Single source wedding audio...
 

I just scouted out my next wedding location today and talked with a sound guy there. It's a high-tech church with a comprehensive sound system, and can put a feed from everything that goes through the speakers, into one of my irivers.

I'm not comfortable relying on a single audio source, even though it may be from a great system, and thus think I would still like to mic the groom and officiant, etc.

What do others do in such situations? Have any had 'disasters' resulting from such reliance on a single source which failed?

I also always try to plug in to house audio because frankly, they usually have better sound equipment than I do. However, I have about a 50% success rate with that source. There are plenty of things that can (and do) go wrong even when it's a high tech system and experienced operator. I try to mic the minister and groom as well and generally my last source is a shotgun mic (which is pretty much crap but it's something). I have had audio disasters where I had to use shotgun audio and it aint pretty. I try to be better prepared for audio situations nowadays because audio is the most likely thing to go wrong for a wedding videographer.

I've been trying different things here lately with regard to audio. I'll lav the groom and minister independantly but for me it's rare to get a "master feed" from any sound board so I'm forced to use the headphone jack. Of course I'm at the mercy of they guy controlling the volume when I do this.

If you do however tap into that sound system ("master out") with an iRiver make sure it's set to "Line in" and not "Ext Mic". A volume setting of 40 works for me.

And I've never relied on one audio source - wouldn't even think of it.

Most sound mixers have record out RCA jacks. I generally try to plug into that ad use line in if possible.

I don't rely on house mixes simply because I don't trust it. On one bad house mix, the audio guy forgot to turn on the groom's mic.
In another bad mix, the levels were drastically uneven and I had to remix everything from beginning to end.
In yet another bad mix, they used cheap wireless mics which kept cutting in and out.
If you rely soley on the house mixer, you are at their mercy with no second chances. Always have a backup!

Thanks for the advice. It gives me plenty to work on and confirms my thoughts.

for anyone out there with an 8** iriver, how do you go about ensuring that when you tap into the DJ or house system that you have levels correct?

Do you have any specific settings you use or is it a case of record and listen back? I am always worried about the DJ changing levels etc...

Read up the line. A "line in" setting of 40 works for me "if" I'm able to tap in and adjust the boards volume to the record out.

And even if you monitor the volume... there's no way to gaurantee the DJ won't touch anything.

You should never depend on another vendor for your responsibilities anyway IMO.

If I can get a decent house feed, I'll use it. But I never really trust it, so I always have at least one other source of audio. (Preferably TWO or more additional sources!)