Newbie field recording question

T

tsitsanis

New member
cheers..got a question thats going to be realllllly silly to most people here, but I'll ask anyway.

I dont have any experience whatsoever with audio recording, and just trying to learn some basic stuff.

Lets say, for example, you are shooting with a dv cam and are using a shotgun mic, a mixer and dat recorder for audio.

When its time to edit and sync the audio/video and you combine the tape recorded audio with the digital video, will there be sound recorded through the cameras microphone too? or does that disable itself when you plug in the dat recorder?

I am assuming that the camera mic will not disable itself, and will also have recorded audio. In editing do you mute the camera's audio when preparing for the final product? or do you use both (camera and tape's) audio sources?

Thanks
 
How should your dv cam know that you're recording sound, when you use the chain mic-mixer-recorder?

In editing, you'll use the audio from the internal mic to sync it to the audio from the external recorder. It helps to clap your hands. After syncing, you'll most often mute the internal mic audio, except in rare cases (eg. shotgun has its levels blown).
 
You appear to be confusing two different methods of recording audio as there would be no purpose to attaching a DAT recorder to a camera. The two methods are known as single system and double system.

Single system is when the audio is recorded to the camera. This can be done either by using the in-camera mics or by plugging a mic into the camera, either with or without a mixer in between.

Double system is when the audio is recorded to a device other than the camera and you are right, you must do something to make sure you can sync them later. The oldest, cheapest and perhaps most reliable method of doing this is using a slate. You roll both your camera and audio recorder and clap the slate in front of the camera. Later, in post, you find the point in your picture where the sticks meet and the point in the audio where you hear the clap and you lock your picture and sound. Voila, sync. If you do not have a slate you can clap your hands cleanly and crisply.

SFX

tsitsanis said:
cheers..got a question thats going to be realllllly silly to most people here, but I'll ask anyway.

I dont have any experience whatsoever with audio recording, and just trying to learn some basic stuff.

Lets say, for example, you are shooting with a dv cam and are using a shotgun mic, a mixer and dat recorder for audio.

When its time to edit and sync the audio/video and you combine the tape recorded audio with the digital video, will there be sound recorded through the cameras microphone too? or does that disable itself when you plug in the dat recorder?

I am assuming that the camera mic will not disable itself, and will also have recorded audio. In editing do you mute the camera's audio when preparing for the final product? or do you use both (camera and tape's) audio sources?

Thanks
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thanks for the replies guys...

great info..

When using a mixer what kind of things do you have control over? What type of things can you adjust (increase, decrease) to get the sound you want?

Is there a big difference between a 'high end' field audio mixer and a lower end device?

Can a novice learn to use this equipment with just experimenting, or would you say that formal training is required?
 
being a novice myself i can tell you that experimenting is a great way to learn your equipment and what sounds right. depending on what kind of mixer you have, you can adjust plenty of parameters such as all your eq's' your level coming oin (trim)' and your level going out. as far as high end versus lower, its like anything in life.. you usually get what you pay for. some low end mxers may have mechanical noise or a hum that you cant get rid of. hope this helps
 
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