Sound tracks Panasonic DVC30E and Pinnacle Studio 8

Hi, I've got a Panasonic DVC30E camera which i can record different "feeds" onto the different soundtracks i.e. a line feed in a theatre on one and on camera external microphone on other.

What i was wondering is ... is there a way to split these tracks in pinnacle studio 8 OR to control which track is output from the camera using a firewire connection??

Any help appreciated. Thanks

 

I've not had the chance to use the DVC30 yet so am not overly intimate with the recording set up on it.

I'm guessing from experience of other cameras that if you set the camera up to 12-bit rather than 16-bit sound you will have two audio layers (audio 1 and audio 2, both stereo), on playback you should be able to ballance between the two tracks on the camera (either all A1, which could be one source, or all A2 which would be all the other source, or a ballance between the two with the primary source channel -probably the mixing desk line in, stronger than the mic -for room ambience?- channel).

The other option would be to do two captures, one at A1 one at A2, export the audio from one version as a WAV or MP3 (this may be supported only on Pinnacle Studio Plus, not the basic SE version) then re-import it as required.

Another option would be to capture the secondary source through another application using the analogue phono connectors (the trial version of GoldWave audio software would work for this) then just import this recording as you would any other audio track.

If it is the basic version of Pinnacle (usually called SE) you might have synch problems and would have to cut audio and camcorder source audio tracks seperately. As the edit you have in mind sounds quite technical I would perhaps invest in a better quality editing package such as Adobe Premiere (expensive, but Jessops do the older version, 6, for £99.90 bundled with a pinnacle upgrade pack called DV200) This will run out the box with any PC running Win98-2000, the Adobe package will run on Windows XP with a free download from Adobes website (v6.02), the other Pinnacle software & hardware in the package wont run on xp, but £99 is a good buy for the adobe software alone. This will give you loads more control.

Pro formats have seperate tracks called A1 & A2 which are recorded on physically seperate areas of tape, the miniDV standard uses one track with on cam mixing between the two, which is workable but not ideal as you have discovered.