Audio noise floor on the HVX - unity settings?

S

ShuppDog

New member
Currently our setup is this: lav on channel 1, boom mic on channel 2, being fed to a mixer, then each channel into their respective input on the HVX (at line level of course). ALC is off. The dials on the back of the camera are right at 10 o'clock when being fed -20 tone (the level on the display is at the first tick mark, which the manual says is -20). We think this is unity gain. Can someone (like Barry) confirm that this is correct? We're experiencing a reasonably high noise floor.

The other thing is when monitoring from the headphone jack back to our audio guy, the level seems quite low, so we don't really know whet we're getting.

Has anyone else tested this? Our guess is that the A-D converters and pre-amps onboard the camera are not great.
 
It sounds like 2 things are happening. 1 the headphone volume is not turned up, the volume is not in an intuitive spot, it's the +- below the menu buttons.. 2 the mic input gains are not turned up at the mixer. Try bypassing the mixer and see if you run into the same problems. You know all the right words once you know what they mean you'll be a star.
 
Thanks for the reply. Actually, the headphone volume is turned up, although you wouldn't think it was by the low level it's outputting. Mic levels are correct on the mixer, so that's not the issue. And we did bypass the mixer, going direct into the camera at mic level, same result.
 
I'm in the middle of an industrial training film, and I'm doing the sound. Shotgun mic on Ch1, wireless lav on Ch2. My headphones are just fine, in fact I have to turn the headphone level on the HVX down so I don't blow my ears out.
 
1)When you set the tone level from the mixer on the HVX at -20, what are the meters set at on the mixer?
2) Does the mixer have a digital meter or analog?
3) What sort of level range do you have the dialogue in (lows to peaks)?
4) I find when listening to the HP output it does sound a bit noisy but that could be that you usually have to crank the HP volume all the way up as it's not a very powerful amp. In post the signal to noise ratio is actually pretty good but I keep the dialogue hovering around the -12 mark on the HVX.
 
Is it noisy because you are also monitoring the onborad mics which are channels 3 and 4 and from what I understand cannot be turned off
 
mico said:
Is it noisy because you are also monitoring the onborad mics which are channels 3 and 4 and from what I understand cannot be turned off
Click to expand...

Actually I just did a test and when you use the XLR inputs, that is all that the Headphone output is monitoring, so it's NOT monitoring the onboard mics as well.
 
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so, bumping the mic gain on the mixer did help out somewhat. but it seems there's still a fairly significant amount of noise coming out of the headphone jack. maybe it is what it is?
 
Is the noise floor the same with both mics? I just plugged in my MDR-V700 headphones (too efficient) and cranked the volume on the headphones and the mic gain........I'll admit it's pretty hissy. However, @ 2 feet my 416 would clip on a whisper, I'd need to be 20 feet away to even think of using it at those levels. You never mentioned what equipment you're using. Cheap mixers are cheap for a reason as are microphones. It seems the general concensus is that HVX audio is OK many would say above par. It seems as if the problem is limited to your configuration or unit. Good Luck, and if you figure it out let us know because now I'm curious.
 
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