Need Help With My New SD Mixpre

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Phil Maker

Well-known member
I have to shoot an interior (high ceiling) interview tomorrow. I want to get great sound. I've never used a mixer. What do I have to do to make sure I don't mess up too badly?

I'm going to have a shotgun mic (AT4073) on a boom pole with a boom op holding, coming out on a 25' XLR and into the mixer, then out and into an HVX. I'll record 2 levels so I can have a safety against peaking. What other levels do I need to set on the Mixpre? I read the instructions, but they're pretty vague.

Do I want to use the limiter? If so, linked or not? Do I use the limiter on the HVX and on the Mixpre? What exactly is slate for? What exactly is the tone for?

Thanks for your patience. I know my HVX like the back of my hand, but I'm new to mixers.
 
Sorry i misunderstood in your distortion thread, I thought you had a DVX. Turn on the 1khz tone and set the tone on the HVX to -20. We have 3 here but I haven't looked at them closely. turn on Limiter on SD. Link off unless using 2 channels.
 
I adapted this from a post I made about using the SD302 with two mics and doing a split recording (one mic on each channel) I am a bit too tired to fix it all the way, but this is a good start.\



set the hvx inputs to line level

turn off the mic alc on the hvx

route input 1 to channel 1 (on the hvx)

route input 2 to channel 2 (on the hvx)

make sure phantom power is off (on the hvx)

plug xlr outs from the Mix Pre to the ins on the camera (loop it through the handle for strain relief) left goes to input one and right goes to input two

turn on the tone (on the Mix Pre) adjust the dials on the hvx until the tone is set to -20 (the first line) wait a minute, sometimes the tone takes a while to to come up all the way. Put tape over the hvx dials and don't adjust them any more.

on input 1 the Mix Pre, set it to left

on input 2 on the Mix Pre, set it to right

turn on the 80hz low cut for all inputs (unless you are recording music)

make sure mic power on the Mix Pre is set to phantom and 48

power off mixer (or just turn phantom power off)

connect mics

power on mixer (or just turn phantom power on)

test mics, one channel on the hvx should be the hand mic (may not need phantom power) the other should be the lav (listen on the hvx too)


There are many many more ways to do this, but you asked for quick and easy. The most accurate way to do this is to set up the hvx using "full scale tone" to match clipping points, but that can damage you equipment and you hearing if you have headphones plugged in when you do it, and it is a bit of a pain, so this way should be just fine.

Levels should be set using the channel gain with the faders set at unity, that way subtle adjustments can be made with the faders
 
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