If you only have a DSLR camera to make your videos and prefer not to use a separate recorder
you are limited to a single audio track.
Capturing a great moment and your audio well say no more.
Stick around and I will show you how to make a simple adapter lead that separates your
cameras audio into two channels so you connect a shotgun mic for a backup on one channel
and a wireless lavalier mic on the other channel without having to add expensive audio interfaces?
G'day, my name is Gary and your watching the channel that takes the confusion out of setting
up your sound gear so you can focus more on recording great video content.
Most cameras today have one socket with two audio inputs- a left and right channel.
This lead will separate the audio into two separate channels so you can adjust the volume
or mix them later if needed.
These are the items that you will need.
3.5mm stereo mini jack to RCA lead
An XLR female line socket
One mono 3.5mm mono line plug
These cables are cheap to buy and will reduce the amount of soldering you need to do.
Cut off the RCA plugs and shorten it to the length you need.
If you have some, slide on a piece of heat shrink plastic to secure the junction.
Carefully strip back the plastic sheath by about 20mm and the centre conductor by about
5mm.
Now your ready to solder on your ends.
Make sure you slide on the plug jackets for both leads.
Pre-tin your parts and solder the 3.5mm jack in place.
You may choose a female 3.5mm sockets if you have 2/ corded lav mics.
Crimp the cable to secure it in place and you can screw on the plug jacket.
For the other cable If you using an XLR socket have a close look at the numbers next to each
pin.
Generally XLR leads use three conductors to help reduce interference over long cable runs
but considering your setup is only a few meters and it is an unbalanced connection into the
camera we will only use pins 1&2.
The shield solders onto pin 1 and if your socket has a case tag then bridge across to
it as well.
Last of all solder your signal wire to pin 2 and then check your work to be sure you have
them on the right pins.
Now you can reassemble you socket back together.
There is your splitter cable channel complete and ready to use.
Your 3.5mm stereo end will plug into the camera and then splits into two separate channels.
One for one mic, which in my case is the RODELink wireless mic and then the other channel will
connect to the shotgun mic or in your case may be another handheld mic for interviews.
There are a couple of limitations with this setup and that is the shotgun mic needs to
be self powered because your camera isn't able to supply phantom power to your mic.
The other limitation is there may be a variation in sensitivity between the two mics.
That is one mic may be louder than the other.
For my setup I was able to vary the output gain of the two mics separately to get them
a little closer is volume.
You may have another idea of how you can simplify your audio setup so feel free to type your
ideas in the comments section.
If this is the first time you have watched a video from our channel and you would like
to learn more about sound gear in a simple and easy to understand format then go ahead
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You don't have to be a sound engineer to learn the basics of improving your audio.
Sound's Easy, with Simple Audio Tips.
Until next time, I'll catch you later