• Audio

  Is this audio blown?

  Posted by Andy Lewis on March 26, 2011 at 6:17 pm

  Should I fire the sound guy?

  DPA 4060 into a zoom h4n. Levels get close to 0 in FCP but never above.
  It sounds nasty to me every time the interviewee says “errm.” Could it be limitations of the mic/recorder?

  1797_blown.mov.zip

  Rodney Morris replied 15 years, 1 month ago 3 Members · 2 Replies
• 2 Replies

• 

  Peter Groom

  March 28, 2011 at 10:32 am

  I took the recording into pro tools. Its fine!
  It goes high, but doesnt clip or distort. dropping “erm” by 4 db makes it fit well with the other material.
  If its sounding bad your end id suggest i ts your soundcard or speakers that cant cope.
  Peter

  Post Production Dubbing Mixer
• 

  Rodney Morris

  March 28, 2011 at 11:02 am

  I brought the clip into audacity for a quick look and listen. Yes, there is some distortion on the word “um”. I’m not going to assign any blame on your sound guy because I don’t know what his setup procedure for this was. But I will say this – this is the same kind of distortion that I run into with the Zoom recorders when I feed line level signals into the line level inputs. Distortion occurs only on the loudest transients even though the levels appear to be fine on the recorder display. I set my reference tone at -20 at the recorder, I run the mic through my Sound Devices 442 (with limiting set at +14). I know the set up is right and yet I get this type of distortion. However, if I run a mic level signal into the mic level inputs of the Zoom (reset reference tone at -20, microphone running through 442 with limiter set at +14) this distortion goes away.

  The DPA 4060 is a very good mic – not much limitation with it. But I’m not a big fan of the Zoom recorders for this very reason.

  Rodney Morris
  Freelance Sound Technician/Mixer

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