Severe sound problem when running mixer output into DVX

E

elsmacko

Member
Hi all. I have an audio mixing board --> to DVX problem that I can't find a topic about through searching (it may be there, but I haven't found it). Keep in mind that I'm probably leveled at an early intermediate.

The last two times I have attempted to run sound from a mixing board into the DVX I have run into the same problem. The first time it was from the large soundboard in my university's auditorium. The second time it was from our own mixing board (a large Behringer of some variety).

Both times - The DVX's audio channel 1 has been set to the on-camera mic. The audio channel 2 has been a cable from the either the left or right MAIN XLR OUT on the mixer to the 2nd XLR in on the DVX.

Both times the results have been similar, but I'll use the specifics from the last time, as I had direct control over the mixing board. The mix coming from the mixing board sounded relatively fine (IE sounded fine but without much experience at it) through the mixer's headphone jack.

The switch on the front of the DVX was then set from "mic" to "line".

The levels for the 2nd channel (the mixer) on the DVX then became extremly and stragely sensitive. Starting the level at the bottom and working up, the visual level bar would show nothing and then, with a slight Slight turn, be hitting at the beginning of the red with effectively Zero in-between. No visual levels at all, then a microturn and levels at the beginning of the red.

Then, after setting it to the point at which the levels were reaching that comfortable -looking- point, monitoring the sound through headphones via the DVX produced nearly inaudible sound levels through the right (the mixer) channel. It really could barely be heard at all if it Could be heard at all.

As we had no other choice, we recorded in that state.

After capturing the footage, the sound through the mixer channel is a Little louder, but still very quiet, and very hollow sounding, with Mostly only the loudest sounds (the drums) being picked up at all through that channel. It sounded much softer And worse than the on-camera mic through channel 1, and Much worse than the audio I was mixing through the board, that I believe Should have been coming properly into the DVX.

This result was very similar to our experience when working with the audio board at the auditorium.

Where is the problem being caused? my two (fairly inexperienced guesses) would have been that it was a line/mic issue (the dvx WAS set to line on the front), or some impedence issue, but I have no idea. My film professor has little idea either beyond these two possibilities.

We have another shoot for our local-music show this weekend, and we need to resolve this situation before then. Any help is Greatly appreciated! Thanks.
 
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are you certain what output level your mixer is giving? your mixer may be giving a mic level output - in which case, did you try recording with dvx set to "mic" input?

thats all i can think of right now, but ill come back..
 
This is something that I'm not 100% sure on. I -believe- that when set to Mic from line, the levels would jump higher visually and through the headphones, but when re-lowered to not be overmodulated Way into the red, the same very touchy audio-level response was the same, as was the sound of the output through the headphones.

I'm really Not sure of this however. I believe this was the result I had both instances of this problem, but I could be mistaken. If someone else who knows better tells me having it on line was in fact the problem, I couldn't say they were mistaken with my situation.
 
My immediate thought was the same as Tim's - that what you were sending and what the camera was set for were not the same (mic vs. line).

Also, not sure why you would set either channel to use the internal mic. Not to be harsh, but you wasted a channel. This is why the general recommendation is to set both inputs to 2, the adjust the audio 20-25 percent lower on one channel vs. the other. (I know this doesn't help you now, but for the future...)

Phil
 
The dual-channel setup you described is how I normally shoot short films and such, since actors often hit different levels at different points.

In this case, we weren't shooting a band's performance but a band's Rehersal. We had micsed the amps, but what we were equally after was the talking amongst band members between songs, and we didn't have a good way at the time of micing for this general chatter other than leaving the on-camera mic running for that level.

Also, I knew at the shoot time that I couldn't trust the result with the right channel, so I figured that one channel of potentially useless mixer-output and one channel of oncamera-mic was Much better than two channels of potentially useless mixer-output.
 
thats good thinking, i would have done the same in your position. have you checked out what level output the mixer was sending and whether you had this correctly set on the camera?
 
I'm not sure yet. My copy of the instruction manual is about 40 miles away at the moment; if I can find a copy of the manual online then I'll be able to answer this question later today. I really Thought when I read the manual the first time through that the main left and right XLR out were line level rather than mic level.

But again, I'll try to confirm it.
 
Looking through the manual for the mixer hasn't yielded the answer, as it doesn't specifically say either way. It's a UB2222FX-PRO EURORACK from Behringer.

However, the faq on Behinger's webpage says this when asked about connecting one of the mixing boards to your computer's sound card:

----- "We recommend using the main outputs of the mixer to send signal to the inputs of the computer or soundcard. You will need to investigate which type of audio connector your soundcard uses, and you will probably need to obtain some adapter cables. You should be using the "line" level inputs on the soundcard. Be careful not to use the soundcard's microphone input, you might get some signal but it will not sound very good !" -----

This would seem to informally confirm that these are indeed line outs rather than mic outs.
 
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