Attenuator strength for camera mic-in

[cybrmarc]

Hi,
I'm experimenting with getting better audio and I'm working on hooking up an Olympus DS50 portable audio recorder to the Sony HDR-SR11 mic-in. I tried a normal auxilary audio cable, to no avail. Just a bunch of loud static with the faint sound of my voice in the background.
Apparently, I'm supposed to use an 'attenuator' cable, like this one:
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/cont...G&Q=&A=details

The cable drops the line input from the mic to a level the camera can withstand.

I would just order one right away, except I don't know which strength to get. They have -25db, -35db, and -50db models.

Plus, I just read that the cable "preserves the delicate connector terminals inside the camera". Oh crap, did I possibly jack up my mic-jack by using a normal cable first?

Any input?

And by the way I work for a nonprofit on a shoestring budget (which is fine, because our philosophy is to use ingenuity over fancy technology) so I'd rather stick with this simple solution or something like it over lots of lapel mics, audio boxes, shotgun mics etc. (I chose the P.A.R. because I need something omnidirectional, and we already have one).

Thanks,
Adjul

 

[jaedaliu]

Does your video editing software allow putting in a separate audio track?

I don't know anything about specialized audio cables or if you may have damaged the mic in (I doubt you did) but the easiest way may be to record audio separately from the video, and put them together when editing your videos. I'm assuming the audio track saved on the Oly DS50 is the highest quality you can extract from the system.

 

[cybrmarc]

Yeah, I've been working that way - synching the Olympus audio with the camera audio in post. Problem is, the timing isn't synchronous on both devices, so I'm constantly having to cut the video, resynch, etc. It's not smooth, at all. This, if it works, should be a huge improvement, and cut my work in half, without shelling out hundreds to thousands for timestamping audio boxes, multiple mics, etc.