Is anyone here familiar with the Sound Devices MM-1?

NorBro

NorBro

Major Contributor
If so, I have a question:

When I have everything plugged in and ready to go, I'm still able to control the levels with my camera, but of course mostly with the preamp gain.

Should I have the levels in the camera as low as possible and control with that or what's the best configuration?

Thank you!
 
It's hard to say for sure since it varies with each device a bit but as a general rule you want your gain knobs/ sliders around the 75% mark. That is going to be close to "unity" (no gain) on most systems. Of course it's very unlikely you can have everything at 75% so you want to get the noisiest units at the optimum position and play with the quietest.

In your case the camera is going to be a LOT noisier than the MM1 so you would set it at it's quietest position and do your gain work with the MM1.

What is a variable is what the MM1 sends and what the camera can receive. If the MM1 can send a line level and your camera can accept a line level signal then that is the way to go. Also you want to balance things a bit so IF setting the camera to 75% means that the MM1 is under the 25% mark you probably want to back off a bit on the camera so you have some room on the MM1. This would also be true if 75% on the camera would make you have the MM1 in the 90% and over zone.

What you are trying to avoid is having either in the top 10% or so because that is the area where usually you will hear a noticeable increase in the noise floor.
But again if one has to be that high better it's the MM1 since it will be the over all quietest of the two.

I have the original MixPre which is basically a two channel version of the MM1 with a few extra bells and whistles. It is very quiet even with a lot of gain.
 
Yes, the MM-1 is so amazing. I love it, but I'm pretty clueless with audio. Your response helps a lot.

I am using the Panasonic HPX250. I'm running my shogun through the MM-1 and into the camera via line. I'm using phantom power from the MM-1. I'm keeping the audio levels in the middle (dials pointing straight up) on the HPX250 and using about 42-50 of gain on the MM-1. But really no matter what I do, it all sounds pretty awesome and clean.
 
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