On Thu, 13 Jan 2000 05:55:06 GMT, "Daniel H Lauring" wrote:

>Yes, I'd like to record audio to go along with digital. I'm a newbie to the
>whole video/audio thing but I am already wanting something "more" than the
>built in camcorder mic. I've read several people talk about the DAT route
>so I started researching it....Ouch....very expensive. It looks like I
>might be able to pick up a used portable DAT recorder (2 years old with god
>knows how many head hours) for $400 to $500 dollars. Then there is the
>whole cost of the mics.
>
>Anyway, I found some references to using minidisc as an inexpensive
>substitute for DAT so I thought that might be the perfect thing for the home
>video...small production recorder such as myself.
>
>Right now my operation is purely the single man show...no sound engineers.
>I'd like to improve the audio on what I've got...don't know all that
>entails. Envisioned something like a strategically located mic hidden in a
>scene, hooked up to a minidisc recorder. In some cases the "actor" might
>wear the minidisc recorder along with mic. Given they aren't too expensive,
>and that they could be used as personal stereos, I might even consider
>getting a couple of them. One hidden in a scene, another on an actor.
>
>I could dub the sound into the recording on the computer. Don't know how
>hard it will be to synch in the recorder or multiple recordings, to the
>video, on the computer.

I just bought a mini-disc recorder to add to the other sound
tracks in multi-camera shoots (it always seems there is
something going on that is not miced well enough...;-).
Various reasonably-good mics with mini-plugs made for
camcorder use can be used with it, including cheap lavaliers
made by Sony and Azden. I EQ the results in Premiere during
editing (rather than worrying about getting the best possible
micing), and sometimes use noise-reduction using
Cool Edit. It is useful to use a clap to help synch. the
tracks, but it is fairly easy to line up similar points in the
various tracks by content events, then synch. by
listening for echoes, as RO suggested. If you have enough
amplitude in the visible waveform in the editing program
(and if the waveform representation is good enough, as it
is in Premiere), you can use the visual display of the
waveforms to synch. the tracks to within a frame. If your
mic-to-subject distances vary considerably, though, watch
out for time-delays (sound in synch. can leave picture
from multiple cameras out of synch. - if this happens, I
synch. the picture and then move the sound to synch.).
I expect good service from my tiny mini-disc recorder.