Audio: GH13/GH2 with H4 and external mic

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butler360

Well-known member
I currently have a GH13 and a Zoom H4. I have a GH2 on backorder. I may upgrade to the H4N in the future.

I'm looking for a versatile audio setup. The immediate concern is a wedding coming up soon, long term the concern is more short film/web video. I'm looking at the Videomic Pro since it mounts easily to the camera. But I'd probably be more interested in recording to the H4 and syncing later (although recording to the GH2 might not be too bad either). Mounting on-camera is a plus because I'll be doing one man run-n-gun style stuff with probably a Z96 LED light mounted as well, with the H4 on my belt or in my pocket or something.

But the Videomic is only a 3.5mm connection. I assume I can just get a 3.5mm to 1/4" adapter or y-cable, but I haven't seen any evidence that anyone has done this. Should that be possible? I should get stereo just fine with that, right? Or it is more complicated that I'm aware of?

I know the best audio isn't going to be from on-camera audio but I think it will be useful for after the ceremony, walking around and interviewing people. And later I assume I could use the Videomic on a boom pole. I'm sure it won't be great, but for cheap and versatile...

Feel free to suggest alternative solutions, though. Perhaps I'm looking at this all wrong. :2vrolijk_08:
 
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I currently use the VideoMic Pro with my GH2 for run-n-gun. I just used it recently and I was very pleased with the results. I was shooting a live event and I was filming a man speaking on stage. I was a bit worried as to what my audio was going to sound like, as I saw my audio bars peaking the whole time. I was also standing right next to the speakers, so it was super loud. After reviewing my footage, the audio was perfect and not blown out like I thought it would be. It worked great on the spot during a very noisy environment. Also recorded a few band performances and audio was perfect as well.

I used a 2.5mm adapter I bought from Walmart and it did the trick for me. Had my mic level on my GH2 set to 1 and the VideoMic Pro at 0db as it worked out great.

I have a Tascam DR-100 that I was going to use on my rig, and send the VideoMic Pro into it, but I wanted to test the audio straight into the GH2. It worked out great as I was able to use my Sony monitor with my Redrock Micro nano RunningMan rig with VideoMic Pro mounted. Its a very light setup and works good for me.

Hope that helps.
 
butler360 said:
But the Videomic is only a 3.5mm connection. I assume I can just get a 3.5mm to 1/4" adapter or y-cable, but I haven't seen any evidence that anyone has done this. Should that be possible? I should get stereo just fine with that, right? Or it is more complicated that I'm aware of?
Click to expand...

Note that the VMP is mono but the 3.5mm outputs stereo already (sane data on both channels). Also note that the H4n has a 3.5mm input to override the onboard condenser mics. I have had no luck getting the VMP to input in to the H4n via the 1/4 inch inputs as detailed in the active thread:

http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?246451-Help-with-H4n-setup
 
That's certainly an interesting, and scary, thread.

I actually have the H4, not the H4N, but it sounds like my plan may not work to connect the VMP directly to the H4 via 1/4" adapter?
 
butler360 said:
That's certainly an interesting, and scary, thread.

I actually have the H4, not the H4N, but it sounds like my plan may not work to connect the VMP directly to the H4 via 1/4" adapter?
Click to expand...


From what I have heard the H4 does have a line/mic selection on the 1/4 inputs so you should be fine. H4n however only seems to take mic level on the 3.5mm eternal mic connection.
 
Grisnjam said:
From what I have heard the H4 does have a line/mic selection on the 1/4 inputs so you should be fine. H4n however only seems to take mic level on the 3.5mm eternal mic connection.
Click to expand...

Ok so the answer was revealed to me today and a test this AM confirms it.

My issue was that I was running the VMP which outputs dual mono on unbalanced stereo 1/8'' into a balanced XLR connection so the VMP signal was getting canceled out when converted to balanced XLR (see thread for more).

Fix was to use a 1/8'' Stereo -> 1/4'' mono into the 1/4'' -> XLR then into the H4n. This worked great. Good luck and I suggest lots of testing before hand :)
 
boo said:
ikaika, wold love to see/hear a sample your video. :)
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I would love to show you a sample footage, but unfortunately this was for a non-profit organization and I had to waive all rights to the footage I shot :-(

My friend asked me last minute if I could help out and shoot, so I did. I just didn't know she was going to make me sign a waiver...I thought I was going to get to edit the footage :-(

I am happy with my footage. It's so weird to hear the audio sound normal and fine, considering I was going deaf standing next to the speakers. I could barely hear after, but after watching my footage, I wouldn't even think it was that loud. I'm going to ask my friend to see if I can put something up...at least I hope she will :-)
 
what do you guys using the VMP on the GH13 set the level to on the mic itself? I think I'm right in saying there's no manual audio control in camera like on the GH2?

I'm using the VMP GH1 combo for the first time this weekend and would love to hear what people set the mic to in order to just pick up good quality general ambient sound.
 
Grisnjam said:
From what I have heard the H4 does have a line/mic selection on the 1/4 inputs so you should be fine.
Click to expand...

OK, to confirm I just went for it. It arrived today and using the y-cable I linked to it works just fine. Thanks for letting me know this, you are correct, although I wouldn't have held it against you if you weren't. :tongue:
 
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