Distortion Mystery

[jameltzerca]

This is a mystery I have never resolved:

Last summer I was filming a music band rehearsing in a small rehearsal space. I coluldnt get the sound on the DVX to be without distortion. Even when the levels were not showing in the red, I would play the tape later and it would sound like crap. Like the machine was overloaded. The sound in the room was cool and good. We turned off ALC (one of the problems with ALC is that it can't seem to handle compressing or limiting live music, at least I've found this to be true). Aside from the ALC, which was off, can anyone come up with an explanation for this mystery.

I was using both the camera mic (one channel 1) and an audiotechnica shotgun mic (on channel 2)

-J

 

[wabbit]

Lot's of things cause distortion even when your levels appear good. Did you monitor the sound with headphones as it was coming in?

Two most common are the mic amp was overloaded or the camera was getting line level when it was expecting mic. Always make sure you check your camera is set properly (people sometimes will switch it when you are not looking). Some mics (like the ME66) are really hot and will blow out a lot of cameras but you can set the DVX to -60 for those mics.

For the future, always listen to the sound coming into camera (there is a lot of things other then just levels that can happen to your audio).

 

[Droog]

The music may have been "cool and good" but it may have been too loud for the mics, you may have simply clipped the mics, not to say anything about the afore mentions gain stage mishaps. Monitor, monitor, monitor.