HELP....setting up audio for a 5D Mark II shoot

H

Hiro Nakamura

Active member
Hi guys,

I bet someone has posted this thread before, but I just couldn't find it after spent 30 mins looking at the previous thread back an forth. So... I decided to ask the question again.

I got a 5D Mark II shoot, mainly interviews, it's kind of corporate type of shoot.
My Gear as below:
Sound devices 302
Sennheiser 416 , Oktava 012 (indoor sitting down interview)
Boommate on a C stand
Zoom h1 as a backup recorder

SO ... Now my question is how to connect my sound devices 302 to 5D
After research, I came out two ways, anyone please your advices and suggestions are highly appreciated.

1. Using a cable 3.5 jack to Two XLR female ( I made the cable for the shoot).
So... my breakaway cable can connect SD302 to the XLR female, and 3.5 jack will be input to the 5D.
2. Using a H4N as a media, Breakaway cable from 302 to H4N, from H4N 3.5mini jack to 5D ( I did before for a 7D shoot)

Now... anyone familiar with 5D shoot?
does 5D take Line Level or Mic Level ?
does 5D have audio level control or only auto audio level ? (Manual says it has auto audio level)

Any suggestions and advices ?

Really appreciate your inputs guys.

Thanks in advance

Hiro
 
Simple answer, you don't. The AGC cannot be turned off. There is a juicelinked box which will jam one channel of the 5D, thereby effectively bypassing the AGC but that still leaves you with the funky a/d converters of the 5D. There's no point in sending the production audio to the 5D.

On all the 5D shots I've been on, we've used a dual system, letting the on-board mic of the 5D capture the scratch track, used for syncing later, and recording the production sound to a separate recorder. The H4n would work with the SD302 in front of it. Slate and call each shot.

Don't forget to have someone monitoring the audio for mic placement. The boommate is a good tool but you'll still need a boom op on headphones monitoring for mic placement and for your outdoor shots. You'll also need wind protection.

Hiro Nakamura said:
Hi guys,

SO ... Now my question is how to connect my sound devices 302 to 5D
After research, I came out two ways, anyone please your advices and suggestions are highly appreciated.

Hiro
Click to expand...
 
the 5d has manual audio gain control, which can be OK for some situations, and its a mic level input. there was a firmware update about a year ago that gave it manual audio control. but i would only use the camera's audio as a guide track. about 80% of my sound gigs are with the 5d and usually i'll use a sennheiser g2 to send a guide track to the camera and then record from my bag recorder(fostex fr2le). i'll send tone to camera and let the camera op deal with setting the levels to their liking.

the h4n is a great recorder, but remember that the xlr's in are mic level and the 302's xlr outs are line. i've got a set of shorty xlr's with line-mic pads in them which come in handy a lot and recommend any sound guy to have them. but there is a line input on the h4n but its 1/8" unbalanced. but that shouldnt be a problem as you're cable will be short and there won't be any wireless in your bag to throw out any RF.

easiest thing, you focus on audio and let the camera op focus on camera. and slating is never a bad idea, it will help the editor greatly.
 
Best advice is to utilize a stand alone audio recorder and not try to utilize the built in audio in the camera.

you have excellent gear , now score a recorder with XLR inputs that can handle line level signal thru the XLR and you are golden.
 
manglerBMX said:
...the h4n is a great recorder, but remember that the xlr's in are mic level and the 302's xlr outs are line. i've got a set of shorty xlr's with line-mic pads in them which come in handy a lot and recommend any sound guy to have them. but there is a line input on the h4n but its 1/8" unbalanced. but that shouldnt be a problem as you're cable will be short and there won't be any wireless in your bag to throw out any RF.

....
Click to expand...
Juist FYI, the 302's main XLR outputs can be reduced to mic level in the setup menu.
 
Thanks, Mangler.

I didn't know the 5Ds AGC was defeatable. Still have to contend with those funky a/d converters. FYI, if you use the 1/4" TRS part of the H4Ns XLR inputs, the recorder will switch to line level rather than mic level. I just found that out a couple of days ago.

manglerBMX said:
the 5d has manual audio gain control, which can be OK for some situations, and its a mic level input. there was a firmware update about a year ago that gave it manual audio control. but i would only use the camera's audio as a guide track. about 80% of my sound gigs are with the 5d and usually i'll use a sennheiser g2 to send a guide track to the camera and then record from my bag recorder(fostex fr2le). i'll send tone to camera and let the camera op deal with setting the levels to their liking.

the h4n is a great recorder, but remember that the xlr's in are mic level and the 302's xlr outs are line. i've got a set of shorty xlr's with line-mic pads in them which come in handy a lot and recommend any sound guy to have them. but there is a line input on the h4n but its 1/8" unbalanced. but that shouldnt be a problem as you're cable will be short and there won't be any wireless in your bag to throw out any RF.

easiest thing, you focus on audio and let the camera op focus on camera. and slating is never a bad idea, it will help the editor greatly.
Click to expand...
 
Thanks a lot guys for your valuable inputs.

I think I need to talk to the director about I will back all the audio to my H4N and at the meantime, I still wanna bring down my 302 's line level to mic level, feed the audio to the 5D, just for the reference. Assumedly the camera op installed the firmware on the 5D, I can level the 5D to sync with my 302. so... I have double assurance for the audio.
IF they have a juicedlink, it will make my life easier ...

Thanks again guys.

Happy New Year !!!
 
gpforet said:
Thanks, Mangler.<br />
<br />
FYI, if you use the 1/4" TRS part of the H4Ns XLR inputs, the recorder will switch to line level rather than mic level. I just found that out a couple of days ago.
Click to expand...
<br />
<br />

This is the best solution, you don't want to go through another set of lower quality preamps when you've got the 302 in front. It'll also be fine if you go to a consumer level 1/8" input (on the H1 or camera) from the 302's XLRs if you use a -10dB pad
 
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