FS7: Audio response 50hz to 20Khz

Probably. Is there a problem with that?

Unless you're recording piano or pipe organ, you'll find there's very little musical information below 50 Hz. And there's no human voice information below that level. And there's no reason I can think of for a response above 20 kHz.
 
I'm surprise that the FS7 doesnt do 20hz to 20khz - like to get some of that bass during recording concert.
Is there a reason why Sony clip at 50hz ?
 
jpham said:
I'm surprise that the FS7 doesnt do 20hz to 20khz - like to get some of that bass during recording concert.
Is there a reason why Sony clip at 50hz ?
Click to expand...

Why would you want to record concert audio on camera? Surely you'd want to record off a mixing desk and sync in post.

The reason as camera clips the low end is to avoid unnecessary handling noise ruining audio that you do want to capture which is way above 20Hz.
 
jpham said:
I'm surprise that the FS7 doesnt do 20hz to 20khz - like to get some of that bass during recording concert.
Is there a reason why Sony clip at 50hz ?
Click to expand...

It's not clipped, it's rolled off. Entirely different things.

Two reasons for this roll off. First, it's a camera, not a full range sound recorder. Second, your preconceived notions about what happens in music below 50 Hz may well be wrong. Just because humans can hear it, doesn't mean it's terribly useful.

Look at the various instruments and see what their lowest notes are. Then recognize that not much in music is composed that uses those very lowest notes. The big exceptions are, as I said above, piano, which has 11 keys below 50 Hz, the lowest being the A0 key at 27.5 Hz, and pipe organs with 16' (32 Hz) and 32' (16 Hz) stops. No one, no one, expects to record these instruments in camera and get decent sound. Not going to happen.

When it comes to rock, almost all the bass is in the mid-bass range, above 60 Hz. The bottom string of a bass guitar is E1, which is 41.2 Hz, which should be captured respectably by a 50 Hz recorder. It's not clipped, it's a roll off, it'll probably be 3-6 dB down. But the next string up is A1 which is 55 Hz. All that bass -- the body shock level stuff, is generally in the mid-bass range, 60-120 Hz.

What there is below 50 Hz is an endless variety of noises and rumbles. Think HVAC, passing traffic, microphone / boom pole handling noise, etc. Which is why Sony didn't put any effort into getting down to 20 Hz. For a camera, it's just not needed, and is largely undesirable.
 
With all due respect I disagree. Any decent quality on-camera mic has high-pass (low-cut) switchable filter, and this should be enough to "protect" us from recording unwanted handling and other ambient noises. As someone who has been active in DPing, editing and selling DVDs/BDs with classical music concerts (including some world-class artists), I always appreciated the very high quality of the reference sound recorded on my EX1. You may or may not believe it, but many times it was my camera soundtrack which saved our sound engineer, working with highest quality audio hardware and software and providing me with the final master track, from many headaches. While editing the picture from as many as 10 cameras (usually 6), with my own being stationary and covering the entire stage - I was able to draw his attention to those little details that he might have missed (and many times did) having to handle tens of microphones and soundtracks. And it was only possible because my EX1 soundtrack was not rolled off in any artificial way.

So I do not approve of Sony's decision to cripple sound quality of the FS7 in any way. When I record anything where sub-50Hz is distracting and unwanted, I can make my own decisions and engage the mic filter, the in-camera wind filter, or just get rid of it in post; when being responsible for the final product a classical music DVD is - I need the full reference sound.
 
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