Thanks for doing these tests Jon! My favorite was the Zoom H4n, but I can see how many may prefer a less boomy/warm tone. I have heard that in order to sync up audio with the 5D 30p video, you need to reduce the audio speed to 99.99% Is this true?

Hi Stephen,

I think with the Zoom one needs to either enable the low-cut (wind cut) filter (which might make it sound thin), or spend money on a serious wind cut solution, which can cost hundreds of dollars. Once you encase the mic, that will cut the wind, but will also cut the highs and lows.

Certainly, the H4n is clean and kicks the Microtrack II up and down the field.

Regarding sync, if you put the 5D2 footage on a 30p timeline, you don't need to do any rate changes to sync it. In fact, you can drop it on a 29.97 timeline, the video will drop frames and the audio will sync fine.

However, if you re-conform the video so it slows down to 29.97, then you need to slow the audio as well.

Cineform does this all automatically. The (internal) audio and video are both slowed by 0.1% so you can do 29.97 with no dropped frames and no sync problems. It can cause problems if you try to intercut with other cameras though.

BTW, I edited these videos with a previous version of Cineform that retimes the video, but doesn't touch the audio. I then manually reset the video to 30p to maintain sync. Since this is an audio test, I wanted the audio untouched (except matching gains.)

Thanks P3P!

You don't work with any of these companies? This is totally independent research on your part?

Full disclosure:

Microtrack II: I own it and have used it on a short film.

Zoom H4n: Was provided for free for one day from Brian Valente of Redrock Micro.

BeachTek: My friend owns it locally, and loaned it to me.

juicedLink: The owner of the company provided it to me for evaluation.

Magic Lantern Firmware: I'm beta testing it. The firmware is free under the GPL framework.

I own or borrowed all of the equipment used to make the videos.

I don't work for any of these companies and there is no cash involved.

Sounds fair to me... thanks, P3P.

How did you record the sound at the beginning of your presentation?

The sound at the intro was with the AT815b on a boom with the wind cut filter on. (All the filters were off for the tests.) It was recorded into the juicedLink/Magic Lantern. Because of the filter, it was thin sounding. I added some boost around 200 Hz to compensate.

The summary is recorded indoors with the NT1-A through a Mackie mixer into an Audiophile 192 and was not processed.

Note that you might hear some clicks on the Magic Lantern recordings both through the juicedLink and the BeachTek. I was so focused on noise and tone that I overlooked this. The clicks are loudest when there is a high signal. They go away when the signal is low. This is due to the firmware writing to the audio chip - it zeroes out the waveform for an instant. The 0.1.5 beta code fixes this. Hopefully, it will be released in a matter of days...

Do you have any sample of the Juicedlink and the Canon firmware? I am not ready to try the Magic Lantern yet.

Hi there, John!

What again was the model of Sennheiser shotgun you used in this test?

Thanks.

Hi P3, love your work, thanks! When are you expecting to post your conclusions? Speaking of shotguns, what are your thoughts on the AT897?
:-)

great review but how do you sync the audio of each take from the sound recorder to the video as neither camera or audio recorder have timecode?
thanks

Great tests.
I like how you found a way to drink beer while working.

Thanks for the tests. They are really helpful. One question: can you record multiple tracks of audio into the 5d or are the two XLR inputs combined into one track?

Hey, great test. I really like the Magic Lantern Software but doesn't it crash regularly on your 5D ? That's the most annoying part for me...

Strange, I've had mine for over a year too ! I don't know if it is related to the hardware.
Too bad. Any solutions ?

Hi Ben,

What firmware are you running? If you upgraded from the 1.1.0 firmware, that might be a problem. But I don't think ML would work at all then. Just a thought.

Thanks Ben

Just what I needed. I'm in the process of buying a 5dmrkii and I'm researching audio. Very good suggestions. Thanks again.

BIG NEWS! Canon has announced that the new firmware will have 48 kHz audio and that you will be able to set the gain. It will also have live audio meters. No word on the headphone output, but it's possible.

That means that Magic Lantern will no longer be required to get good sound. (Maybe we will still want it for the headphone output. We will see.)

The juicedLink will still be needed to get a good hot signal into the camera for low noise, but those who prefer the stock firmware will now be able to have great in-camera audio.

with the canon firmware, the beachtek sounded pretty good...it defeated the auto gain nicely...

basically if you are using canons firmware beachtek is ok, if your using green lantern, go with juicedlink, and turn the gain down...


i have a 7d, will beachtek do for me? is canon updating our firmware too?

Corey, in the description of this video at the top, you can download an uncompressed audio file. Try it at high levels on good monitors or headphones in a quiet environment. You will hear that the hiss with the Beachtek is very high. It won't be adequate for playing in a theater, let alone from a DVD on a surround system.

The better solutions would be the juicedLink with the DN101, or the newer Beachtek with active preamps. The DN101 kills the auto-gain, provides a headphone output and small meters. I haven't tried the new Beachtek, so I don't know if its preamps are clean, but it's gotta be better than the passive one.

Hey P3, nice video! This was just what i was looking for! Keep up the great work

Hi, nice review....av got the juicedlink 231 and a 7d. Can I record good audio straight into the 7d via the juicedlink?

Because of beer, it's good that you had just few mics for test :) (you did not have enough time to get dirty drunk)

:D

I don't understand your comments regarding the Zoom H4N so maybe you can clear that up for me.

Weren't you sending the boom mic's XLR output into the H4N and using it simply as a digital recorder?

If so, I don't see how wind noise could have been a factor - any wind noise would have been coming from the boom mic not the Zoom H4N unless you were expecting the Zoom to somehow further filter the wind noise out.

By the way, there is a great, inexpensive line of wind shields for the Zoom that are both humorous and very effective, check out redheadwindscreens.com/

i must to be stupid with sound but i did not saw any difference between any of those expensive systems... im more worried about the flicking in the frames...

Awesome job ! Looks like it's a toss up between the juice box and the zoom.

hello! great vid!

my main question is, would i have to get a separate mixer if i'd like to use the zoom h4 or microtrack on my 7d, in order to override the AGC issue?

This is fantastic because it proves you can get perfectly good audio with the internal mic jack (if u can disable AGC, that is).

But it seems like you need the JuicedLink to help with the pre-amp. I currently have a sennheisser EW122 wireless lapel mic for interviews. The receiver has some adjustable gain controls- would this be enough to get decent audio running into the mic jack? Or would I still need a preamp to help?

Really appreciate that you put this up. Admittedly I need to get my audio recording to a much better quality.