Audio distortion

[peasoup]

Hello.

I've just purchased an XHA1s and am quite pleased with the picture quality. So far the issues I have had are to do with audio distorting with very high noise levels. I shoot in very loud environments.

Here is a clip which shows the issue. On the second run (35 seconds in) when the car goes past the camera, the audio blowing out is very noticeable.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGfkasCNfO4

I'm using a Rode NTG-2. I had it set on manual level, on around 3-4/10 enough so the meter was not going over about 75% peak.

I have come from using a Canon XM2 with the Canon DM50 shotgun mic. I used to leave that camera on auto levels and it never distorted. I also have Rode VidoeMic (on -20db setting) on small Panasonic and that's fine too.

In the manual it says if the Mic is left on auto, then the camera will compensate depending on the audio level it's reading, does this apply to XLR mics though? I took it off manual because on auto it appeared that the meter reading was peaking a lot and I was worried it would distort.

The other issue with running the audio at a lower level manually was that when it's relatively quiet, the mic doesnt pick up enough ambient noise.

Should I be using the XLR Mic Attenuation switch instead? I don't understand how that works, does it compensate for loud noise?

Thanks for any advice.

 

[Moseph]

Even if it looks like it's clipping on auto levels, it probably isn't. I use auto levels for probably half the work I do and I've never had any problems with it clipping.

And yes, the attenuator should be used if you're shooting where it's extremely loud. I'm not sure how much it actually attenuates the signal but it's quite noticeable.

Just use headphones if you're worried it might be distorting, whatever gets recorded to tape is what you'll hear almost always, with the exceptions of tape glitches and dropouts of course.

 

[peasoup]

Thanks I'll take that on-board, try the auto settings and use headphones to check while I am there. I remember that the XM2 use to hit the peaks but I think ti was a little deceiving and sounded fine.

 

[peasoup]

Thanks for the advice, I ignore the meter levels on the camera going crazy and left it in auto. I filmed the exact same car, audio was louder and didn't distort, overall it was much better.