Using Both XLR Inputs on my Camcorder- Bad Idea?

[jrod81]

Hey guys
I am shooting quite a few talking head interviews next week. I will be a one man show and want to make it as organized and simple as possible. It is 13 lawyers who have squeezed me into their schedule so I really don't need to be messing with too much equipment. So, here is my question:
I will be using either an JVC HM100 or a Panny HMC150 (I split equipment with about 10 other guys so I am not sure which one I will have). Either way, they both have 2 XLR inputs. I wanted to run a wired lav straight into Input 1 and then have my boom (NTG-2) overhead and running into Input 2.
Is this going to cause any issues during the shoot or in post? Is there something smarter to do here? I have a Zoom H4n but was really not wanting to mess with bringing more equipment into the equation...
Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.
thanks
jared

[ggrantly]

If I understand you correctly, you will be shooting a talking head interviews with 13 different people. It is always good to dual track an interview since you will have two tracks to work with in post. If you are inside, it would be better to use a lav and a hyper instead of a shotgun, though the performance of the shotgun will vary with the room.

Now if I didn't understand you correctly, and you are going to record 13 people, all talking at the same time, your job just got a lot harder. To do this right, you will need a lot more mics and more inputs, and probably more help.

Grant

[zaarc]

jrod, that sounds like a perfectly reasonable way to do this. depending on the shot, you can probably just set the H4N on the desk as a backup, but you will probably never use its audio. as for the posting of it, what software will you be using? I use Premiere and it is really kinda kludgy to deal with two different tracks of audio if you want to mix them in mono...like adding some ambience from the NTG-2 to yoru lav signal/ it can totally be done, but you have to thikn about it ahead of time before you start slapping stuff on your timeline.

[unclebob6958]

I wanted to run a wired lav straight into Input 1 and then have my boom (NTG-2) overhead and running into Input 2.

Double, triple and quadruple check that they are panned hard left and hard right so that they are truly independent tracks.

+1 on the cardioid instead of the shotgun. Whichever you use get it in as close as possible (just out of the frame line).

+1 on the Zoom as a back-up.

[zaarc]

Double, triple and quadruple check that they are panned hard left and hard right so that they are truly independent tracks.

panned? he is plugging straight into the channels. no panning involved.

[Chris Johnston]

panned? he is plugging straight into the channels. no panning involved.

No, He's plugging into the XLRs. The channels can be set to whatever. You definately want to keep the mics on seperate channels.

[tyreeford]

And mixing them together in post is usually a bad idea unless you time align the tracks, which, in this case, means pulling the boom mic earlier by about 2 mSec...and unless you're on a acoustically treated set, please don't use the shotgun, use a super or hyper.

Regards,

Ty Ford

[jrod81]

just wanted to let you guys know that i just shot 13 interviews using this cable. i put the zoom on top of the camera with a shoe mount and simply put the cable in the headphone jack of the camera and at the end of the day everything was perfectly sync'd. i did not use the top condenser mics of the zoom just because the camera was so far from the subject. i had a lav in input one and a boom going into input 2. all worked great. the cool thing is, you can just hit record on the zoom which makes the record light flash and gets it ready to record... usually you would have to hit it again in order to have it start recording onto the card, but with this cable, you don't have to even do that. when the light is flashing it is putting out an audio signal and the camera picks that up. so it saves one of your SDHC cards from being used in the zoom

[Michael Kosciesza]

[QUOTE=unclebob6958;2290468]Double, triple and quadruple check that they are panned hard left and hard right so that they are truly independent tracks.

+2

This is very important. Happened to me once, and I was not happy with myself. It's probably not a good idea to mix them together in post unless you know how to manipulate audio . But its always good to have a backup system ... just incase. I'm glad your production went well.

[Mattygc]

Was wondering why you didn't just record your two channels of audio straight into the camera. Why did you need to use the zoom?

just wanted to let you guys know that i just shot 13 interviews using this cable. i put the zoom on top of the camera with a shoe mount and simply put the cable in the headphone jack of the camera and at the end of the day everything was perfectly sync'd. i did not use the top condenser mics of the zoom just because the camera was so far from the subject. i had a lav in input one and a boom going into input 2. all worked great. the cool thing is, you can just hit record on the zoom which makes the record light flash and gets it ready to record... usually you would have to hit it again in order to have it start recording onto the card, but with this cable, you don't have to even do that. when the light is flashing it is putting out an audio signal and the camera picks that up. so it saves one of your SDHC cards from being used in the zoom