Dual audio input on Canon XL-2
 

Next week I will begin working on a training video. The video will contain dialog between two people. My question is, can I use two Sony wireless mic and two receivers (different channels and frequencies) connected to both of the XLR's on the back of the Canon XL-2 to produce audio from both receivers? Do I need to change the channels on the canon's interior menu? Thanks for any help. Bob

You shouldn't need to do anything to use the 2 XLR jacks, just make sure the audio is set to record from the rear inputs. There's some tinkering if you want to record through the XLRs and the front mic, but that is not what you are proposing to do anyway.

Adding to Matt's advice, you'll end up with a stereo track with lav 1 recorded to channel 1 and lav 2 on channel 2. In post you separate the single stereo track into two mono tracks before editing. In your final mix, each track is sent to both L&R stereo channels.

I've re-read your question several times to understand exactly why you are asking it. You have two channels, and two inputs. It's already separated. I'm guessing that you are aware that you can set the XL2's inputs to record dual mono. So yeah, you have to make sure that your settings are correct on the XL2 if you want to put each receiver on its own channel. As mentioned, set the input select switch for Audio 1 on rear, and the Rec. Ch. Select switch to CH1, and you have two separate channels. Conversely, setting the Rec. Ch. Select switch to CH1-Ch2 will give you dual mono through the Ch1/3 XLR input, rendering the CH2/4 XLR input inactive.

Make a test recording before you start. That's my advice.

My question to this thread is, Can you hook two seperate wireless to the same channel ? Can one run a spliter with the two different mic's and run a shotgun mic from the channel 2 XLR ?

I'm going to be in the same problem here but need a shotgun for distance audio...

Help too ?

FYI - shotguns aren't for "distance audio," there really isn't such a mic. Even a shotgun needs to be close to the subject - typically 24 to 36 inches from their mouth, depending on the mic and the environment. The purpose of a shotgun is to isolate the speaker's voice from surrounding ambient sounds, not magnify or capture distant sounds.

You could run two wireless into the same channel by using a mixer or mic combiner between the wireless receivers and the camera or recorder but there are all sorts of problems that might come up with such an arrangement. When you have have two lavs fairly close together, it's much safer to put each of them on their own channel. What happens when you have, say, two speakers close together, each wearing their own lav, is that both mics pick up both voices. Let's say Character One is talking. His voice is first picked up by his mic and then the other mic also picks it up but with a short time delay due to the farther distance the second mic is away from his mouth. When you then mix them, the two waveforms are out of phase with each other and this can introduce both comb filtering and/or reverb effects.

The same thing happens in post if you have a lav on one channel and a shotgun on the other and try to mix them together - the time delay between the when the voice hits the lav and when it's picked up by the shotgun can introduce all manner of weirdness. Your best bet is to record twice, once to get the dialog free of any ambience and the other to get the ambience free of any dialog, and put them together in post.

As Steve says you need a mixer for this. Splitters are for making a mono track into dual mono, or feeding two devices from one mono signal. Could a custom cable be made that would combine two channels into one? Not sure about that, but I believe there may be passive mixer boxes that can. It's worth noting that the AT1800 dual channel wireless receiver can mix both channels down to one right in the receiver. Very cool function.

Thanks guys..