How to record bmpcc 6k G2 with multiple XLR stereo audio??

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ActionJackson

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How to record bmpcc 6k G2 with multiple XLR stereo audio??

PostThu Mar 16, 2023 5:16 pm

Hi,

EDIT: changing the title and some of this after getting answers, so I'm more descriptive of what I need done.

TLDR: I have a bmpcc 6k g2. How do I record stereo audio so it's hearable on both speakers of my computer (instead of just 1), from 2 separate XLR mic's on the camera??? Because recording to XLR mic 1 on channel 1 makes it so sound is only heard on the left speaker. And vice versa with channel 2 + XLR mic 2. They only record to 1 speaker each respectively. DV studio panning also does nothing. It'll be right in the center and be heard only in one speaker. This only works in stereo if I do the recording by setting the same mic to both channels, meaning only 1 mic gets stereo, when I want multiple to have stereo.

Long version: I'm fairly new to XLR mics and channel stuff, etc, so I was thinking that if I plugged in an XLR mic to the XLR 1 socket, it would record the sound to be hearable from both speakers on my computer when playing the video back, so long as I went to the audio tab and set channel 1 to XLR mic 1 with phantom power on.

But it only recorded to the left speaker, and not both speakers as I expected. Panning the sound in DV studio didn't change where the sound came from either. It would always stay on the left.

Then I found out if you added XLR mic 1 to channel 2 as well, it would record to both speakers. Which is what I wanted.

But, what if I wanted to record 2 people with 2 separate XLR mics, with 1 in each socket on the camera, and for it to be hearable on both speakers on my computer... Is that possible?? I ask because I don't have 2 XLR mics yet so I can't test it, and the audio menu is confusing me. Because since there's only 2 spots on the screen, I'm thinking I'd have to set it as XLR 1 on channel 1, which would only record to the left speaker. And XLR 2 to channel 2, which would only record on the right speaker. And if that's the case, what's the point of the 2nd socket??

Thanks!
Last edited by ActionJackson on Fri Mar 17, 2023 12:40 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Pavel Lavrov

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Re: How to record bmpcc 6k G2 with multiple XLR audio inputs

PostThu Mar 16, 2023 5:44 pm

So if you don’t want to touch editing software, such as Davinci Resolve then you’ll need something else, such as audio recorder or a small audio mixer to mix it properly, before L+R signals go to camera.


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andisailer

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Re: How to record bmpcc 6k G2 with multiple XLR audio inputs

PostThu Mar 16, 2023 9:48 pm

You could record a stereo mix of your mics to your camera, but If you're doing any editing, it makes much more sense to keep the tracks of your two people seperate, for example to mute one while the other is speaking.
You just have to convert the stereo track of your recordings to two seperate mono tracks when importing to Resolve. That way, they'll both be in the middle.
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Jonathan Evans

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Re: How to record bmpcc 6k G2 with multiple XLR audio inputs

PostThu Mar 16, 2023 11:04 pm

This sounds like (excuse the pun!) it's more down to your audio interface. If you plug in a mono mic to input 1 and it comes out of the left speaker and ditto input 2 comes out of the right speaker then that sounds like it's a stereo input. Your audio interface might/should allow panning of the input or designating the input as mono (the ideal situation).
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ActionJackson

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Re: How to record bmpcc 6k G2 with multiple XLR audio inputs

PostFri Mar 17, 2023 12:36 am

First off, thanks for all the replies, but I need some more help.

Pavel Lavrov wrote:So if you don’t want to touch editing software, such as Davinci Resolve then you’ll need something else, such as audio recorder or a small audio mixer to mix it properly, before L+R signals go to camera.


I already tried it with DV studio. Panning the audio wouldn't even work no matter how far left or right it went. It just stayed left.

andisailer wrote:You could record a stereo mix of your mics to your camera, but If you're doing any editing, it makes much more sense to keep the tracks of your two people seperate, for example to mute one while the other is speaking.
You just have to convert the stereo track of your recordings to two seperate mono tracks when importing to Resolve. That way, they'll both be in the middle.


