[Ty Ford]

What’s it mean when a post is “deactivated?”

Does that mean retracted by the author or removed by admin?

Regards,

Ty Ford

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[Ty Ford]

Hello Michael and welcome to the Cow Audio Forum.

Well there is a good amount of “this into that”, but there’s also a lot of “why and why not”, “when and when not” and “what if.” Mics and their uses are described. Different shooting scenarios are discussed. And there’s a hidden video!!!

I was going for explaining things in simple terms so you didn’t have to Google to find out what something meant and then forget where you were by the time you found out.

It’s entirely about production and NOT about postproduction. That’s another book I need to write. Someone PLEASE give me 10 chapter headings (as in what do you want to know) and I’ll see if I can get that going.

Someone asked recently when it was last updated. That was sometime the middle of 2007.

The concepts don’t change much. I added some gear to the buying guide.

Tell you what. If you absolutely HATE the book, I’ll meet you at NAB and take it back and buy you a drink. (This is a one time offer, good only until the sun sets over the yard arm in Key West. Call right now so you don’t forget.) 🙂

Regards,

Ty Ford

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[Ty Ford]

Hello Joshua,

My book only covers basic production sound. I wrote it for first timers. You will find it helpful but it won’t answer all of your questions.

A good basic kit includes a boom, wind protection for a super cardioid for interiors or hard surfaced exteriors and a shotgun for softer exteriors, a mixer, a special cable that goes from the mixer to the camera, headphones, usually at least two wireless lav/transmitter/receiver kits.

In your case, I suggest an adapter cable because your camera does not have professional XLR audio inputs. You’ll need two short female XLR to male RCA cables. Then a y-cable with two female RCA jacks that combine to a male mini TRS plug.

Regards,

Ty Ford

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[Ty Ford]

Hello Joshua and welcome to the Cow Audio Forum.

The answers to the questions you ask would require a small book to answer properly.

$1000-$1500 for a sound kit won’t buy you much.

Sennheiser m66 or Audio-Technica AT-897?; A: Perhaps neither. There are much better mics and they cost more.

Do I need lavalier mics?: A: I don’t know. What do you expect from your sound?

Should I record to the camcorder or to an outside source (how would I do this)? A: not a good idea for you just now.

Do I need other computer software besides FCP? A: to do what?

Can I use high quality in ear headphones (etymotics er 4p) for sound management?:A: mixing sound with headphones is not a good idea unless everyone who sees the movie is wearing headphones.

You don’t mention a good mixer. Having one will improve your sound.

My advice? Take your time on this. You have a lot to learn. It’s not just about buying some gear. You have to have some experience using it. Read up on gear and techniques. Maybe even hire a good location audio person for a half day to explain to you what’s involved.

Regards,

Ty Ford

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[Ty Ford]

Sorry, Rob, I disagree.

If you only have mini TRS input jacks on the camera and you want to feed the mic to the camera, there are several places to buy the correct XLR to mini TRS adapter cable for about $40. These adapter cables feed not one but BOTH tracks with the same mono audio from the mic.

Regards,

Ty Ford

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[Ty Ford]

Hello Tim and welcome to the Cow Audio Forum.

Low and zero, what to do?

I’d stay away from USB interfaces. I have yet to hear one that didn’t have latency issues.

I’d go firewire. There is still a small amount of latency for audio but it has never been a problem for me.

Regards,

Ty Ford

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[Ty Ford]

Hello Ronapee and welcome to the Cow Audio Forum.

You need to mix the elements together into a mono or stereo master track.
You need to know the file format the video editing system wants to see. Probably 24-bit, 48kHz wav files. After the audio is married to the video, it’s up to the video to render the whole thing out. Not your problem.

Distribution will determine what formats you need. If you expect the project to be played on a TV, they need to consider PAL and NTSC. Not your problem. 🙂

Regards,

Ty Ford

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[Ty Ford]

Hello Kat,

Let me try to be more clear. You may be fine with running audio. The problem may happen when you try to run FCP and the audio program.

If the firewire card comes in to another part of the system you might be OK. My Pro Tools rig is always connected via FW400. On my G5, I was told (almost by accident) that putting the card in the upper of the three slots put the data into the computer at a point where it didn’t run smack into the other firewire buss. That let me attach a CD burning robot with a FW400 and a USB connection. I still ran into flukey problems when I had one external FW400 archive drive attached.

I’m not qualified to tell you whether or not the card slot is similarly configured. Even if someone said “yes” I’d want to try before I bought into it.

USB is problematic because of the latency. An interesting thought though, could there be enough bandwidth on USB to get by without bothering the Firewire buss. Dunno. You’re on the cutting edge there. Try it and see if you can do it without incurring big costs. I have been told “Can’t be done” any number of times and have found that isn’t always true.

Thanks for the compliments on the guitar. It helps to have a great sounding guitar. The longer I’m on the planet and the more guitars I hear, the luckier I feel to have bought that Martin so long ago. My Pro Tools system is not exotic, but the front end — mics, preamps, A/D converters — are. They make a difference as does the acoustic design of my studio.
I think I can make a difference. I think I can make audio (and video) work pretty well on YouTube. Local folks are starting to recognize that and are coming to me to get the job done.

If you go to my OnlIne Archive:

https://idisk.mac.com/tyreeford-Public?view=web

Look in the GuitarsOfPikesville folder for other guitar playing videos I’ve shot here. These are “Before YouTube.”

Here they are on youtube, which I guess is the ultimate test. 🙂
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFnov7Qe6Sc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vn22WSkh8Ag&feature=related

Regards,

Ty Ford

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[Ty Ford]

“Is this an issue also with MOTO Ultralight? Would I run into problems if I use FW drive?”

Hello Kat and welcome to the Cow Audio Forum.

The answer is a definite maybe. Once you start adding firewire devices, the platform gets shakey. Machine configuration, separate FW busses on PCI cards sometimes help, sometimes not.

Regards,

Ty Ford

Want better production audio?: Ty Ford’s Audio Bootcamp Field Guide
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[Ty Ford]

Hello Tom and welcome to the Cow Audio Forum,

https://www.amazon.com/Shure-A15LA-input-adapter-XLR-F/dp/B0006NMSXS

Regards,

Ty Ford

Want better production audio?: Ty Ford’s Audio Bootcamp Field Guide
Watch Ty play guitar