Audio Mixer (Studio Reflection)
Today we became familiar with using audio mixers for recording sound with a video camera. I am unsure of the particular model we used but the principles aresame for most devices. It was Powered by 3 AA batterys. In the audio kits there is a special cable called the lune cable. It also has got 2 XLR cables (plug them into the output of the mixer). There are two cables so you can record stereo.
Set the camera input to Line not Mic on the camera when using an external audio mixer.
Press status on the camera to make sure you have an audio signal coming in.
Go to menu –> audio –> and make sure the audio channels (L+R) are separated .
The intermittent switch titled 1k turns on an internal mic inside the mixer. It puts out 0dB. We need to calibrate the camera and mixer as the mixer is analog and the mixer is digital. To do this press the 1K switch so the mixer is outputting 0 dB and then calibrate the camera audio levels to be on -12. Because we are still learning to record audio we set one of the channels to -20 just so we have a different level incase.
We made sure we could hear the audio through the mixer and then plugged the headphones into the camera to see if we could still hear the audio. If not, adjust the headphone vol rocker switch on the camera.
We plugged the headphones back into the mixer and plugged the lune cable into the mixer and the camera. This way you are still hearing the audio out of the camera but from a distance. On the mixer we switched it from ST (stereo) to RTN (return) ways have it on RTN so we can the confidence that it got the camera in the first place. Only use ST for setting up. The moment the audio is plugged into the camera it should be switched to RTN.
With audio you have to go through everything methodically. It’s easy to skip a step and ruin your whole audio recording.
The only way to judge what you are actually recording is to look at the meters. The volume you are hearing it at is to do with headphone levels. Eg. the two return nobs, headphone volume on the mixer and camera. On the mixer there are two gain controls. One to get into the ballpark and one to make fine adjustments. This means we can make quick and correct adjustments to audio levels.
Analog and digital recording devices have different ideal recording levels.
Analog audio recording – peaking between 0 -> +3
Digital audio recording – peaking between -12 -> -6
On the mixer watch out for:
The two little black nobs on the input side of the mixer control the return (RTN) volume. Ff they are turned down you might not hear anything.
Using a mixer means the sound operator is not tethered to the camera and can focus on making adjustments to record the sound they want.