HPX250: Four audio channels?

A

alan b

Active member
I was just running a test on my 250 with a shotgun mic that had been giving me problems. I was shooting scenes with the MIC GAIN in various combinations. When I imported the test clips into FCPX I noticed in the audio window that I had four mono channels. Turning each of those channels off and on it became fairly clear that two of the channels were from the shotgun mic and two were from the on-camera mic. I was pretty sure I had the camera's audio switches set for the shotgun to record alone but let me tell you what my settings were and perhaps someone can tell me where I went wrong:

--The shotgun mic is connected to INPUT 2

On the body switches:
--CH1 & CH2 SELECT switches set to INPUT 2
--CH! & CH2 switches set to MANU

On the handle switches:
--INPUT1 & INPUT2 set to MIC
--INPUT1 switched OFF, INPUT2 switched to ON

So, I dunno. I see no reason the onboard mic should be capturing anything but obviously I'm either missing something or I'm simply mistaken about being about to completely disable the onboard mics, but that would surprise me. And stranger things have happened, so, anyone?
 
It always records 4 channels. 2 from the XLRs, 2 from the internal mic. You may be able to turn the internal mic off though.
 
Thank you both for forcing me to dig deeper into my camera. I confess laziness too often thanks to the availability of info on the internet.

Male_man I did indeed finally find that menu item you speak of. Duh. I have no explanation as to how I missed that. I guess I get lost in the menu fog sometimes.

Mr. Green, with all due respect and humility, I have to confess also a bit of astonishment at your statement "You may be able to turn the internal mic off..." I mean, you literally "wrote the book" on this camera. To hear you express uncertainty surprised me. This especially true when I finally unearthed in your book the paragraph that describes this ability to defeat the internal mic. The index doesn't help much in this regard--it coud be more comprehensive. (but it's a vast improvement over the DVX book which had no index whatsoever) Please don't take this the wrong way. Your tomes have otherwise proved invaluable and I respect highly your insights.

That aside, this has raised another quandary. Before doing anything with the new MENU "discovery," and with the settings unchanged from yesterday when I was trying to figure this all out, I had the camera on and attaching a mic to try out these suggestions of yours. Just to make sure I wasn't dreaming I tapped with my finger on the internal mic. (the plastic around it, not the screens!) To my surprise there was no registration of audio input on the meters. I even had the oversized scale showing and there was no indication that any audio was being detected. As I said, no setting had yet been changed from yesterday when I was actually recording something and found the four audio tracks on the clips ingested into FCPX. Tracks 3&4 were certainly t a lower level than 1&2 but there was still something recorded.

Any thoughts on this?
 
Hi Alan, please understand that yes while I did write the book on the HPX250, I also did one on the AC160 & AC130, the HVX200, the HPX170, the DVX100, revised for DVX100A, and then revised again for DVX100B, and one for the AF100, and am just finishing one for the AC90. All the cameras have some significant similarities, and there are also substantial differences, so keeping them absolutely straight can be a little bit of a challenge sometimes. And, I was writing that message from a hotel room in New Mexico where I'm working on an extended deployment job. So, yes, I thought you could turn off the mic, but without having easy access to the written materials and, simultaneously, knowing for certain that you cannot turn the mic off on many of the cameras, I used the term "may" instead of "definitely can". I apologize, but there's only so much that can fit in the ol' noggin' simultaneously without having a chance to refer back to the book or the camera itself...

As for your question on the mic, the audio meters only show two channels. There's a user button (again, I think there's a user button, maybe it's a menu setting) that lets you display 3 & 4 instead of 1 & 2.
 
Barry's books are invaluable. If you don't have one for your camera, you should get it. I have the HPX170, and his book changed the way I shoot and the way I approach camera setup for each specific shoot's requirements, formerly a dark art (to me).

Thanks, Barry.
 
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