-- Passing Audio Through Zoom H1 --

NorBro

NorBro

Major Contributor
Hello,

Recently, I tested/ran a Sennheiser MKE600 shotgun (XLR --> 3.5mm) into the H1 and outputted the sound (3.5mm --> 3.5mm) into the RX10 II. The audio inside the camera was manually set to 1.

H1 was set to 65 on the input and 65 on the headphone/line out. The results were perfect.

But I was under the impression that this would have produced distortion...running from line out to mic in.

Just wondering, why did it work? Thank you.
 
Firstly it is probably not full line out and -10 domestic unbalanced rather than full pro line 0db which is .775 volts balanced.

You can turn a mic input gain way down and it will accept a signal such as this but you do run the risk of it overloading the input attenuator.

Mic level is generally around -50db os just turning the input gain down may allow you to get away feeding a -10 signal but as you also had the recorder gain down it may be around -30 so pretty close.

I once had a client bring me some very distorted audio that he had recorded on a Z1 and he said he fed 0db from the pro mixer mixer and lined it up on tone to the mic input. Well yes it lined up on the meters but he then did not listen to what was being recorded on the camera but all was Ok on the mixer but sadly he was overloading the mic inputs.

You may have got away with it this time but you should really be feeding a mic input with a properly attenuated signal.

That said some cameras just add a pad to their input to derive a line level input and setting your input level to 1 may do this and be OK but as this is all unbalanced and at -10 rather than full line level it may work fine.

Just be wary of any loud transient sounds as that may be too much for the mic input and cause the attenuator to overload.
 
Gary - thank you.

I think I would have definitely overloaded it if there were higher sounds/volume than what I was recording.
 
NorBro said:
Gary - thank you.

I think I would have definitely overloaded it if there were higher sounds/volume than what I was recording.
Click to expand...

Yes so best be careful and make sure any line or domestic level output is properly attenuated if it is feeding a mic level input.

Sadly I hear lots of distorted and overloaded audio on mainstream TV these days so it is worth checking your gain structure and workflow before you start any serious recording.

A lot of semi pro and domestic kit is being used these days and as it is generally built to a cost the margins for headroom and error is a lot tighter and that goes for video too.
 
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