Thread: [Separate audio/video recording] Avoiding drift?

I wouldn't trust just using the camcorder for recording the sound while recording picture. Recording the sound from the dedicated solid-state recorder as a Primary should also be performed. You never know when you are going to have some kind of glitch or drop out? And with lectures, you don't want to miss a word. Coming from a network television background, we always practice redundancy. So that's also where that secondary camera shot would be utilized and the soundtrack from your solid-state recorder.

Zooming in and zooming out is also Obnoxious to look at and wreaks of amateur hour. That's where that cutaway camera comes in. You switch to the cutaway camera when you are zooming your primary camera. Then you go back to your primary camera with the newly framed shot. You may also need it if there are any screen projections. Then you go to the cutaway camera while framing your main camera again for the screenshot, blackboard, whiteboard, computer displays. Panning and tilting a camera on a tripod without a "fluid head" is 10 times more of noxious looking. And that's why you want that secondary shot that's locked down generally. You might even want that shot to not include a view of their lips? That way, you can use the cutaway whenever necessary with or without synchronization. Since you have already indicated you're going to do some postproduction in your computer, this is the way to go. You want to be a professional and this is the way professionals do it. You don't want to use your main shot camera as a cutaway due to a video glitch since there will be no lip sync. And that secondary cutaway camera could be just about anything since you're only going to go to that shot just for a couple of seconds. You'll also be able to get away with a far more affordable main camera if you're not worrying about trying to get quality audio Into or,out of a common consumer camcorder or even a cell phone. That's a lot of cabling and a pain in the butt. Otherwise it could get so poopie looking & sounding, that you'll destroy your reputation as a professional. This can be a good source of income for you so don't screw it up.

The solid-state recorder can even make your life so much more easier. You could even simply drop it into their breast pocket and if it's small enough, even in a woman's brassiere (guide her as to where to place it. Don't do it yourself unless she wants you to. Then you may also have to take her out to dinner later?) You might also want to purchase an inexpensive lavalier/tie tack microphone to plug into the solid-state recorder. Then the solid-state recorder can simply be placed in any pocket. Make sure your solid-state recorder is set to ".wav" and not MP3. You also want to set to 48 kHz sample rate. 16-bit is perfectly fine, perfectly common and easy to utilize in most any program. Also, with spoken word, if you're going to do some postproduction in your computer, it would also be a good idea to include some limiting to smooth out the lecturers voice. And before long, people are going to ask you to start doing all sorts of other video work. So whether it's just a lecture or not, you want to put your best foot forward. Keep your cabling and set up to a minimum. You're at the back and there at the front which means you'll be taping down cabling all the way back to you. Why bother if you don't have to? So, let's review... crappy consumer camera in the front. Crappy consumer camera on the side. Simple solid-state recorder in their pocket eh voilą!

If possible, you may also want to place the camera into manual focus and/or manual exposure control. The focus can be confused quite easily by somebody in the front row getting up to move and stuff like that. Automatic exposure settings can wash out bright items such as a large sheet of paper they may be drawing a diagram upon making it unviewable. You can also set your automatic exposure to tell it to cheat the aperture down .5 to 1 full smaller aperture to keep the whites at 80% instead of 100% video. That's what I do. Because once you've had 100% video, nothing is recoverable from that. It's the visual equivalent to pure audio distortion which I think is an oxymoron? There is nothing pure about distortion when it's distorted. It's easier in software to increase the brightness if necessary and really not effective when you're trying to lower the brightness level because detail has already been lost. Also remember when shooting female lecturers, you might get arrested? The same holds true for shooting male lecturers. So just run the camera, please. No shooting.

Lecherous lectures
Mx. Remy Ann David

Thanks much for the education.

You've been given some fantastic advice by Mx. Remy. Specifically white-balance, disable most anything that's "auto", and avoid stopping the recording once started.

I'd add if you're looking to stretch your budget and buy an older tape-based DV camcorder, use a brand new high-quality tape every time. Most drop-outs occur at the beginning or end of the tape, so get it rolling at least 2 minutes before the Event starts. If it's a new camera pick a brand of tape and stick with it, I believe you'll have fewer issues if you always use the same tape. Archive the tape, because 2 years later someone will ask if you still have a copy. It's not like the old days of expensive 3/4" video tape, miniDV is cheap - use it once and archive it - is my policy.


In your case for a situation as you've described to, 'record lectures and interviews for non-professional use', I'd have no qualms recording the audio & video to the camera if the proper interface was used and the levels monitored. If you want to record the audio separately, by all means, do both.

If at some point professional results are expected, you should be compensated accordingly. When you start semi-pro recordings you can worry about redundancy. I'm a fan of double or triple redundancy. When I record an event I'm usually doing 3 SD cameras mixed on-the-fly through a video mixer - with that mix going to 2 (sometimes 3) separate digital video recorders. Plus, each camera is recording to digital tape - so no matter where a glitch might occur, I have a back-up. Or if I decide later I should have taken a different/better shot, I can lift it from the camera and drop it in during post. For audio, the live on-the-fly stereo audio mix also gets recorded to those DVRs simultaneously, in addition to a standalone studio quality CD recorder, that mix is usually all I need. And when applicable, there is also a multi-track 24-track recording done from the audio mixer via firewire to a laptop, plus via Direct Outs to an Alesis HD24. (everybody, but the CD recorder, running at 48k so it can drop into the video without conversion).

I'm a fan of double or triple redundancy. I'm a fan of double or triple redundancy. I'm a fan of double or triple redundancy. But then again, I'm getting paid, this event is only going to happen once, and it's my job to capture it all and deliver a glitch-free finished product.

To address one of your other questions that we have overlooked, I'm still shooting SD - mostly because I can't justify the expense of an HD video mixer. Nobody is complaining (yet), but it's only a matter of time. If I was a one-camera run and gun videographer I'd be using an HD camera. HD isn't just the future, it's here. I don't think Standard Definition will be viable much longer. SD 4:3 is gone, SD 16:9 will be next to go.

Good luck (or should I say, 'bonne chance'?)

Thanks again for the infos. I'll play with Sony's Vegas Movie Studio HD and see how well sound + video combine ultimately.

I just installed the trial version of Sony's Movie Studio HD 11.0 build 42, but it complains that it doesn't support the following file that I recorded with the camcorder:

Video: MPEG-1/2, resolution 720x576, Frame rate 50

Sound: A52 (aka AC3)(a52)

What would be a good way to convert that file to something Movie Studio supports, before replacing the sound channel with the WAV file that I recorded with the Tascam digital sound recorder?

Thank you.

You know that's a good question. I've actually experienced the same thing with the Sony software. It can create AC 3 audio files but it doesn't want to read them. For Christ's sake! They invented this stuff! It's their format. They created it. You can create but they don't want to read it. Go figure? And on their equipment and software.

Interestingly enough, the other Sony software that creates DVDs, Sony DVD Architect has no problem reading the AC 3 file. So what I've done as a workaround is simply import the raw production into Sony DVD Architect. I have to create a DVD which I can then rip. And when I ripped the audio, I can read that as ".wav" or, ".mpg". Then I can import it into Sony Vegas Pro 9. I know, that's idiotic but that's the workaround. You indicated you are using version 11 which I would think at that point should be able to deal with AC 3 files? Obviously the little Japanese guys are not thinking clearly. Probably too much WASABI?

My favorite are UNI microphones and UNI sea urchin caviar sushi.
Mx. Remy Ann David

Looks like I'll have to find another application to combine the MOV and the WAV files :-/

50fps isn't the standard for DV PAL is it?

Do you have the AC3 codec in the right place?