5Dm3 and mixpre-D setup

krick

krick

Well-known member
Hi,

I just got a mixpre-D and I love this little thing.

I own a C100 and a AC160 which is mainly why I bought the mixpre, for better control and limiters...

But I was playing with my 5Dm3 to record directly in camera. I don't think this is something I will use in projects anyway but i wanted to test it out. My question is, when I set this up using the 1000Khz calibrating tone and send the signal via the ST UN MIC out using SD padded cable I still need to have a little bit of gain from the 5D to get proper level ( at about 1/4 of the meter) to meet -12db. But I thought the point was to bring the 5D gain all the way down to its minimum ( just 1 up from 0) and use the clean mixpre preamps... Am I missing something here?

Thank you
 
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I think I may have my answer. It seems like I am setting the 0db 1000Khz at -12db on the 5d but from some post I read, it may be that I have to set that tone at -20db on the mark3

This is from Sound devices manual:

"Turn on the 302’s tone oscillator. Adjust the input sensitivity on the destination device so that the 302 output is at an average level with sufficient headroom to accommodate signal peaks.
For many digital cameras and recorders, this is often a range between –20 and –12 dBFS as
read on the recorder or camera’s peak meter. With analog devices, it is typical to set input
sensitivities so that tone is near 0 VU."

How do you guys setup yours?

Thank you
 
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You might need to use a different pad cable (or can you increase output from MixPre-D?). I tested the USBPre-2 into the 5D3 and it worked great (just one click above 0 for 5D3 mic gain). I didn't use a pad cable, just set the output to Mic level and adjusted the output on the USBPre2 (to hit -12dB on 5D3 levels).
 
krick said:
My question is, when I set this up using the 1000Khz calibrating tone and send the signal via the ST UN MIC out using SD padded cable I still need to have a little bit of gain from the 5D to get proper level ( at about 1/4 of the meter) to meet -12db. But I thought the point was to bring the 5D gain all the way down to its minimum ( just 1 up from 0) and use the clean mixpre preamps... Am I missing something here?
Click to expand...

Probably. Your camera is showing you digital levels (measured in DBfs), and the MixPre-D is showing you analog levels (measured in DBu). They aren't the same thing, and they aren't used the same way.

A typical way to set up is to use the 1KHz tone to set your camera gain to show -20DBfs. Set the MixPre-D's limiters to +18DBu or even +20DBu. Now you can quit looking at the audio meters on the camera and only pay attention to the meters on the MixPre-D. And for that, you set your audio to peak around +10 DBu on the MixPre-D (just into the red). This will result in levels at the camera peaking around -10 DBfs, which is what you want, and with the limiters at +18DBu, you can't clip. Not intuitive, I know. But that's how a VU meter works.

But that's just a typical way to set up. There are other ways; not much is set in stone. Another way might be to set the camera audio where you think you want it ("just 1 up from 0" as you put it), then turn up the gain on the MixPre-D until you are recording on camera peaks at around -12DBfs or -10DBfs. As long as you don't exceed +20DBu on the MixPre-D, you shouldn't be clipping at the mixer. But if you do it this way, you have to watch both sets of meters, which will immediately become painful. As least it did for me when I tried it.
 
Thanks Bruce and jcs,

this is very helpful. I am going to try both and see how much difference in quality ( keeping in mind that recording in the 5d is definitly not the way to go...). But this could be a fun test to see if it's even usable.

ced
 
I use the mixpre-d, and the 5D occassionally, and I agree with JCS and Bruce. I find that it's worth it to record directly to the 5D with the mixpre. I don't use a padded cable, aren't you using the blue one that came with the Mixpre-d?
Edit: right, it is padding, and yes, I'm doing what Bruce suggests. Sorry. Hadn't used it in a couple of weeks.
 
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Thanks 8string. Yes i am using the sound devices blue cable, it's a pad cable that drop the level of the signal to adapt it to the 5d.

i am going to make some test to check how it sounds directly in the 5D
 
A typical way to set up is to use the 1KHz tone to set your camera gain to show -20DBfs. Set the MixPre-D's limiters to +18DBu or even +20DBu. Now you can quit looking at the audio meters on the camera and only pay attention to the meters on the MixPre-D. And for that, you set your audio to peak around +10 DBu on the MixPre-D (just into the red). This will result in levels at the camera peaking around -10 DBfs, which is what you want, and with the limiters at +18DBu, you can't clip. Not intuitive, I know. But that's how a VU meter works.
Click to expand...
I have a Mix Pre (non D) and 60D no pad, and after a lot of trial and error I concur with Bruce's advice here. It was a happy day when I finally figured it out and bumped up the limiters to +18
 
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