What you should really put down for is one of these:

Beachtek DXA-2S

Use a portable recorder (Zoom H2) for sound board. Has a line level input. (With a 4GB card it will record stereo for 6+ hours!) Use mikes on camera for incidental pickup and as a backup.

I'd use that as backup.

I'd much prefer to have something coming into the camera I could monitor.

Also, an alternative to the Zoom, and IMO better featured, is the LS-10 from Olympus.

Thanks for the responses. I see from my original posting that I didn't explain my question very clearly.

I'm not the videographer - I'm the soundboard operator. I've run the board oputput through a direct box and tested it to one of my camcorders.

My question really has to do with what audio sources would a wedding videographer typically like to have in the mix being fed to the camera in addition to the obvious clergy and wedding couple? I'm assuming that the videographer will be running one channel from his own mic to pick up sources such as the organ. If not, then I can run an open mic in the church and put that into the mix.

Some videographers show up late and our soundboard operators are not all proficient with the board. I'm trying to take away as much chance for disaster as possible.

As far as backup, we always record to CD, so that is another fallback that can be given to the videographer.

Maybe I'm making this too difficult - just don't want to see bad or missing sound cause dissappointment.

Thanks,
RalphM

We provide one channel and we provide a dbox.
Nobody is allowed any other connection even if a pro ENG type camera is used
or they want to provide XLR mic splitters and their own field board.
This to to ensure no phantom being sent back to sends and we have a consistent
level.

They can provide their own wireless but must test with officiant's wireless
so not to interfere with sound reinforcement.

The sound has everything in the service balanced except room pickup.
Soundboard operator is a mandatory pay just like custodian and hostess.

Now that I understand your question better, the big thing that comes to mind is the music. It is often a very personal thing for the couple and invited guests, so miking the hired singer(s) and musician(s) is a service that will be remembered and appreciated by everyone. If it is a contractual thing, you could offer two mics on stands for musicians as part of your standard package, then charge extra for additional mics. Just my thoughts, I haven't shot a wedding in some time.

**This to to ensure no phantom being sent back to sends and we have a consistent
level. **

I'm puzzled because I don't understand your concerns.

Hi musicvid,

many pro/prosumer cameras can feed phantom power on the XLR ports.
It is easy to accidentally leave the phantom power on when attaching cables

We have invested in expensive equipment and decided on a policy of using
an isolation device so there is no question of "can I" or how to do it with less
experienced board operators.

Are you saying you have mixers that don't decouple DC at their outputs?

If so, I am interested in knowing exactly what mixer make and models you are using that have this apparent issue.

Thanks for your input.

Sorry I missed all this. A couple of thoughts.

If the church has a pipe organ, please get someone who knows what they're doing to recommend a suitable stereo mic or mic array and have it hung permanently. Just putting any old mic somewhere is not the way to capture the sound of these instruments.

Feeds from desks are never "line level". Line level going into a camera or any pro gear is +4dBM. The way every sound system I've come accross is setup at +4 you'd take the roof off the place. More typical levels are around -30 to -20dBM. Too hot for mic inputs and too low for line level. I usually endup attenuating it and setting my camera or recorder to Mic.

Only the best desks have real balanced, isolated outputs. I finally got some decent line isolators from Lundahl, cost an arm and a leg and took six months for them to wind the transformers but what a difference. I also carry a couple of 10dB balanced pads in my kit. Job I did only a couple of days ago I finally, from this one desk, got a clean recording. I had an isolation transformer at each end of the cable running to the desk and 20dB of attentuation in it as well. Finally no buzzes and hums.


What should be in the mix is a good question and the obvious answer is everything. Problem is that should be a recording mix not a reinforcement mix so you need a desk that can handle that otherwise things get left out of the mix becuase they didn't need amplification.

What would be really helpful if you could offer it is a multitrack recording with one track per source. Then you leave the mix to post That's probably going to be expensive and too complex for a church unless you've got big budgets and people using the church are prepared to pay enough to recoup your costs. If I was a wedding guy I'd pay a good fee in a heartbeat to get that.

Bob.

We have choosen to always use our own microphones and no feed from an existing sound system.

Here the reasons:

1. if somethimes goes wrong with the soundboard, your are automatically supposed to be the one causing the problem, even in the case where it is technically impossible

2. you never know about the quality of their sound feed (unless testing before). I once was in the case where I was asked to shoot 2 hours before the ceremony and I was denied to use my own microphones and they assured me that they will provide me a cd with the sound from their soundboard. The sound was so horrible, that I was happy that I still had the sound from my on camera microphone.

3. you never know who touchs the soundboard just before or during the ceremony and may ruin your recording

Actually we are using multiple microphones with an M-AUDIO hooked up to everyone and synchronise manually afterwards. So if anybody tells us that we are causing interference with some equipment, we can prove them that it's impossible. Additionaly, we are doing manual audio adjustements of our camcorders in order to have a fallback solution for the case one M-AUDIO would fail.

Many thanks for all the responses. I've done some weddings as a second camerman, but I wanted to hear from some of you who do it on a serious basis. I appreciate your time taken to respond.

All our soundboard operators are volunteers and we do not charge for this service. Nice for the wedding financiers, but the downside is that we are sometimes forced to use whomever is available. This is why I'm trying to get a package of settings that covers most of the bases. My intent is a set of instructions complete with pictures of the source and level settings. Fortunately, I can set aside a buss for this purpose and I was able to get good audio levels in a test to my Sony A1. I thought it sounded a littly "hissy" in the headphones from the camera, but that may be the camera - I'll check it again from the tape with decent monitors

Bob, I'd love to have a multichannel recorder because it is extremely difficult to mix for recording in the same room as the live music. Of course, I'd be the one stuck doing the final mix, so maybe it's just as well...

In the past our old worship space did not have great appeal visually for weddings, so they were infrequent. Our new space is very attractive and I see at least four weddings on the calendar for the coming year, so I want to be prepared.

Thanks
RalphM