Yet another question on the Rode VideoMic Pro

Pardon for the redundant question, I know this has been covered in some detail but in searching I never found the exact answer that I'm looking for.

I'm a little in limbo on how I want to sort my audio with the BMCC. As we all know some new things are coming that might be worth consideration. And with any luck Blackmagic is listening and will come up with a solution on the firmware end which will make things solutions a little different.

Until then I want to use my Rode VideoMic Pro directly into the camera for use as a reference track and continue to use my zoom H4n separately just like I have with my DSLR. With that in mind I also thought I'd be able to see if I could get the mic to make a clean recording. So matter what it should work just for synching so nothing lost.

Since that mic is a mono mic I thought it best to just record to one track and maybe play with a shotgun on the other track. So the sixty-four dollar question is "What 3.5mm to 1/4" adapter do I need" to accomplish that?

I know it's been talked about before but any other thoughts are welcome, thanks.

For scratch, your VIdeoMic should be plenty. Anything you do beyond getting a track off of that will be icing on the cake, really.

That said, you can get XLR to 1/4" balanced adapter cables pretty inexpensively. I think I purchased mine from Sweetwater Sound. You probably would need just one rather than two, but I'm using them to connect my preamp to my recorder, since most recorders accept both 1/4" inch and XLR inputs. I'm using the preamp to power the mic, but you can get a powered mic which wouldn't require phantom power to use with the BMCC. Since it's just scratch you're after, you probably don't need to go that far, and you probably won't even need to worry about a preamp or anything like that, since you're not planning on using the audio track other than as a sync reference.

For scratch, your VIdeoMic should be plenty. Anything you do beyond getting a track off of that will be icing on the cake, really.

That said, you can get XLR to 1/4" balanced adapter cables pretty inexpensively. I think I purchased mine from Sweetwater Sound. You probably would need just one rather than two, but I'm using them to connect my preamp to my recorder, since most recorders accept both 1/4" inch and XLR inputs. I'm using the preamp to power the mic, but you can get a powered mic which wouldn't require phantom power to use with the BMCC. Since it's just scratch you're after, you probably don't need to go that far, and you probably won't even need to worry about a preamp or anything like that, since you're not planning on using the audio track other than as a sync reference.

But the Rode is 3.5mm. It's mono sut think the plug works like a stereo plug with 3 bands: r channel, l channel, common ground, but I'm not positive. I'm hoping to just plug that into a connector that sends one of the channels to the BMCC without any other adapters so the signal remains as clean as possible. I've got the XLR to 1/4" balanced already so am good to go there.

Curiously what preamp are you using? Suggestions?

posted this on bmcuser the other day..

Yes i have the videoMic Pro with the 3.5mm mini jack,
you may have had the same problem i did,
after trying a few stereo adapters that didn't work, i went to factory sound in south melbourne, kinda near blackmagic, the audio guru explained the rode videomic exports a simulated stereo and told me it was better to use a mono jack into one channel than the one with two 1/4 cables into the stereo. You then push the button in the audio menu to put channel 2 into 1.. and you are good to go.
I got a proel stereo 3.5 to mono 1/4 adapter for 5 bucks, works great..
Plug into channel 1 then in menu select channel 2.
I have been using 25% as level but the guys on bmcuser on this thread "Thread: Rode VideoMic Pro works well with the BMCC"
go all over what levels, gain you should use..

and take your camera to the shop, get them to open the packet and try which adapter till it works...

Bernie

That's what I kinda thought I'd be doing so great to hear your experience. I'm just planning to isolate the Rode into one channel then play around with some shotguns in the other. Until I decide what I need as a mixer &/or preamp.

The good news is, got the camera and am starting to shoot a little at time while I assemble it for working order and just get used to all it's little details which will take another couple of weeks. Been mostly ignoring the sound up to now and only shooting ProRes so far but am really impressed with image quality. I've not yet installed resolve and am using Colorista but there's so much more latitude to work with. Good times!

But the Rode is 3.5mm. It's mono sut think the plug works like a stereo plug with 3 bands: r channel, l channel, common ground, but I'm not positive. I'm hoping to just plug that into a connector that sends one of the channels to the BMCC without any other adapters so the signal remains as clean as possible. I've got the XLR to 1/4" balanced already so am good to go there.

Curiously what preamp are you using? Suggestions?

I forgot about the VideoMic having an 8th inch connector. You can probably find an adapter for that to 1/4 inch, but I'm not sure.

I'm using a MixPre-d for my preamp. I've gotten great sound with it using both dual mono mode with a mono shotgun, and with mid-side mode using an Audio Technica stereo shotgun.

That said, even a good shotgun mic requires good placement to provide the best sound quality, so don't expect too much from an on-camera mic, even when it's a really good one.

I forgot about the VideoMic having an 8th inch connector. You can probably find an adapter for that to 1/4 inch, but I'm not sure.

I'm using a MixPre-d for my preamp. I've gotten great sound with it using both dual mono mode with a mono shotgun, and with mid-side mode using an Audio Technica stereo shotgun.

That said, even a good shotgun mic requires good placement to provide the best sound quality, so don't expect too much from an on-camera mic, even when it's a really good one.

The MixPre is the likely choice. I sometimes use more than two mics so am waiting to either be forced into that device and a mixer as well or find that something new comes along with three-four channels and a built in recorder. I know Zoom just announced a new product but pretty sure it's not the same level as the Sound Device. Same with Tascam . . . and yes all shotguns are boomed in as tight as they can be the Videomic is almost completly used for reference.

Thanks for all the replies, very helpful.

The MixPre is the likely choice. I sometimes use more than two mics so am waiting to either be forced into that device and a mixer as well or find that something new comes along with three-four channels and a built in recorder. I know Zoom just announced a new product but pretty sure it's not the same level as the Sound Device. Same with Tascam . . . and yes all shotguns are boomed in as tight as they can be the Videomic is almost completly used for reference.

Thanks for all the replies, very helpful.

The MixPre is excellent. It has great sound, even with pretty serious gain. I love its mid-side mode, also. I've been doing some recording using a MixPre and an H4n, and with the record level on the H4n set to around 10, cranking the gain on the MixPre, I'm able to get great sound.

It is also a 4-in, two-out device, though I haven't tried it in that configuration yet.

I'm hoping that the H6 has good preamps on it. It would be nice to be able to use it to record a stereo signal from the MixPre using mid-side + a pair of Lavaliers as backup audio, provided that they were wireless.

I bought this adapter and it works perfectly

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004C4UQZE/ref ... 1_ST1_dp_1