How To Use The Sony FX3 XLR Audio Handle

hello everyone in this video i'm going to show  you how to use the xlr module on the sony fx3 okay so let's start by going into detail on the  left side of the module which contains all of   the main inputs and settings i'll go through  these one at a time in detail so let's start   with the input one control section this is the  first section on the left of the audio module   first of all you'll see the att switch  the att switch controls signal attenuation   attenuation is used to reduce the input level  received from the mic in three steps from zero   to 20 db start with this switch at zero db because  that will introduce the least amount of noise from   the camera's built-in audio preamps you can come  back later and change this you can either set it   to 10 db or 20 db depending on what kind of  levels you're getting from your microphone   we'll leave that at zero for now and move on and  talk about the signal level switch the signal   level switch tells the camera what kind of signal  is being sent into the xlr input so it could be   a line level from maybe audio gear microphone  level from most microphones or you've got mic   plus 48 volts which is for any mic which requires  phantom power to work so it's worth always   checking the specification of your microphone  to see whether or not it does require phantom   power and if it doesn't make sure to switch that  off before you connect the mic to the camera for   mine i'm going to set mine to mic plus 48 because  in this example i'm using a sennheiser mkh416   which is just above my head here so that does  require phantom power so i'm going to set mine   to plus 48 volts so next we're going to move on to  the input level section now you've got two options   here you've got the input level selector switch  which lets you choose between auto and manual   and also you've got the input level dial so next  we'll move on to the input 2 section this is very   much similar to input 1 except if you look at  the input level switch as well as auto manual   we also have link so setting this switch to  link disables the level control from input 2   and just shares the same level control from input  1. the link feature can be really useful if you're   just going to use one microphone in xlr1 and you  want that to record on two channels and have them   set to exactly the same level because then you're  controlling both channels with just the one level   dial so moving along from the input to section  to the right we've got the low-cut filter options   so the low-cut filter will remove the kind of  lowest bass frequencies from the signal as it's   recording the audio now this can be useful if  you're trying to deal with say a low hum with an   air conditioning unit or you're dealing with a  kind of rumbling from wind noise or something   however i tend to choose not to use this because  that's always something that can be done in post   and i'd rather not mess with the audio at the time  of recording it and then finally on that side of   the audio module we've got the input 3 controls  now because input 3 is a 3.5 millimeter jack we   don't have so many controls over the signal level  and the signal type all we really have there is an   auto manual switch and the level dial so finally  it's worth noting that on the left side of the   handle below the audio module there is a switch  that will enable and disable the audio modules   features if you switch this off then you can use  the three and a half mil mic input on the camera   and the audio level controls in the camera as  you would in the same way as if you didn't have   the handle fitted but in order to use the audio  module you have to have that switch set to on   so next let's take a look at the input  select switch which is on the back of the   module underneath the plastic cover this is really  important because by default the fx3 will record   to two channels and what this switch does is it  tells the camera which inputs to record to those   two channels setting the input select switch to in  three will send the audio from input three which   is a three and a half millimeter jack to channels  one and two when using this setting neither input   one nor input two will be recorded at all okay so  the next setting on the input select switch is in   one in two now what this does is it puts input  one into channel one of the audio and input two   into channel two of the audio the last option  is in one now what this does is it takes the   signal from input one and it will actually record  that to channel one and channel two okay so next   i'm going to move on and show you some of the most  common configurations you're likely to want to use   on the fx3 i'll show you how i connect each mic to  the camera for that configuration and the settings   required to make that work and also give you a  few other ideas of how you can use the settings   in the module to your advantage so to begin with  i'll show you what's probably the most common   configuration and that's using one xlr  microphone into input one of the camera   so let's start with the input select switch on  the back of the module you want to set that to in   one next set the input one attenuator to wherever  is required for your microphone i'll set mine to   zero and then you want to set the input signal to  whatever type of microphone you're using i'm going   to choose mic plus 48 volts for my shotgun mic  but you need to just check what you need for yours   after that we're going to set the level control  switch to either manual or auto depending on how   you're going to be shooting and then you can go  ahead and connect the microphone to input 1. so   for this first configuration let's go ahead and  use link looking at the input 2 section change   the level control to link and then we're using  the same dial on input 1 to control both channels   1 and channel 2. so when you're recording audio  you want to try and set the levels so that they're   topping out at around -6 to -12 db that way you've  got a bit of