The Canon 7D's Audio Sucks

However, the audio sucks. No headphone monitoring, no meters, no xlr input, no phantom power, and the worst part: AUTO-GAIN! For newbs, this means that you have very soft sounds in the back ground or pauses between dialogue, the camera software automatically raises your volume for you.

We are completely in love with the DSLR video movement. The Canon 7D brought to the table an easy to use format that produced breath taking footage.

However, the audio sucks. No headphone monitoring, no meters, no xlr input, no phantom power, and the worst part: AUTO-GAIN!  For newbs, this means that you have very soft sounds in the back ground or pauses between dialogue, the camera software automatically raises your volume for you.  So, it pretty much makes your audio unusable since every pause in dialogue ends with a deafening static-room-tone. Most people record their sound separately like the old school film days, but who wants to take a step back in progress? I want sync sound!

The solution: The JL-DT454 by JuicedLink. It not only has a smart system to overwrite the gain control (basically tricks it!) but it has much much more! Two XLR inputs for real microphones, phantom power to power an external mic, analogue gain dials, and a headphone jack! This things rocks.

What you have to sacrifice is stereo sound. For now, I'm not disappointed because I hardly ever record two channel audio on set. I will admit, the interface is crazy cumbersome. There's a dozen little switches that are labels so only an engineer knows what they mean. Just download the instruction manual and never touch them again!

Another great feature is Robert Rozak. He's the JuicedLink creator. He got back to me with my stupid, user-error related questions and got me sorted out.

All in all I highly recommend.

Read the manual!