Audio Set-up: ATOMOS Shogun 4K & Sony Alpha a7s

I decided to test the Sony a7s and Shogun 4K recorder's audio capabilities for an upcoming project. Wouldn't it be great if I could use two wireless microphones plus camera audio through HDMI? It should be possible with the a7s and the shogun 4K recorder.

Sony a7s with ATOMOS Shogun and 2x wireless Lectrosonic mics

The Sony a7s works flawlessly with the Shogun 4K recorder/monitor for video; let's see what we can do with audio. I hooked up two Lectrosonics wireless microphones with the Lemo/XLR cable to the Shogun recorder turned everything on and made sure that the microphones were working.

Nothing on the Shogun. No levels, no audio. Nada!

You won't get anything from the wireless mics until you enter the menu in the Shogun and adjust various audio settings.

ATOMOS Shogun audio settings

Above is the Audio menu on the Shogun. I have selected to record only the first two channels (a7s Camera) and the last two (Lemo/XLR) You cannot adjust the camera audio from here, it's coming into the Shogun from the HDMI. The only way to adjust the camera audio is through the camera menu or by adjusting the microphone that is connected to the a7s.

Audio Options

Here are my settings for the Lectrosonic wireless microphones. ATOMOS refers to these two inputs as Analog inputs. (You can click on the picture above to see it more clearly) Analog Gain on both L & R: 20.0 dB. Audio In: Mic Level (-40 dBu). I have also set the Audio Delay to 2 frames.

To get adequate audio through the camera's HDMI I will be using an Aputure V-Mic D2 microphone. It's an on camera shotgun that has an adjustable 40db sensitivity range, according to the manufacturer. (We'll see how it performs as soon as I get mine)

For the moment I have the reference audio from the built-in camera mic and the two wireless microphones. After shooting some test footage I loaded everything into my NLE software and I was happily impressed at the great audio quality.