"Although I like working in Sound Forge 9, I've had to work in Adobe Audition specifically because of one feature I wish SONY would try to improve upon"

AA is a tough program to beat. I actually just upgraded to the new AA3 and the filters being good in AA2 have even been improved further in AA3. I toyed with the idea of soundforge and even WaveLab6... but AA can do things that neither one of the others can. (The Sony Vegas filters actually even work in AA3)

A painful lesson that we've all learned the hard way. I have a Marantz PMD660 that I use to get audio direct from the mixing desk whenever possible. One time I wasn't able to do this and relied on just my on-camera shotgun and the room echo was unbearable. After that I went out and purchased an audio signal splitter. Now when I can't get access to the mixer (in some rooms the mixer is under lock 'n key) and there is just a single mic, I will patch my splitter in between the mic and the mixer and feed that to the PMD660. Usually these connections are an XLR plug mounted on a wall and it's easy to just patch in. Anything is better than a mic in the back of the room!

~jr

Seeing as how Spot isn't around so much these days I'll take the liberty of quoting something he once said to me when it comes to audio, "You can't polish a turd".
You probably know what that means now, you can make great audio out of good audio. Starting with bad audio and trying to get good audio is somewhere between extremely difficult and impossible. What I find so frustrating is, as you've discovered, it isn't THAT hard to record good audio.

Bob.

And when you do get a cooperative audio engineer at the FOH mixer, remember to ask for a raw feed from the mics, pre EQ and when applicable, pre-fader [you don't want to go chasing levels in post that were constantly adjusted to make the house sound good]. Just make sure you set your levels with plenty of headroom. You can always make a lot of adjustments in post, but you can't put back what was removed.

JohnnyRoy - been there done it too.

Did a wedding for a friend in a catholic church. Hard walls, cove for statues,
unbelievable echoes. Great lighting and b-roll helped get your mind off the
audio.

Haven't talked to friend since mailed the video...............

There are just so many things you have to get right with shooting good video an audio

I bought myself an extra zoom mic and attached that to a voice recorder which runs constantly through the shoot. Never switch it off
I was at an event shooting my camera was off in-between shooting then all of a sudden someone announced Madiba [Nelson Mandela]
and then it was like trying to catch a piece of hot coal everything I did was a total screw up [got some of the shot as a few words were said]

in the final presentation used a clip of the crowd and then the [audio from voice recorder] a long L cut to Madiba

Thanks to an extra audio channel it worked

Anyone have an 'involuntary manslaughter' clause for the idiot who just has to ruin your audio with a stupid cell phone call right next to your mic?
OK, maybe a taser for a first warning?

You hand them a stun gun and say sorry another call for you

Don't they emit electromagnetic interference too? However, you TREN have to mask out the "screams"? Huh . . you can never ever win . .

Grazie

There are no screams just a thud and you can use that as a transition to your next clip

I recently went on an overseas trip with a couple of mates to photograph (and video) Komodo dragons. I'm fairly new to video and my mates were clearly very new to being around someone shooting video - consequently I don't have a single 'clean' clip from the entire trip that has all natural background sounds. Every single clip has voices/camera shutters/camera flashes... you name it. In the middle of a clip one of them would suddenly (and loudly) ask if he was in the way, even though he was ten metres directly to my left - then the next clip his legs and shoes would appear directly behind the dragon I was taping without warning me beforehand. Occasionally one of the two would whisper in consideration for me, which would have been great if the other hadn't done a loud "uh huh" at the end of every sentence. Eventually they got the picture that I was trying to get some sound as well as video, particularly when two of the dragons had a bit of a tiff and there was a lot of great sound in the way of leathery scuffling and loud hissing, but they'd ask the ranger a question just before clamming up so I'd get half an hour of ranger monologue in the background instead. Unfortunately, the rangers were wonderfully informative and never settled for a simple yes or no answer.

But the one that really took the cake was on our second visit to Rinca, one of the dragon islands. There was a TV crew there also filming the dragons. At first we wondered who they were, but we soon discovered they were fellow Australians when one of them went for a short location scout and decided to scream his findings back for all to hear rather than walk the few metres back to the others. Consequently, one of my clips has him screaming "it's f_g awesome over here!" in classic Ocker. They soon finished their shoot, which was a real disappointment as I was hoping to hang around in the background and wait until they started rolling before shouting at the top of my lungs "look at that dragon, it's f_g awesome!"

On return to Sydney I soon discovered who the crew was, for there was an 'ends of the Earth' episode of travel program called 'Getaway' on TV a couple of weeks later. Call me stiff but my idea of 'getting away' does not include the sound of nature being drowned out by an idiots screaming. Oh, I watched the program and the guy screaming was the presenter (I refuse to call him the 'talent').

Talking about Ocker

I just filmed air guitar championships here in S.A. Part of Jozi comedy festival and guess who won

Carl Barron !!!!!

Also filmed his show great stuff

Crocdoc:
Boy can I relate to your story!
Louder does not make one smarter....
Too bad you didn't get your chance to return the 'favor'.

My other favorite trick is someone setting up a tripod in front of mine, looking straight at me, and then staying in my 'space'... time for that taser or sharpened knitting needle.
Polite doesn't cut it with ***holes, and I'm learning its OK to be just as obnoxious....

Have a nice day !

Back to the topic at hand ;-)

Got the recorder yesterday - I have several options for recording format - I want to record in as high a quality as possible, yet maintain a reasonable file size.

The unit came with a 512mb and just got a 2GB card this morning - would 44khz 16bit be the safest route to go? I also have 44khz 24 bit and I can also go to 48khz 16 & 24 bit and 96 khz 16 & 24 bit as well as various MP3 bit rates.

Any recommendations?

Cliff Etzel - Solo Video Journalist
bluprojekt | SoloVJ.com

DV audio is usually 48KHz 16 bit. I always use that to avoid any problems when editing in Vegas. Although I haven't had any problems when I've brought in different formats. The 2 GB card will record for approximately 3 1/2 hours at that setting, so keep that limitation in mind. I use the 44.1 16 bit [CD standard] when the target is an audio CD just to avoid resampling the audio.

Thanks for the recommendation.

On a side note - those who try to use DebugMode Frameserver when their project audio properties are set to 48 khz 16 bit will get an error. Seems to be a documented issue and the only way around it is to change your audio settings to 44khz 16bit.

Cliff Etzel - Solo Video Journalist
bluprojekt | SoloVJ.com

I make a point of recording audio at the target sample rate, 44.1KHz if it's going out to CD, 48KHz if it's for DV.
Bit depth is a bit trickier. Unless you've got very good mic preamps or coming it at line level from a clean source or have media capcity to spare then 24bit is very likely not gaining you anything over 16bit. I tend to stick with 24bit anyway as I've got a recorder with a 40GB HD.

One thing to be aware of, if using 44.1Khz audio in a 48KHz project or if for any reason you're making Vegas do a sample rate conversion set your project's Audio resampling to Best. Be aware that the processing overhead of doing sample rate conversion at even Good and moreso at Best is considerable. My general preference is if I have to resample audio then convert it before hand. This reduces the stress on Vegas and you're only suffering the conversion overhead once.

Unlike a lot of NLEs Vegas doesn't force you to get all your ducks in a line but it sure works smoother if you do.
Bob.