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Main Out or Sub Out in the Zoom F8n?


JeffWWaldrop

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I am capturing sound with a Zoom F8n and want to pipe it right into the Mic Input on my DSLR.  I am a newbie, so in my mind, this method leaves out the syncing of Audio (better captured with quality mics / equipment) with the Video my DSLR captures.  

 

My question is:  Is there any advantage of Main Out vs Sub Out on the Zoom F8n?  I have male to male 1/8" cables I am able to use Sub Out right away with no adapters or other cables.  The Main Out outputs are TA3 jacks and I would need an adapter to go from TA3 to 1/8" male.  

 

What do you guys and gals do?

 

 

Jeff W Waldrop

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The main out is a balanced signal (for longer cable runs or professional gear) and the sub out is an unbalanced signal. For your DSLR ist's fine to use the sub out as far as the cable from the recorder to the camera is not to long (because of possible interferences). You can record directly to your DSLR but the preamps on these cameras are only consumer level so keep the levels on the camera low and feed it with a strong signal from your recorder. Usually camera sound is only used as scratch sound and you sync the audio from the recorder to the image in post to get better results.

 

Greetings 

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8 minutes ago, pillepalle said:

The main out is a balanced signal (for longer cable runs or professional gear) and the sub out is an unbalanced signal. For your DSLR ist's fine to use the sub out as far as the cable from the recorder to the camera is not to long (because of possible interferences). You can record directly to your DSLR but the preamps on these cameras are only consumer level so keep the levels on the camera low and feed it with a strong signal from your recorder. Usually camera sound is only used as scratch sound and you sync the audio from the recorder to the image in post to get better results.

 

Greetings 

 

Thanks, Pillepalle,

 

Yes, I assumed those TA3's were for more sophisticated cameras.  I am trying to avoid syncing separate audio tracks with my video simply because I don't know how to do that.  Yes, I know there are timecode and clapper boards, but I just want to keep it simple.  I know no one locally to help me along.

 

Thanks again

 

Jeff 

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DSLR.s are notorious for awful sounding audio,..even with the world's best mics, preamps, mixer and boom op, it ain't gonna sound very good. Learn how to sync the audio to the video's reference audio track, which the F8's sub out is good for. In lieu of TC, many folks use PluralEyes for auto-syncing the production sound files with camera audio/picture. Some NLEs have a PluralEyes like sync utility built in.

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Rick, I could be ignorant on what I am missing, but directing the audio in with a Cos-11d lav mic and this Zoom F8n, seems waaay better than the Rode Video Mic (I gladly unloaded on EBay).  Yes, I am aware of the crappy pre-amps in just about all DSLRs, but I think the workflow I am describing is a vast improvement....

 

But, as I noted at the beginning of this reply, I may be just ignorant enough to not know what I could be accomplishing.  At this point I am trying to learn basic sound / video capture, post production, etc.   I have a day job and this is strictly an interest at this point. 

 

Thanks Rick and I will check out Plural Eyes.

 

Jeff

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6 hours ago, JeffWWaldrop said:

Rick, I could be ignorant on what I am missing, but directing the audio in with a Cos-11d lav mic and this Zoom F8n, seems waaay better than the Rode Video Mic (I gladly unloaded on EBay).  Yes, I am aware of the crappy pre-amps in just about all DSLRs, but I think the workflow I am describing is a vast improvement....

 

But, as I noted at the beginning of this reply, I may be just ignorant enough to not know what I could be accomplishing.  At this point I am trying to learn basic sound / video capture, post production, etc.   I have a day job and this is strictly an interest at this point. 

 

Thanks Rick and I will check out Plural Eyes.

 

Jeff

 

It's absolutely an improvement! I don't think that's being disputed, it's more that using the audio fed to the DSLR instead of the tracks recorded directly on your F8n means choosing to add noise (and potentially some coloration of the sound) due to the DSLR pre-amps. While the audio from the F8n fed to the DSLR will still be a vast improvement from a Video Mic, it's in the nature of sound folks to want to recommend the workflow that will result in the absolutely best, crispiest sound you can get. 😄

 

I'd also add that, if you're interested in the entire process of filmmaking and audio through to post-production, editing footage without syncing the ISO tracks from your mixer before you start cutting can have a cascade of sometimes unfortunate effects on the post audio process. For your post sound editor and mixer, having more flexibility in how they build the audio world of a film means you get better results. Sometimes a mix track sent to a camera is perfect and able to be used in the final mix. Other times, and especially in narrative, the sound folks need to get in and edit or remove things in the individual isolated tracks (boom, lav, plant mics, etc) to build a quality mix.

 

It may be that you're doing it all yourself right now, but planning for the future and building good workflows that will scale up to when you are able to bring in more people to work on your films is never a bad thing. Dual system (camera and audio recorded separate) is pretty common, so learning those workflows now will only make things easier for you as your work and films grow.

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10 hours ago, JeffWWaldrop said:

Yes, I assumed those TA3's were for more sophisticated cameras.  I am trying to avoid syncing separate audio tracks with my video simply because I don't know how to do that.  Yes, I know there are timecode and clapper boards, but I just want to keep it simple.  I know no one locally to help me along.


Just use a Tentacle Sync E, you say you "just want to keep it simple".

Well, using Tentacles is how you keep it simple! 

Learn how, it is easy, and very fast to do once setup right.

 

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