The Canon DSLR Audio thread

If you don't plan on getting a mic that uses XLR cables you don't need the H4N. But you'll get much better sound using a mic like the VideoMic with the Sony M10 at around 200.00. It doesn't have XLR inputs, and the Sony recorders are top knotch. And later if you decide to step it up, you could get a MixPre-D that takes XLR cables from more pro mics. Then just run a 3.5mm cable from the MixPre-D to the Sony M10.
 
yeh i'm not planning on xlr mics any time soon so I think I'll have a look at the sony recorder as an option...thanks
 
So... how to get rid of irritating echo/reverb which screams so loudly AMATEUR VIDEO, ive seen a lot of short films with this issue.
 
bwwd said:
So... how to get rid of irritating echo/reverb which screams so loudly AMATEUR VIDEO, ive seen a lot of short films with this issue.
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You must have the mic within 24" of the mouth. What you are hearing is the sound of the mic being far away from the person talking. Just try it out. Put headphones on and talk into a mic 1 foot away. Then put the same mic 6 feet away and talk. Instant amateur!
 
bwwd said:
Thanks, so lavalier is also good way to avoid reverb ?
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Yes. With a lav, it's close to the mouth, and your body shields the mic from wall reflections too. But a lav doesn't sound as good as a proper boomed mic. For indoors you also need to be using a hypercardioid like the AT4053b. Shotgun mics are designed for outdoors. Those slits on the side that help reject side noise outside, will make your audio worse when indoors whenever a reflection bounces off the wall and hits the mic. That causes phase issues, and also screams "amateur". Everyone doing audio for video should have at least the 3 basic mics:

• Shotgun for outside
• Hyper for inside
• Wireless / Wired lav for when a boom mic is not appropriate.
 
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Chadfish -- I ended up buying a Videomic Pro to go with my Sennheiser G2 system. I noticed you're running both into your dslr. Are you using a stereo 1/8 male to two 1/8 mono females?
 
You'll have to mention the video and the time in the video in order to know exactly what you're taking about. If I was doing h and wireless, I probably was using one of my JuicedLink preamps. I think with a G3 and a VMP the JL DT-214 would work at around 144.00.
 
I went back and looked at the video where you're using the Videomic Pro and the G3 and you're running it through a JL. I guess I was thinking of someone else's setup. My G2 going straight into the t2i sounds really good, and my new Videomic Pro sounds great too. So I was thinking of just running those straight in using a splitter cable like I mentioned. I think I'll just pick one up at Guitar Center and see how it does. By the way, your posts here on dvxuser are very helpful to amateurs such as myself. And I like your studio setup, and your videos are great. I'm still working on improving my videos and getting them up to a more professional looking standard. Thanks again. By the way, one of the reasons I purchased the Videomic Pro was because I saw your video with the song. It's really a great sounding mic for the price, and considering I can run it straight into my t2i with ML.
 
Thanks a lot rszebras! The VMP is a really nice mic - for what it is. I think it's perfect for use with DSLR's when you want better sound, but you don't want to get all "2nd system audio". It's the 20db boost that will help you lower the hiss as long as you're working with a camera with manual levels. Still, the JL preamp gives you level control on the fly which can save your butt.

Keep trying to make your vids better and better. It's less about gear than it is about using what you have correctly. Don't have an Arri light? Use a shop halogen from Harbor Freight for 15.00 and slap something on it to diffuse. Get those mics as close as you can to the mouth. And most of all, have a clear idea of what you want to say. That's what people care about - CONTENT IS KING.
 
Thanks for the advice. Use what you have to make videos, rather than complain about what you don't have, is the number one piece of advice here. This is the latest video I did for our company: http://www.vmar.net/brakesystemfailure.htm (at the bottom of the page). I'm a one man operation -- literally. Other than sometimes having the opportunity to video our other people performing an investigation.
 
Hey rszebras that looks / sounds pretty nice! Looks pro to me - from one "one man band" to another. It's good enough as is until you decide to maybe upgrade the Lav. Is that an ME2? Rode Lav is a good step up, and the Sanken COS11d is really sweet, but really expensive.
 
