Am I doing this right? Mixpre D

[Boon]

It's my first time using a field mixer. Many questions

This what I did.

- Connect AT 875 mic out to MixPre D Mic in with 12V phantom power .
- Connect Mixpre D 1/8 line out to H4N 1/8 external mic input.
- Am I right that the 1/8 connector on the back of H4N is a line input?
- Send Mixer 1k tone to H4N (line up to -20db)
- To reach a -20db level on the H4n, I have to set the mic level on the H4N to 0.7
- The Input Gain Control on the mixer is at level 1 (the lowest level)
- Start speaking into the AT875 from about 20 inch away.
- The recording on the H4N was a bit low so I raised it's level to 12
- The level on the H4N now hover between -24db to -12db.
- Make a recording and brought the file into FCP and it sounded good with no noise or distortion.

Questions
Am I doing the right thing from calibrating the 1k tone to H4N
Is the level setting on the mixer and H4N supposed to be so low? Although I could get a clean recording from it.

I was curious about the sensitivity of the Mixer Input Gain Control, so I did a little test.
The room is very quiet.
- Connect the AT 875 to MixPre D Mic in with 12V phantom power.
- Set mixer Input Gain Control to the first notch. (level 1)
- I listen to the room tone through the headphone (Sony MDR-7506), the sound was quiet.
- I turn up the Input Gain Control to the second notch, I begin to hear very faint noise.
- I then turn it up to the third notch, the noise is now rather obvious.

Questions
Is this normal? Not able to ride pass the 2nd notch (level 2) on the mixer Input Gain Control before hearing noise.
Will a different mic respond differently? I only have the AT 875 at the moment. A NTG-3 is on the way.
What level should we set our headphone to on the mixer? Is there a standard? I supposed if we crank it up to high, we might introduce noise
in the monitoring path but not necessary in the actual recording.

Thanks much!

 

[Sam Mallery]

- Connect Mixpre D 1/8 line out to H4N 1/8 external mic input.

You'd be better off using the mini XLR mic-level output, and you need the XL3 cable to do this:


http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/293005-REG/Sound_Devices_XL_3_XL3_Mini_Male_to.html

This cable is a pretty crucial accessory for Mixpre-D users.

- Am I right that the 1/8 connector on the back of H4N is a line input?

No. It's mic-level, that's why you can't turn up past 1. You've got the right idea with using tone to calibrate your mixer and recorder, you just need to sort out the line-level mic-level issue. The H4n doesn't have any line-level inputs. You need to send it a mic-level signal with an XL3 cable, or get a pair of XLR barrel adapters that attenuate the line-level XLR outputs from the Mixpre-D down to mic-level, like a pair of these:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/275822-REG/PSC_FPSC0010D_ALMP_Line_to_Mic.html

 

[Boon]

Hey Sam,

thanks for the advise, really appreciate.
I do have the cable XL3 to 1/8 cable, I actually used it to feed my GH2 input. I'm trying to get decent sound to the DSLR at the same time.
I did consider using the Mixpre XLR mic out to H4N mic XLR in, but was worry about the noisy pre amp in H4N. Guess I've no choice now.

Anyway, I'm really not sure about how loud I should set my headphone volume relative to the mixer Input Gain Control level.
If I set the monitoring too low, I might not be listening to the 'real' thing, but if I set it too high, I might be hearing noise from the headphone rather than from the source.
This is sound stuff is tough, but I'm enjoying the learning process.

 

[Steve House]

Hey Sam,

thanks for the advise, really appreciate.
I do have the cable XL3 to 1/8 cable, I actually used it to feed my GH2 input. I'm trying to get decent sound to the DSLR at the same time.
I did consider using the Mixpre XLR mic out to H4N mic XLR in, but was worry about the noisy pre amp in H4N. Guess I've no choice now.

Anyway, I'm really not sure about how loud I should set my headphone volume relative to the mixer Input Gain Control level.
If I set the monitoring too low, I might not be listening to the 'real' thing, but if I set it too high, I might be hearing noise from the headphone rather than from the source.
This is sound stuff is tough, but I'm enjoying the learning process.

You can't set levels based on what you hear in the phones (other than being alert for overload) so there is no "correct" setting for the headphone level. other than whatever level is comfortable for you and lets you hear properly what is going on. You're listening for things like that airplane going over during the love scene interfereing with the take, not preamp hiss etc. Such things as noise from the source verus noise from the phones circuits should have been resolved long before you ever left for the location.

Suggest you try drivinge mic with 48v phantom rather than 12v. Depending on the mic, you might find it has better performance with the full 48. Try it both ways and see if you hear a dfifference.

The H4n does have a wierd "instrument level" line input on the 1/4" jacks in the centre of the XLR mic inputs, designed for guiter pickups, keyboards, etc. They're need a hotter signal than a typical mic level but not as hot as a proper studio line level. It would be worth a try to connect the MixPre's Tape Out -10dB consumer line level output to them and see what kind of recording levels you get, the -10dBv signal is still a little hot but it might work out.

 

[wjauch]

I have used Mixpre (not Mixpre-D) with Zoom H4n as follows. Mixpre only has line level out, set your Mixpre-D to line level out. The ZoomH4n does accept line level in, albeit a bit non standard, it is the 1/4" input in the center of each XLR input (this method bypasses the subpar H4n preamp AFAIK). To make the connection you need a pad/attenuator, I've used the Hosa ATT448, set at -20dB, followed by an XLR to TRS cable, or you could use an adapter such as http://www.jr.com/gxp143-adapter/pe/HOS_GXP143/ Hosa GPX143. I then set the H4n input so that the Mixpre 1KHz test tone reads -12dB on the H4n. Adjust your Mixpre depending on your input signal. Hope this helps.