using the external microphone jack

I would like to do some filming with my Kx using an external source for the sound, it's not a microphone but a "line in" (like an ipod I want to plug in to get the music directly on the video).

i know there is a difference in terms of signal and i dont want to try it if it might dammage the camera.

has anyone used the external mic jack source? and if so how? do you actually use it with a microphone?

i know i can always get the music in my video afterwards but since i'm recording musicians it's virtually impossible to sync with movie maker. (and unless someone knows a free video editing software, I'd rather stick with windows movie maker)

thanks!

Unless I am missing something, you cannot use an external source for the sound with the K-x. There is no microphone input nor any line in for sound. I think you can only use the mono microphone that is built into the camera.

Regards
David

I didn't think the Kx had any sort of mic input whatsoever!

You'd be better off recording the sound remotely and lining up the audio track in editing. I don't think WMM has any neat way of automatically lining up the audio and video tracks, but it's certainly possible to get it close enough - select the audio track and use the arrow keys to nudge it one way or the other!

Recording the sound remotely will also allow you to take the audio track all in one go, and will free you up to shoot some cutaways to add interest and also cover over any cock-ups in the filming

Tbh I think using WMM, while possible, will drive you nuts and I would advise you to obtain a more full featured program by any means possible

You should be able to get some sort of lipsync with WMM. Firstly, add your video, then next to the "add video/photos" tab, click "add music" (you should already have saved this in your music folder as WMA/MP3, or WAV format). Provided you have sync'ed the video start time with the audio start time, it should sync okay. Consider that the video and audio times are pretty much the same, you can quite happily merge both without any noticable change to the audio pitch. Failing that, download yourself a copy of Sony's video editing suite. Any decent torrent site should have a clean copy of it available to download. I personally use www.kat.ph

use a loud clap when you start recording and when you finish..
in your nle:
import your video and audio sources, line the audio wave forms up to the audio spikes, and turn down or delete the cameras audio...
final cut pro does have an auto synch feature which is nice, but the old way works fine...

thanks for the tips.
WMM doesn't allow to move by 0.01sec the music (or video either way), which is amazingly annoying (trust me i spent 1h trying to get it right using the stupid arrow, + it starts from the beginning otherwise it doesnt really work - just the wrong program).

i am filming drums by the way so that 0.01s does have an impact!

i cant start the audio and filming at the same time as using a computer to record + DSLR + videocamera.

I think I just need to find a decent freeware - it's not so much about the visual effects or transition but really about being able to move the files on the time zone easily (i've done loads of music recording where i separately record up to 10 tracks, and it's always been super easy to sync them!)
Will check out your link although it didnt sound like it was legal..?

For audio sync issues (and other stuff too) I find Reaper superb
http://www.reaper.fm

It can handle video too - just drop the video & audio files onto it.
You can:
* Click on the Magnet symbol to disable snap to grid
* Hold the ALT key down while dragging the very end of a clip to re-time it (stretch without pitch change)
* Zoom in with the scroll wheels
* Nudge and sync to your heart's content

If you're going to use it for serious audio production then you definitely have to read the PDF guides. Also very nice that it's Mac / Windows too!

Matt