Tascam dr-40 + Canon 550d

S

-Sandro-

Well-known member
Hello,
I've been recently asked to join a VERY last-minute project (on Monday) to make (try at least) a documentary for a geology project, at high altitudes so a lot of wind.
I currently have no shotgun mic, just a Tascam dr-40 with a dead cat windshield (works pretty well with wind!). I'm aware that the recorder is OK for everything but dialogues but I have no time or money to go buy a shotgun mic. I'm sure it'll be better than the 550d mic for sure, considering the wind.
The question I wanna ask you guys is if it's ok (quality wise) to connect the tascam directly into the 550d and record the audio into the video files. Of course setting the gain to zero (so no AGC). If I only apply gain from the tascam will the Canon do something with it with no AGC or will the quality remain the same? Will the volume be weaker?

I wanna record into the camera to have everything already synced since I will also have very little time to edit it :|
 
There are a lot of factors at play here. Are you talking about mounting the DR-40 to the top of your camera, and then connecting it's output to the camera's input, or getting a longer cable and not having the recorder mounted to the camera?

Here are the things you should consider:

1) To get full manual control on the 550D/T2i, Magic Lantern must be installed. Otherwise, there's no decent gain control in-camera, and no good or easy way around the AGC.
2) Assuming that you have Magic Lantern running, you'll still have an issue of impedance matching with a line-level out from the DR-40 and a mic-level in on the camera. That can be solved using a padded cable. Otherwise, you run a very high probability of having distorted audio in-camera.
3) Mounted to the camera is the last place you'd ever want a microphone, and that's what the recorder is acting as in this scenario. Having it detached from the camera gives you the ability to move it close to the subject for dialog.
4) The mics on the DR-40 may be an improvement over the pinhole mic on the 550D, but they're still too wide-patterned to get proper dialog recording. Plus, dialog is a mono source and should be recorded mono with a single mic; at the very least you'll need to split the stereo file in post and ditch one channel for any and all dialog recordings. Like any mic, distance (rather, closeness) is key: the closer the better. There is no substitute for a properly-chosen and properly-used, boomed mic. But I think you know this, so see #3 above.
 
The output of the Tascam will be line level .... The input to the camera is mic level.
If they are connected without a level dropping pad the camera sound will be overloaded and distorted... No matter what settings you use. Making the recording on the camera useless.
If you are doing dialogue with your / any recorder the mics need to be NO further than 500mm from the person speaking.
 
There is no point connecting the DR-40 to the Canon 550D. The 550D is marginal for sound, and lacking a headphone jack, it just makes it a big guessing game.

Record separately -- and then use software to relink the video and audio, such as PluralEyes. Grab the 30 days demo to try it out. (Even Premiere Pro CC includes a sync on audio feature.) It only takes a couple minutes to relink, and takes all the sweat out of recording separately.

Get the DR-40 as close to the mouth of the talent as possible. Duct tape, wooden dowels, etc.
 
Thank you guy in the end I think i'm going to record separately since I forgot I can't use headphones otherwise!
 
-Sandro- said:
Thank you guy in the end I think i'm going to record separately since I forgot I can't use headphones otherwise!
Click to expand...

Forgot to mention, that's the other reason to add Magic Lantern. With that and THIS CABLE, headphone monitoring is available.

HOWEVER, nothing you record to your 550D will match the quality of what the DR-40 records, so you may still want to use the recorder's files in the end. Personally, even with ML installed, I don't record to my 550D and use second-system sound as a matter of practice.
 
bprater said:
There is no point connecting the DR-40 to the Canon 550D. The 550D is marginal for sound, and lacking a headphone jack, it just makes it a big guessing game.

Record separately -- Get the DR-40 as close to the mouth of the talent as possible.
Click to expand...
1) It's possible to get "usable" audio using the 550d. At least, you can use it for sync in post and as a Back-Up audio if everything goes bad.
2) I'd say, even without monitoring, if you set your peaks in the beginning and nothings goes above -12dB you should be fine.
3) That would be the best option. Best signal-to-noise ratio will gives you the best audio possible.
Alex H. said:
HOWEVER, nothing you record to your 550D will match the quality of what the DR-40 records, so you may still want to use the recorder's files in the end. Personally, even with ML installed, I don't record to my 550D and use second-system sound as a matter of practice.
Click to expand...
Feeding the audio from the recorder to the camera makes it easier to sync in post, by waveforms without any plugin or additional software.
I've done it a lot and it's easier to sync the audio, than using the on-board camera recording, which won't be as clean.
 
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