Audio Feature Requests For Black Magic

I am one of the new (and still relatively few) BMCC owners, and today I played with audio and the camera for the first time and have some thoughts.

Dear Black Magic Design:

1. We really, really need audio meters in the next firmware!

2. When I slide the volume meters during recording, there is an audible click that shows up in the track.

3. Why do you turn off the internal mic in Track 2 when I plug a mic into Track 1? There is a button to map the Track 1 audio onto Track 2, which I would expect to kill internal mic to that track, but otherwise I want the internal mic as reference into Track 2 while recording mono from my mic on Track 1.

That is all for now. The more I shoot with this, I will share any other thoughts from the field.

4. Oh, and I forgot to mention: when you use the "Ch 2 uses Ch 1 input" feature, right now the volume of Ch 2 is locked to Ch 1, thus defeating the purpose of this feature.

Ch2 should still have its own independent volume control, so that we may use it as a backup of Ch1 at a lower volume in case someone says something too loud and clips Ch1, the lower volume backup is on Ch2.

1. We really, really need audio meters in the next firmware!

Agreed. In the meantime however, you can use UltraScope to get your gain structure setup up initially.

2. When I slide the volume meters during recording, there is an audible click that shows up in the track.

I DOUBT this will get fixed, even with future firmware. Your best option is to use an external mixer.

3. Why do you turn off the internal mic in Track 2 when I plug a mic into Track 1? There is a button to map the Track 1 audio onto Track 2, which I would expect to kill internal mic to that track, but otherwise I want the internal mic as reference into Track 2 while recording mono from my mic on Track 1.

Agreed. This should be a relatively easy firmware fix.

4. Oh, and I forgot to mention: when you use the "Ch 2 uses Ch 1 input" feature, right now the volume of Ch 2 is locked to Ch 1, thus defeating the purpose of this feature.

Agreed.

Blackmagic are listening, and they know how important these audio features are. Sadly however, if the last firmware update is anything to go by, the live broadcast community must be louder than the filmmaking community!

Let's just all hope the next major firmware update is a big one.