Going from external preamp to camera--attenuation necessary?

woodcarver

woodcarver

Well-known member
I've got a USB Dual Pre pre-amp which I recently adjusted so I can mount it on my rig. I can plug my xlr shotgun into it--adjust gain--then run a cable from the headphone monitor jack (I can also control the levels here) and into the GH2 for recording. I know the little pre-amp is outputing a line signal and the GH2 is set up for a mic level input. The only cable I have to connect the pre-amp with the GH2 is a Sescom cable with 25db of attenuation. My question is, if I can knock down the levels being sent out by the preamp in the preamp itself (just by dialing down) is cable with attenuation necessary. If I just get a cable that goes from 3.5mm male to 2.5mm male (hopefully with a split for monitoring) would I be creating a problem or might I potentially be improving the audio?
 
No, turning down the output level of any audio device to produce mic-level from a line-level output is never advisable. Line-level outputs are optimized for line-level and will have dramatically increased noise if you try to use them at mic levels. That is why attenuators are used. They allow the circuits at each end to operate at their optimized levels.
 
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