Soundboard question

S

Sajc05

Active member
Hey guys,

I'm shooting a group of speakers tonight who will be mic'd. I have a decent external mic with a 25ft xrl extension.

My question is can I plug into the soundboard directly with my xlr cable and are thier risks to that? I've done a lot of reading on this board and others and it seems some people had complications.

To have a back up plan can I use both my mic and a line to the sound board at the same time in case one or the other doesn't work? both inputs recording to one channel? How does this work? if I like one source over the other I duplicate the channel in post to get two channels?

Thanks so much
 
Sajc05 said:
...My question is can I plug into the soundboard directly with my xlr cable and are thier risks to that? I've done a lot of reading on this board and others and it seems some people had complications. ..
Click to expand...

Absolutely. I've done this before and it works great. No risks that I know of. For the backup plan, record the soundboard to one channel and your shotgun mic to the other. Then in post you can pick the best (which will be the board) to apply to both channels.
 
Hacker said:
Absolutely. I've done this before and it works great. No risks that I know of. For the backup plan, record the soundboard to one channel and your shotgun mic to the other. Then in post you can pick the best (which will be the board) to apply to both channels.
Click to expand...

A couple of caveats:

- Check the output of the board to see if it is MIC or LINE level, and set your camera's input to match. Sending a mic-level signal to a line-level input will result in low/no signal. Sending a line-level signal to a mic-level input can damage the camera's preamp.

- Make sure that +48v phantom power is OFF for the input from the board.

- Wear headphones while you shoot.

In post, you may want to blend a tiny little bit of your mic in with the board feed, just to give a more live sound. Play with it and see how it sounds. You don't want it to sound too "roomy," but it can help make your sound less dry.
 
Good point C2V. I forgot about mentioning line vs. mic levels. I usually ask for line level and I start with my input level control all the way down and slowly increase in case he sent me a crazy high level. I like line level because it's much more resistant to interference and noise since it's a more powerful signal than mic level.
 
Thanks guys, really appreciate it.

So I have input 1 set to line - input 2 set to mic

input 2 power on - input 1 power off

channel one select to input 1 - channel 2 select to input 2

So I guess line/mic switch on the front of the camera should only be at line (for channel 1 in my case) if the sound board output is line as well, and if it's not keep channel 1 set to mic?
 
Sajc05 said:
...So I guess line/mic switch on the front of the camera should only be at line (for channel 1 in my case) if the sound board output is line as well, and if it's not keep channel 1 set to mic?
Click to expand...

Yes, ask the soundboard operator for a line level output (which you'll plug into your channel 1 set at "line".) Sometimes he'll get confused if you tell him you'll be plugging it into your mic input because then he'll give you mic level instead of line level. So I never mention the word "mic input", simply ask for "line level." Hope I haven't muddied the waters too much!
 
Hey, So I shot this event last night, There was another camera crew there that was doing a doc on the guest speaker of the night. The soundboard op tells us where we can plug in for their soundboard. 3 different spots in the auditorium.

I pick one closest to my camera set up and when we do a sound check I'm not getting anything but the sound guy tells me it's not line but a mic output, so I switch to mic for channel one and the tests from their lav mics comes in very loud but unfortunately not very clear. In my headphones I was able to hear the dialogue no problem but it was accompanied with an equally audible hiss.

I kept checking my buttons, seemed okay, even changed xlr cables (using a turnaround as well) but I couldn't get rid of this hissy feedback. I was able to make out the speakers pretty well so I guess I can use it if I don't use the backup shotgun mic I had.

does it seem there was something wrong with my camera or the port I plugged into? Because the doc filmmaker at the event had good sound from where he plugged in - xlr with a turnaround too.

thanks.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top