Recording off a PA
 

HI,

I have a small gig where the client wants me to pull audio off a PA (wedding vows) and also record the room ambiance with another mic. I will be alone on this job and was thinking of just hooking up an extra camera I have to the PA through a mixer and recording the room sounds with the on camera xl1 mic. I dont have a wireless mic and their is not a budget for one.

Can anyone give me some suggestions

thanks

jp

If you can get an audio recorder, hook it up to the PA for the vows. Use the mic on the cam for ambience.
Keith

If you record from the PA, make sure it is a recorder with a very solid, stable time base; e.g., MiniDISC, DAT, or another camcorder. DO NOT try a analog tape recorder, such as a cassette recorder, in general the speed is not stable enough to maintain lip sync.

SOem folks have bbeen known to plae a wireless mi near the PA speaker,a nd recording that sound to the Camcorder. With the XL1 you could use the 12-bit/4-channel mode and feed the wireless to audio 2, if you had a wireless. if the XL1 will be ina fixed location for the ceremony you could run wire from the PA system to the XL1. Be sure your levels are matched.

In any case, be sute to check out the on-site details and give your system a test in advance to be sure you are going to get usable results at the wedding or have time to work out a fix.

Thanks for the responses.

I have an extra camera that I was going to just use to record the audio from the PA. My only experience with a PA I got a terrible hum so I am slightly paranoid though at the time I did not have a mixer. I think I can bump down most of the hum now.

I never thought about placing a mic close to the PA. I will keep that in mind if I cant get decent sound pluging in.

Thanks

jp