You need to take your main audio output signal (line-level) and feed it to your camcorder instead of using the microphone.

Many camcorders do no have a line-level input, they just have a microphone input which needs about 1/100 of line-level voltage so if that's the case you need to use an attenuator to reduce the level before it goes into the camcorder. You can make one from a few resistors (total 4 for stereo) and connectors - Google search for "L-Pad attenuator" for a design for one that reduces the signal by 40 - 50 db.

You'll get approximately CD quality sound this way.

Alternately you could record the mix with a separate recorder or a computer.

whats the seperate recorder/computer way???

For the recorder way, they have these fairly high quality and small digital sound recorders, between $100 and $400 or so. Like this one:
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/prod...rder?sku=241890


And maybe you could use something like an iPod too, lots of MP3 players have an analog audio input.

For the computer way, you would pass the line-level output from your mixer into the line input on a computer sound card. If you can't bring a fullsize computer in there you could use a laptop but they often don't have line-level, just mic-level input, so again you could use an L-Pad attenuator to get the right input voltage level. Then you'd need to run some recording software to do the job, like Audacity or a utility that comes with the computer's soundcard.

quote:

Originally posted by tvmann If you can't bring a fullsize computer in there you could use a laptop but they often don't have line-level, just mic-level input, so again you could use an L-Pad attenuator to get the right input voltage level. Then you'd need to run some recording software to do the job, like Audacity or a utility that comes with the computer's soundcard.

isn't mic mono though?

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quote:

Originally posted by skip isn't mic mono though?

True, microphones are mono, but I think on camcorders they actually have 2 built-in microphones so they record in stereo, even though the left & right are going to be almost exactly the same.

I assume camcorders have stereo mic inputs but maybe some do not. I did a recording with a Canon ZR60 (about 5 years old but still similar to recent models) and it had a 1/8 inch stereo mic input jack and it recorded in stereo.

I used a home-made L-Pad attenuator and it worked fine to record line-level from other equipment into the camcorder mic input. My attenuator was 50 db and signal was OK (a bit low actually so maybe a 40 db L-Pad would be better)).

Last edited by tvmann on Mar-20-2008 at 23:30

that wouldn't work with the mic input on a computer then though.

i'd say to the OP that you're best bet is to:
a. get a new camera, that accepts line level signal
b. get an external recorder, like tvmann suggested
c. get a decent soundcard and record using that if you have a computer around where you're going to film this.
a. would be simplest
b. and c. would produce the best sound quality, but you would have to sync the audio up with the video later on

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I don't know much about this, but would it be possible to record the sound separately, and then take the sound and sync it up with the video with video editing software?

quote:

Originally posted by Sukhoi29SU I don't know much about this, but would it be possible to record the sound separately, and then take the sound and sync it up with the video with video editing software?

I know you could do this with Adobe Premier, although that's quite an expensive piece of software. It would definately do the trick.

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quote:

Originally posted by Sukhoi29SU I don't know much about this, but would it be possible to record the sound separately, and then take the sound and sync it up with the video with video editing software?

^Yep, final cut rpo is great for this. I've done this many a time its a tad tricky but it can be donw

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Found this old video test I had on my webspace, this is a camcorder recording where I took line-level audio and used an L-Pad to reduce it to mic-level to feed into the camcorder mic input. You can see the camcorder jiggle even though it's on a tripod.

It's only a 512kbit/sec bitrate on the wmv file so the audio and video quality are reduced, but you can see that it worked fine.

I use Sony Vegas video editor - you can mix up all kinds of video and audio with it, they have an econo version out there too. Same team that made Final Cut Pro also designed Vegas.

http://members.shaw.ca/tvmann/traktor26_blink_512k.wmv

(that music sounds ghey!)