Recording Two Mics to PC

[SurreyLuke]

Hi guys,

Hoping there's someone knowledgeable enough to help me out with an audio problem.

I am in the process of planning a Youtube podcast series. Not with any daft hopes of stardom - I own a business with a large customer / member base and we are going to produce some podcast style videos with helps & tips and a bit of the story of our company.

I am stuck with audio recording - we have a DSLR camera Canon EOS 700D so not the best one but it was a gift so is helping us keep the costs down. We will be recording the visuals with that however everything I've read suggests we should record the audio separately.

I've bought two XLR microphones with shock mounts and pop filters which seem to be decent quality. The main issue we're having is, from what I've read, it's going to be a lot better to record the audio in a way which has it together but also so if I need to edit one person's levels etc I can.

Can anyone help with a method of doing this? We've purchased a splitter from Amazon to plug both microphones into the same input on my laptop but Audacity doesn't seem to be able to split them into two channels. I watched a video where it was explained that with stereo sound a splitter would make mic 1 left and mic 2 right and we could edit like that but I can't figure it out!

Any help much appreciated - for editing purposes I'll be using Adobe Premiere Pro for the main bits as we already have a subscription and have Audacity and Adobe Audition already downloaded.

[Sam Spoons]

Basically you need a simple 2 input audio interface which you can connect to your computer. The quality will be way better than using the computers own mic input, even with budget mics (what are they BTW). Something like this should do the job https://www.thomann.de/gb/behringer_u_phoria_umc202hd.htm

Start the camera and DAW rolling then do a handclap in frame so you can easily sync the audio to the video later and away you go.

[The Elf]

As above. No type of 'splitter' is right for this job. A 2 input audio interface is what you need - and if you let us know the make and model of microphones (not all microphones are alike) we may be able to help narrow it down for you.

[ConcertinaChap]

then do a handclap in frame so you can easily sync the audio to the video later and away you go.

D'oh! Why didn't I think of that! It would have saved me hours of shuffling audio tracks ...

Ta.

CC

[wireman]

What will the video content be?
One person at a table, standing up, doing a demo?
More than one person?
Moving camera, people?

You may not need stereo, although it won't save much to forego a 2 channel computer interface.

[wireman]

then do a handclap in frame so you can easily sync the audio to the video later and away you go.

D'oh! Why didn't I think of that! It would have saved me hours of shuffling audio tracks ...

Ta.

CC

I'm sure you know that the basic idea has been around for a while: https://www.thevintagenews.com/2016/09/05/the-clapperboard-we-have-all-wondered-what-it-is-for-at-least-once-in-our-lives/

[The Bunk]

I use a set-up as suggested above for my own self-amusement style home music videos although I'm still on Adobe Premier Elements 12 but it can't be a million miles from "Pro". My recording (music) is done completely separately and I then add the music as the "soundtrack" to the video; syncing up can be a palaver so a simultaneous visual/audio cue is pretty much essential as has been mentioned, and a 2-channel interface would do the job much better than a splitter for the recording.
Some of our guys at work tried a similar sort of thing and one thing to really bear in mind is how the quality / acoustics of the room or location you're using can affect the final product. (Sorry if you already knew that and have accounted for it.) They made a great video but there was reverb and background noise all over the place which just couldn't be hidden satisfactorily. It may depend on your time/budget etc but there are many wiser heads than me here who can advise you in that regard if needed.

[ef37a]

Hi Luke, I don't know how good the microphone pre amps are on the UMC202 but I have the slightly more expensive 204HD and they are remarkably good. Low in noise and with a decent amount of gain.

These two qualities will be important for video becaus, even if you don't mind the mics being 'in shot' you will not want them shoved into the face of the speakers, more around 100mm below chin level*. That reduces the sound level into the mic quite a bit and you need the gain to bring it back. You also get more 'room' but I think others are advising you about that.

*I was struck the other night watching Sara Pascoe? She has the mic under 'servo control'! No matter her stage gyrations or the swapping of the mic from hand to hand, it stays, rock solid, just about at the base of her neck. Must be dreamtime for the sound guy!

Dave.

[ConcertinaChap]

I'm sure you know that the basic idea has been around for a while: https://www.thevintagenews.com/2016/09/05/the-clapperboard-we-have-all-wondered-what-it-is-for-at-least-once-in-our-lives/

Well, I can only say along with Vroomfondel and Majikthise that I guess my mind must be too highly trained ...

CC

[N i g e l]

Hi guys,

I watched a video where it was explained that with stereo sound a splitter would make mic 1 left and mic 2 right and we could edit like that but I can't figure it out!
.

if your happy with your recorded audio, as stereo track with 1 mic per side, then it should be straight forward to convert that to 2 mono tracks.

The Audacity manual suggests using the split stereo track function thus :
https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/spl ... racks.html

In another application you could try cloning the stereo track and pan one right, pan the other left. You may want to convert each track to mono so that they can be further pan-adjusted.

[Sam Spoons]

surreyluke are you sure your laptop has stereo mic inputs?

Also what exactly is your 'splitter lead' what connectors on each end?