Dvx100b on-board mic problem

C

CRAZ YCOW Productions

Member
I have a question regarding the Dvx100b on-board mic. I shot a live punk band at a small venue and used 2 cameras. I was in the back of the room with the Dvx100b and my friend in the front with a Gl-1. The sound was very loud in the club. I put the gain down to -60 for both channels on the camera, I turned the MIC ALC to ON. And put the level adjusters on the side of the camera down to just in the red. It sounded ok in the headphones.

My friend with the GL-1 was in the very front and that camera has no controls for audio, I was planning on using my cameras audio and cut between our shots.

When I got home an viewed the audio. My audio although it wasn’t peaking, sounded horrible!! All I could hear was noice. I was semi close to the PA so I though I would get some vocals. It was very unclear and muffled. It sounded as the though the audio was underwater.


The weird part about it was that my friend with the gl-1 (although popping a little) got great guitar audio. When I played the tape form the GL-1 in my DVX100b the bars were in the red like 4 bars or so, but never hit the ( I ) thing. He didn’t get any vocals from the band because he wasn’t by the vocal PA, but the guitars sounded pretty good.

How come, I closely monitored mine and it sounded horrible?

Does it have something to do with the mic ALC or the -50 -60 audio setting? Should I even uses the Mic ALC if I know the audio is going to maintain a loud level and adjust it manually on the side?

Why did the GL1-1 sound better, and it was closer to the stage??

Does the Mic ALC even do anything?
 
50, thats less amplifying then 60 which usually used for low sensitivity microphones or very quit sound when you need more gain , the alc is hard limiter on the digital side , so it might be on and prevent brick walling but it cant prevent overloading your preamp stage
in other words you can crap your audio totally but you dont have digital overload ( you are excellent example :-))

next time bring some low sensitivity external mic for this aplication dynamic mic will be good
 
listen to your audio , it make sense to me :-)

the digital picking have nothing in commen with preamp distortion , i can record total silence which was already distorted:-)
 
ExileOnTheMainStreet said:
listen to your audio , it make sense to me :-)

the digital picking have nothing in commen with preamp distortion , i can record total silence which was already distorted:-)
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huh? i just assumed that -60 would be less than -50. since is is a smaller number
 
i used headphones. but all i could really hear was the bass drum

so, use the (-50) when recording louder sounds for not as much distortion?
 
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there are well sealed headphones from remote audio ( people use it on car race recordings)
+ you will need external headphone amp since the dvx has one of the worst .

use external low sensitivity microphone , good dynamic mic will be ok
audix make small low sensitivity condenser which might work well on the camera ,1244 cardioid
 
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The best solution would have been to come straight out of the mixing console. The DVX onboard microphone, as with all cameras with onboard microphones, is shite.
 
CRAZ YCOW Productions said:
huh? i just assumed that -60 would be less than -50. since is is a smaller number
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At the -60 setting, you're telling the preamp that the mic has LESS sensitivity and requires MORE amplification than at the -50 setting. However, I'm not sure that setting has any effect on the onboard mics since it's more for external mic hookups.

What I beleive George is trying to tell you is that if the signal coming into the camera is too hot, you can overload the front end of the preamp and at that point the gain settings and/or ALC won't help you a bit. When this does happen, you will have clipping/distortion, it will sound like crap, and unfortunately there's not much you can do to fix it in post.

I know this because I've had this happen to me in high volume environments. Even at the -50 setting, a hot condenser mic can overload the DVX preamps. You either need to use a pad or the switch on your mic if it has one to knock down the signal level before it reaches the DVX. I keep a pair of -10db pads in my case for this reason.

I've never used the onboard mics so I can only assume that the same thing can happen with them if the sound level is high enough. 'Course with the onboard mics you don't have the ability to insert a pad. Generally, you don't want to use them for recording music anyway.

As for the ALC, on the DVX is stands for 'Auto Limiter Control' while on your friend's GL it stands for 'Auto Level Control'. The ALC setting on the DVX will not automatically adjust the recording level; it only limits it from exceeding a set limit. Unfortunately, on the DVX the limiter is digital and won't prevent you from overloading the preamp front end.

You might think that the ALC control on your friend's GL is a better arrangement. However, in the case of music, an auto level control mechanism will effectively remove most/all of the dynamics of the music (not good). It's what you find in most all consumer cams. The DVX will give better results when you understand its limitations and how to properly set it up.

-Dan
 
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