Audio Workflow - H6/NinjaBlade/Nikon D810

onemanband · Oct 28, 2014

Quick overview of gear as it pertains to this question:
Nikon D810 (own)
Zoom H6 - not purchased
Ninja Blade - not purchased
Premiere Pro/Plural Eyes

Will the following work? (I could test it if I had the gear but I don't, and would like to know if I'm understanding how all of this works prior to purchasing.)

Workflow: Boom and wireless lavs (x2) into Zoom H6, record each as separate track (record on device itself), line out mixed track to Ninja Blade so that it can record an audio track synced with the HDMI feed from camera. Use this track as a scratch track, import all the separate tracks from the H6 into Premiere, use Plural Eyes to sync them all to clip and replace lower quality mixed track.

Or line out from H6 to camera, then piggyback the HDMI into the Blade to create a scratchtrack?

I know that I could just send audio directly into the Blade or Camera from a field preamp and be done with it, but I want higher quality tracks (24bit) for this project.

Any help/insights/advice would be greatly appreciated.

AudioPostExpert · Oct 28, 2014

onemanband said:
Workflow: Boom and wireless lavs (x2) into Zoom H6, record each as separate track (record on device itself), line out mixed track to Ninja Blade so that it can record an audio track synced with the HDMI feed from camera. Use this track as a scratch track, import all the separate tracks from the H6 into Premiere, use Plural Eyes to sync them all to clip and replace lower quality mixed track.

Or line out from H6 to camera, then piggyback the HDMI into the Blade to create a scratchtrack?

Without knowing the Ninja Blade I can't be sure exactly what it's routing/features are but if it will record a HDMI input at the same time as an analog audio input this setup should be able to deal with either of your workflow options. If this is the case, you would need to run some tests to figure out which would be better, as both methods will introduce some discrepancy in sync between between audio and video. Hopefully the discrepancy would only be a couple of milliseconds and be virtually noticeable but it would be worth filming a clapper-board clap a few times using both workflows and then identifying which produces the least sync discrepancy.

onemanband said:
I know that I could just send audio directly into the Blade or Camera from a field preamp and be done with it, but I want higher quality tracks (24bit) for this project.

24bit is no higher quality than 16bit. However, it is still advisable to shoot using 24bit in preference to 16bit because it provides far more headroom. In other words, you shouldn't be afraid of recording a relatively low level signal when recording in 24bit. For example, averaging around -20dB and peaking at -12dB is perfect, even 5 or 10dB lower than that is also absolutely fine and gives you a a fair bit of room above your peak levels to avoid clipping anything unexpected.

G

onemanband · Oct 28, 2014

AudioPostExpert said:
... both methods will introduce some discrepancy in sync between between audio and video.
G

Supposedly, the Ninja Blade allows you to compensate on the fly for delays in audio signals (once you know what that out of sync delay is - -so your test suggestion is well taken)

hopefully that will work in this case.

As to the 24 Bit files, thank you for clarifying that point, I'm admittedly well out of my element on the sound side and only wish to deliver clean audio for post on shoot days when I can't have a professional sound mixer running that end of things (only plan to be a one man band for simple talking head interviews).

Thank you AudioPostExpert, I really appreciate your reply!