Dual sound on 5D2 with ML still necessary?
- Thread starter eco_bach
- Start date
Bassman2003
Veteran
Better quality is always the reason the use dual sound. External recorders have better preamps. Your project and quality needs should make the decision for you.
Thanks. WOuld luv to here the difference myself. Do u know of any tests online?
Bassman2003
Veteran
Not in particular, but you would need to specify what external recorder you want to comapre it to. Hands down, the internal preams of a still camera are not going to match a reasonable external recorder. Fine for some situations. Only you can draw that line. Maybe you can go to a local store and do a comparison?
M. Gilden
Canon DSLR Moderator
As an extensive user of Magic Lantern, I can tell you that while it worked great in run-and-gun where some quality loss can be excused, or shoots in which I could come back and do it again if there was a problem, I wouldn't necessarily trust it with important projects.
The preamps on the camera are noisy. ML can turn off the gain so that you have more control, and even to monitor it with headphones, but I've found that in order to remove the sound from the background noise you have to feed it a pretty hot signal. That's great if, for example, you have a person miced with a lav and will be keeping a consistent volume when they speak. I would do a mic check, and raise the volume on my lav receiver's preamp so that it was as hot as possible without peaking. But if that person gets animated and raises their voice, I can't even tell you how often a take was ruined because it DID peak and caused that ugly audio crack that comes with it. And the worst part is, I sometimes wouldn't know until I got back and logged all the footage.
Generally, the advice would be to turn feed going into the camera down, leaving more headroom for unexpected volume spikes. But then you risk going too low that you will raise it in post along with audible background noise/hissing.
Its a complicated science to get good audio with ML. You CAN, and I've definitely done it plenty of times (I used to be one of the biggest fans of it), but if you already have an external recorder, the wider dynamic range gives you that much more clarity and so much more freedom and protection from things like this that could potentially ruin a shot.
My current setup (although I usually use a GH2 instead of a Canon these days), is to run the line from the mic split, one into the camera and one into a Tascam recorder (DR-07 takes minijack, just like the camera, but has vastly greater control and dynamic range). I usually try to use the audio in-camera for ease of use, especially when just doing interviews/talking heads. But having that backup on the recorder has saved me enough times that I wouldn't suggest tossing the dual system just yet.
Experiment a bit, see how you feel for yourself.
The preamps on the camera are noisy. ML can turn off the gain so that you have more control, and even to monitor it with headphones, but I've found that in order to remove the sound from the background noise you have to feed it a pretty hot signal. That's great if, for example, you have a person miced with a lav and will be keeping a consistent volume when they speak. I would do a mic check, and raise the volume on my lav receiver's preamp so that it was as hot as possible without peaking. But if that person gets animated and raises their voice, I can't even tell you how often a take was ruined because it DID peak and caused that ugly audio crack that comes with it. And the worst part is, I sometimes wouldn't know until I got back and logged all the footage.
Generally, the advice would be to turn feed going into the camera down, leaving more headroom for unexpected volume spikes. But then you risk going too low that you will raise it in post along with audible background noise/hissing.
Its a complicated science to get good audio with ML. You CAN, and I've definitely done it plenty of times (I used to be one of the biggest fans of it), but if you already have an external recorder, the wider dynamic range gives you that much more clarity and so much more freedom and protection from things like this that could potentially ruin a shot.
My current setup (although I usually use a GH2 instead of a Canon these days), is to run the line from the mic split, one into the camera and one into a Tascam recorder (DR-07 takes minijack, just like the camera, but has vastly greater control and dynamic range). I usually try to use the audio in-camera for ease of use, especially when just doing interviews/talking heads. But having that backup on the recorder has saved me enough times that I wouldn't suggest tossing the dual system just yet.
Experiment a bit, see how you feel for yourself.
M. Gilden
Canon DSLR Moderator
Sounds like an excellent plan. There are some cables made for this with proper attenuation (line level vs mic level), depending on how you want to set this up.