Mix-pre levels

B

bloodyjack

Member
A friend of mine last night asked me to record the sound for a live band shoot with his new DVX. We could not work out how to put the camera in line level so all the audio was distorted even though the meters were not in the red.
So I have 3 questions
  • how do you set the camera to line level in
  • how do you turn off the AGC
  • Were do you set the meters too when feeding the camera a 1k 0dB signal? (the meters don’t have any markings)
I ended up recording to my flash recorder instead and if he wants to use the audio he will have to try and sync it up in post
 
If I understand your question correctly, there are two orange switches on the front face of the camera to the left of the lens that switch between mic and line, one for each channel.
I'm pretty sure the ALC is disable in line mode. Check the manual to be sure. If not go into MENU/RECORDING SETUP/MIC ALC/OFF
 
ALC is NOT disabled in line mode - and not a bad thng to have in a setting like this.

Moe is correct about the line/mic level switches; start by setting those to line!

Make sure that your sources (under the LCD panel) are correctly let for INP 1 and INP 2.

If you are feeding the camera a 0dB, 1 Khz signal from the MixPre, set the DVX levels so that meters read -20dB (there are "vertical lines" in the DVX meters at -20dB and -12dB). As you gain experience with the setup, you may want to fine tune this.

If the DVX meters look OK but the sound is still distorting (clipping), make sure the MixPre levels are OK, and reduce the MixPre gain to the point where the MixPre meters are not peaking.

If the MixPre meters look OK but the audio sounds distorted, your mic may be overloading the inputs of the MixPre. The MixPre has a fairly low input clipping level compared with most other mic pres. If you are in a VERY LOUD situation with a fairly high output condenser mic, this may be an issue. You have three choices, then:
1) Turn on the MixPre's limiter, and see if you canlive with the squashed dynamic range (TEST THIS in a good playback environment before making the decision!) or
2) Pad the mic enough to reduce the signal to a level the MixPre can handle (either using a pad switch on the mic, or using an in-line pad). In my experience, a 20dB pad has been enough for even my hottest-output mics in any situation.
3) Move the mics to somewhere where the sound level is lower. This will, of course, change the character of the sound.

There's also a small chance that the mic itself is overloading... in which case, moving the mics or using different mics would be the solution.

I'm assuming, of course, that you're using mics with the MixPre. If you're getting, say, a feed from the house board, then it will overload the MixPre which is a mic-level-only device. If that's the case, skip the MixPre and feed the camera (in LINE mode) directly.
 
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If you RTFM you will see the last white line before the first red bar is -12. Each one of those bars is 2 db, so go down from there to get your -20 db. Never seen vertical lines at -20.
And yes, those mix pres don't have a gain trim, so if you are recording a band you might be clipping the pre. If you have a mic attenuator pad use it before going to preamp, or get a different preamp, or use dynamic mics.
And turn the ALC off.... always off.
 
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