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Shooting with Scarlet: separate sound recording?

E

Eric Rodemann

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I was explaining the Nov. 3 release of Scarlet to a friend. He's shooting on Hvx200 right now, and looking to upgrade but can't afford an Epic. His first question was sound. He doesn't want to sync in post. Being a small operation, adding a separate sound crew and syncing in post adds a ton of work to one of his productions.

Even if you are using something like pluraleyes, it's still a lot to keep logs of the sound tracks, make sure you slate everything properly, take time to download the sound track, sync it, etc., etc.

I did a quick search on "Scarlet sound" and there's something about a button microphone for a scratch track, but not a lot else about sound that I found.

I said I wasn't sure, but I don't think Scarlet is going to record sound. I know most following these forums are all about IQ, and will do whatever they need to in order to get good sound but for some an AF100 or similar camera with an XLR input would be a better fit than a Scarlet without an XLR input and the capability to record quality sound.

My friend has access to decent microphones, boom poles, wireless mics, etc, but wants a camera he can plug them into.

That's another consideration for your budget. If Scarlet doesn't record sound, you need a good sound recorder. No need to capture great IQ and have crappy sound. Good sound is half of a good production.

If that is the case, Scarlet doesn't record sound, what are most planning on using for sound recording? I have an H4N. It's not pro equipment, but it captures pretty nice sound.
 
Scarlet will record sound. It has 2 mini-jack inputs which supply phantom power.
I don´t think it will have automatic gain control. That´s an advantage on prosumer cams.

Problem is mounting a microphone on it. When you attach the LCD, there seems to be no holes left for any accessories.

I will either use a mono shotgun mic or my Tascam DR-100 for stereo ambient sound as soon as I found out how to mount something on that camera.
 
It would be nice if the Scarlett had 2 decent mic pre amps with phantom power, analog limiters (to avoid loud audio spikes distorting the cameras inputs) and a decent quality analog to digital convertor to get the audio into the files the camera is recording. This is as useful for a 1 man crew using a rifle and a radio mic on the camera as it is for a bigger crew and a dedicated sound mixer sending their audio from their mixer into the camera.

Audio sync is another issue and has been in the past when new cameras have come out. Will the audio be in sync with its own picture?

I would love to see Red send a Scarlett over to a proaudio guy or a company like Sound Devices and let them do audio tests and submit a review of the camera's audio capabilities
 
I have serious doubts about the quality of Scarlet's pre-amps and limiters. That said I've been thinking about audio on the Scarlet as well, and as I see it you have two options:

1) One man band - Rx plugged directly into Scarlet's line-in, monitor levels through camera would negate the need for synching sound in post, but you are in danger of dropouts or peaking
2) Hire a sound guy
 
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