What do you mean by a stereo mix of my mics to my camera?? Because all I have is 1 lavalier XLR lapel mic. And like you said: I want to keep the tracks of 2 people separate, each using their own XLR mic. But like I said, if I go to the audio menu > channel 1 > XLR mic 1 with phantom power on... Well this has to be taking up both spots on channel 1 and 2, making me think that if I added a 2nd microphone it wouldn't record anything at all because the first is taking up both channels.

Jonathan Evans wrote:This sounds like (excuse the pun!) it's more down to your audio interface. If you plug in a mono mic to input 1 and it comes out of the left speaker and ditto input 2 comes out of the right speaker then that sounds like it's a stereo input. Your audio interface might/should allow panning of the input or designating the input as mono (the ideal situation).


Does a mono mic count as a single lavalier XLR lapel mic? Because that's all I have. And I'm not using an audio interface (such a for an instrument), I'm just using the included mini XLR inputs on the camera, it has 2 channels, and only does stereo sound if I set both channels to the same XLR mic 1. Any idea on how to make both inputs stereo? Because panning in DV studio wouldn't change it either.
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Jonathan Evans

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Re: How to record bmpcc 6k G2 with multiple XLR stereo audio

PostFri Mar 17, 2023 6:01 am

Does a mono mic count as a single lavalier XLR lapel mic? Because that's all I have. And I'm not using an audio interface (such a for an instrument), I'm just using the included mini XLR inputs on the camera, it has 2 channels, and only does stereo sound if I set both channels to the same XLR mic 1. Any idea on how to make both inputs stereo? Because panning in DV studio wouldn't change it either.

Yes, any single channel sound source would be mono, such as a lapel mic. The audio interface sits between your camera and PC.
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ActionJackson

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Re: How to record bmpcc 6k G2 with multiple XLR stereo audio

PostFri Mar 17, 2023 4:49 pm

Thanks for the reply.

Jonathan Evans wrote:Yes, any single channel sound source would be mono, such as a lapel mic. The audio interface sits between your camera and PC.


So in other words, are you saying I need an audio interface with at least 2 more channels for it to be stereo??

I just read through this answer on stackexchange: https://video.stackexchange.com/questions/32432/what-is-the-meaning-of-channels-in-an-audio-recorder-program

A summary of it = you need 2 channels for stereo, and 1 for mono.

So for example, if I only had 1 XLR channel input on my camera, and I wanted to record 3 separate people in stereo... Then I'd need 6 channels total, with each person set to having 2 channels of their own. Is this correct??
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codedeltajames

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Re: How to record bmpcc 6k G2 with multiple XLR audio inputs

PostFri Mar 17, 2023 5:53 pm

ActionJackson wrote:Panning the audio wouldn't even work no matter how far left or right it went. It just stayed left.


I don't know for certain if Davinci works this way, but most audio mixers don't offer the ability to Pan a stereo feed, only adjust the Balance.

What this means is that when you take a stereo input and send it to a stereo output bus, the Balance control adjusts the level of the left input being sent to the left output, and the right input being sent to the right output. It doesn't mix the two signals together than then send them the appropriate output - so you get what you are describing, you can't move the left signal to the centre however much you try.

What you need to do when you have dual-mono is to stop treating it as a stereo audio track, and split it into two mono tracks. Then the signal will be sent to both the left and right outputs, and you can pan it as required.

There are multiple resources on the internet about how to handle such a split, I won't link to any as there's none I would specifically recommend, but a quick search myself threw up multiple videos and written descriptions about how to do this.
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Jonathan Evans

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Re: How to record bmpcc 6k G2 with multiple XLR stereo audio

PostSun Mar 19, 2023 10:26 pm

So for example, if I only had 1 XLR channel input on my camera, and I wanted to record 3 separate people in stereo... Then I'd need 6 channels total, with each person set to having 2 channels of their own. Is this correct??


Further to James Goodwin's very neat recording recap above, if you wanted to record three people in stereo then, yes, you would need three stereo (or six mono) channels (and six microphones!). I would suggest most recordings of a voice would be done in mono as there is no "stereo" element to a voice (unless you are recording, say, room ambience) so I'd record three people to three mono channels. Alternately, you could record the three microphones to a separate mixer and sum the result to one or two channels.

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