Denny Smith wrote:A 9,000 tape job Colin. That sounds like a 1-year project! Good luck with that mate.
It's likely to be a 3-4 year job because there's no way of automating the transfer of early 1970s/80s 3/4" U-Matic and U-Matic-SP tapes so I have to stand by ready to modify video and audio levels on the fly. Still - it will pay the bills for a good while!
John Atkins wrote:On all of the tapes, there's commentary on Ch 1 and no commentary on Ch 2. He explains that he wants to do "one-to-one, two-to-two" from our Sony UVW-1200 Betacam SP dock to a computer.
So even if the tapes are premixed for broadcast, is there still a need for adjustments to digital via a sound mixer?
I would say yes because audio levels will vary not only from tape to tape but even within tapes - unless they were edited and mastered in a professional facility where operators work to industry standards. It's always useful to have master faders within reach that you can pull back if levels start to peak. Connect the mixer via XLR outputs and inputs where possible, although good-quality RCA Phono connectors and cable will be perfectly OK on short runs.
If your boss wants 1-1 and 2-2 audio transfers then he's anticipating mixed stereo sources, so that's how the two channels should be passed. However, there may be occasions when - say - Ch1 will contain M&E (Music & Effects only) and the other channel, CH2, will carry a V/O (voice-over, commentary) track only. Alternatively, sometimes a tape master might have M&E only on 1 but a full mixed M&E+V/O on Ch2 where the editor has done what's called a bounce-mix (which would be the "final" output mix and the only channel to be used). In this case you should probably just keep the tracks separate as with Stereo.
The job I'm doing requires only the mix that would have been transmitted by the TV station, so in the case of the latter I would select only Ch2 and, through the mixer, use the Pan pot on the mixer input channel to spread the sound across both channels equally as a "split mono" output. However, this depends very much on the end requirement; if the capture file is to be imported into an NLE package it could be that the editor/producer requires only one aspect of the audio or wishes to mix each of the two separate tracks differently. If in doubt - ask first!!
John Atkins wrote:The only capture device I currently have is an Elgato video Capture device (used for VHS transfers) and I had asked them if I could use something like a dual XLR female to dual RCA male cable connected to the capture device to capture both channel 1 and channel 2 at the same time. I was told that it would be one stereo track, 2 separate channels, not double mono. Then the track could be edited with an audio editor like audacity, which the stereo track would be split to two single mono tracks, which still isn't want my employer wants.
I was just wondering if there was some specific equipment recommendations for my task because Elgato doesn't seem right for the job.
No, I wouldn't use Elgato products for this purpose - even though they're very good at what they're designed for. Stick to Blackmagic gear - they seem to have the physical tasks involved with A-D capture covered better and you're usually dealing with broadcast standard specs. Personally, I wouldn't rely on software audio post work for archiving unless there's only a small number of tapes to be captured. As you can tell from the 9,000-tape job I'm currently doing, it's out of the question!!
Blackmagic Teranex 2D, Ultrastudio Express, Intensity Shuttle (Thunderbolt), Two H.264 Pro Recorders (Mac OSX) & lots of old VTRs used for digital archiving of legacy video formats for major libraries, broadcasters, universities and public archives.