[Mo Kahn]

We’ve changed the RCA cables to 1/4″ as recommended. Doesn’t appear to have made any difference. Basically what’s playing out from the editor is exactly what is being put down in FCP, in terms of levels. The peak FCP VU meter levels is exactly what is being output through the mixer. But these peaks, up to -3db in FCP barely register on our mixer’s meter. That’s why the sound through the monitors sounds so low.

The editor doesn’t seem to have a problem with this as the sound isn’t distorted at these levels. But imo it’s just not a loud and full bodied enough sound – this applies to everything that is being played out through the kona….

[Mo Kahn]

Just to give you an update;

We’ve hooked up the deck, mixer and kona how bob suggested…

we’ve hooked up our powered speakers to the 1/4-inch jack balanced outputs on the soundcraft ES.

The XLR outs (labelled MIX L and R) we’ve hooked up to the analog XLR inputs on the Kona.

The sony deck still goes RCA to RCA into a stereo channel on the soundcraft. audio capture seems to work very well. We can hear the audio from the speakers, control levels on the board, and the captured footage plays back how we’d expect in FCP.

But, and this is a big but. When playing the FCP footage through the Kona by selecting AJA Kona LH as the audio output
in FCP the sound is very low. We’re not getting any distortion at certain levels but the levels are way lower than what we were hearing during capture playout and capture from the sony deck.

We’ve tried running the tone test in FCP to adjust the gain, but even with the gain on the maximum setting on the soundcraft board the sound is quite noisy and not as clear.
On the mixer 4 of the channels have MIC input options and the gain goes up to +65db, the other 6 channels accept 1/4-inch jacks and RCA inputs only and the max gain is +20db….what should our db settings be ?….both in software and in the soundcraft hardware for optimum monitoring.

The big problem appears to be the analog audio out (problem appears whether we use balanced XLR or unalanced RCA), and bizarrely we only get sound through one speaker when using balanced XLR. Doesn’t appear to be playing out in stereo. And the low levels are worrying.

[Mo Kahn]

We’ve got a soundcract mixer and there is no switch to convert between Mic and Line…what they do have, which i expect is equivalent to providing mic or line, are x2 1/4-inch jacks below the female ‘MIC’ XLR’s.

I agree with what Jeremy has said….we’ve gone mixer output
into Kona

[Mo Kahn]

Bob

Thanks for the reply, the Soundcraft is a Spirit E Series…..apecifically the Spirit ES model
here’s the link to it;

https://www.soundcraft.com/product_sheet.asp?product_id=26

How does the advise you’ve given us apply to this deck, there’s a schematic and user guide on the link, but i’m not sure how to apply it to the soundcraft.

[Mo Kahn]

Fantastic Bob, thanks a lot for you’re help….

A couple of final questions – from what I understand by using the Kona LHe in our workflow the firewire link between the MacPro and the Sony deck will only be used for deck control from within FCP as the actual capture of footage is happening over composite via the Kona….

But when it comes to mastering our completed HD footage back to tape from within FCP we have no choice but to use firewire (am I correct)….and will there be any quality issues with mastering back to the deck using firewire ?

[Mo Kahn]

sorry Walter, please can you explain what you mean by that.

Excuse my ignorance as we’re new to this kind of setup.