My friend Chris Lavigne is what I like to call the "master of media" over at Wistia, which means he gets to make all their product videos and also spends a lot of time sharing tips and tricks he uses as a cinematographer. He recently released this video which explains how he records audio to his 5D Mark III in a somewhat unconventional, yet still effective, way.
Many video shooters are taking advantage of DSLRs for an assortment of reasons (they're small, high quality, have a great "look," etc etc), but they aren't perfect. Audio on Canon DSLRs is one example of a place they are lacking, but Chris has made a way to get around that.
To record audio just like Chris, you're going to need:
- Canon 5D Mark III
- Zoom H4n Audio Recorder
- Sennheiser ME-66 Microphone
- Boom pole and stand
- Headphones of your choice
- XLR Cable
- 1/8" to 1/8" Headphone Cable
A lot of what Chris explains here stems from wanting to keep things small and simple.
Biggest takeaway in my opinion, and something for anyone new to recording audio, is always (seriously, always) record audio in more than one manner. Use redundancies because you never know when something might fail. You should check out Chris's full breakdown of the setup over at the Wistia blog.
What do you think? Do you record audio in a similarly unconventional manner? Let us know in the comments below.
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This isn't unconventional, this is conventional. Also if you'd like a cleaner line (The H4N doesn't have the best pre-amps) you can run your mic through a seperate pre-amp like a JuiceLink.
Further if you're talking about redundancies I'd recommend recording boom/lav.
I'm a fan of the boom/lav setup too. In the past I've used the Rode VideoMic hooked up to an H4N, in conjunction with a Rode SmartLav and I was really happy with the results.
We record ours seperate left/right and only use the cleanest line. Things tend to sound a little strange when combined. Is that how you do it, too?
Hey Grant, not sure I totally understand your question but I record the VideoMic to an H4N and the SmartLav to my iPhone, then use the cleanest sound, which is typically the SmartLav. Just nice to have the H4N audio as a backup too.
Hey Grant - I've heard good things about the JuiceLink.
I don't record audio for most (if any) of my B-ROLL, so I prefer to leave the h4n on the tripod and pop the camera off to avoid the bulk of having the JuiceLink attached to the camera body.
We use audio from B-ROLL most of the time! Our editor loves, loves, loves little brush strokes of foley audio throughout. I'd recommend in that instance that you prop your H4N on your hot-shoe and use the built-in mics and run'n'gun with that.
Appreciate your video nonetheless Chris! You rock.
G
Thanks for the tip! I'm going to have to start doing that more. It's been a matter of convenience, but that's no excuse for downright laziness! Cheers man thanks again!
Also, take a look at this. You can connect your H4N to the JuicedLink with the built-in screw mount on the JuicedLink. So it's almost like a single self contained unit!
http://cl.ly/image/1I1h2V0L2y2B
You can do that in post right?
Tascam DR60 does both in one package, with independent controls for input, output and headphone levels
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/929347-REG/tascam_dr_60d_4_ch_trac...
Looks great! Wouldn't mind seeing reviews on its preamps though. Never heard 'good' things about Tascam's preamp but never heard bad either.
Used them (briefly) at a workshop, sounded clean. Huge improvement over the built-in sound on the DSLRs the participants were shooting on. ;-)
How would you record from 2 lavs at once? Just use 2 recorders?
No, we record one lav and one boom mic. They're recorded Left/Right on a stereo track.
Pretty much the same set up I've used for a few years, and so far no issues (knock on wood). I will be adding in a countryman lav soon.
Yep, been doing this for years as well on my Mk II. Since the Mk II has no headphone port, just use a splitter from the headphone port on the H4N. You'll also want to add an attenuator in the line from the H4N to the Mk II. Very easy. I really like this method because not only does it create a backup audio track when done right, it really saves your hide when you do it wrong and forget to hit record on the H4N. Your clean audio from the H4N goes right into the camera and records with the video track. While it's not on the H4N, it's right there perfectly synced on your video file.
That's really overkill. There's no need for that. All you have to do is make sure you have an external recorder getting the "real" audio properly. You can use the camera's built-in mic with AGC turned ON (to maximize signal strength) to get a sync reference, quality isn't so important in the camera track. This allows you the freedom to move around untethered if you want to shoot off the tripod or can't use a tripod in a given environment. I do this all the time with multiple cameras and sync up with PluralEyes. I believe iMovie Pro users have a similar sync option right in the editor.
Another thing you may want to test out is the spectral response of your cameras audio recording hardware. While they're all good for dialog, depending on the body they may be inadequate for music. Models like the 5D will probably be OK, but other cameras may not. Below are the spectral analysis of my D600 and D5100 cameras versus a source reference. While the D600 is fine, you can see the D5100 did a mambo on the audio.
So if you're going to mainline music audio into your camera and use it as your source audio, make sure your camera's audio circuitry isn't hacking up your source signal.
For some reason the image file didn't load above, let's try that again...
Well, maybe not...
Ah, image finally came in, 1 hour later.
I'm glad somebody cares about audio fidelity, but I see where Chris is coming from here. You're gonna wanna pull out all the stops for anything headed for a theater, but when commercial projects start stacking up, even pluraleyes becomes more of a hassle than you really want to deal with. Especially when the final product is only ever gonna be seen on macbook pros.
