AC130: XLR Audio Recording

L

LarsN

Member
I did a recording of a dance show last weekend and since the AC130 has XLR inputs I used them. This is the first the I use XLR audio recording for a film I am going to work on in post. I finished the first show but now I am wondering how to mix the audio.
The show was recorded with 5 camera's, 1 connected with XLR cables (Channel 1 & 2) and the other 4 camera's got sound from the audience (ROD mic's)
My question is how do I mix these to catch the applaud and crowd reactions but keep the quality of the XLR recording without the recording of the live music interfering. My multicam is set up and everything is in sync. If you have more tips and tricks for me please share.
 
Hi Lars

Now firstly the next show you do, ask the audio desk to mix in the stage and audience mics for you...it makes it a lot easier!!!

For your current situation I'm not sure what NLE you use but I would simply create multiple audio tracks and keep the XLR channels at -12db so that's the main audio then mix in applause and crowd noise at a much lower level where needed...probably at least 10db or more lower than your main track... If you are going out to DVD your NLE should mix all the tracks for you to ideally a equal channel level output left and right ...Sony Vegas does this so I work with mono tracks only!!
Be very careful with your final mix level ..for DVD you need no more than -6db so remember than combining multiple track will also combine their levels!! ie: 3 tracks at the same level will triple the output level so keep them reasonably low ...if you have a main track running solo at say -6db and add a second track of -12db later on along the track where the tracks duplicate the main track level will have to drop so the volume doesn't suddenly increase when the audio comes to applause!!!

Chris
 
ChrisHarding said:
Hi Lars

Now firstly the next show you do, ask the audio desk to mix in the stage and audience mics for you...it makes it a lot easier!!!

For your current situation I'm not sure what NLE you use but I would simply create multiple audio tracks and keep the XLR channels at -12db so that's the main audio then mix in applause and crowd noise at a much lower level where needed...probably at least 10db or more lower than your main track... If you are going out to DVD your NLE should mix all the tracks for you to ideally a equal channel level output left and right ...Sony Vegas does this so I work with mono tracks only!!
Be very careful with your final mix level ..for DVD you need no more than -6db so remember than combining multiple track will also combine their levels!! ie: 3 tracks at the same level will triple the output level so keep them reasonably low ...if you have a main track running solo at say -6db and add a second track of -12db later on along the track where the tracks duplicate the main track level will have to drop so the volume doesn't suddenly increase when the audio comes to applause!!!

Chris
Click to expand...

The stage miss where all off when the music was playing, I use Final cut pro to edit and after 5 hours I finished the first show. Thank you for the advice
 
What I do is put audio feed in channel 1 and audience mic in channel 2. I keep audience mic real low so it pretty much only picks up applause.
In post I duplicate the audio tracks (copy and paste the whole thing). then (in Premiere) I make one track all left and the other track all right.
then I just cut off the sections so only the applause is left. I add a fade so I shorten the video to only a few seconds of applause
sample
tracks.JPG
Since you have sync'd up your video I assume you kept at least one of the audience mics track. just shrink up that and toss out the section with music.

my 2 cents

PS The places I shoot at never have audience mics to feed you (since they never have the need to feed that to their speakers)
 
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