Audio Channel Input Questions

[jqwest]

I have a DX100 with a Rode NTG-1 mic and am about to shoot my first film. In doing sound tests, I'm only hearing audio output from one side of my headphones. I'm assuming this is normal - one channel per mic.

My questions are:

- is there a way to record to 2 channels simultaneously?
- if not, what do I need to do in post to fix the sound so that it's outputting acceptable sound levels to both left and right speakers?
- I won't have an audio mixer to use - how do I know if sound levels while being recorded are acceptable?

 

[Steve House]

I have a DX100 with a Rode NTG-1 mic and am about to shoot my first film. In doing sound tests, I'm only hearing audio output from one side of my headphones. I'm assuming this is normal - one channel per mic.

My questions are:

- is there a way to record to 2 channels simultaneously?
- if not, what do I need to do in post to fix the sound so that it's outputting acceptable sound levels to both left and right speakers?
- I won't have an audio mixer to use - how do I know if sound levels while being recorded are acceptable?

How are you getting the mic signal into the camera? I don't know anything about the DX100 and can't find anything about it on the web but isn't it a consumer camera having only a 1/8 external mic jack? If so, how are you connecting the Rode's XLR output to it? Or did you make a typo and mean to say DVX100?

One channel is no problem to handle in post .... in fact, dialog is normally recorded in mono anyway. Your editing software should have an audio mixer module that would allow you to pan the track equally to both speakers.

Even a basic mixer like the Sound Devices MixPre would allow you to send the mic to both left and right channels should you feel the need and it would also help monitor levels. Worth considering.