Cannon GL2: No XLR

L

Lynos

Well-known member
Ok, so the thing is I'm using a GL2 to shoot my film. The GL2 doesn't have XLR hookups.
We recorded sound using a sound card and protools, which we will synch later to the footage. (we used a makeshift clapper).
Problems: I have some exterior scenes where I probably wouldn't have electricity, meaning I can't use the GL2. Am I correct? I mean, if I can record directly to the tape...
Secondly, if we started with the sound card and synch sound, if we move to a different recording method, will the results be significantly different?

In other words, if I have a GL2, and I can't hook it to a microphone, do I need to keep recording sound the same way I started recording it? And any thoughts about those exterior scenes will be appreciated.

As you can tell, I'm not a big sound expert. I'm learning it as I go,

Thank you.
 
Lynos,

Have you ever seen this adapter(DXA-4p)? This would probably do exactly what you need. Whether it will sound exactly the same, I'm not sure. But I assume you would tweak you sound in post anyway. I have one of these adapters that I'm willing to sell if you're interested. You can e-mail me at eric.herron at gmail dot com.

Good luck on your project!
 
I'm a bit confused by your post - you can't use a GL2 without electricity? Don't you have a battery? Do you mean you can't use ProTools? I don't quite get it.

In general, it doesn't matter how you record your sound as long as you have a method to sync everything together. You can (and many productions do) blend sound recorded in various formats....
 
I didn't mean electricity for the GL2, only for the mixing unit and/or a laptop with protools on it.
 
I wouldn't reccomend relying on the GL2 to record your sound single-system. The lack of XLR inputs isn't really the issue (an XLR to unballanced 1/8" stereo adapter will solve that problem). If memory serves (I haven't used one in a while) the real problem with recording sound onto a GL2 is the lack of Manual audio gain. The automatic gain will cause the background noise to shoot up as soon as anyone stops talking.

There are numerous great entry-level portable audio recorders on the market (eg. Fostex FR-2 LE, Marantz PMD 670, Tascam HD-P2, Zoom H4). They're generally much quieter and more stable than laptop recording.

Another option would be to run extra-long cables, as long as you're not too far away from a suitable power source.
 
The GL2 has manual audio gain control... but the audio quality overall is not great. Not terrible using a beachtek type adapter, but not great.

A laptop with an Mbox should work fine without AC power... for a couple of hours at most. Can you get/borrow extra laptop batteries?
 
My sound guy says that we can operate the laptop with batteries, no problem, but that he doesn't have batteries for his sound card system.
 
you need a portable DAT recorder and record at the same rate as you started recording with protools. This will give you the portability and the sound will match pretty well.
 
ullanta said:
The GL2 has manual audio gain control... but the audio quality overall is not great. Not terrible using a beachtek type adapter, but not great.
Click to expand...

I stand corrected. I must have been thinking of the GL-1.

Even an entry-level DAT recorder such as a Tascam DA-P1 will give you results that put the GL2's on-board audio to shame. However, the DAT format is rapidly falling into disuse given the proliferation of newer solid-state recorders. For almost half the price of a non-timecode DAT you can get yourself a good compact flash recorder that records to broacast-WAV files, weighs less, and sounds better. CF recorders also do not suffer from the transport problems that have been known to plague portable DAT's.

Many portable recorders (CF and DAT) include good on-board mic preamplifiers and phantom power that would allow you to use them without having a mixer on the front-end.
 
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Be real careful what you use to catch audio. In a pinch, I used a little digital voice recorder with a lapel mic to catch the vows, and couldn't get it to match up. It would drift in and out of sync like waves at the beach.
 
ytou can use invertor to work with dc batteries and get ac power for the sound card or just use something as motu ultralight and get powered from your laptop
 
Get a digital recorder such as a zoom h2 or a microtrack and mount it to the GL2... if you want to use phantom mics then get a recorder that supplies phantom... then run the line out or headphone out of the digital recorder into the GL2 (this is for editing guide track)... You can run the recorder at 16/48 wav and have the audio of the cam set for the same. Then just use standard clapper and set audio sync manually.

I sold a nice mixpre for about $355 in the marketplace... don't waste your money on a Beachtek at this point... if you want a little tool to grow with then get a mixpre or fp24... but for the basic setup you're talking about I'd consider the digital recorder route first... you can get dramatically improved sound for $199 even though it's not necessarily the most pro way to handle it.
 
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