headroom should there something get   a bit louder and you can see an example of that  on my screen now so at the moment we're recording   two channels of audio which are identical because  it's all coming from one microphone and then being   split to both channels so this is kind of a waste  really having two identical channels of audio   doesn't really give us any advantages so let me go  ahead and show you some ways that you can use the   second audio channel to give you some options when  it comes to editing the footage okay so the first   option i'm going to talk about is what i call an  auto backup it's basically where you set input   to so that it's set to auto so if you're using  input 1 set to manual and you're riding the levels   that's great that's the way i tend to prefer to  work but if something were to happen like there   were a loud noise or the levels were to drop and  you weren't on the ball and changed it really   quickly then it could affect your recording so if  you set input 2 to auto instead of linking it then   what will happen is input 1 will record using the  level you set on the level dial but input 2 will   set its own levels depending on the ambient noise  that it's picking up say you were filming an event   and then suddenly people started clapping now that  can get quite loud and you'll see that channel one   may be peaking whereas channel two will probably  handle it a bit better another really useful way   of using the two channels with just one microphone  is if you set the second channel to also be manual   and we're going to put the dial on this one a  little bit lower than it is on input one and   this can be really useful because if the audio  does peak in channel one there's a good chance   that channel two will still be good i'm going to  talk quite loud into this microphone and i expect   that input one is probably now peaking hopefully  input two because it's been set at a lower level   won't be peaking now it's worth remembering that  if you're using either of these techniques whereby   you're recording channel two at slightly  lower or different level than channel one   when it comes to editing them in post production  you'll want to make sure that you only enable   one at a time you don't want them both to  be enabled so let's jump into final cut now   and i'll show you how that works so you can  see here that we've got both channels of audio   enabled at the moment and as you can hear me  talking now you'll be able to hear both channels   and what you really want to do is enable just one  so let's turn off channel two and then you'll hear   that as i'm talking so this will sound fine on its  own so it's as easy as that you really just have   to make sure you select the channel that you want  to use and not have them both switched on they're   really there just to give you two options  depending on what happens with the levels   while you're recording so next we're going to talk  about configuring the camera to use two xlr inputs   okay so first of all we set the input select to  in one in two set the input one signal to mic or   mic plus 48 volts in this case my sony receiver  doesn't need 48 volts so i'm just going to select   mic so i'll choose manual for the level control  and now i'll go ahead and connect the microphone   now that we've got the camera configured and the  wireless mic is connected to input 2 it's actually   going to be recording input 1 to channel 1 and  input 2 to channel 2. if i select channel 1 this   is the channel which includes the shotgun mic and  then if i jump to channel two this is the channel   which includes the lav mic so it's really nice  being able to choose which one of those two mics   works best for your production now obviously  you can still use the independent controls   from input one and input two you can switch  these individually to either auto or manual   and obviously that will affect that relevant  channel but you can still use the link switch   if you've got two microphones connected into  input one and two and you choose link then the   input one level will control both microphones  this isn't really ideal if you've got two   different types of microphone if you're using say  a stereo microphone which has two xlr connectors   that's when you'd want to use link because  then you know you're getting the same level   to both channels okay so the final configuration  we're going to talk about in this video   is just using the 3.5 millimeter input which is  input three okay so for this we want to set the   input select on the rear of the module to in three  and then just set the input three level control   to either manual or auto depending on your  requirements okay so in my example this microphone   is mono so this is going to record the same signal  to both channel one and channel two if you wanted   to use something like a stereo microphone  or something like the new rode wireless go   that allows you to split the signal into a  stereo using two transmitters the same will   apply you set this up exactly the same way it's  worth remembering that there's only one input   level dial for channel three so if you are  using two separate microphones feeding into   one jack you have to remember that you you cannot  individually set the levels for each of those mics   so i think we'll leave it there for this video  we've covered off quite a lot of ground we've   covered using a single xlr mic dual xlr mics and  the 3.5 millimeter input in the next video we'll   talk about switching to 4 channel audio recording  and all of the additional things that you do need   to think about when you do that if you subscribe  to the channel and hit the notification bell   then when i do release the video you'll be  notified and then we can continue looking into   audio recording on the sony fx3 and with that  i'll say goodbye and see you in the next one

Channel: Paul Joy

Views: 962

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Id: X5ZpQqMdZD4

Length: 11min 47sec (707 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 30 2021