Urgent Followup Question/Advice: External Audio Feed to HMC40

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Denniscasey

Well-known member
Chris had excellent comments to my original question, but tonight at wedding rehearsal church audio man arranged for direct feeds via his audio mixer to my HMC40. The feed basically gets input from wireless mics that pastor has, groom and bride will have, music feed and all. I plug into HMC40 mic 3.5mm stereo jack and get sound without background noise I pickup using HMC40 mic. In fact due to sound system at church I get echo from speakers if I just use HMC40 mic. So, I would like to use audio feed from church mixer, except I had problems figuring out good sound level using church feed.

Actually, if I left mic setting on HMC40 at FIX I seem to get good results so again I wonder if HMC40 treats audio feed like it does its own mic--i.e. in FIX it tries to avoid clipping??? Next, I set mic setting to MANUAL and tried manual adjustment. Feed from church was quite loud so I tried -18 dB setting on HMC40 but frankly did not seem to make much difference in sound level vs -6 dB. So I wonder if HMC40 manual audio adjustment will reduce sound level from church feed like it does feed from an external mic plugged into the 3.5 mm jack on camera??

Would really appreciate feedback for wedding tomorrow. Thank you, Dennis
 
Apologies for bother, but re-reading Chris's note carefully he was telling me HMC40 can not handle line feeds without XLR. I should not try to plug a line feed into the only mic connection on HMC40 (the 3.5mm jack).
 
Hi Dennis - You CAN feed line level into the mic jack IF you have something like a 40db attenuator in the cable ..Radio shack used to sell them where you plug line in into the attenuator and it plugs into you mic jack with the correct level. Dunno if you can get one in time ..if not check if the desk can give you a lower level feed or even try a line out that has a slider on the desk and keep it down to absolute minimum ..it might work! Still would be better to hook up the groom with a lav mic and either audio recorder or radio mic. That is designed for cameras and will work perfectly. I have just returned from a huge Greek wedding and I miced the priest and audio was magic (the couple don't talk at Greek weddings) You might be able to grab a cheap recorder on the way with a lav mic???
 
Hi Chris--Thank you for clarification. I know you are right about audio hook ups, but in the end I decided not to risk using something I was not familiar with so I just went with camera mounted external mic (Rode). Audio not optimal, but at least usable. At rehearsal church sound guy tried to get lowest level feed to me, but we both thought it was still too "hot." Church had good selection of wireless mics so all participants including bride and groom were "broadcasting" over church sound system speakers so everything audible.

Although I wanted to do the best I could as favor for friend, I found I would not be a good wedding videographer. I basically followed the professional still photo boys around (stayed out of their way) and shot everything they did. Made for a long day (noon pre-wedding to late night reception) and I don't have patience while all the little kids and relatives and wedding party, etc. etc. were first located, then posed, etc. And I am sure someone will still wonder why I did not get video of aunt Jane going through reception line!!

For other films I enjoy doing as hobby (vintage sports car racing) I am looking into the Rode "Smart lav" which plugs into i-Phone for $60--would use it to "interview" owners of vintage cars. Tried my years old and cheap Radio Shack lav with extension cord and even that was better for interviews than using camera mounted mic. Regards, Dennis
 
Hi Dennis. Happy everything went smoothly!! You can either get yourself a handheld recorder with a lav mic (they work very well but you have to sync the audio with your video of course) My preference is still a wireless transmitter/receiver and you can get very neat units that will suit your 40 nicely and plug directly into the mic jack on eBay ...Look for the older VHF ones that are called WM Pro ..they are normally cheap and work forever. With something like like the car owner could then be able to walk around the car pointing out special features and you get good audio all the time!
 
Chris, I'll look on dBay. With my lash up of Radio Shack lav and extension cord I did have driver/owner walk around car pointing out special features while I followed with camera zooming in on engine, suspension, etc. features. Worked ok but not as good as wireless since we had to be careful not to trip over cord or have it get hung up on some part of car---also of course the Radio Shack lav was probably case of you get what you pay for. Dennis
 
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