FEATURE PRODUCTION
The R26 portable field recorder from Roland
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compatible cameras) so recordings are truly in sync. One other recorder that caught my
assuming microphones double as miracle workers. Even alleged pros do it – a number of product review-type videos on YouTube are testament to this. They often sound like they’ve been shot down a well. McCombie agrees: “Sometimes expectations are overly enthusiastic for the results that can and will be achieved on location. Having a small mic plonked on the camera hotshoe with a presenter talking 15ft away – and sometimes on a main road – well it’s hardly surprising that the results are going to be disappointing. Another one we often get is customers thinking that a directional mic will miraculously cut out any background noise so they hear nothing but the dialogue. It’s never going to happen.” Clearly, getting the microphone
away from the camera and towards the subject is the first big step to seriously improving audio, along with some way to monitor the sound in headphones (a lot of DSLRs have no headphone jack). You also want the ability to use a range of microphones on a proper ‘pro’ connection. A quick solution is to use a small
recorder with XLR inputs to act as a mixer/recorder. Something like the Roland R26 springs to mind. This could record the audio while feeding a signal from the Line Out or Headphone output to the camera as a guide track. The problem is most DSLRs only
have Mic inputs under their little rubber flap. Plug a Line Level
26 April 2014
connection into there and you’re looking at some very fried recordings. As it happens, Pinknoise has already thought this through and has produced a cable that attenuates the signal by -25dB. That’s enough for the camera to be able to take it safely, provided you keep the camera’s record level fairly low (which, given the amount of noise in the preamps, is a bonus). The company produces various
versions, including one that splits the output so users can still plug in headphones, so it can offer a quick and cheap solution for those who already own a recorder.
DEDICATED DEVICES How about a dedicated recorder/ mixer, without breaking the bank? And preferably something that can fit in with the compact DSLR way of working? There are a number on the market, including the excellent Zoom H6 and Fostex DC-R302. These are clearly aimed smack bang at DSLR users – the Zoom has a hotshoe mount while the Fostex fixes to the belly of a camera on its tripod thread. The latter has three inputs feeding to two channels of recording. In overall looks and design it seems very much like certain ‘full size’ mixer/recorders on the market; like a professional bit of kit rather than a consumer-based machine that’s been scaled up. It can even remotely control the SLR (with
eye is the Tascam DR-60D. This neat, box-shaped machine has two XLR inputs plus a separate stereo 3.5mm mic/line connection, giving it true four-channel capability. It has HDDA preamps and high-quality A-D converters. On the rear of the case there’s an LCD display, separate gain dials, input selectors, and a range of other controls. As well as recording to SD card, the DR-60D has a dedicated mini jack Camera Out connection as well as a Line Out with adjustable level. Both of these mean it is possible to hook up to a DSLR’s Mic Input without frazzling your audio. It even has a dual record Safety Track Mode that records two versions of the audio at different levels and the ability to fire a burst of 1kHz tone at the start and end of every recording, to make syncing with the camera audio track a lot easier. Plus, if the camera does have a headphone output, it is possible to feed that to the Tascam and switch between monitoring what the DR-60 is hearing and what the SLR is. If you want to leave the audio
recording to the camera (and not have to sync up in post) then there are a number of different mini- mixers designed for DSLRs. Names like Sound Devices and Beachtek sit alongside less familiar brands such as Juiced. The latter makes hardware ranging from a basic preamp box with no phantom power to the full- blown RA-333 Riggy Assist. This American-made rugged metal case,
which screws to the base of the camera, contains three XLR inputs with 48/12V phantom power and low noise preamps. There are proper gain controls, LED level meters, and a headphone connection. The feed out to the camera is, as
you’d expect by now, at Mic Level but the RA-333 goes one step further and is capable of Audio Output Bracketing. This sums the microphone signals to the left channel. The right channel then copies this but at a lower level (around -16dB) so that users have a back-up if the camera overloads the main audio. Perhaps, as excellent as it is, all this gear is nothing more than a stop gap. Maybe in a few years’ time DSLR camera firms like Canon and Nikon will have upped their game on audio. McCombie isn’t holding his breath. “Education is the big thing, not
only for customers but also with manufacturers. They just don’t understand how sound works and what the expectations of users in the field are. Camera designers don't necessarily need to make the product that different just make what they have better.”
In the meantime, audio equipment designers have already woken up to this gap in the market and a steady stream of new gear is appearing all the time. Of course, there’s no guarantee that those shooting DSLR video will necessarily give audio its proper position in the grand scheme of things. But that’s a whole other story…
www.pinknoise-systems.co.uk
The Tascam DR-60D has two XLR inputs plus a separate stereo 3.5mm mic/line connection, giving it true four-channel capability
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