Operation Guide

Audio Recording of KineMINI 4K

12
Jul

KineMINI supports audio input (MIC-IN) to record the synchronous (mono, not stereo) audio, but it does not support the MIC of phantom power. MIC-IN port is located at front of the camera with jack of 3.5mm. It will generate two uncompressed audio files when recording with the external microphone inserted MIC-IN port. The audio track will be packaged into a Cineform mov file directly if the record codec is Cineform RAW.

1. Use general/ consumer-type MIC

General/Consumer-type MIC, such as SONY ECM-DS70P, headset of computer; Insert the Consumer-type MIC at first and then power on the camera. VU meter will show the audio volume  in liveview. This indicates that KineMINI can record audio through the external MIC; press the record button, then KineMINI records audio/sound into SSD together with video/images.

The sound quality of Consumer-type MIC is not very good, but it still could be used as the sync sound for post workflow.

Note: You MUST insert the  MIC before powering on the camera, else KineMINI can not recognise the MIC, thus can not record the sound at all.

2. Use professional MIC

For professional MIC, such as NTG1/NTG2/NTG3 from Rode, most of them needs phantom power of 48V. If the MIC must require phantom power of 48V, it can not be used with KineMINI directly.

In addition, for professional MIC powered by internal 5# battery, it also needs to be inserted into MIC-in port of KineMINI before powering on the camera, otherwise KineMINI still is unable to detect sound.

The sound quality may be not good and noise level is relatively high when connected to KineMINI, because of impedance mismatch. You may need line-out of audio recorder to KineMINI if you want professional MIC to get better audio quality.

3. Use audio recorder

If you want to get the better in-camera audio quality, you need the help of recorder. For the professional or semi-professional audio recorder , such as Tascam DR60, H4N and other recorders, not only they can record the audio file of high quality into recording media of themselves, but also it can output Line-Out to KineMINI to make KineMINI record the in-camera high quality audio.

When using the professional MIC such as NTG3 connected to DR60, the Line-Out or Phone-Out of DR60 connects to the MIC-IN of KineMINI by an audio cable with 3.5mm plug. By this way, DR60 can output the high quality audio to KineMINI so that KineMINI can record high quality audio as in-camera recording at the same time.

You can also use the DR60 to record a high quality audio file in DR60 directly when feeding the Line-Out of DR60 to KineMINI, and then match the images recorded by KineMINI in the post workflow.

Operation Sequence:

  1. Use an open-ended audio cable with 3.5mm plug or a general MIC to connect to the MIC-IN of KineMINI at first. Note: the other end of audio cable does NOT connect to the Line-Out of recorder;
  2. After booting camera, you can see that VU meter will show the audio volume  in liveview, Do not power off the camera and connect the other end of audio cable to the Line-Out of recorder; you can also pull out the MIC, and plug in the Line-Out of recorder to MIC-IN of KineMINI;
  3. If the recorder is on, the VU of KineMINI will display the range of audio level from the recorder.

Use earphone to monitor the audio level of KineMINI: if the noise level is high, you can tune down the analog gain audio in CONFIG–>audio–>Gain; At the same time, you may need to increase the output volume of recorder until the audio quality is suitable.

4. Notes

  1. You may need to connect the external MIC to the right channel/CH2 input if you use the external MIC like NTG3, because the Line-Out is MONO OUT generally.
  2. If you can not detect the audio in KineMINI, you may try to insert to left channel/CH1, or change another audio cable.
  3. If using a headset, KineMINI has audio level, but Not when using the Line-Out from recorder, please follow above operation sequence, or you need to check the VU of recorder whether it works.
  4. When using wireless mic, such as SONY UWP-D, you need to boot camera with open-ended audio cable or ordinary headset at first, and then connect the wireless mic after power on, otherwise KineMINI can not detect the wireless mic.