Audio in FCP too Low

[Thaxter Clavemarlton]

I see you still are re-posting this.

Exactly HOW are you connecting the Mackie to the Blackmagic’s input.
If you are using the RCA “Tape Out” jacks, they are likely too low for “0” on the input card.
But the Mackie’s balanced/unbalanced LINE-LEVEL outputs should be MORE than adequate to feed your inputs.

(I[Ed Stevens] “I don’t want to raise the mixer vol
it will distort.”

Don’t sweat THAT.
Mackie is quite capable of sending levels well above “0” on the meters with no added distortion.

Post back with more info. on how you have your outputs and inputs connected.

[Bret Williams]

-12 Would be pretty high for tone. If you have any peaks you’d be pushing it. Most decks come pre marked as -18 and some people play it more conservative at -20.

Does your blackmagic card have some sort of control panel that adjusts it’s calibaration? Are you sure your mixer is outputing 0?

[Ed Stevens]

Thanks for the reply.
I am using the balanced XLR connections. I understand I can push
the Mackie a little. but in order for me to get a good signal I
have to push it too much. Why don’t the FCP Settings work?
ED

[Ed Stevens]

I am sure tha the mixer is putting out 0. No calibration onb the decklink. I really have t push the mixer to get -12.
Any other thoughts. THanks

[Bret Williams]

Yes. -12 is very loud for tone.

[Thaxter Clavemarlton]

How do you KNOW the output from the Mackie is actually “Zero”? (How did you test it?)
You also posted (on the Audio Professionals Board) that you have had “distortion” problems and unequal channel output with the Sound Devices 302.

Now, since Mackie and Sound Devices are just about the most dependable and trouble-free audio units going, and you seem to be having trouble with BOTH of them at the same time…
It would help if you posted more SPECIFIC information about your testing procedures, connections, and settings information.

Even though I have been doing these kinds of hook-ups for over 30 years, it gets pretty hard to diagnose from out here in the “dark”.
It could be anything from a bad cable, to a wrong connection, or bad hardware, or miss-installed (or poorly-adjusted) software.

So my best advice is to hire a local “audio pro” to come and check your system.
Sorry, but we can’t do it from this end, at least without more VERY SPECIFIC info.

[Ed Stevens]

THe sound devices problem is totally different from this. You would think that the sound devices was very reliable but this is my second unit. The first was defective. The tone on the sound devices for left and right channel are not equal. I had other friends in the business look at this system and they have determined that FCP input is too low. The color bars and tone supplied with FCP plays back at -12. If that is not correct then why does this playback at this rate. I have matched the output of the MAckie with several other mixers and they are all the same output going into FCP. My issue is that FCP input cannot be altered as the manual says. I’ve tried on the FCP side and the Apple side. the input
cannot be altered. Wouldn’ you agree that -24 is a very low signal?
ED

[Bret Williams]

About 4db too low. The only adjustment on the FCP side would be your blackmagic card. Either a tweaker on the board/card like other audio gear, or a control panel in sys prefs, or an app that came with it to configure it, or even the gain control in FCP’s digitize tool (although most companies don’t take advantage of it and leave it ghosted out.) Could you be mixing everythiing to mono and have an out of phase cable cancelling things out.

Sure the bars are set to -12. But that’s probably for safety. They’d rather error on that end for sure. With loud tone, your dubs, etc. would come out lower because a dub house would have to lower the recording volume to match the high tone.. With low volume tone, your dubs would come out louder because the dub house would have to raise the volume.

-12 is just a number. That would only give you 12db of headroom until you have absolute clipping and distortion. Better hope any analog gear would also have the 12db of headroom. Better gear would have more headroom. Probably not a vhs deck.