Sound Devices 702 - Audio Levels, Microphones, Etc.

[taliamr]

Hi, We have recently purchased a Sound Devices 702 recorder and have a concern with where the levels should be hitting.

When we are recording interviews / vocal audio into a mic, do the Peak levels need to be hitting -20dB or does the average vocals need to be hitting-20dB, or something different all together?

When we are using a Rode NTG-2 microphone on a boom, very close to the subject, we need to have the Gain control more than 3/4 of the way turned up just to have the levels average out around -20dB. Is this normal? When we use our Sennheiser lavalier mics, we do not need to turn up the gain as much to reach -20dB.

We are looking into the option of purchasing a hypercardoid microphone, since we do a lot of interviews indoors and have read that this is the better choice than the Rode NTG-2. Please let me know if I am incorrect!

Thank you for any information.

 

[Steve House]

-20dBFS is the calibration level for a 0VU sine wave tone, aligning the recorder's meters to a mixer front end. Sine wave tones read the same on an averaging meter and a peak reading meter. But speech isn't sine wave and speech reading a certain level on an averaging meter will usualkly read about 8db higher on a peak meter. Speech at 0VU, that is, reading -20dBFS on an averaging meter, will read about -12dBFS on a peak reading meter. With the 702's meters set for peak reading, keeping the speech levels generally in the high orange range, with an occasional flicker of the first red LED at the -12 mark should be just about right.