2 lavs -> H4N -> 5D mic input tips?

rawfa

rawfa

Veteran
Hey fellas,

I´m filming a series of web episodes that consists in 2 guys talking on a sofa. I have 2 lavalier mics in each actor going into the Zoom H4N and then going into the 5D Markiis´ mic input. I´m NOT going to change this workflow and start recording from the H4N to sync the sound from in post (the sound I´ve got from tests with this workflow sounds great). What I want to know is if I should set the H4N signal to mono so both voices are centered or if I should set it to stereo so each voice is in a one side...I was thinking stereo because it might be easier to neutralize one of the voices if necessary, but then again, if everything is being recorded into the 5Ds´ single track, any effects that I apply to the track should apply to both voices, right?
 
Two actors, two mics, two tracks. Keep them separated in production.

When you pull your footage into your NLE, you'll separate the stereo pair into separate, mono files, center them both, and mix them as needed. Mixing them to a mono signal during production is shooting yourself in the foot.
 
Lets say I´m working with a pre-amp instead of the Zoom...would I choose stereo even if both voices will end on different sides of the same track?
 
Yes. You record them separately. This requires an understanding of what "mono" and "stereo" really are. Rather than write it all over again, here's something I posted a couple years ago about this topic.

Alex H. said:
Mono vs. stereo isn't as much about one vs. two channels... it's how the channels interact. The old school terms are monaural and binaural. Are you hearing the entire image from one direction only, or do the two channels have slightly different mixes that play off each other to give a feeling of live space?


You can have monaural audio from a "stereo" playback image. It just means that everything is panned center, which means that both speakers are playing every sound at equal amplitude. "Panning" for a stereo image, in its simplest form, boils down to adjusting how "loud" any given source is in each speaker. Play it louder in the left speaker than the right and it effectively "pans" to the left.


In the recording phase, you have two channels of audio on your camera, but this isn't "stereo" by definition. If you have two actors, each on a wireless lav system, and each lav recording to a separate channel, you are now dealing with dual mono. And now, you have control over each mic in post and can mix their levels as needed.
Click to expand...

The audio embedded in your camera footage is recorded as two channels and those two channels default as a "stereo" pair (even though the recording method treats them as dual mono) when played back from the camera and when first pulled into your NLE, so you hear one voice play back on the left and another on the right. In Premiere, you have complete control over that audio and can separate the two channels from each other, then pan each one to play in the center of the sound image.
 
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I´m sorry for my ignorance, but whenever I import the audio recorded into the 5D it only shows up as only one track. Do you mean that even though I have one track I will be able to treat these 2 channels separately?
 
rawfa said:
I´m sorry for my ignorance, but whenever I import the audio recorded into the 5D it only shows up as only one track. Do you mean that even though I have one track I will be able to treat these 2 channels separately?
Click to expand...

But you still hear the split voices on left and right speakers, yes? That means that you have a linked stereo pair. You can split them apart and work with them individually.

You are using Premiere Pro, correct?

http://helpx.adobe.com/content/help...ks.html#break_a_stereo_track_into_mono_tracks
 
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If it helps - it's often handy to change how you think about twin track v stereo. Just make yourself talk about stereo when you are placing sound sources in a stereo field, so with eyes closed you can point towards a sound - which usually means a quite narrow range from left to right to match a screen full of images. So stereo = locational. Your capturing method is rarely stereo, unless you are recording a choir or orchestra, or sound effects - other than those, everything else is twin track, or multi-track. Premiere just assumes anything with two tracks is stereo, which always comes up by default on one fader with a balance control. Splitting them out like you have now done gives you two faders with two pan controls, much more handy!
 
Lets also assume if one of the talent hits or rubs the mic whilst the other is talking, if both mics were summed to mono, there would be no way to remove the offending sound in post.
 
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