Canon GL1 audio questions

[nopEda]

I would like to try making a documentary about a lake, so will want
to get some ambient sounds sometimes. I'll also want to be interviewing
people, so will need to mic them. It seems like it would be best to
avoid using the camera's mic completely if possible, so as not to get
sounds from the recording and/or zoom mechanisms etc mixed in with things
I actually want to record. Is the best thing to get a little 2-4 channel
audio mixer, and monitor volume with headphones out of the camera? If so,
what sort of mics to use, and where and how to place them? What about
power for everything? Can the mixer be hooked up to the camera in such a
way that different mics are layed down on different tracks to edit later?
How to disable the camera's mic?

Thanks for any help,
David

[Soopafresh]

How often are you planning on shooting things of this sort? There are several different $ amounts you can spend, depending on quality and other factors. You should consider bringing along a sound guy to your shoot, there will be too many things to try and do at the same time otherwise. A good sound guy will have all the mics, mixers, and recording devices you'll need.

[filmboss80]

Sound mixing for documentaries is usually done in the editing/post-production phase, though it is always good to monitor your signal with headphones to get good levels as you record in the field. You can get a small mixer that will attach to your camera from www.beachtek.com. There are also portable digital recorders like the Zoom H4, which will record wav (preferred for editing) or mp3 audio to an SD memory card. Ambient nature sounds, narration, and other things can be recorded that way. It is also a common practice to record 2 minutes of ambient audio in the field with the camcorder -- not zooming or making any unnecessary noise. The ambient track can be looped and mixed in behind voice-overs, etc.

The only mix you need to worry about in the field is volume (not too little, not too much) and mic proximity. After that, the perfect sound mix is made in post.

Good luck.