It all depends on what it is and how you're doing it. If you're locked off in a controlled environment, that's not going to sweat the audio details much. But if you're roaming around things change. You could use a radio and still keep it relatively simple (assuming no radio interference ;-), as long as it's just one or two talking heads. Add other heads and things get trickier. Record music and you better make sure your camera will do it right, but really at that point you should be running separate audio. Add other cameras and it's a no-brainer, you'll need to sync.
So yes, in a situation like the one he's outlined you can certainly keep it in the camera if you like.
Awesome analysis here. Thanks for sharing!
I actually disagree here. For this workflow, I'm talking about recording the human voice of one person in a controlled environment (our makeshift studio) as primary audio. Synching files requires further file management and at least 3 additional steps to get into the edit. That's why I'm actually OK with a >slight< sacrifice in audio quality to exponentially speed up the editing process.
I've used Plural Eyes at least 700 times when I was shooting on 5D MkII and 7D, but the headphone jack on the 5D MkIII was what finally enabled me to remove the synching process from shoots like these where I have one person talking on screen.
I do agree (as the images don't lie) that the 5D is indeed hacking up my source signal. I'm just OK with the degradation at this level. Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
It's a personal preference of course. As I mentioned it may be fine in a controlled environment, but even for talking heads, with a separate audio track I have the option of selectively processing it. I may use noise reduction to minimize background noise, or compression, harmonic synthesis or any number of other processing. I know some of these processes are available in editors, but I'm not fond of some of the audio processing tools in my editor (Premiere Pro).
When you have to move around however a setup like that will be problematic.
Get a C100.
Yeah, anyone can budget for that...
Get a RED.
I don't quite get how people don't realize this; there are different solutions for different budgets and purposes. This is an audio tip for people shooting on DSLR (many of which happen to be <$3000) and I would love to get a C100, or C300 but as a photo/video freelancer I prefer investing in a solid DSLR because then the same camera/kit can be used for photo or video work. If I jumped in and bought a C100 then I'd probably find myself back where I was 7 years ago owning two cameras; a photo camera and a videocamera (which effectively doubles my capital expenses).
+1 to this!
Hey Jonathan - I actually own a C100 as well.
The work I do revolves around asking people to speak on camera that are not used to speaking on camera (in other words, they're not actors). I find that I get the best stuff and people feel most comfortable when I can keep my gear to a minimum. The 5D is less than half the size of the C100, which in my opinion makes it half as intimidating to stare into as the C100.
Gear simplicity is the reason I choose to not shoot with a JuiceLink or battery grip. It's also why I like using a shotgun microphone over a lavaliere mic. For me, it's all about making people feel as comfortable as possible. If the video/audio quality is sacrificed even to 75% of where it could be with a RED or C100, I'm ok with it as long as I'm capturing the most human and authentic side of people speaking on camera.
FWIW, here's a link to a video I made about why I like a shotgun mic over a lav: http://wistia.com/learning/choosing-a-microphone
Dig the methodology. Performance first!
I honestly thought this is how people did this.. Lol. That's how I always do audio, lol.
been doing this for awhile now using Roland R26 can get 2x sources recorded at once (Camera and Audio Device)
I have been doing this with the Zoom H4n as well for several years until I upgraded to the Zoom H6 which I have become a big fan of. Not being an audio engineer (though I am a cinematographer), I do note that the noise floor is significantly reduced due to the pre-amp as I understand it. I still would never feed the audio back to the Mark III for useable audio, rather only to sync.
I'd like to hear another opinion on this matter for my own education. Won't feeding the audio back to the camera crush the quality of the audio, even if using a quality pre-amp (not suggesting that the H6 is the best pre-amp available)?
It will degrade the quality, thats correct, but it gives you good sync sound and you can make the pre edit while the proper audio from the recorder is fixed/tweaked.
With decent sound i find its almost simpler to sync manually than with pluraeyes or a similar plugin.
For what its worth, i shot for a travel show for a while and we ended up using the audio that was looped back into the camera. Just gotta make sure the pre amp in the camera is set to one click above off.
This is the simplest form of recording clean audio with a DSLR.
It should be noted, that if you own a DSLR without a headphone jack, you can split the signal from your Zoom, into two, one to monitor, and another to feed back into your camera.
Also of much importance is to turn off the pre-amp in the camera, otherwise that sound will be ruined.
I personally run with a Tascam DR60D - has far better per amps than the Zoom and it offers much more functionality in a more DSLR conducive form factor.
Just the solution I'm looking for. Though has anyone tried this on the Zoom H5 and a 5D Mark ii???
We need better then in camera audio but don't have the time for syncing external audio in post. But love the idea of having really good audio as a backup if we need it.
Thanks for the tip, I have a 650D, so no headphone jack on the camera, and this makes it really unreliable for sound, about 50% of the time I can count on it now (at the start it was great)
So I am having to do the extra steps to sync the files with my Zoom H5 recorder, but I find the file management on the H5 to be terrible.
Any tips on settings/ file management to change that? Thanks in advance
Great video ending... HA. Any chance youd fell up to doing an update for the H6n I just got? Seems there's some difference with where the line in / out... headphone... something something goes... Obviously I'm a complete novice... and I'm a'fear'd to stick some plug in the wrong hole and short circuit something out...