@andyharris have you had success in getting a remote to work with an external mike plugged in with your custom made cable?

@evero @konjow @rambo

I have not tested for the presence or absence of resampling on Vimeo yet since I often downsample to 44.1 KHz or use a Redbook master (in the case of music videos) before uploading. But the official page on audio specifications for the Vimeo site very strongly suggests that they resample to 44.1 KHz if you upload a higer sample rate.

The easiest way to test this is to use an application like your professional sound card`s software mixer (or a dedicated application like HiJack Audio or Virtual Audio Cable) to route the output from your Vimeo playback to your favorite audio recording application and record the results (to analyze later) or analyze them on the spot.

To accurately test this you will need to ensure 2 things.

1) That the audio file you uploaded (in the form you uploaded it) contains material above 22.05 KHz that you can easily discern with your analysis software.

2) That youraudio interface and software are setup to playback at your intended sample rate when you are recording the output from Vimeo.

If the frequencies above 22.05 KHz have disappeared after upload in the Vimeo playback, you know that they have resampled to 44.1 KHz or lower. Incidentally, as of 2010, MySpace was resampling to 22.05 KHz for their playback, so you lost everything above 11.025 KHz. I do not know if they still engage in this approach because it really turned me off.

Anyway, if you want to know more about resampling, the best resource on the net is currently infinitewave.src, but if we want to discuss the topic more we should setup a dedicated thread. :)

@DirkVoorHoeve Here is what I found during testing.

• The GH2 can clip at the input stage when using an external mic without exceeding the meters.

• My memory is camera can exceed -12 dBFS at Mic Level 1 when it is being fed a proper signal, but be aware that with most of the settings there is still some AGC kicking in (such as compression) if you get too far up (e.g. - 3 dbFS with an external, etc.). Your better bet on this is to check what earlier comments were made on the topic as others did various testing with mixers, while none of my testing used that particular source.

• The AGC processing is much less noticeable in the top part of the dynamic range with the internal mic than with an external mic. For some reason the camera handles it differently.

• The best way to get a good dynamic range with the camera when using external devices is too make sure they do not clip at the input stage (like +20dB setting on the Rode VMP will) and to try to make use of a low noisefloor. If you use that in conjunction with Mic Level 1, you should get a good dynamic range.

@mppohl That seems like a random comment. :) Practically everyone here has already said that using a 2nd system recording can give higher fidelity and that uncompressed audio is preferred to 192 kbps AAC.

The point of the hacked settings is not to have the best sound quality that is at all possible. The point is to have the best quality you can get without any chance of sync issues or without any additional equipment.

Now, many other cameras can record uncompressed audio (BMCC, RED, etc.) while the GH2 does not. What the GH2 does have is a surprisingly decent pre and A/D combo for the money. If you listen to hacked GH2 audio using the internal mic vs any of the other DSLRs before it, you can hear the step forward.

The GH2 audio is MUCH better than 5DMkII, 7D, GH1, etc. The dynamic range is pretty decent. I have not compared it to more recent DSLRs. But once again, it lags behind the ones that support uncompressed audio.

If you want to go with 2nd system sound, the possible sonic quality you can attain can be much better. No one here was trying to say otherwise.

Just make an effort to get good equipment, because you can also make it worse if you make the wrong choices. But the highest potential sound definitely comes from 2nd system. But there have been no reported incidents of lost or out-of-sync audio on the GH2 that I have heard so far with the internal ones.

If you have the manpower for 2nd system (and to make sure that it is properly recording the whole time and sync afterward) there is literally no reason not to go for that.

@DirkVoorhoeve It is not entirely clear whether the distortion comes from the pre-amp stage or the subsequent A/D, but it is clear that by the time it hits digital, it has been destroyed.

My best guess is that it is an issue with the voltage hitting the pre and everything cascading from there. However, since we have no manual control of anything between the input into the pre and the time it comes out of the A/D, I am not really analyzing that aspect.

Hopefully things will be simpler on the GH3. Glad that your current workaround is good enough for the moment. :)

Here it is... it is tip ring ring for the audio... tip ring and the ground is ring...

See this picture http://www.robotroom.com/Camera/Panasonic-GH1-remote-shutter-control-schematic.gif

@thepalalias any improvement or news about the beta 2 to final hack for the Audio. Its still in beta 2 master... ;)

@thepalalias i really love to test this but i need the basics what you did to reach beta. i am in very basic if it comes to audio hack. send me details and the improvement analysis excel sheet so that i can easily go through the development and test out some new co-ordinates.

Just a note for anyone that has not had a chance to sort through the GH3 specifications yet.

• The GH3 has new 3.5mm input audio jack and 3.5mm headphone jack. There is still a 2.5mm port but it is now only used for shutter cables, etc.
• The highest quality is now done in an MOV container and audio is apparently uncompressed linear PCM. The samplerate and bit-depth have not been mentioned yet but 48 KHz, 16-bit seems most likely.
• There has not been any official mention of any XLR add-on at this point.
• The menu screenshots shown so far confirm similar meters (8 bars) and gain control (4 bars) to the GH2. No word on whether AGC is still in play or in what fashion, but it would not surprising to find it handled similarly in the firmware. Much too early to tell.
• No word on whether the ability to modify audio levels during recording has been added.

@thepalalias I'm currently using Apocalypse Now Boom v1 by Driftwood. Does that mean I automatically have the audio hack/setting included when I use Apocalypse Now Boom? Although I record actors with separate sound, I often find good background sounds from what the GH2 records. So my question is - assuming the audio hack is already included, do I need to adjust any settings to get the best sound from the GH2's built-in microphone? Thanks.

@thepalalias Great - thanks for you excellent work.

@aenima No one has posted a definitive answer yet. There was some discussion of it back in August when @LALisa was doing some testing.

You can find her notes in the thread at these two links.

http://www.personal-view.com/talks/discussion/comment/80805#Comment_80805 http://www.personal-view.com/talks/discussion/comment/80887#Comment_80887

I hope to someone it can be useful. On measurements, impedance of a GH2 microphone input is equal 4.7kOm