GH2 Advise me about my audio record set up please.

Shooter

Shooter

Veteran
I think I have worked out an ideal audio record set up for a particular project coming up..for which I will use my GH2 .

Please advise if I can do this any better.

The shoot is around fly fishing on location ( bush, streamside and in the water). Dialogue and ambient sound required.

One man band ( plus fisherman) so I do not want to be encumbered with too much gear and so I will take the "risk" of recording direct to the camera. (no external recorder).

I intend to use my wireless lav system primarily. This allows me to monitor the audio (with headphones) as far as the receiver.
As far as I know there is no way to monitor any audio return from a GH2 so thats why I think that it is as ideal as I can do... all things considered.

Before the shoot (days before)..I will test the set up and check that I have the levels in the GH2 as good as I can. I think that test is simply trial and error. eg shoot record ..playback in the NLE or DAW... .

Any tips on setting the GH2 audio levels are welcome.. because I will probably just be setting the level below the one that shows red bars.

I will have my Videomic Pro in the backpack but it worries me that I can not monitor it in anyway at all and I am not sure it is of any use for the dialogue in that situation. Maybe use it for some ambient sounds?

Thoughts?

BTW - this project is for the web and a website.
 
Your timing is perfect. After having worked on this topic since October, with help from lots of other people at Personal-View.com the first settings with decent metering (and with far reduced AGC effect) are now available.

Here's the blog about the current audio settings patch.
http://perlichtman.com/pasdenapulse...settings-file-pasadena-pulse-audio-v2-beta-2/

And you can check out the other audio articles in the Tutorials section of my site for more info. In addition, @Dirkvoorhoeve compiled a helpful summary of what much of what was gleaned in my "GH2 Audio Hacks" thread at Personal-View.com. Here's the link for that.

http://www.personal-view.com/talks/discussion/comment/47679#Comment_47679
 
In addition, the fact that the Rode Video Mic Pro is mono makes it less than ideal for recording ambient sounds and better suited to dialog or specific sound FX (though even the latter could often benefit from stereo). With the new metering settings, you should be able to more reliably track it.
 
I really want to look more into those settings from Per Lichtman. I used a Tascam DR-100 the other day with a pad cable into the GH2 and, frankly, I don't think I'll end up using the externally recorded audio. Granted, this was a lav mic in a very noisy environment, so quieter locations may not work as well, but I was very impressed.
 
Glad to hear it's working well for you!

If there are any additional questions that I haven't answered on my site http://www.pasadenapulse.net or in the GH2 Audio Hacks thread on Personal-View, please send me a message and I'll try to answer it in my next Q & A article. :)
 
A pad cable kills the level of the audio by a specified dB rating. So if you had a 20db pad cable, it would lower the audio by what is coming in by 20dB. Helps to convert line out audio to mic in levels.
 
EDIT: You can ignore my post, Gary hadn't responded yet when I started typing it.

@MaranFilms I hope you don't mind if I answer that one. :)

A pad cable is usually used to attenuate the signal (which some users have been using get around the fact that the +20dB switch on the Rode Video Mic Pro can overload the GH2's input and cause distortion) but it also can refer to a cable that does so by splitting the signal (a y-cable).

Since testing with the GH2 has shown that many sources are too hot for the GH2's input, it seems likely that he was using a pad cable to bring it down to a better level (though he may also have been using y-cable functionality to be able to hear the signal going to the GH2 before it was recorded).
 
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I would at least reconsider the no external recorder. I get the one man band thing and wanting to go light, I've done plenty of those. But if the dialogue is important and I'm being paid (don't know if this is a paid job or not) it's too risky. Especially run and gunning one man it's much easier to miss that the little audio cable got pulled out just enough to break the audio connection. Even if I didn't want to mess with recording each take I'd just let it run nonstop and change cards a couple times a day during breaks. That way I'd have it if needed. As far as levels on the cam, trial and error just like you said is how I did it until I found settings that worked good for my setup.
 
Understandable, Tim. One thing that I did with the audio patch I created and linked to earlier was to really improve the meters. They now light up starting at -66dB rather than somewhere above -30dB like before. Since the minimum tested noise floor has been -72dB, that means you should be able to tell really quickly if your cable got unplugged unlike before.

There's a bit of trial and error, but a lot of that has been reduced with the recent audio patch and revamped scale.

If you have a good external recorder, you could get uncompressed audio, though, and that's still an advantage.
 
