DVX volume level

[TimurCivan]

what level on the headphones volume is about what the actual out put of the microphone is? while shooting a music concert, i was concerned with over doing the levels on the mic, so i kept it to where the loudest didint hit the final red bar. but the levels on the headphones were kinda off. it sounded WAY loud, so i tuned down the volume, but i wasnt sure if the loudness was caused by the DVX boosting volume to the headphnes, or if it was recording it to tape.

the sound was good in the end. but what do you guys keep it at to get a good sense of what the Mic is picking up? middle? past middle in either direction?

 

[Barry_Green]

You can't really judge it that way, because the ambient sound levels will prejudice how the loud the headphones appear to be. You can trust the meters, however. If you're recording a good strong signal (two or three dots into the red on the meters) then you're getting plenty of volume on your soundtrack. If the meters are peaking out, solid red all the way, then you're overdriving the sound recording mechanism. And if you're just seeing a few dots, you're probably recording the audio too low.

The DVX100 received many complaints about "low" headphone volume, which I think was finally traced to people using consumer headphones, where the jack was designed for professional headphones, leading to an impedance mismatch. On the 100A they doubled the output, plus added volume control to the headphone jack. None of that matters as far as the actual recording goes -- for that, you want to keep an eye on the meters.

 

[TimurCivan]

ok then, just trust the instrument panel... much like flying a plane.

thanks barry