Seeking advise setting up Audio into the Odyssey 7Q for 24-bit recording.

H

hambulance

Member
Hello FS700R O7Q users.

I am focusing on my audio gathering skills, as I currently see that as my weakest production area and giving it some practice. I have a SD-302 on the way and have been learning about how good clear pre-amps, using and setting limiters and high pass/low cut and all those cool things to get good dynamic range in audio capture with my images.

I'd like to get some advise from someone out there, that is knowledgeable, if they exist and read this.

The FS700 has a line input options (on L+R), which I assume bypasses it's pre-amps (or is at a level that negates noise from them?), and I'm aware that the camera records maximum 48kHz / 16-bit. I read that the O7Q recorder in Prores HQ is paired with 48kHz / 24-bit audio.

So as far a thinking of a typical connection setup I'm wondering what would be the most rigours setup to record audio (embedded in the video file) at 48kHz / 24-bit using the O7Q.

Using a SD-302 field mixer; which has 2 balanced xlr outputs (L+R).

Typically I would imagine these would go into the FS700 inputs at line level (and set accordingly).

When the FS700 is connected to the O7Q recording 4K2HD or the upcoming prores flavours, is there any kind of bit depth limitation happening (to 16-bit) into the O7Q, as the FS700 maybe has a ceiling of 16-bit depth??

If I wanted 48/24-bit would I need to bypass the FS700 and go direct audio connection into the O7Q. I've had strange results using the 3.5 mm (I'm assuming unbalanced) jack into the O7Q only because the device is getting Audio from the camera into the main SDI port.

So my questions are:

How could I get a balanced stereo input into the O7Q at 48/24-bit??
Should I use one of the other SDI inputs? Is there some kind of stereo XLR to SDI adapter I might need?
Or is there no bit-depth threshold/limitation as audio signal goes through the camera?

Any solid advise is greatly appreciated.
 
Ok, so I've been learning about the difference between analogue and digital inputs, and about balanced and unbalanced. I figure that once the O7Q analog audio input is ready I would have to come out of a SD-302 with balanced lines, and perhaps some kind of adapter to the O7Q unbalanced input. Or out of the unbalanced SD-302 TA3 Mix output into the O7Q unbalanced input.

I guess I'm wondering if it makes any difference using balanced to> unbalanced or unbalanced to> unbalanced.

Unless anyone can tell me what a best practice could our should be I'll have to wait to experiment. Until then I'll settle for the 16bit FS700 capacity.
 
I find a mic plugged directly into the fs700 gives nice clean results (infinitely cleaner than the hissy zoom H4n I used to use!) I usually boom a Rode NTG2 in my scenes. Not the best or most expensive mic, but with a little post eq and noise reduction the results are very good. To be honest I've never thought as deeply into as you do with the balanced, unbalanced and what the bit depth is. I rely on my ears, good mic placement and a good pair of headphones on set and do all my normalising and eq'ing in post and haven't been disappointed yet.

I also rely on an xlr splitter to run one channel at half volume to cater for sudden loud noises or yelling for example so I can blend volumes later just in case one peaks. I don't make much of a science about it, but I always monitor sound with headphones while recording for piece of mind and for detecting any issues like low rumbles from nearby trucks or motorcycles that will be too much of a pain to remove in post.
But the best thing you can do is just test your equipment and know it's strengths and limitations and work out a workflow that sounds good to you :)

I'm also lazy so the prospect of adding yet another piece of gear like a mixer to my bag fills me with dread! :p
 
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