyones time, I apologize, I just thought that since 95% of all problems are user error that there was some check box or menu setting I was missing that would take care of the clicks and pops. Since all of you guys have been doing this stuff for a while, I thought something might stand out. The case seems to be that what Im doing just isnt going to work how I want it to unless theres still something Im missing.

[Jeff Bernstein]

I have a pack of BubbleYum I would like to donate to the installation.

Jeff

[Daniel Miller]

its not pretty, I know, but we get a great looking image. I know it sounds stupid, but I wanted to bring what amount of professionalism I have to the project. I dont know a ton, but I know some knowledge from the short amount of time I spent at a post house in dallas, and Im just trying to using the knowledge I have to do something that no one has done before in this genre (machinima…google it, its a whole other story). Again I apologize if im just being studpid, I just want to make this project as good as it can be, I know you guys all do the same. Thats why I asked for advice here.

[Jeremy Garchow]

You know what Ian, don’t worry about it. There’s many times when I work with ‘professionals’ that bring me a web movie, or a VHS or some such and they want me to up-convert it so they can fit it in to this beautiful HD program that we shot and edited. There’s nothing that doesn’t surprise me anymore. In your case, your are trying to capture a high quality image and then keep high quality. WHo can fault you for that? The only problem is that you are having trouble with your gear because it’s non standard, and this place that you turned to is the right place to turn to. Also, I like video games and have seen a couple minutes of red vs blue. Dork you say? How about hero. I wish I had the time to work on fun stuff like this.

Now that we know what you have to work with (and next time, don’t be shy, tell us right off the bat what you are dealing with, it makes it a lot easier), I took a look at those pictures. What’s the big silver connector that’s attached to your XLR cable of the Kona?

Jeremy

[Daniel Miller]

The main outputs of the mixer are 1/4″, thats a 1/4″ to XLR adapter sending the main out of the mixer to the analogue in of the kona.

Heres a picture of the mixer Im using, if that helps at all.

the mic is plugged into channel 1 through the xlr plug, the output goes out into the aforementioned 1/4″ to xlr adapter and then into the kona. The levels are all fine, nothings peaking or anything like that, its just these subtle random clicks and pops. If it might help I could post a link to one of the sound files that has that clicks in it.

[Jeremy Garchow]

Yes, that would help. Please post.

Also, I re-read and you are trying to do voice over while capturing? That might be the issue. Try capturing the audio/video without the mic attached. ALso, set your ref in on the control panel to free run. Record the voice over later.

Jeremy

[Daniel Miller]

Well, the signal coming out of the PC is our footage, our characters bobbind their heads (just like red vs blue does) but we cant do the audio in game because a small icon will appear over their heads indicating they are the ones talking, so for the editor I wanted there to be a scratch track of the dialogue to help him edit. Imagine trying to cut a scene of people talking, but theres no audio. Just moving lips and bobbing heads. Itd drive you up the wall. So i got the mixer so I could plug in a mic to lay down a scratch audio track so that the editor can have some clue of what is happeneing in the scene as opposed to just seeing silent head bobs. does that make sense?

heres a link to the bad audio
https://sherman.unsquare.com/CreativeCow/BadAudio_1-2.aif

the more I hear people respond the more it seems like im just going to have to deal with the clicks and pops, the reason i brought it up is that it seems like a silly problem to have. I mean a Kona card is 1600-1800 bucks, am I asking too much from my card, or is my computer just too slow? I dont know, Im just trying to wrap my head around why this is even happening in the first place? Thanks for you help again guys, Its very informative.

Jeremy, when we launch the site early next month, ill pm you a link to the site. If you liked RvB youll probably like this.

[Jeremy Garchow]

That sounds like a sync issue (the audio is not syncing to the video which makes sense as your two inputs aren’t ‘sunc’).

Did you try setting your reference in the KOna control panel to free run?

Also, I’d still record the video first, and then record the scratch track separate (you can use the voice over tool in FCP, check the manual) after the video is recorded.

Jeremy

[Bob Zelin]

the real issue here is that we are ASSUMING that the ATI card is putting out a 720p signal that the Kona card want’s to see. I have no idea if this is a “legit” 720p signal, like you would get from a Panny VTR or camera. There is no way to “genlock” this device, so Jeremy’s advice of running “free run” in the Kona Control Panel is absolutely necessary. There is nothing wrong with your audio mixer, or the way you want to input your audio into the Kona. If you keep getting the pops, the only way I could tell if you had a problem with your Kona board is to try a “legit” 720p source, to see if it would make a difference. AJA is very aware of popping issues they had in the past with 720p material and the DVCProHD codec, and this was resolved with 3.4 drivers. But you have a VERY UNUSUAL source, and I don’t think that anyone want’s to take the responsibility for assuring you that this input source is “kosher” for the Kona’s input.

I know that this is not what you wanted to hear, and I am sure that you don’t have ready access to a DVCProHD VTR for testing.

Bob Zelin

[Daniel Miller]

I do actually, Ill see if I can get one from work and test it out. Its a 1400. If it turns out that when inputing from the 1400 the pops disappear, that just means the pops are a result of my strange input signal?