Recording a Jam Session

BassDriver

Silver Member
I am looking into recording a jam session on my video camera, but I don't want to use the microphone in the camera as it will have poor sound when I record. Last time I went to this jam there was a mixing desk that mixed what sound would be played through the PA...

...so, I'm wondering if I can record the audio from the mixing desk.

If so, how and what equipment should I use?

By the way my camera is a Canon HF10 HD camcorder, and I know that it has a mic-in port.
 
As I'm discovering, getting the signal from the board to the camera is tough. The camera just sometimes cannot handle the signal coming from the board. Those mic inputs are specifically built for those external video camera mics, that's where they do a very good job.

It might be better to pick up a cheap video camera stereo mic on eBay. You can get those Sony stereo mic copies for less than $10 depending on who sells them, and that sound should be better than what you get with the internal mic.

If you have a way to test the signal to your camera, you may get satisfactory results (my little kodak shows an input meter when I plug into the camera, so that helps a little), and I did tests taking the signal from the headphone jack on the console, and it worked out OK, but not great. I still get better audio quality from Samson Q3 camcorder that has a built-in stereo mic designed for live situations. But it's just standard def video, grr.....
 
Most video cameras only have an external microphone level input, if they have any external input at all. The best way to get around this is to build an "T" pad, which is an unbalanced attenuator to be used between the output of the board and the video camera. It consists of just three resistors of varying values depending on the amount of attenuation that you need for your camera not to overload the audio signal. I can get into specifics but many probably wouldn't bother to assemble one anyway. I've made many pads that fits into the body of an XLR or phone plug. Usually a 40 db pad is sufficient to to cut the line level audio down close to microphone level since most recorders have a fairly wide tolerance for input levels.

If anyone would like specifics, I could try to diagram it here, but I am somewhat computer illiterate when it comes to graphics.

Dennis
 
If you have a way to test the signal to your camera, you may get satisfactory results (my little kodak shows an input meter when I plug into the camera, so that helps a little), and I did tests taking the signal from the headphone jack on the console, and it worked out OK, but not great. I still get better audio quality from Samson Q3 camcorder that has a built-in stereo mic designed for live situations. But it's just standard def video, grr.....

My video camera is High-def and it has built-in Left and Right mics (so it can record in stereo). If I can adjust the input-level of the mic on the camera itself (to avoid that terrible noise I get when the input is too high) and position the camera somewhere behind the mixing desk (where I won't get too much of a harsh sound) I might still get a good sound without plugging into the desk.

...and when I'm there I ask if I can use the equipment.
 
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