Hey guys;

I know a lot of you tape your sessions. Further, I know some of you are using a bullet camera (Jack). Do any of you have camcorders that allow you to have a sound feed with these remote vid setups?

I have recently learned that my camera cuts off the audio when set up using the Video-In function. I have not been able to get around it. GREAT video is pretty lame with no sound. I am REALLY dissappointed!!!

 

John,
Most cameras that have a video in facility also have a mic socket. Might be worth checking for one. If it has a mic socket, you are in business. Avoid the tiny lapel style microphones - they can;t handle the sound pressure in a track car. Go for the $10 band-style mics from Radio Shack or similar. THey are nearly unbreakable, and produce great sound. Use two, with a splitter cable. Zip tied to your cage up around the sunvisor area - one each side - is a good start. You can experiment from there.

 

Does your camera have an input port that's like a modified 1/8-inch plug? This includes an audio in, probably. Mine came with an adapter cable that goes from the modified 1/8-inch plug to three male RCA plugs. Two of them are for audio. Like Tony says, you run a cheap microphone into that. The advantage of this is that you can move it around the cabin to find a place with good engine noise, and less wind noise, and basically leave it there no matter where you put your bullet camera.

It's also a good idea to pick up a wind sock fliter thingy at Radio Shack. it's a foam hood for the mic which will dramatically reduce wind noise.

 

Hi,

my Sony handycam has RCA inputs and you need a POWERED microphone, a passive one won't work.

I got 2 powered mics from chasecam.com so I can record 2 different sounds or stereo. They also sell good cheap bullet cams.

 

Hey Fellas;

I have a Samsung DVR that has every bell and whistle imagineable. I have vid in/out and remote mic capability. I use a Sony mic that I fasten on my license plate bracket. PERFECT clear exhaust note with NO wind noise at all. Great video in a normal belt bar setting.

My lipstick camera gives great video. However, the remote mic does not work in video in mode. I must assume the electronics cut this port off in video in mode. I did try using the vid in/out cable supplied using various adapters to go from the 1/8" of the mic to RCA for the camera cable. No luck. Basically I tried every combination to no avail.

Mike, I think you have hit on the answer... or at least I HOPE you have. I had considered that I might need a powered mic. I do not know what the requirement of the input is, but the power idea had occured to me.

Obviously, if you are using the camera to copy a VCR tape, it will take in an audio signal. Would I be correct in assuming that an audio signal coming from a VCR is amplified?

Thanks guys. Keep the ideas coming. Electronic smart... I aint!

 

Yes. If you can send audio and video to the camera from a VCR, then you can do the same with a lipstick camera and a powered microphone. My Canon camcorder has to be in VCR mode (as opposed to normal shooting mode) for this to work.

Some of the powered microphones use little batteries like you'd put in a wristwatch. If you can find a microphone that can be powered by the same 12V supply you use for the liptstick camera, it's better. I added regulated power supplies to my car that power the camera, mic, picture-in-picture box, and two external lipstick cameras. If you can't wire something like this, you're going to have a lot of batteries that could conceivably ruin a session's video.

 

Hey Jack;

So, it is a power thing. I had considered that. Thanks guys. I have a fused inverter in the car, so power is not a problem!

Now I wonder if I can buy a little head unit to power this mic I have?

 

Mike;

Is this the mic you got from Chasecam?



It looks like a DC power plug (left), an RCA sound chanel at right (white), and is that a DIN or Coax in the center (black)? 5000 more adapters and I'll have it made!

I'd still like to amplify my current mic somehow.

 

Bump

I went to the Radio Shack site this morning, but did not see any powered mics... at least I don't THINK I saw any.

 

Mine is something like that... it does have an adaptor for converting to the RCA inputs on the camera. I use two of them. Lots of wires... someday have to clean it up into a harness.

I bet you could use a preamp and your current mic... I can build you one but it will add fuzz and distortion so your car will sound like Jimi at Woodstock

 

So... I keep getting beat on for having only cheap mono sound, and like the idea of two mikes, one at each top front corner of the cage. But anyone got any methods for how you'd wire a car for good surround sound?

 

Hopefully, without need of the smack. Performance driving is its own drug, ya know?!

 

John - I use SP-PASM-2 stereo amplified mic with my Sony MiniDV deck and a bulletcam...have to use the 0db gain setting only and at $209 it's not cheap...

<http://www.soundprofessionals.com/cgi-bin/gold/category/165/mics>

 

The bullet camera uses the input that designed for VCR I/O. It will take a mic but it expects the signal to be at the same level as a VCR sound channel. The standard Radio Shack mic simply plugged into the audio connection with the bullet camera gives little to no sound due to the impedence/level mismatch. You can buy a pre-amp that takes 12 V power and run your mic into it (and from the preamp to the input that the bullet camera shares). I think the cheapest preamp I found that took 12 V power was $60 (and then a cheap mic was another $50-75.

 

The cheap solution is eight bucks. I kept meaning to go to a better solution after that, but haven't gotten around to it.

The cheap solution