[Luke Seerveld]

I’m not a real sound guy, but sometimes get called upon to record sound for interviews. I record directly to a Zoom H4N or through a Sound Devices 302 mixer to the Zoom. When I was using the GH2 I had a friend make up a cable that went from the tape out on the 302 to a male mini 2.5mm, but with a pad to bring the line level of the mixer to the mic level of the camera. This worked well. Recently, I had a vendor custom make a similar cable for the GH3 from 302 to male mini 3.5mm, but I can’t tell if the pad is there.

When I set the camera mic level to 1 or 6 or higher and hit the tone switch on the 302, the same volume appears on the tiny camera audio meters. Why is this? Then it seems like if I go anywhere above 0 on the mixer I get distortion on the camera’s recorded audio… there’s no headroom.

I’m figuring the pad was maybe not put in after all, but either way, I seem to be missing something. Any thoughts?

Needless to say, I’ll continue to record double system to be safe.