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Home: Video University Forums: Audio For Video:
Getting a feed from a sound system... your tips please

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Brackish
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Apr 12, 2008, 12:11 AM

Post #26 of 35 (852 views)
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Re: [Sparky] Getting a feed from a sound system... your tips please [In reply to]	Can't Post

In Reply To

Only one so far ... Z7. I wanted good low light performance

I was gettin' worried when you were talking about the V1, what with
the 1/4" chips.

----------------------------------------------
"We'll always show up at the wedding with a gift bag for the bride. Inside we have these incredible fuzzy slippers in the teal of our branding."

Mark Foley
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Apr 12, 2008, 6:27 AM

Post #27 of 35 (844 views)
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Re: [RT Steele] Getting a feed from a sound system... your tips please [In reply to]	Can't Post

As Michael has always pointed out his dislike for iRivers...I probably should go on record for my dislike of the Zoom H2. Some time ago, when everyone was screaming for a iRiver placement, I tried to scour my regular audio forums to see what the buzz was. When the H2 was first announced, it did create a bit of a stir and I was excited about it also...it seems almost too good to be true. My son reminded me (he is a guitar player) that zoom products have always been sub par in construction and electronics selection. However, it did meet a price that some on here maybe...just maybe will spend for audio.

I bought one anyway...and have used it for some surround sound capture and for a quick church setup for a solist. It works great with the internal mics. Now the bad stuff....its build quality is about what you expect coming out of china...junk. The internal clock crystal is about as bad of crap I've ever seen...it goes out of sync withing a few minutes and it is so unstable that it varies from recording to recording. Hooking a external mic is noisy...line in is a crap shoot as it just doesn't have enough headroom for my taste. Yes you can get some OK recording if you spend the time to test and test and test again with the incoming signal.

My experience with using it in front of a PA stack has been less than stellar as it it overloads to easily. However if you experiment with placement from the stack and selection of mic attenuation/limiter, you can get an ok sound; it maybe somewhat flat but very useable. The key here is how much time do you have to setup and test.

Some ask why I spend so much on a product like an R4 for example...well because it can be setup in seconds has tons of headroom and produces stellar recordings... I don't like leaving the reception with the concern of "did I get good audio or not"....

With all of that said, yes the H2 will work...but you must test and test your setup over and over again and know the record parameters inside and out if you want consistant recordings

_________________________
Mark

Brackish
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Apr 12, 2008, 10:00 AM

Post #28 of 35 (832 views)
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Re: [Mark Foley] Getting a feed from a sound system... your tips please [In reply to]	Can't Post

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The internal clock crystal is about as bad of crap I've ever seen...it goes out of sync withing a few minutes and it is so unstable that it varies from recording to recording.

My experience with iRiver, minidisc, and hard drive recorders is that at least they are pretty consistent as to how much they are out, which doesn't vary much over different recordings. On a another note ... Do you think the AT822 (battery operated) can handle the decibels when it's shoved into a PA stack horn? That gets pretty loud 1-foot off the grill.

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"We'll always show up at the wedding with a gift bag for the bride. Inside we have these incredible fuzzy slippers in the teal of our branding."

(This post was edited by Brackish on Apr 12, 2008, 10:01 AM)

RT Steele
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Apr 12, 2008, 1:39 PM

Post #29 of 35 (817 views)
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I probably should go on record for my dislike of the Zoom H2.

Yes. I got wind of that in my readings here.

The construction of the unit I can live with. I wouldn't expect anything to withstand a 6 foot bounce off the floor. There's was a guy selling one on ebay that he used in the Sahara. The back is visbily warped from the heat (which he openly admits) but swears it works just fine. Laugh

The 4 mic capsules is probably the tie breaker for me though as I don't use external "ambient" mics and really only want the thing for live music anyway. And even mic'ing a DJ's speaker will yield different results from week to week regardless of what you use becuase no two DJ's are the same.

The synch issue won't be fun to deal with though.

