attenuator / mic mounted to cam/ help

T

teupaksa

Active member
hello.
i am going to shoot a documentary using a sennheizer mkh416 mounted directly on my canon xha1.
i am trying to figure out how i can achieve the best possible sound-material from this setup. (i dont have a soundman, so i need it to be mounted on my cam)
i have experimented a bit with the attenuator and i have found out that leaving the attenuator on and set the audiolevel up when using manual will give less noise on the record. when using without the attenuator and hence setting the audiolevel down, there will be more noise to the record. ( due to camera operation...)
have anyone had the same experience? i feel like this is actually not the intended use for the attenuator? can someone clarify the reason of attenuator? (i had the impression that it is for very loud soundtakes, like concerts and stuff.)


any suggestions on how to achieve the best possible sound when using the mic on cam. i also realize that the mic will pic up a lot of cameranoise, especially when zooming.

thanks to anyone who would take time to respond...

teupaksa
 
the attunuation doesnt have anything with less camera noise , it is more possibele that you record levels are much lower so the camera noise less motchible , if it really less so what may happend it not only attunuate the signal but also filtering part of the spectrum what **** up the sound .
in regullar situations the 20 db pad you have is to much anyway so just dont use it , i guess the camera mic input would be good for most of the usiall dialog or ambient not if you record rock conserts .
use the pad only when you get distorted sound with almost zero amplification use headphones all the time even the headphone amp probably one of the weakest point in your camera , as i rember from xl1-and 2 they are **** would distort before you really distort on recording )
using the pad and amplifing to usiall levels would bring you recording with more self preamp noise and when you recording in low level inverment much closer to camera floor noise
as you one man gang there is agrate possibility you wouldnt give enoth attention to that .
so my point is that the attunuation only nessery when your inputs are overloaded and if it doesnt happend - dont use it ever .

self camera noise ( zoom , your hands ) are constant so lowering the sound is no any bnefit , what you can do is buy better suspention and rize the mic higher
for double the lengt of susoention you will get 6 db less of camera sound ( relativ to the sound come from ) - and in symple words you will get half of the sound noise relativly to the sound you are recording .
puting the mic 10 cm higher will give you 6 db less noise if it will be over the vufinder .
 
Another reason/way to use it is when you want to record a line feed. Example: Let's say you are coming straight off a mixing board and there no mic outputs. All there is, is a line output. Line outputs are for speakers and there's WAY too much signal for a mic input. This is where you could use the attenuator and bring the signal closer to mic levels.

Hope this helps,
Milvid
 
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