Backups are a great thing, as long as creating them doesn't interfere with your ability to do your work. So I'm not trying to downplay that. It's just easier to tell if you've unplugged now than before.
 
Per, I just got done checking out your page on the audio hack. Thanks for all the work, it will be a huge help. Can't wait to try it out. I never used a back up recorder until I got the GH2, and probably still wont if I use a different camera. The main thing about the GH2 is not being able to monitor the actual audio I'm recording. Even if the levels are bouncing right there's the chance it's distorted or has some kind of interference in it. I even had an interview shoot where I had a sound guy, did a test recording and all looked good, played it back in cam and it sounded good. Got to editing with good speakers and the audio had a buzz in it that I didn't hear on location. My ext. recorder sounded great and saved the job.
 
Hi Per and thanx for your input (thanx to others as well of course)

Is the hack an audio only hack and will it work on a PAL (25fps) GH2?

Currently my GH2 is latest firmware and runs HBR (hi bit rate). No hacks.

Hacks scare me a little I must admit ( seemed complicated to a dummy like me when I tried one and I reverted it due to lack of 25fps)


External recorder advice - I understand I am taking a risk but I really will try and minimise the risk with tests, good practices and care. It is something I can revisit if it turns to custard. (and it is a shoot for a colleague - pro bono). I have already shot main story line and dialogue with my AF102 for this on a set. Now just filling the action gaps on location.
 
Hi Shooter,

The "hack" topic confuses a lot of people, which is why I've already dedicated one blog and one "Q & A" entirely to answer topics about it on my site.

The "hacking" that was done, is actually what Vitaliy Kiselev had to go through in order to make PTool work. What the end users are now doing is using the work he did hacking to "patch" the settings. The process is fully reversible, as you mentioned and (short of banging lots of buttons while you're updating the firmware or disconnecting a battery during the update) it's pretty difficult to do any damage to your camera with it. Many people only download patches that others have put together, but to really screw things up you would have to go into the "Patches for Testers" section of PTool, ignore any warning it gave you and modify settings you didn't understand.

But getting back to things you might actually want to do. The settings file I put up recently at http://www.pasadenapulse.net entitled "Pasadena Pulse Audio V2 Beta 2" does two things. It modifies the audio settings (in the way I specify on the download page) and it unlocks the limitations (recording time unlimited, ISO up to 12,800 during video, ability to choose NTSC or PAL) but it does not modify any video codec settings and it does not change your bitrates for either audio or video. It is designed for Firmware 1.1 (which is what you are using if you have an HBR mode) so you would not lose anything.

It sounds like the last time you used PTool, you may have used an older version of PTool, an older version of the Firmware or an patch that was simply designed for the older firmware. If all 3 are up to date, you won't lose any functionality.

If you want to use a patch that improves your video quality, then it is more complicated because different patches have different minimum SD card requirments (many of which are higher than those for the default settings) but mainly it's just a question of finding the one that improves your video quality the most.

So in short: you can safely update your camera with the settings I provide on my site without any performance concerns, since they don't change any bitrates or video settings, but simply optimize other audio settings. You'll just want to use the newest version of PTool (re-download it before you start to be sure) and make sure to load "GH2__V11.bin" not "GH2__V10.bin".

Hope the helps!
 
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The best way to deal with a hack such as an Audio only 25fps PAL Hack .. for stoopid me... would be a simple downloadable file that I install to the GH2 in the prescibed manner for firmware updates...but bypassing all the PTool Steps and conipulations.

Most of us can easily install Firmware to our devices ( eg GH2, Af102, Samurai, Hyperdeck etc) but the part of it for those of us "tech challenged persons" with the GH2 hacks are ...the Ptools bit is a step too far.
 
Understandable. I'm checking with the forum members involved in the development process for their input on whether that would be alright with them. Will let you know what I find out.
 
No worries man, I appreciate the response. Good to know. Any suggestions where to find one. And do other mics need to use the pad cable, or mostly the rode video mics?

Sorry, Not trying to derail your thread :)
 
Per Lichtman said:
Understandable. I'm checking with the forum members involved in the development process for their input on whether that would be alright with them. Will let you know what I find out.
Click to expand...

That would be great Per.

I am totally prepared to donate to the Hack Development cause ..if I could get onto a simple Hack firmware installeable file.

In my case..your audio hack for PAL 25fps that improves the GH2 metering response and display without affecting my stock PAL HBR video.
 
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