Second System Audio & Drift - Tascam HD-P2

[Bassman2003]

Hello,

I am looking at some external recorders to be used with GH2's and would like to ask about people's experience with audio drift.

The Tascam HD-P2 stands out to me as it has a video input which can sync the HD-P2 to your video camera. If I could ask owners of this recorder, does this setup work as intended? Will the HD-P2 keep sync with a video camera plugged into it?

I see a lot of posts about the H4N or DR-100 and none of the recorders have a way to keep from drifting. My experience with laptop based audio interfaces is pretty bad when it comes to mixing video and audio devices as the timing crystals are different. If I go with a DR-100, how long can one record and not experience drifting?

Thanks for your help.

 

[marvinhello]

I don't think HD-P2 would sync well with GH2, since DSLR cameras don't have timecode, and HD-P2 requires SMPTE timecode input to do the sync.

You can check out the Lockit Buddy timecode solution or using pluraleyes to help sync your video and audio.

Also, be sure to record in 24bit/48kHz.

 

[Noiz2]

I don't think HD-P2 would sync well with GH2, since DSLR cameras don't have timecode, and HD-P2 requires SMPTE timecode input to do the sync.

You can check out the Lockit Buddy timecode solution or using pluraleyes to help sync your video and audio.

Also, be sure to record in 24bit/48kHz.

Not quite.

TC is not do a sync function (at least in the video world), it's a positional reference. The sync would be done by the video in on the HD-P2. But can the GH2 provide a video sync out? Probably not.

There are other factors here though. How long is your max take? If it's under 10 min you will probably not have noticeable drift.
The camera is probably as likely if not more so to be a drift problem.
However even cheap recorders and camcorders are very steady compared to analog, and films were made in analog for a LONG time.
IF your shooting one hour takes then you will probably have a problem.
The only way around that is to have everything locked down with some sync clock.

So for "sync" you have two things to think about.
Positional (where do I start?).
and clocking (how fast do I go).

The first is handled by Time Code (or a dumb slate and manually syncing starts).
The second is handled by a sync signal, Blackburst, word clock, supperclock, pilotone, etc.

DSLR's generally don't out put either so you have no real "sync". You do want a positional reference and you can do that by slating or feeding TC into both the recorder and the camera.
The "new" way is to use the audio track itself as a positional reference. Pluraleyes will use the recorded audio as a positional guide to sync the starts of takes.

But with out s sync reference you will get drift. Usually the drift is very small and should be unnoticeable over the length of a "normal" take.

I would agree with recommending 48/24. But you want to check your workflow before you shoot to make sure 24 bit works for you. 99% of the time the answer is yes but there are times when you will want to stick with the video standard of 48/16.

 

[Bassman2003]

Thanks for your replies. I agree with everything. I think it is a moot point as I just tested the GH2 and the RCA video output is disabled during recording... So no drift correction with this camera. I think I will look at the DR-100 then.