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low waveform from dvx
Howdy,
I must be the umpteenth beginner to ask this, but I can’t find it addressed anywhere (probably too dumb a question).
I’m using a dvx100b with rode mic. I’ve turned on the “mic” switch at the front of the camera, have set the switches on the left by the screen to input 2, am using the xlr #2 jack and I get plenty of signal – but it’s always low. I’ve set phantom power to “on” – what gives?
It sounds great in headphones going in, the meters look good – going into the red by 2 dots or so at peak levels – but even when I crank the input dials to say 3 o’clock, the waveform in FCP is relatively low. I’ve even gone into the menus and fooled with the mid-levels there…
I’m frantic – in the midst of a fast-moving doc, and not in control of the audio…
Ideas anyone?
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6 Replies
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Thank you for the reply. It’s really great to know there’s help out there.
I only have the manual that came with the dvx, but t he only choice I see for the mic/line level is the switch at the front of the camera, and I already set that to mic. Does the limiter have an effect overall? That’s something I can turn off in the menus…
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I actually did read the manual before I contacted you, and as far as I could see, did everything accordingly. Clearly I’m missing something…
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I’m wondering if I’m not being overly cautious.
I began this project with a Sony 1-chip camera and, using the Rode mic (with an adaptor using batteries) got audio that peaked out pretty high (+12db). LOTS of room to spare – I usually brought it down. Maybe that was too high to begin with, and I shouldn’t be comparing it with the audio from the dvx. But since it’s a new camera, I’m still finding my way around.
The dvx, on the other hand, has been giving me peaks of -2db to -1db (yes, it was a very quiet talker), but there’s no noise and if I crank it all the way in FCP, it’s almost passable. So if I just boost the gain in the dvx menus to -60db and work with the (input) volume dials, go futher into the red, maybe that’s the way to go for the quiet talkers. There’s some noise in the headphones, but it doesn’t seem to make it into FCP…
There are so few options to change audio/line/mic settings in the camera (that includes the one page devoted to it in the manual), I can’t really find any bad routing on my part(?). And maybe the levels I’m getting, are actually appropriate and the earlier ones were actually way too high.
What is (actually) the correct level for spoken audio?
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Ouch!
Actually, in my first post I mentioned that I’d been doing that. Sorry I didn’t make that more clear…
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Hi there –
This is EXACTLY the problem I’m having with my dvx100a. I’m using a Rode shotgun mic as well, but the situation is the same with my audio-technica shotgun and my sampson lavelier.
The audio levels are conspicuously low (yes, I’ve checked the switches, made sure phantom power was on, etc), and like you, I’m stuck in the middle of a fast moving production cycle.
Did you find a solution?
I don’t know if this is just my being idiosyncratic, but I think that I noticed a decline in the audio level as my last interview went into hour 2. I may be imagining it, so I’m not putting much stock in this theory. I am considering taking the cam to a technician (the problem is, the last time, they took almost a month getting it back to me and I don’t have that much time to be in a down cycle).
Let me know if you found a solution.
Thanks! And best of luck with your documentary!
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Alas, I have not found a solution. Dave La Ronde was notably unhelpful, kept telling me to read the manual (which if he’d checked, I already had in my first post) and was so needlessly mean (“here’s the hand-holding you seem to need, it took me 2 minutes to find this in the manual”)I vowed never to go back to Creative Cow until your post. I actually have a fairly extensive background in composing and engineering for television – I should have started with that and maybe he would have been nicer. Instead, I said I was a beginner with the DVX which indeed I am. Isn’t he there to help? But enough about me.
I did find some work-arounds – which you’ve no doubt discovered. In the recording set-up, you can boost your gain from -50db to -60. It sounds noisy in phones, but when I checked I didn’t find the noise made it into Final Cut. You can also turn off the limiter – same menus – “mic ALC” though clipping can very easily occur.
I took my camera into a cinematography course I was taking and the tech took a look at it. It’s hard to diagnose this because the sounds looks and sound great going in (I always wear phones). We concluded – I had printed out and brought in images of former high wave forms with my Sony and the lower ones with the DVX – that my early Sony audio had really been too high and since I was getting no noise with the DVX I’ve vowed to move forward, tweaking the audio knobs a little, and just pray for the best. Oy.
Let me know what your tech says – I am curious!
Thanks
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