Connecting to a mixer board

[aaandre]

I'll be taping a music performance and am planning to connect my dvx100a to the mixing board. Any experience with this?

Anything I should tell the sound guy? Anything I should do to adjust the board's output level - is it possible that it'd be too high or too low for the camera?

Thank you.

-- Andre

 

[Barry_S]

Re: Connecting  to a mixer board

Re: Connecting  to a mixer board

One thing to be very aware of is that the feed from a board being used for sound reinforcement is not the same as a from a board being used for a recording. The sound will be mixed for live performance, so the feed could potentially sound like crap. Maybe they're not micing the drums or the mix could just sound bad. The mixer will have a female XLR or female 1/4" jack, so you'll need a male-male cable or a female-male adapter. I'd recommend a 100' XLR cable so you'll have some mobility. You can also plug a wireless set into the mixer, but I'd recommend against it for music--the compander circuitry in wireless sets is fine for dialogue, but isn't ideal for music. I'd go in one channel with the mixer feed and mic the other channel yourself. The on-camera mic does surprisingly well if you have good camera placement.

On some mixers the line output can be adjusted. Talk to the sound guy before the performance and get your details worked out. The DVX will handle a line level input just fine--make sure the channel is not switched for mic level input. It's also handy to have a 20 db pad available to tame a hot signal.

 

[Kip_Kubin]

Re: Connecting  to a mixer board

Re: Connecting  to a mixer board

You are about to make what is called a "board tape"

Board tapes usually sound terrible because the sound man is making adjustments to the audio based on the room the music is bieng played in... he's in not on what sounds best for a "recording"

That's why in recording most "live" music for film/DVD the audio is split...Monitors, FOH and multitrack recorders. The audio is then recorded on seperate chanels to be re-mixed later.

If I were you...I would see if the sound man has the ability to make a recording for you (on CD, Dat etc.) without hooking up the camera to the mixing board. Most of the time they can. I would then use the camera's xlr inputs to record the room. Don't use the on camera microphones, Use two mics, cartioid patern, cris crossed for stereo pickup of the room.

Pick the audio that sounds best for what you are doing with it.

If you don't have any phase problems you can use both direct signal and room to make everything sound more natural.

If you do want to make a board tape...just tell the sound man that you will need the stereo output of the mixing board using 2 XLR cables.

Make sure that's possible beforehand...You might need some adapters..1/4 to xlr or rca to xlr. That all depends on the board.

The gain adjustments on the camera will be enough to set the levels corectly.

Kip