PDR100 + ambiant audio + radio

[mproy]

Hello everyone.

This week's challenge, fix what I messed up.

My pdr worked flawlessly recording ambiant audio (straight from the factory).

We decided on hooking up two-way radio so we could analyze it. I hooked it up in the AUDIO jack. It recorded fine, but we lost ambiant sound. Tried the Mic jack, it didn't work.

Went back to AUDIO jack and tried messing with the audio settings. It worked. We have both ambiant and two-radio mixed into the recording. But the ambiant (at full speed) is TOOOOOOO LOUD. Which of the menu options should I mess with?

Before we could here driver communications over the ambiant recording under caution periods. That's what I'd like to regain.

I think... it was set to custom. But I got confused and the unit is not with me.

please advise.

M.P.

[RandallNoll]

When you go to the custom audio level, you can adjust the R/L channels separately--the two lines make up the one thick line at the bottom. Lowering the ambient gain should fix your problem.

Thanks.

[mproy]

It did! Thanks.

M.P.

[mproy]

Has anyone found a good software to strip one of the audio channels?

Let me explain, I setup so ambiant sound and audio-in is setup. I want to relase some of the footage but do not want to share audio-in audio.

Has anyone got a program that does this?

M.P.

[RandallNoll]

I use Sony Vegas for some advanced editing here, and I believe it allows you to control both audio channels independently and then re-render the video with one channel turned off. They offer a 30-day demo.

[mproy]

Thanks for the feedback.

I ended up using - with good results so far - a combination of 3 tools:

- First I extract the audio from the mpg file using AoA Audio Extractor (free). It creates an audio file (mp3).

- Second I load the newly created audio file in Audacity (free) to split the audio channels (right / left) into two audio clips. In my case I only want to reuse one so I end up deleting the other from the project file and generate an mp3 file.

- Back in Microsoft Movie Maker I load my original mpg (audio + video generated by pdr/ss1000), turn down (off) all audio, insert an audio track my second mp3 file.

Obviously this works on the "complete" clip. If you need to trim, its important to sync.

This is the poor man's solution, its free and it works... with limitation and a bit of elbo grease.

M.P.