Audio on the BMCC

Since I had a ton of requests, regarding the audio....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=4TFCXrofFg4

Also see my blog for more information: http://frankglencairn.wordpress.com/201 ... est-diary/

Frank

Thank you Frank...You're pretty wonderful. I don't have room in my portable kit for an external monitor with VUs, so I really, really, really need VUs on the camera display.

Yeah, but because of the shininess and the position of the screen, they will be really hard to see, especially under bright sunlight.

Thanks again Frank for another stellar review

Quick question: My eyes could be deceiving me but the 1/4" male phono plug in your cable doesn't seem to have two rings. I was told (I don't remember where) that I needed a TRS 1/4" plug like the one in this picture...



Does it really matter?

Yeah, but because of the shininess and the position of the screen, they will be really hard to see, especially under bright sunlight.

Thanks for the "sound" info, Frank! Much appreciated.

I'm not 100% certain, but it seems likely that 3M makes an anti-reflective adhesive film appropriate for the BMCC's capacitive touchscreen LCD. A 5" piece of which is probably very inexpensive. I need to look for a part # ...

Quick question: My eyes could be deceiving me but the 1/4" male phono plug in your cable doesn't seem to have two rings. I was told (I don't remember where) that I needed a TRS 1/4" plug like the one in this picture...

The tech specs say the BMCC has balanced inputs so you definitely should use a balanced cable (tip, ring sleeve) in this case. This will provide much improved noise rejection on the line.

Quick question: My eyes could be deceiving me but the 1/4" male phono plug in your cable doesn't seem to have two rings. I was told (I don't remember where) that I needed a TRS 1/4" plug like the one in this picture...
Does it really matter?

If the 1/4" end has 3 connection points then it is a "balanced" cable. This is also called TRS cable (tip, ring sleeve). If the 1/4" cable only has 2 connection points then it is "unbalanced" meaning that it doesn't use one of the wires from the XLR end.

In a lot of cases the audio will be exactly the same with both cables, however the balanced cable will prevent noise coming through the cable (which is common on the set is when you cross your mic cables with power cables)

It's actually quite ingenius how it works. The balanced cable has one ground line and two audio signal lines. One of the audio signals is normal and the other is phase reversed. The phase reversed line serves only as an "error correction" mechanism you might say. So you have two signals where the waveforms are the exact opposite of each other. When it reaches the other end of the cable the receiving devices looks at the two signals. If those two signals share any common wave patterns (ie they are not exact opposite) then that can only come from noise that was introduced somewhere along the cable and so the receiving device can eliminate that.

So when you have an unbalanced cable you only have the ground and one "normal" signal. So if any noise is introduced in the cable then the receiving has no way to detect and you will hear it on your recording.