You should have a pretty good idea of how to work a professional camera by now but what about audio?  One major issue that most beginning camera operators have is that they forget about audio.  If this sounds like you, read my post about audio basics first, then continue reading this post.  Audio is very important to your shoot, and understanding how to record proper audio will make or break you.  It’s not an afterthought for camera ops anymore.  Many smaller budget projects won’t allow for a second person to do audio.  That means that you’re responsible for audio so you need to understand what you’re doing.

Getting audio into your camera

In its most basic form, audio enters the camera as either a MIC level or a LINE level signal.  MIC level signals come from things like . . . microphones. LINE level signals come from devices such as mixers.   It’s basic, I know, but for now that’s what you need to know.  On the back of the camera you have XLR inputs, which are standard connectors for professional audio gear.  I’ll use my Panasonic HPX 500 as an example here – but just know that most professional cameras have similar functions to the one’s that I will point out.

Just above each XLR input will be the switch that toggles MIC and LINE input.  If you are connecting a microphone – like a wireless mic or shotgun mic – you would select “MIC” level. If you are taking a feed from a mixer you would select “LINE” level.  You will also see a third position for the slider labeled +48v.  This is for phantom power.  Phantom power is a function that delivers power to a microphone.  For example, if you are using a shotgun microphone that requires a AA battery . . . turning phantom power ON will deliver the power to run the microphone without the need for the battery.

Recording and Monitoring

After you connect your microphone or mixer to the camera and select the proper setting for MIC or LINE input, you need to tell the camera what you want to record.  That moves us over to the side of the camera where the audio controls live.  In this case, it happens to be under the LCD flip out monitor.  Here you will see a myriad of controls for your camera such as MONITOR SELECT, AUDIO SELECT and AUDIO IN. Here’s a simplified explanation of each:

• MONITOR SELECT – allows you to select which channels you will be monitoring in your headphones.  There are TWO settings here: First you select the channel(s) you want to listen to in your headphones (1/3 or STEREO or 2/4) then you select the group of channels you want to monitor (CHANNEL 1/2 or 3/4.)  What the heck does this mean? Before I explain, you must understand one basic concept; you can only listen to one set of channels at a time. This means that you will either be listening to 1 and 2 (together or separately) or 3 and 4 (together or separately.)   Okay, so let’s give it a try:

1. First you need to select which channels you want to listen to by toggling either the CH 1/2 or CH 3/4.  We’ll choose CH 1/2 so we are now only monitoring channels 1 and 2.
2. Now select how you want to monitor those channels.  Do you want to listen to just channel one?  If so, then just select the 1/3 option toggling the switch to the left.
3. Perhaps you want to listen to both channels at the same time (one in each ear) just toggle the switch to the middle which is the STEREO option.  This puts channel 1 in your left ear and channel 2 in your right ear.  It’s that easy!

It’s important to note that even though the switch reads 1/3 – you will never be able to listen to channels 1 and 3 at the same time, no matter how hard you punch the camera.  The same applies to 2/4. You will only be able to monitor the audio on channels 1 and 2 OR channels 3 and 4 at the same time.

• Next up is AUDIO SELECT.  This switch toggles the AUTO audio gain setting.  If set to AUTO, the camera has internal circuitry that adjusts the gain depending on how loud or quiet your subject happens to be.  If set to MANUAL, you have control over your audio levels.  Most of the time you want to keep this in MANUAL so that you have control over your audio levels.  However, if you are recording in a run-and-gun situation with only the camera mic – such as shooting some quick b-roll – you can flip the switch to AUTO and get some decent levels out of it.  Like anything else in production, you want to be in control of how things get recorded.  Auto-anything is not always ideal.

• Finally we have the AUDIO IN section.  This is where you tell the camera what sources you want to record.  You really only have two choices – FRONT and REAR.  This corresponds to the XLR jacks that are either on the front of the camera or on the rear of the camera.  Setting the switch for channel 1 to REAR allows you to record audio that is connected to the rear XLR input.  Switching it to the front moves it to the front XLR input.  Typically, the FRONT section is where an on camera mic will be connected.  **Notice that there is a middle selection for channel 1.  This allows you to send the FRONT input to both channels at once.  This is called linking and can be found on mixers as well. This option is perfect for some run-and-gun b-roll because it puts the camera mic on both channels for redundancy. Just make sure that you switch it back before you connect something to channel 2.
  

That should give you a pretty good idea of how to connect microphones and mixers to your camera.  You should have a good idea of how to connect a source, determine if it’s MIC level or LINE level and choose the proper settings to monitor your source.  Now it’s time to get out there and get some practice.  Just remember that audio is always important. (Unless someone else is hired to worry about it.)  Just kidding.  As a camera operator you should always be aware of your audio environment and monitor whenever you can.

Photo: matsuyuki