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Epic Red Audio


emwoerks

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The cable you're supplying yourself? Why would that be unreliable? You could do something about that.
My tip: search this forum more thoroughly than you have done. There are a few threads about Red Epic audio and you will find everything you'd like to know - and more

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I made my own cables (for the mini-jacks, referred to as "the headphone jacks" by the owner-DP on the last RED job I did), they work fine.   The minis kind of suck as a pro-audio connector for mic-level audio, but A: that's what the camera, unadorned by accessory boxes, has,  and B: thus you might want to consider rolling your own all the time.

 

philp

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Here's a photo of my Epic audio input cable I made for about $20 in parts and an hour of labor. Works reliably for me. The key is to wire the mini-plugs as balanced TRS connections: Tip to XLR 2, Ring to XLR 3, Sleeve to XLR 1 
 
Settings:  go to Epic Settings menu / Channel 1/2 , choose Cam Analog, CH 1  Balanced, Ch 2 Balanced
This is a mic level input. You will need to find the Settings screen for adjusting the Pre-Amp input to set your tone -- oh and while you're there, find the headphone screen and adjust the headphone level for the return. 
 
I find these Red Epic menus confusing ,  so I like to have to the camera assistant there in case I get lost.
and be sure 48 volt power is off.
 

 

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Here's a photo of my Epic audio input cable I made for about $20 in parts and an hour of labor. Works reliably for me. The key is to wire the mini-plugs as balanced TRS connections: Tip to XLR 2, Ring to XLR 3, Sleeve to XLR 1

Settings: go to Epic Settings menu / Channel 1/2 , choose Cam Analog, CH 1 Balanced, Ch 2 Balanced

This is a mic level input. You will need to find the Settings screen for adjusting the Pre-Amp input to set your tone -- oh and while you're there, find the headphone screen and adjust the headphone level for the return.

I find these Red Epic menus confusing , so I like to have to the camera assistant there in case I get lost.

and be sure 48 volt power is off.

If i may suggest - neutrik right angle 1/8" trs connectors at the red. After 1 shoot with my straight cables i made up i learned quick that various focus pullers and lense accessories leave very little room for connectors and cabling to stick out. On one particular setup the focus pullers teeth were barely making contact but just enough to get by. The next day with right angles worked perfect.

Ken

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Hi Ken, Yes you're right, some lens set-ups are tight that way, and you've got a good suggestion for improvement. I do like to gloat that I can make cable for $20 that works as well as the expensive cables that Red sells. DS

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

That is a great point!

Ken

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Hi chaps I've got a shoot with the RED dragon, I'm using my G3 units to supply the camera with a reference. This is mainly so that the VTO operator can receive sound via SDI. My problem is that the mini jack input sensitivity needs a high gain from the receivers. I'm having to gain the tone until I get a somewhat squared off waveform or a squeal quality of tone out of the RC units, which I know is wrong and inherently will be traduced all the way to the director. Are there any gain structures on the camera that I'm over looking? The other workflow is to hard line to the VTO which i know will produce the better quality, but the VTO operator would like to work around the possible offsets for B camera when it's wireless. The question to this setup is if the sound is embedded and transferred through his transmitters for B cam is the theory that the sound would not need this offset? And ultimately what would be the deciding factor dealing with the offset on a PIX 240 for B cam or retain quality to the director, I feel the latter? Thanks

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Hi Greg.  I recently did a gig where they were shooting on 2 5DMK3's.  Using the the RAW output via HDMI to 2 PIX 240's as  recordesr.  I didn't bother with feeding the camera with my mix.  I simply plugged into the PIX and adjusted the offset with about 200 Milli seconds. As long as you have timecode to back up your sync with the footage, they don't need the sound on the picture (inside thar camera)

 

 This work-around worked great for our setup.  The tricky part it figuring out the picture to sound delay.  With help from the DIT it should be fairly easy to establish how many frames it is out (by checking a test shot).  Then simple maths.  Remember that 1s=1000ms  This is crucial when navigating the frame rate of the camera :)

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I've found there is no "one size fits all" for my clients. 

 

As far as whether or not to feed the camera -- this is a decision that depends upon the specific workflow of the project you're on.  I have several clients who use the camera audio for dailies, as well as a regular client who typically edits with camera audio and then conforms to my double-system sound as a last step.  Since we're often working on commercials, he usually only has thirty seconds of audio to conform following his edit.

 

Talk to the producer.  Talk to post.  Talk to the mailman and the pool boy.  Get as much information as you can and make workflow decisions based on that info, not on assumptions.  If you don't have the luxury of good pre-pro communication, then send sound to the camera.  Even if they didn't say so, them wanting it and not having it is a MUCH bigger deal than them not wanting it but it's there anyway -- which is a non-issue.

 

YMMV -- no "one size fits all"

 

...And avoid square waves.

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I work quite regularly with a company that has 2 Red Epics. They have the Wooden Camera XLR to mini adapters. I send mic level and it works fine. I also roll backup .WAV. As  far as I know there have never been any problems. They like to use the camera audio for rough cuts to send to client and the .WAV from my 664 for the final edit. 

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