[Richard Crowley]

The white-noise (hiss) you are hearing are the missing (or rather displaced) sectors/blocks on the recording media. They don’t have any audio content in them, they are random ones and zeros from whatever may have been on the media at some time in the past. A “quick-format” (or “deleting” a file) doesn’t actually erase anything, it just cleans out the directory so that everything appears to be empty and the sectors/blocks are available for anyone to overwrite.

The missing sectors/blocks may (or may not) be on the media somewhere, but apparently your recovery software was not successful at assembling all the sectors/blocks together. The data recovery company charges reflect the tedious task of examining every sector/block and trying to re-assemble them in the proper order. Much like putting together a 5000 piece jigsaw puzzle. Except you don’t have the visual aid of being able to “see” the pieces.

However, there are many factors that could preclude anyone from completely recovering all the pieces. If a file/recording was not properly closed, then the media directory wouldn’t have a complete record of all the blocks and then the next file written could write over them not knowing that they were part of a previous incomplete file.

You will have to make the trade-off decision of whether it is worth paying for them to attempt restoration vs. the tangible (and intangible?) cost of re-doing it, or living without it?

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Recording audio without metering and monitoring is exactly like framing and focusing without looking at the viewfinder.

[Richard Crowley]

Was there some motivation for music from one side? Was there something in the visuals that suggested a source of music off to one side? Else it sounds like it may have simply been a mixing accident that wasn’t caught before release.

I’ve never heard of any “broadcast requirement” other than controlling audio levels. I am not familiar with your definition of “split sound”?

During mixing it is common to put dialog, Foley*, music, sound effects, etc. on separate channels, and even mix them down to separate “stems” (sub-mixed parts of the final mix). But that should all be resolved before the release mix reaches your ears. Using stems is particularly handy when mixing the production in a different language. You can simply replace the dialog/narration and keep the rest of the mix intact.

You may be reading too much into a simple accident.

* Remember that “Foley” was named after a real person, Jack Foley. So the term is capitalized as it is his last name.

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Recording audio without metering and monitoring is exactly like framing and focusing without looking at the viewfinder.

[Richard Crowley]

Good troubleshooting procedure. From the results of your experiments, it would suggest that there is a possible problem with the audio input “pod” on your camcorder.

We are assuming that you are running microphone-level from your wireless receiver. You might hear some inter-channel crosstalk if you had line-level going into one input, and using mic-level on the other.

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Recording audio without metering and monitoring is exactly like framing and focusing without looking at the viewfinder.

[Richard Crowley]

Yes, the Rode VXLR+ may work, depending on how the Sony connector is wired. It is worth trying, but I would certainly buy it from a vendor who permits returns if it doesn’t work.

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Recording audio without metering and monitoring is exactly like framing and focusing without looking at the viewfinder.

[Richard Crowley]

There is low risk in plugging the 3.5mm microphone plug directly into the 3.5mm microphone jack on the camcorder. Just to see if it will work.

You can ask Naint Studios if they can make an adapter for you. Looks like a sensible price for a custom-built adapter ($35).
https://naiant.com/studio-electronics-products/inline-devices/pfa-phantom-power-adaptor/

Alternatively you could just get an inexpensive XLR lav microphone like….

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B002A3KSZW

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Recording audio without metering and monitoring is exactly like framing and focusing without looking at the viewfinder.

[Richard Crowley]

It is not clear what “plug the microphone directly into the camera” means? Are you asking about a pro XLR connection, or are you talking about a 3.5mm TRS consumer mic connection? What camera are you asking about?

Yes is it technically possible to adapt from 3.5mm to XLR. And there are several commercial products for specific microphones. Unfortunately, there is no standard for either 3.5mm or TA4F wireless mic connectors. I have not seen any kind of “universal” solution because of this variation.

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Recording audio without metering and monitoring is exactly like framing and focusing without looking at the viewfinder.

[Richard Crowley]

[Andrew Tucker] “Are there any series of books or online tutorials that you feel would help me become better with audio?”
Check out the book published by our leader here, Ty Ford:

https://www.tyford.com/Ty_Ford_Audio_Bootcamp_Field_Guide.html

If you have specific questions, feel free to ask them here. Also I am compiling a list of topics for some YouTube videos I am planning on producing.

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Recording audio without metering and monitoring is exactly like framing and focusing without looking at the viewfinder.

[Richard Crowley]

There are several different ways of doing this depending on several factors not revealed in your question. The methods include:

[Richard Crowley]

Does “regular bnc video cable” mean 75 ohm coaxial cable like RG59? How long is this cable?

RF applications typically use 50 ohm cable. But if the cable is very short (perhaps less than 1ft) you could probably get away with using 75 ohm cable. But if the cable is much longer than that, not recommended to use 75 ohm cable for RF applications.

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Recording audio without metering and monitoring is exactly like framing and focusing without looking at the viewfinder.

[Richard Crowley]

Headset mic. It will get the mic within millimeters of your mouth. That will do MUCH more than ANY OTHER technique for increasing the “signal-to-noise ratio”. i.e. the amount of voice vs. the ambient reverberation (and noise). If you are stationary, then you don’t need wireless (although it may be useful for other “use cases”).

Note that 99.8% of all the news and chat show people on commercial TV are wearing either a clip-on lav or a headset mic. For your use-case (amateur, one-man-band show), there is no point in using historic cine microphone techniques from 100 years ago. That is a very different use-case. It is almost 2018, take advantage of modern technology,

There are versions of headset (and lav) mics that are specially designed for higher sound levels if you are worried about overloading from shouting, etc.

Remember also that shouting will “load up” the room and make handling reverberation much more difficult. You will need much better ($$$$) acoustic dampening if you wish to indulge in loud speech without sounding like you are broadcasting from the toilet.

My opinion (and experience) is that Oscar Sound Tech sells good products at a very sensible price. For example:
https://www.pro-sound.com/p/oscar-soundtech-head-worn-lavalier-microphone-hm-701-hardwired-to-power-supply.html

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Recording audio without metering and monitoring is exactly like framing and focusing without looking at the viewfinder.