More issues with my Zoom H4N Recorder..

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DVX100Shooter

Veteran
Sorry guys, I got a few more questions for Zoom H4N owners.

Okay I did a video shoot over the weekend. I was getting my audio fed to me by the audio guy's board. At first my audio was super over modulated. He then told me he was in Unity and for me to bump my end up to +4db if I could. The only way I knew how to do that was to put the Zoom in 4ch mode and scroll to the Mixer and adjust the db there. Once I bumped it up to +4db, I did notice a change but was still over modulated when he played music. The audio from the mic's the Hosts were using sounded fine. Its when he plays the music, I run into overmodulated audio problems but he claims his levels are good on his end.

I got to the shoot early just so I could do several audio tests with the zoom to make sure I was getting good audio. I even walked completely outside the arena with my headphones so I could hear clearly and played back some of my tests and it was STILL over modulated or one channel was super hot and one was okay.

I tried recording in Stereo mode as well. The results weren't that much better.

I figured if I am being fed good audio, I should be able to record good audio and be done with it but as my levels showed on the screen, channel 1 kept peaking into the overmodulated area and channel 2 actually had GOOD levels. It never jumped into the overmodulated area of the screen. Why the 2 channels were different, I have no idea. I couldn't figure out how to get both channels to be good or bring channel 1 out of the overmodulated area. Oh yea in 4ch mode, I muted the onboard mic channels so I wouldn't hear ambient noise and I just used my Input1 and Input2 channels where I had XLR's plugged in.

I have another video shoot tomorrow where I need to use the Zoom and I really need to figure this out before then.

Once I got the somewhat good audio in FCP, I was able to adjust the pan to make it sound more even but I still had to bump it up quite a bit on the timeline so I could hear it good.

So which mode should I be in Stereo or 4ch? I only used 4ch because it gave me the MIXER as an option and I was able to bump my end up to +4db to match what was coming from the board. When I switched it to Stereo mode, MIXER was not listed as an option and I didn't see where I could bump that up to +4db.

If he feeds me overmodulated audio tomorrow is there anything I can adjust on my end to get useable audio? At one point he told me he could bring his end down to -10db but not sure if he did or not.

I notice in one of the modes there were some options like Lo Cut and several other options. Will any of those have helped me not have overmodulated audio?

The show tomorrow will be in a big college gym arena so of course he is going to have the music cranked up but he said he was going to give me my own mix. I split the audio in the shoot over the weekend and had 2 channels going to to the Zoom and 1 going to my DVX100. The DVX audio was not useable and I ended up taking the XLR out of the camera and recorded the rest of the show using the shotgun mic. Like I said above, I DID get okay audio from the Zoom but it could have been a whole lot better in my opinion.

Just looking for some help or suggestions. I only have 1 day to figure this out before tomorrow's shoot!!

Thanks in advance!!!!
 
I'm assuming you are going into the zoom's xlr inputs? Use an adapter and go in the 1/4" inputs which will give you an extra 10db of headroom. If that doesn't work, or you are already doing that, then I would either suggest an inline pad, or going through a mixer that can accomplish the same.
 
The +4dB and -10dB levels he was talking about have absolutely nothing to do with your audio meters. Those are dB measurements for line-level signal. Your overmodulation comes from feeding too strong a line-level signal into inputs that are not matched. Be careful with overmodulating audio on the inputs... you can damage the circuitry.

+4dB is professional line-level (balanced), and -10dB is consumer (unbalanced). But as I recall, the H4n does not really have a line-level input setting. The original H4 did, and used the 1/4" inputs for -10dB line level.

Your best bet may be to go purchase a couple of in-line pads to bring the line-level feed down to mic-level.
 
C2V the example you shared sounds like a good idea. I noticed that particular company makes -10db up to -40db. Which one do you think is best for what I have described? Is this something that I can find at Radio Shack?
 
DVX100Shooter said:
C2V the example you shared sounds like a good idea. I noticed that particular company makes -10db up to -40db. Which one do you think is best for what I have described? Is this something that I can find at Radio Shack?
Click to expand...

Probably not at Radio Shack. I'd go to a music store. If they sell PA gear, they'll probably have a rack of these "problem solvers" behind the front desk.

As for the attenuation, read carefully. There's a reason I linked the -40dB pad.

For reference:

+4dB = professional, balanced, line-level

-10dB = consumer, unbalanced, line-level

-60dB (+/-) = mic level
 
I called the local Music store kinda like a Sam Ash and explained what you told me and they had no clue what I was talking about! LOL! Gonna check some other places...
 
Just ask for an XLR in-line, or barrel, line-to-mic pad. Shure makes them, too.

Though, it sounds like that music store has inexperienced staff (big shock... Guitar Center here is a joke if you want help from the staff). Your best bet may be either to go down there in person and just look, maybe take a printed picture with you, or to try a mom-and-pop place if you have one.

If all else fails, you can also use a DI box to do the conversion (and any guitar shop that doesn't know what a DI box is shouldn't be in business). What you'll need (for each channel that you'll be taking from board to camera):

- 1/4" unbalanced cable
- DI box
- XLR cable

Take an unbalanced 1/4" feed (most consoles with 1/4" out are auto-sensing and can send both balanced and unbalanced) from the board an connect it to the DI box's 1/4" in. Take the XLR cable and connect from the DI box out to the camera in. You'll have a mic-level signal.

You can get a good DI box for about $30. It's not as economical as the in-line pad, and it's a little more "stuff" between the mixer and the camera, but it certainly does the trick (plus, you'll have a ground lift switch on the DI box, which is handy in case of ground-loop hum).
 
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