4 Channel Overkill on the Zoom h4n???

J

jrod81

Veteran
Hey guys
I am shooting a "talking head" interview on Monday. I have my make shift studio setup and have some audio questions. I am sure I am overkilling the audio needs here but just wanted some advice on if I have it all hooked up correctly.
I have my Zoom H4n mounted on top of my T2i on the shoe mount. The condenser mics are pointed right toward the subject. Then over the subjects head I have an NTG-2 shotgun mic pointed down and running into channel 1 of the zoom with an XLR cable. Then I have a wireless lav kit for him to put on which will then run to channel 2 of the zoom with an XLR cable.
I did a test of it and honestly, I can't even really tell what is getting the best sound. When I pulled the Zoom recordings off the SDHC card and dropped it into FCP, it didn't show up as 4 channels... it only showed up as two and I think it was all mixed together or something as one big audio file...
any help is greatly appreciated
jared
 
if it didn't show up as 4 tracks then the recorder was set to two track recording. and if it sounded mixed together, then you probably didn't have the xlr inputs activated, probably the onboard mics. and yes, it is pointless to use 4 channels when doing a single talking head. most times, you're usually going to use boom or lav, or sometimes mix both. we see a lot of people who use the zoom h4n on here talking about using the on board mics on the zoom to capture "ambient sound" during production, which is wasteful. during production you want to get the best sound of isolated dialog as you can possibly get. you get your "ambient sound" which is called room tone from the mics you're using for production. but you make everyone be quiet for 30-60 seconds and capture it then, when no one is making any sounds. that way during editing you can drop that in when there's no sound or when you have to make edits.

and you're actually not overkill on your audio needs. if all you're using is a h4n and mics, you're underkill. best to have a mixer in front of that zoom, but plenty of people do fine without it, just be careful no to over ride your levels as the zoom doesn't have much of a limiter. and make sure that ntg2 has a battery so you don't have to use the phantom power from the zoom.
 
In 4 channel mode, it may be recording to two separate stereo files, so check to see if you just missed one of the files.
 
how do i "activate" the xlr inputs? it is and was set to 4 channel where all four channels were lit up red...
 
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