[Stephen Lewis]

Well I have news to report…

I got the Countryman B3 lav mic today. I connected it to the SD302, MIC in, PH, 48v. Coarse gain to 12 o’clock, fader to about 1 o’clock… and I STILL have very low levels but the noise/hiss is very loud!

I am really at my wit’s end here.

Here’s the craziest part… when I turn the coarse gain higher, at say, 4 o’clock, I hear this very odd oscillating noise, it is very LOUD and it peaks into the red even though I am not making any sound.

Either the mixer is faulty, the new B3 mic I just received is faulty or I’m faulty. Or all three?

My bad luck with audio continues… somebody want to rescue me? 🙂

[Stephen Lewis]

Hi Craig,
Thanks for your response.

Yes, something must be wrong and I’m inclined to believe it is the microphone (AT897) which I have always suspected was defective or just had unusually low sensitivity. I’ve had the mic for about 7 years and have always had to boost gain in my NLE which led to poor audio quality. Perhaps it is time to buy a new microphone….

Also worth mentioning is that the SD302 was purchased on eBay. The seller said it is in excellent, perfect working condition and it certainly looks like new. Maybe something is wrong internally, however, I think this is unlikely.

I’ll be getting a Countryman B3 lav mic on Friday so if the gain issues persist with that new mic then I can assume the issue is related to the 302 mixer.

Before getting the 302 i used the AT897 directly into a Canon XHA1 camera. I also experienced problems with that configuration and had to keep the mic VERY close to the talent. (maybe 12 or 15 inches away from sound source)

[Stephen Lewis]

Hi Ty,
Thanks for taking the time to help me out.

The mic has no switches other than a low-cut filter which is turned off.

When I look at the meters (with either phantom on or with a fresh battery and phantom off) I get low levels on the meter and in the headphones. I don’t have a recorder or a camera yet. (I purchased sound gear first!)

The meters have a solid bar, then some gap, then a single light that “holds” for a second or two for the peak. (hope that made sense!)

I experience the low levels in all three inputs.

I only have this one microphone for now, but on Friday I’ll be receiving a Countryman B3 lavalier mic (wired xlr type) and I’ll test it out immediately.

Out of curiosity, where do you typically have to set the coarse gain pot when you setup a microphone? 1 O’Clock? 2? 3?

[Stephen Lewis]

Brian,
Thanks for your response. Are you saying I should use the AA battery instead of the phantom power? Rr try using BOTH the AA battery AND Phantom power at the same time? (I’m assuming just the AA battery, yes?)

Also, when I turn up the coarse gain pot on the 302 mixer, I begin to hear a lot of noise when I get to the “4 O’Clock” position (or thereabouts). Is this normal for the 302?

[Stephen Lewis]

Eric,
I decided to go for a Tascam DR100mkII. Is it possible to buy a stereo TA3 to dual XLR cable? (for interfacing the 302 Tape Out with the XLR inputs of the Tascam). I can’t seem to find a cable like this online. How much would you charge for this kind of cable?

OR

Maybe I should just go Tape Out to 3.5mm line input of the DR100mkII? (with this cable: https://www.markertek.com/Cables/Audio-Cables/Mini-to-XLR-Cables/Laird-Digital-Cinema/SD-AUD5-01.xhtml )

[Stephen Lewis]

Thanks for the clarification Eric.

Good point about the level mismatch…

Reading page 13 of the 302 manual says the Tape Out is a fixed -15 dBu level. The Line level input on the recorder (DR40 for example) is +4 dBu. If I have to increase the level on the recorder, will this introduce the lower quality DR40 preamps into the equation? If so, then am I negating the benefit of the great preamps in the 302?

[Stephen Lewis]

I was confused. On page 13 of the manual, the section “Tape Out” is followed by “(Mix Output)”. In my infinite wisdom I took that to mean it wouldn’t give me discrete L or R stereo channels. I understand now that it just means it can be used to link multiple mixers together.

Thank you Ty/Eric for helping me dislodge my head from my own arse.

With this question resolved….

I’d like to save the XLR outs on the mixer for a camera. (presumably, I can buy a dual female XLR to male 3.5mm stereo cable off the shelf somewhere)

I would then use the Tape Out for the recorder.

So for interfacing with a recorder, is it more optimal to have a TA3 to dual 1/4″ cable custom made or have a TA3 to dual XLR cable made? Is one connector more robust than the other?

Steve

[Stephen Lewis]

Thanks to all of you for the help/info.

Two things…

A) Let’s pretend for a moment that I don’t have any audio recorder at all. Which recorder in the $300-ish price range (or lower) will go best with my SD302 mixer? At this point, I’m still leaning towards the DR40 because of the MIC/LINE level XLR inputs. (h4n is xlr mic-level only)

B) I called Sound Devices today and they were very nice. As Eric pointed out, I can go from the tape out (TA3) to dual 1/4″ plugs into the H4n recorder (to stay at line level.) Eric… how much would you charge for such a cable? Or would a different cable be better if I go ahead and get a Tascam DR40?

The other thing I need to keep in mind is that the tape out will not let me pan individual mics to L or R channels only.
So, I guess I would want to feed the tape out to the camera and save the main XLR outputs on the 302 for the higher quality of the recorder? (Am I right about the tape-out being L+R “mixed” together, meaning the recorder wouldn’t record L and R separately?)

I’m sort of chasing my tail here… please somebody slap me across the face and speak wisdom to me.

[Stephen Lewis]

Hi guys,

I’ve experienced similarly unimpressive results with Premiere cs5.5 on my 3,1 Mac Pro.

My specs:
2×3.0Ghz (8 core)
10 gigs RAM
7200rpm HDDs
Running Lion

I don’t have a supported card (nVidia 8800GT) but Adobe claims that the GPU doesn’t work on playing back footage anyways, only in accelerating effects.

I’m a switcher from FCP to the CS5.5 suite. So far, compared to my less powerful PC which runs the CS4 suite, CS5.5 is SLOWER on the Mac. I can’t understand this, maybe it’s a Lion issue?

I edit a lot of DSLR media, plays back okay, but is painfully laggy when scrubbing the CTI (playhead)over multiple clips. Even Prores media is not playing back as smoothly as it did in FCP, which was a 32-bit application!

I hope things improve on the Mac side of CS5.5.

PS: I have installed the 5.5.1 update, but scrubbing and adjusting clip-effects are PAINFULLY slow still.