"There's no audio in the RED Camera." "The audio doesn't work." "How are you recording audio? I thought there was no audio input to the RED."
Those are actual comments from people I've talked to about the RED ONE digital cinema camera. There's a reason people have these questions and there is a reason I'm writing this blog right now.
When the RED ONE began shipping in 2007 the camera was still in Beta form. There were so many thing unfinished in the camera many people were and still remain skeptical. RED chose to release the camera, knowing full well it would not be fully operational for quite some time. People still jumped on the RED and have shot some fantastic projects on it. As of today, we have come a long way with the camera.
For starters, the audio didn't appear until December 28, 2007 with Build 12 of the firmware, just shy of 4 months of it's initial release. That release only numbering 25 cameras. With each build, audio and video improvements were made, with the current build numbered 16. Build 17 is currently in development and testing.
Sound Devices has released a statement about the RED ONE audio. This boils down to two things. One: Do not use the microphone levels for the input. Use the line level input setting. TWO: With Sound Devices mixers or pre-amps follow the included instructions.
The next major move in the audio realm, is that RED has announced it has created a NEW AUDIO BOARD to fix any issues the previous design had. This board will be available for free of charge to all current RED ONE cameras and will be shipped with the new cameras shipping from September forward.
On our 48 hour film The Last Job we used the Sound Devices Mix Pre, generously supplied by Mark Whelan and all went without a problem. |
