Mic vs. Line Audio

[Colin Sheldon]

Well yes actually those cameras - starting with the DVX-100 - were designed from a heritage of "news" operation.... but more to the point, it's not the provision of a rotary pot to allow mic level input gain adjustment that's the issue, instead the problem with pots on the camera body is just that : they are on the camera body and therefore the camera operator is in the way of the sound operator. And as we are no longer dealing with analog sound recordings anyway that "potentiometer" is now a digital gain value so the "pot" can be anything - for us the "pot" is a slider on the GUI, but it could be anything that can talk to the camera, including REDmote's rotary dial if you wanted that.

Good to know. I look forward to trying it out when I get my redmote next week! Thanks for the reply.

 

[Colin Sheldon]

Remember that it is meant to be equally comfortable in stills shooting as it is a cine camera, so your conclusion there is valid, only in so far as the quick release is similar in design to a SLR quick release system. I'm sure I don't have to tell you how far reaching the benefits of that choice are. It goes way beyond the ability to leave the MB et al behind in a hurry.

Very good point. That's a whole other feature set to balance into the equation. I don't envy the meetings that RED must have had to try and deal with all of the variables.

 

[George Hupka]

Grrrr... it's pretty sad we're being forced to buy this when it should come standard with the camera.

Hey I have no problem buying it as a separate unit since it has features many users may not need or want... I just want the damn thing to ship. The limitations of "brain-only" make this a partially-functioning system at best. Pretty surprised that the Pro I/O seems to be such a low priority when it really only gets us back to the functionality we've been enjoying with Red One for the last few years...

 

[David Battistella]

Otherwise people might think you're from Toronto

Fair enough.

That's a good one. LOL. I was born in Ottawa and I don't live in Toronto anymore. But it is the very best city in Canada.

Take care. I understand your positon better now.

I think i'm done in this thread.

Have a peaceful day.


David

 

[zak forrest]

A bit of old fashion testing... and your sweet...

I plan on shooting a film with all audio going directly through the cameras... no need to bring the circus.

hi mark, you gonna rock the mini-plugs or the i/o module for that ?

 

[zak forrest]

Comments like that cause me visions of audio recorders with built-in wireless that could send and receive TC synch, file names and all manner of metadata, as well as the scratch track signal itself. No such beast exists yet. Right?

you know, deanan said in a thread not too long ago that there is something for this wireless multi-camera sync you want, but they cant talk about it yet

 

[Dave Blackham]

I'm totally with Colin on this issue. Epic and Scarlet are such revolutionary cameras that there is no reason why one should adhere to all the traditional methods and ways of doing things. As far as audio recording is concerned, I don't think that it's too much to ask that a camera of this technical caliber and price point could effectively be used as a sound recording device also. I can totally see the motivation and space saving design philosophy in putting minijacks only in the brain. However, enabling line level input on the brain isn't something that takes taxes signal processing resources or takes any additional space on the camera body. The only way to get even half-decent audio quality out of some the DSLRs with mic level inputs only is to adjust the input level to one click above full-off and feeding them with a hot signal from a field mixer. I'm under the impression that this is the way to get absolutely optimal audio quality out of a Epic or Scarlet also.

Minijack connectors are notoriously not very reliable especially over a longer period of time, but they are a relatively convenient way to interface with existing audio gear. I wouldn't have minded if the audio inputs on the Epics and Scarlets were a completely proprietary locking miniature sized audio jack. I would take the reliablity of a locking, balanced connector and cable over the convenience of minijacks any day.

What I would really love to see is a integrated digital wireless camera hop audio module that just docks to the back of the brain. Something that is camera powered and with the functionality of a Zaxcom QRX100 or a Sony DWR-S01D. I suspect that high quality digital wireless audio will be totally mainstream within a few years.. not only in the high end, but even on very low budget projects.

But, really, I am glad that there already are some kind of audio inputs and proper 24 bit recording capability in the brain itself. Building new i/o modules and refining the recorded audio quality and workflow is possible and that is just one of the many reasons I'm so excited and confident about the Red cameras.

Caompletely agree.

 

[Dave Blackham]

Hi Stuart,

Via which connector does the AES connect ?

thanks,

Dave