retriving my lapel mic audio
 

I recently shot a friends wedding. I mic'ed the grove with a lapel mic and also recored with the stereo "front" mic off my Canon XL2. however when I bring in the clip, I only see 2 audio channels, (stereo front mic), I thought there would have been the 3rd, (lapel) channel. I can isolate that channel on the camera and listen to only that one, however I can't seem to get it up in FCP..??? Any suggestions?

When you capture multiple channels on the XL2, sometimes NLE's won't recognize this and can only capture the first channel (and I think FCP is one of these, in addition to Premiere). There's a program you can download called Scenalyzer which can capture multiple audio channels. I recently shot a wedding as well, and I needed to use this program in order to capture both the audio from the front mic and the lav mic on the groom. If you're just trying to play back the tape on your camera, press the "Audio Monitor" button to the lower-left of the big on/off dial. You can choose either 1/2, 3/4, or Mixed. Hope this helps.

I am at work and Apple can not seem to find my product key to give me phone support for this question, can anyone else help. I am shooting with a Canon XL2 capturing audio with the front stereo mic on channels 1/2, and a wireless lav on channel 3, I want to to capture the video and channel 3 onto FCP, however FCP will only allow me to capture channels 1/2 of the audio, it does not acknowledge channel 3 at all, however I can monitor channel with with headphones on my camera just fine....can someone please help..???

I cannot bring the menu process to mind correctly at the moment, but FCP will require you to capture the audio from channel 3 as a second pass. In audio settings (Of your Quicktime settings I think) you must choose to capture your footage using the settings for stereo 1/2 or stereo 3/4. If you want to the audio from channels 1/2, then capture that as usual with your first pass.....What many posters have recommended in these forums is that you then run a second pass of capture, and just set the settings to capture audio only - using the channel 3/4 settings. This will then give you an audio track where channel 3 comes up on the left side of a stereo track. You will then need to tweak the track to duplicate the left to the right so your channel three audio is center field. It is a pain, I know, but this is a limitation to a few NLE's in terms of their ability to capture multiple audio - and I believe it remains an issue with all NLE's that work on Macs - despite much touted ability of the new QT 7 to handle up to 24 channels of audio.

Do a 'search' of these forums for this topic and you will find it discussed in great detail.
-Jon

Also, just to add to your frustration, you will probably want to make some spec changes to the audio you capture from the multi-channel passes. You may want to convert the audio you captured at 12-bit / 32 Khz up to 16-bit / 44.1 Khz (I think) to match potential music files you plan to drop into your project. Sometimes, you may find audio anomalies in your project or your final export when your NLE is trying to juggle audio that is set to different bit-rates.
-Jon

I will follow those instructions, but what does a setting in QT have to do with FCP?
Next question is: if the 3 channel comes in as a mono channel on the left speaker, can I simply copy it and insert it on the channel 4 track, will that allow me to simulate a stereo affect, and if I have 2 wirless mics, does the second one default to the right speaker?

QT technology is basically the engine over which most of your Mac audio and video applications are run. I am pretty sure you will need to find the QT settings that are accessible through FCP to affect the way FCP deals with the audio capture (as opposed to going to the QT settings in your QT preferences outside of the FCP app - someone will have to correct me here if I am wrong - but I've only done this a couple of times and I am not in front of that system right now).

Yes, copying the channel 3 to channel 4 will give you the simulation you are seeking.

If you have two wireless mics...the second will defuault to the right speaker assuming you have it plugged into the channel 4 input.

Basically, channels 1/2 are the left/right of stereo field 1 (audio 1)

Channels 3/4 are the left/right of stereo field 2 (audio 2)

You can plug in 4 mics into this system, but they will all still be left/right of these stereo fields and come from your speakers in this fashion until they are "mono'ed" in your NLE or sound application.

The onboard mic that came with your XL is already a stereo mic, so it properly takes up those first two channels and separates the proper fields for the stereo track.
-Jon

Gentlemen,

I am moving this thread to NLE Editing on the Mac because most of the discussion is about FCP. The actual camera used here isn't the main issue. It's what to do on the software side.

Thanks,

-gb-

you don't need to copy or duplicate the track. you just open it in the viewer and set pan to 0 (or middle.)

this is not a stereo effect. this is just what you do with any mono file when you want it to come from both l and r speakers at equal levels.

that sounds good, i just need to get that 3rd channel onto the computer.

Thank you for adding and clarifying Nate - sometimes the most obvious solution is also the simplest. I am still a newbie on FCP and as I am not in front of it right now I am not totally ingrained with the menus and feature set as of yet - so I was thinking in terms of general sound and video workarounds for other apps that I have used that simply don't have such advanced features...I appreciate you sounding in however, as it helps put such info into my head that will help me progress through learning FCP more quickly.
-Jon

Look in the Log and Capture box. Move into Capture Settings tab. Look there and look in the Clip settings box. There should be an option for Audio Input, the choices being: "1+2", "2+3" and "Mix 4". Chose "2+3". Also, choose "Audio Only" for the import type.

Final cut pro 5 changed how to do this, so in FCP 5 just go into Clip Settings and change "Audio Input Tracks" to 4.

Enjoy!

Tom I understand what your talking about, however, anything I do still results in the "Input Channels" remaining grayed out, I can not get to any option other than 1/2.
Does another setting need to be changed outside of log and capture box?

I have followed everyones suggestions, however nothing results in me being able to access anything other than channel 1/2. Apple wants to charge $200, just to answer that question, or make me pay 80% of the cost of FCP for a year of support, ($800), I can't afford this, is anyone out there actually filming on an XL2, using a wireless lav mic on channel 3/4 and log and capturering with FCP.
If so could you please help. I have over 15 hours of interview footage, that I thought was going to be an easy import, but to use my camera as a vcr and to run an aduio line from the headphone jack to the computer to capture the audio of channel 3 only, in STP, and then try to fit it into the video of a seperate capture, seems very stupid, not to mention way more work than should be required. I can't figure out why there is an option to chose which channel to capture if it is going to always remain grayed out....can someone please help..???

Well Chris....as I stated, I am still a bit of a newb on FCP and I so I can't get into specifics about these settings in the way other posters have...but on a cursory level, it sounds to me like something is awry in the audio systems of the system in general if those options are greyed out...so here is a simple test you can run just to see if you can get the 3rd track of audio at all.

First, download a multiple track audio app - for our purposes, I will quickly walk through Amadeus II. You can easily find it looking around on the net. You can use it as a 15 day free trial which will suit your needs for this test.

Before opening up this app, plug your camera into the firewire port and turn it on to VCR mode.

In your system preferences, select 'sound' and click the 'input' tab. You should be able to see the firewire input (dv camera) as an option. Select it and close your system preferences.

Now Open up Amadeus II. Under the 'Sound', select 'record to new file' and you will be given a dialog box. Click the 'input' tab and select 'driver' dialoge tab to find your firewire input device.

check the playthrough option and then, click the 'settings' button and you will be given a box to choose your channels. For left channel, choose channel 3 and for right channel select channel 4.

Click OK twice and you should be ready to record your track. Play your camera audio and begin your recording. You should begin hearing only the audio from track 3.

Record all you need. If it works, you can then take your completed audio recording and drop it into your NLE and sync it up.

This is much more challenging then simply choosing the options for through FCP, but since your options are not correctly presented, this workaround is simple enough and free. If it does not work, then there is something wrong somewhere that I am not able to troubleshoot with the supplied information.

I hope this helps.
-Jon