Subject:Total newbie stupid connection question

Posted by: musman

Date:6/23/2004 4:19:30 PM

Just been going through the Vaast dvd and trying out on my computer, but I can't seem to record anything in SF. I have a "SB Audigy Audio (9000)" sound card and am trying to record through its firewire port from my Sony pd150 camera.
I've played with the sound card properties but nothing's really working. The record meters in SF don't register anything when talk into the mic even though the camera's meters show loud sound.
The only way I've gotten SF's record meters to show anything is when I play back some audio from Vegas and select the "Wave/MP3" option in the sound cards recording options.
Total newbie question and I'm sure I'm confusing any number of things the dvd is telling me, but can someone explain to me how to make this work? Also, are there better sound cards that have XLR inputs so I can avoid the whole pd150 thing and it's lousy preamp?
Thanks for any help!

Subject:RE: Total newbie stupid connection question

Reply by: MrPhil

Date:6/24/2004 6:16:30 AM

Your windows mixer input, what is it set at?
Have you checked if you can record via the analog input on the card?

Subject:RE: Total newbie stupid connection question

Reply by: musman

Date:6/24/2004 3:16:12 PM

Not sure what you mean by windows mixer input. Again, I'm pretty green. I get into the sound card's record properties and select 'microphone'. If I jack up the volume on it all the way then SF's meters show a little bit of movement. I'm thinking this is just noise inherent in the card as it seems to have no correlation to what the camera is recording. Yell into the camera's mic and the SF's meters don't change at all. No other option other than 'microphone shows anything on SF's meters when I select them.
Am I in the right place for the mixer you mentioned? Not sure about the analog inputs on the card. I tried to test the sound card, but keep getting an error message of some kind.
All I know is that I've gotten this work in Vegas, but I'm thinking method has less control.
Any thoughts?

Subject:RE: Total newbie stupid connection question

Reply by: rraud

Date:6/24/2004 4:18:37 PM

There are soundcards available with XLR in pre-amps from M-Audio, Echo and many others.
In the mean time try the analog audio out of the PD-150 to the line input of the soundcard.

Subject:RE: Total newbie stupid connection question

Reply by: Chienworks

Date:6/24/2004 4:20:28 PM

I don't think this can work. The sound card will not record anything from the firewire connection. It will only record signals coming into the sound card itself. Since the audio from the camera is going into the firewire port the sound card can't "hear" it.

If you have to use your camera's mic then i would suggest capturing an .avi video from it, opening up this .avi video capture, and then saving it as an audio-only format such as .wav.

Subject:RE: Total newbie stupid connection question

Reply by: musman

Date:6/24/2004 10:02:35 PM

Thanks everyone for the help. I'm not sure how to use the analog mic input on my sound card. The pd150 uses rca analog out and that doesn't fit the card.
So, I'm thinking for the time being I'm just going to record audio into Vegas via the firewire.
Guess I need to look for a new sound card. Thanks again for the help!

Subject:RE: Total newbie stupid connection question

Reply by: rraud

Date:6/25/2004 3:57:23 PM

The soundcard probably has a 1/8" stereo (3- conductor) mini-plug input. You can get an adaptor at your local Radio Shack.
BTW- The analog output on the PD150 would be line-level, NOT mic (microphone) level.