I want DSLR video to die.  It’s beautiful, it’s affordable, it’s portable, it’s customizable…  As much as I love the look, I cannot wait for the new breed of large-sensor, interchangeable-lens, internal-ND-filtered, XLR-audio, fully featured cameras to take over productions.

I shoot as well as do sound on a ton of documentary-style projects, and I am pushing hard for more use of cameras like the Panasonic AF100 and even the Sony F3, for the sake of the shooter, the sound recordist, the editor, and often the authenticity of a potentially poignant moment.

In the mean time, occasionally I’m forced to step off the soapbox and deal with the archaic workflow of filter-swapping, slating each shot, and recording separate audio with timecode to sync in post.

Until the past several weeks, I thought I was going to get through this DSLR thing without having to cave in and buy a bunch of new sound gear – particularly a timecode-capable recorder and slate.  But then I got the call.  Double-system sound for a DSLR shoot.  Shoot.

Before dropping $3K on an addition to my bag, I needed to assess my gear situation.  I have a great kit, based around a Sound Devices 442 mixer, and I usually send sound out of the mixer to the camera via my Zaxcom stereo wireless (TRX900 and STA100).  This thing has a backup recorder in it, so would it be possible to make it my primary recorder?  It has timecode, but because of its limited usability, I had never considered it more than an answer to a dreaded transmission dropout.

I started researching but found very little info from anyone who had used the stereo link the way I wanted to.  But then I discovered the firmware updates.  Wow – I had never updated it.  Suddenly, I had a fully functional timecode based recorder – now the up / down buttons were start / stop buttons, and I could jam timecode and send to a slate – with a few workarounds.

So, here’s my workflow…  Sound goes out of the mixer, as usual, to the Zaxcom stereo transmitter, which is set to the lowest power to save battery life.  But, the receiver stays home.  I mounted the transmitter to the side of my bag with a GorillaPod, so it faces up toward me, and I have access to the buttons.  One issue is that there’s no internal battery for timecode, so the Zaxcom is plugged into to the unswitched (always on) outlet of the Remote Audio BDS box.

At the beginning of the day, I jam the Zaxcom with time-of-day timecode from the Movie Slate app on my iphone, via a standard stereo mini-to-mini cable.  I leave the Zaxcom’s power on all day, so I keep timecode, and I frequently send the timecode to a rented Denecke slate, over a Remote Audio mini to quarter-inch cable.  As an alternative, I ordered a specially made cable (padded mini-to-mini) from Trew Audio, that allows me to use the Movie Slate app as the primary slate.  That’s pretty amazing because it’s a tiny fraction of the price of a real slate, and it provides a full report of all takes, if you’re diligent enough to label shots as you go.

The camera captures the slate at the beginning of each take (or if something happens quickly, we tail-slate).  I also run tape-out to a little Zoom H2, just as an emergency back-up.  At the end of the day, all of my audio is right there in the Zaxcom, on a tiny micro-SD card, and I run it through Zaxconvert software to output WAV files with whatever specs I want, as well as a full report of the duration and timecode of each clip.

I realize this is a pretty specific post, but I’d imagine there are a few sound guys out there who are in the same boat, and I hope this helps!  Soon enough, double system sound on documentary shoots will be a thing of the past – AGAIN.