Schoeps CMBI and Lumix GH5

Friday, February 3rd, 2023

I usually record audio for my “Look At Me Play Guitar” videos on a PC and audio interface or a standalone recorder, but I understand that the audio system in the latest Lumix GH cameras has upped the quality of camera audio, especially with external mics. And I happen to have a pair of Schoeps mics designed to connect to devices like cameras, the CMBI mic bodies. Naturally I had to hook them up and see what happens.

The CMBI bodies are out of production now but they are still out there in the used market. These little mic bodies are battery powered and use a DIN 5 pin connector instead of XLR output. This configuration was optimal for DAT recorders and other portable recorders that were common in the 1970s. Schoeps created a flexible cable system that allowed mono or stereo setups, but these cables are also no longer in production. Fortunately there are cable specialists who can create functional cable sets. I had Vark Audio create cables for mono and stereo attachment and also a pair of DIN to XLR cables so I could connect to my current recorder.

Here’s the video tutorial showing the setup I used to create a video with the CMBI mics into my Lumix GH5:

and here’s the resulting “Look At Me Play Guitar” video:

It was fun rigging this setup and shooting a video with this equipment, but the capabilities of the newest portable recorders has convinced me to keep using separate audio for my videos. I’m still keeping my mind and eye open for upgrades to camera audio, it’s sure nice to be able to skip the process of syncing audio and video in post.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 3rd, 2023 at 2:32 pm and is filed under Audio, Recording, Tutorials, Video. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.


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About the Blog

    Howdy, my name is Fran Guidry and this is my Homebrewed Music blog.

    I play Hawaiian slack key guitar and recorded my solo acoustic CD at home. Most of the recording information I find on the internet seems focused on bands, drums, multitracking, and so on but my main focus is recording solo acoustic guitar. Lately I’ve been enjoying video recording along with audio, so that shows up in the blog as well.

    I’m also a guitar nut. I love big ones and little ones, handmades and factory guitars, cheap ones and expensive ones. So I’ll be sharing the fun of exploring guitars as well, along with the challenges of amplifying acoustic guitars for live performance.

    Welcome!

Philosophy

    My recording philosophy is pragmatic, skeptical, not super critical. After all, the performance is by far the most important component of a track, and every aspect of any recording is a matter of taste.

    But I do like to know “about stuff.” Back in hifi days I learned about double blind testing. I learned that we humans can easily hear differences that don’t really exist. The more I’ve learned about our human auditory system, the more I’m skeptical of what people say they hear, especially if they claim that a particular microphone or preamp or cable has some magical property.

    I’ve only been recording since 2001, and when I started I found the usual places on the internet. I sought advice and accepted it, thought I would improve my recordings by using more expensive equipment. It didn’t work.

    Two things that did seem to lead to better recordings were experience and room treatment. Getting an appealing sound is the combination of many small details, and learning those details only comes from experience. Amd the sound of the recording space is obviously a big factor.

    I’ve only recorded seriously using digital technology, but I remember trying to record rehearsals and gigs back in analog days. I don’t have any nostalgia for analog recording and playback systems at all. I think even low end digital systems can capture marvelous recordings. So when I look at gear, I look for good specs: low noise, broad flat frequency response, wide dynamic range, low distortion. I’m not interested in colorful components, mics and preamps with a sound, I want the sound to be the sound of my guitar.

    But the last word is that I’m just learning and I hope you find something useful in my posts.