- RT

Sparky
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Apr 12, 2008, 2:38 PM

Post #30 of 35 (807 views)
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Even if I had all the money in the world I'm not sure what I would buy. But then if I had that much money I could just hire a sound guy to drag it all in.

I've never worried about the ceremony as much as I should, but that changes this year. I'm going to use more audio sources and clean things up. Where I'm still not as pleased with the audio ... live events.

I'm in no position to be hauling around snakes and running mixers. And while I would like to do more live events like recitals and stage productions, I don't currently do enough to support much more gear.

Maybe sometime this year I can take a look at everything I've got, see what I need and start over. But being in a very small town the opportunities to make these event pay off might not work out.

Here's a video from the last production. All I was able to use was a feed from the board and a shotgun mic. The feed from the board was a mixed feed of actors and orchestra. Remember ... this is the one where the orchestra was in a storage closet.

Sparky
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Apr 12, 2008, 3:02 PM

Post #31 of 35 (804 views)
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Re: [Brackish] Getting a feed from a sound system... your tips please [In reply to]	Can't Post

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Only one so far ... Z7. I wanted good low light performance

I was gettin' worried when you were talking about the V1, what with
the 1/4" chips.

Yeah ... but take a look at this. Can it get much darker? They used a V1 as the main camera. Actually I was quite impressed.

VIDEO

RT Steele
Veteran

Apr 12, 2008, 3:22 PM

Post #32 of 35 (800 views)
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Yeah ... but take a look at this. Can it get much darker? They used a V1 as the main camera. Actually I was quite impressed.

Hell, is *that* what all the fuss is about regarding the V1 in low light? Looks fine to me. It's got to be close to what the audience saw.

And Scott, the sound on your theatrical clip is fine too considering what you had to work with. I'm surprised that acting troupe didn't wear any wireless mics (Or did they?). Even our cheap-assed high school has them. I've never done one of these and when I attend one with the fmaily I always end up trying to figure out what I'd do to record the thing instead of watching it. Laugh

I've always concluded that some boundry mics positioned at the front end of the stage would be in order for the orchestra as I've never seen them wired. Again, I've never done this.

You and I are in similar markets it seems. Pretty "tame" weddings, nothing too high-end so the need to embellish our edits with sound that really isn't there to begin with is overkill a and doesn't make a lot of economic sense.

- RT

Sparky
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Apr 12, 2008, 4:20 PM

Post #33 of 35 (790 views)
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That group was a small, private, Catholic high school and if you noticed, it was double cast. All the actors had a wireless. The feed I got from the board was a mix of orchestra and actors ... no way to separate them. I mixed that with a shotgun mic in the back. (I think an AT815.) The sound guys did a pretty good job mixing it, but this was an unusual situation.

My next show, the orchestra is in front of the stage and the feed I'll get will be actors only. So with that one I'll have the shotgun in the back (picking up orchestra and actors) and mixing with the feed (actors only). This is the one that I've never been happy with, but this will be my 6th year shooting it, so I think they're ok with it.

As for the dance recital video ... I thought it was pretty darned good. That's why I sometimes wonder what people consider "dark." I think dark means different things to different people.

Mark Foley
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Apr 13, 2008, 2:10 PM

Post #34 of 35 (741 views)
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RT,
Don't take my ramblings to hard about the H2, you'll find it will work just fine as long as you're aware of its capabilities and shortcomings. One thing that i Do like about it is the ability to hook it to a mic stand and drop it in front of a soloist or such and make a quick capture...which at times may just what we need when times are short before a ceremony.

_________________________
Mark

RT Steele
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Apr 13, 2008, 6:20 PM

Post #35 of 35 (727 views)
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Re: [Mark Foley] Getting a feed from a sound system... your tips please [In reply to]	Can't Post

Don't take my ramblings to hard about the H2,

Nope. We need to hear the bad and ugly along with the good. It's easy to get lost in all the hype. I feel confident this will get me what I need - when I need it.

But I just blew my entire marketing budget for the next 5 years on one of these things. Normally I get a couple of winos to pass out windshield flyers for a bottle of cheap Thunderbird. Tongue

I guess I'll have to do it myself now.

- RT

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