A cheap way to disable AGC?

E

e-steve

Well-known member
So I was thinking about this idea, and did a little research on cables, and was wondering if it would work...

What if you connected a 2.5mm to 3.5mm stereo jack to a 3.5mm stereo to 3.5mm mono splitter cable, and ran a mic into one of the mono channels and then just a cheap mp3 player with a loud track on repeat?

I know, it sounds crazy, but I thought it might be worth a shot to pump one of the channels with a loud track and have the other track be the clean audio...

Stay tuned...I may try it out this week.

Here would be the cable/adapters to use, in theory:

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2062470&y=14&x=8&retainProdsInSession=1

http://www.amazon.com/Cables-Unlimited-AUD-3010-8-Inch-Splitter/dp/B000R7YMPA

Think it could work? :)
 
You own a Zoom H4n, if you are going to go through the trouble of having an mp3 player and your cable setup why not just carry the H4n and be done with it?
 
Sync sound is great for narratives and interviews but is a little bit of a pain for run and gun observational documentary.
 
I have this cable, will let you know tomorrow. You would also need a male to male 3.5mm.
 
Last edited:
You are right, I do own an H4n and use it whenever I can. Still, as Ben mentioned, it would be nice to know how to get a little cleaner audio straight into the cam -- I do a lot of run and gun documentary work, so having this option is still nice.

If this might help someone without an H4n, then it's worth a try... :)

If you have the cables and a Sansa clip (now 15 bucks at the woot off), it's really not much trouble at all!
 
I agree with Ben B. I have an H4n and record a large majority of my audio with it but...

I am working on a feature length documentary right now and I find that as of recently I have been opting for my Rode video mic more. The sound quality of the H4n is clearly better but the Rode mic plugged straight in gives pretty good audio and save me lots of time in post (considering I record hours of footage). I have really not had a lot of severe issue with AGC plugged straight in with Rode.

I understand how plugged straight in without AGC would be a good asset.
 
I agree with Ben B. I have an H4n and record a large majority of my audio with it but...

I am working on a feature length documentary right now and I find that as of recently I have been opting for my Rode video mic more. The sound quality of the H4n is clearly better but the Rode mic plugged straight in gives pretty good audio and save me lots of time in post (considering I record hours of footage). I have really not had a lot of severe issue with AGC plugged straight in with Rode.

I understand how plugged straight in without AGC would be a good asset and it's getting less and less likely that an update is coming that will disable that (along with add other things of course)
 
e-steve said:
You are right, I do own an H4n and use it whenever I can. Still, as Ben mentioned, it would be nice to know how to get a little cleaner audio straight into the cam -- I do a lot of run and gun documentary work, so having this option is still nice.

If this might help someone without an H4n, then it's worth a try... :)

If you have the cables and a Sansa clip (now 15 bucks at the woot off), it's really not much trouble at all!
Click to expand...

Is there audio drip with your Sansa clip?
 
You need synchro remote control to your GH1 and Zoom H4n recorder. I'm have idea how do it, but it's nor easy way. It's Microcontroller who push all the buttons for you. :)
 
e-steve said:
So I was thinking about this idea, and did a little research on cables, and was wondering if it would work...

What if you connected a 2.5mm to 3.5mm stereo jack to a 3.5mm stereo to 3.5mm mono splitter cable, and ran a mic into one of the mono channels and then just a cheap mp3 player with a loud track on repeat?

I know, it sounds crazy, but I thought it might be worth a shot to pump one of the channels with a loud track and have the other track be the clean audio...

Stay tuned...I may try it out this week.

Here would be the cable/adapters to use, in theory:

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2062470&y=14&x=8&retainProdsInSession=1

http://www.amazon.com/Cables-Unlimited-AUD-3010-8-Inch-Splitter/dp/B000R7YMPA

Think it could work? :)
Click to expand...

So this works? There is no audio bleeding or any problems?
 
Honestly (not sure how everyone else feels), I am not interested in a Juiced Link, because they add so much size and weight to camera. It is frustrating that this can not be disabled via software like the 5D. I realize that this is there for the P&S enthusiast consumer to just film their family opening Christmas gifts, but I don't see how it would hurt Panasonic to offer between AGC and manual set.

Oh well, not trying to start up anything. I have just researched pretty heavily how to disable AGC without a cumbersome juiced link and not finding anything (yet). GH1 needs a Magic Lantern.
 
JerryB said:
Honestly (not sure how everyone else feels), I am not interested in a Juiced Link, because they add so much size and weight to camera. It is frustrating that this can not be disabled via software like the 5D. I realize that this is there for the P&S enthusiast consumer to just film their family opening Christmas gifts, but I don't see how it would hurt Panasonic to offer between AGC and manual set.

Oh well, not trying to start up anything. I have just researched pretty heavily how to disable AGC without a cumbersome juiced link and not finding anything (yet). GH1 needs a Magic Lantern.
Click to expand...



Agreed!
 
Steve,

Will be interesting to see your results. I wonder if the GH1 sums both channels then adjusts the volume of both at the same time. If that is the case it seem that if you reversed the polarity of one of the stereo mics they would cancel each other out and you would have no adjustments being made to the gain. You would need to switch it back when editing if you wanted a normal stereo signal again.
 
Great thinking. expanding on your idea could you have a playback device of some sort playing back a high pitch constant tone (ie above 18khz) close to the mic, to set the level which you could just remove in post?
 
It's a bit of work to sync audio and video for dual audio recording. But isn't it also a bit of work to remove the noisy channel during post-processing?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top