SD 302 to camera

PaPa

PaPa

Major Contributor
Had my first shoot yesterday using my new SD 302 mixer. The sound quality when i plug my headphones into the mixer is absolutely fantastic, low low low noise and great presence.

I then output it to my XH A1, where i put on the 1k tone, then adjust the camera levels so that the tone delivers up to the first yellow level, to get the best possible levels and to avoid clipping.

HOWEVER,

It seems as though, even though the sd302 has great levels, and we set it up on the camera to have the same, that even with the very low levels in camera, the sound still clips, but never goes passed yellow. Not exactly sure how to fix this? Even if we lower the levels in camera, we get sound that is too low in volume, but still suffers from this "clipping"/ distorted quality when the actors volume gets slightly louder.

Have i set something up incorrectly? How do i resolve this issue?

So again, levels on the mixer are great, and the camera levels never go passed yellow. When i monitor from the Mixer, sound is fantstic, when i monitor from the camera, higher voice levels, although not clipping, can sound distorted.

Thanks!
 
Sound Problem 101: :)

Feeding line level to a mic level input will result in distorted audio.

Please refer to the 302 manual to find how to change the output to Mic level and recalibrate the tone from the tone from the mixer to the camera, or change the camera input to line level input and recalibrate the camera imputs.

Regards,

Ty Ford
 
thanks ford, ill give it a shot when im home and let you know the results.

but all in all, when we keept the sound from distorting, the amount of noise is sooooooo much better compared to going directly into camera.. its absolutely amazing.
 
Sorry, You never mentioned going directly from mic to camera and I was not either.

Ty Ford
 
huh?

I mean we did a comparison, when going from mic - > SD 302 -> camera, the level of noise / vocal presence was much better than when we went from mic -> camera directly.

but i will try our the level/mic line thing when i have the chance.
 
As Ty mentioned, the mic/line level is likely the culprit.

I'm not up on the specs of the A1, but I have used my SD302 with a Canon XL2. The XL2 only accepts mic level inputs, so the A1 may very well be the same.

I followed the manual's steps to drop the mixer's output to mic level and all was good.:thumbsup:
 
The SD-302 outputs at line level by default. It's more of a pain to change this, rather than a simple toggle switch on the XH-A1. Above the XLR jacks on the upper right is a line/mic switch.
 
I have found the SD302 to XH-A1 combination to be the easiest thing in the world to set up:

- Leave SD302 at standard line out level, set limiter to -3dBFS or -2dBFS
- Plug SD302 into XH-A1
- Make sure camera is set at XLR in at line in level, no attenuation.
- Turn audio level potentiometers ALL THE WAY OPEN (ccw), no need to worry!
- Run cheks with -20 dBFS standard and 0dBFS full level tones if you want

That's all there is to it.

With these settings I get perfect levels with over 90 dB S/N ratio.
 
alright, so far i have been able to get rid of the distortion, but now it seems that even when my levels are set on the SD302, and full blast, without attenuation on my
XH A1, the levels don't get loud enough? Something else i gotta setup? It only reaches yellow if i yell into the mic.
 
Limiter is kicking in I assume. You are saying that the levels on your A1 will barely go yellow?
I have been trained for Digibeta and SQN mixer to following routine: 1khz tone to cam (in case of digital cam) turn down in-camera sound controls till levels are @ -20db on camera. Then run some initial actual sound level tests and trim accordingly on mixer till you peak on "0" (assuming mixer has the analog "+6" scale). In your case maybe the 302 limiter kicks in too soon.

Am I correct, I can`t be sure anymore.


T
 
Are you looking at average levels or average and peak?

The 302 can be adjusted to display both, which is what you want.

Ty Ford
 
im saying that my levels on my mixer are fine, voice going around -10 db, but in camera, there is no DB leveling meter, so i normally try to fly around the yellow marker, but it only reaches that if i scream into the microphone.
 
The 'yellow marker' on the XHA1 is -12dBFS (actually it is a green ball, the first green mark). Look in the viewfinder to see the DB level meter, or on the left side on the camera.
 
still though, when i have maximum levels on my camera and proper levels on the sd302, let's say i have the boom mic 2 feet from someones face, it barely registers in camera.
 
you should set the mixer's 1 khz tone to -20 on the camera (so that 0db on the 302 = -20 on the cam). During recording, run your peaks up to +16 on the 302 and it will be perfect (-4)
 
man, looks like i have more reading to do. Even with the manual im having trouble figuring out how to set the SD up.
 
There is a switch on the 302 right by the headphone jack. When the 302 is in a bag like a petrol, its common for someone when plugging the headphones in to knock that switch out of place. That switch controls phantom power level to your mics.

If it isn't in the right place you can end up with results similiar to what I'm reading about in this thread. Literally where you're yelling into the mic but getting weak signal. You should not have had to crank up the levels on the mixer either. (This is kind of a audio version of make sure the lens cap isn't on)
 
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