Yes, that's the standard lav that comes with the G2 system (the ME2). I think it sounds good for not receiving much respect. For the field investigation part of the audio, I was using my old Videomic. The next one I'll get to use the Videomic Pro I bought. If I had the funds I'd like to get the Countryman B6. To my ear, it sounds exceptional, in addition to being easy to hide. I upgraded my camera from an HV30 to the t2i. This video is the first one with the t2i and I love being able to control the depth of field. I really like the image coming out of this camera. Although I'm experimenting with different things to white balance off of, as I thought the narrative part was a little warm. But it does make the skin tones look nice -- like I just came back from Hawaii. I wish.
 
I wanted to get an opinion on this, but I've been experiementing with my t3i and have come up with an interesting solution to the sound. I'm using my cheap field mixer seen here http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/597824-REG/Rolls_MX34B_MX34b_LiveMix_2_Channel.html to input my RODE NTG-1 XLR and out put the 3.5mm jack into the camera. It gives me phantom power, headphone jack, and it's oh so much easier to carry and control levels than my H4N but without the Wave files. The sound seems fine but I'm getting wierd green tips when I look at the files in Soundbooth, no idea what that means.But for 100.00 it seems like a great solution, unless there's a reason I'm unaware of as to why I shouldn't be doing this.
 
rszebras said:
I went back and looked at the video where you're using the Videomic Pro and the G3 and you're running it through a JL. I guess I was thinking of someone else's setup. My G2 going straight into the t2i sounds really good, and my new Videomic Pro sounds great too. So I was thinking of just running those straight in using a splitter cable like I mentioned. I think I'll just pick one up at Guitar Center and see how it does. By the way, your posts here on dvxuser are very helpful to amateurs such as myself. And I like your studio setup, and your videos are great. I'm still working on improving my videos and getting them up to a more professional looking standard. Thanks again. By the way, one of the reasons I purchased the Videomic Pro was because I saw your video with the song. It's really a great sounding mic for the price, and considering I can run it straight into my t2i with ML.
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Wait, are you trying to use the VMP attached to the Sennheiser wireless lav system?
I thought part of the whole idea of the VMP with the +20db gain is the ability to go straight into the camera? Why are you using the lav system in between? Is it just to get closer to the subject, or is it because you feel like you still need the amplification?
 
Actually my plan is to use use both the G2 and the VMP at the same time by using a 1/8 splitter cable. Feed the VMP say into the right channel and the G2 into the left. However, I had thought about using the VMP on a boom connected to the G2 transmitter and running the VMP wirelessly like more expensive shotgun wireless setups. This would only be done when I need to get audio from farther away from the camera and I don't want to be tethered to the VMP. But, as mentioned, my plan is the first option.
 
rszebras said:
Actually my plan is to use use both the G2 and the VMP at the same time by using a 1/8 splitter cable. Feed the VMP say into the right channel and the G2 into the left. However, I had thought about using the VMP on a boom connected to the G2 transmitter and running the VMP wirelessly like more expensive shotgun wireless setups. This would only be done when I need to get audio from farther away from the camera and I don't want to be tethered to the VMP. But, as mentioned, my plan is the first option.
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Good idea, splitting the feed like that. Sounds reasonable enough- let us know how that goes!
Meanwhile, I finally got my hands on my own VMP for testing. So far it does pretty well directly in camera, however I find myself needing to boost the volume about +8db in post.
I'm considering raising the analog amp in Magic Lantern just a bit to compensate for that, but I'm really afraid anything other than 0 will introduce more noise than that slight boost in post. So far, the +8db boost in post doesn't introduce anything terrible noise-wise, and sounds pretty clean for such a low-cost setup!
 
Chadfish said:
I believe I was boosting the analog gain by 10db in ML and had fine results.
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Good to know. I might try that- the problem with relying on boost in post is that I don't get to see any live metering on the camera's display since the volume is starting off so low. If +10db is rather safe I'll try that next.
 
You'll know when you are to hot - when you start to see the meters on ML hit yellow, as shown in my VMP test. I probably already posted this but you can see me yelling progressively louder to get it to hit yellow, then red.


Re-watching this, I see that I added no gain. Stll I have a nice dynamic range, and boosting in post is the norm. It's better than clipping the audio - like you could hear I did when I was yelling. So depending on how loud your subject is, you may be fine leaving the gain at 0, especially if you have the mic close like it should be.
 
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