New to Z1E Sound advice Please
 

Hello, I've just gone from a Canon XL2 to Sony Z1E, and need some Sound advice please.
Instruction books never do it for me!
I'm using a Senn. ME66 on input 1, and a G2 Radio mic on input 2. I'm checking the audio out on the camera, I'd be interested in knowing what you would recommend, if your using the same setup, that is. I'm using phantom power, built in mic is switched off.
In Manual, monitoring the sound with the headphones seems fine, but on Auto the levels on the LCD seem to just go to just half way, so I've now set it to 6db. If possible I'd like to have it on Auto all the time.
Also, when both switches are set to Auto, the Audio level meter in the LCD dissapears.
The Camera is to be used only for Speeches and the Wedding Vows.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
P.S. though there was a better chance of help posting here, than the Audio forum.

Regards, Mike.

Forget the Auto and go manual. When there is silence in a wedding chapel for example, the input goes all the way up, and you get the irritating ducking sound when they start speaking again. Just adjust the volume on the fly, maybe a bit difficult in the beginning, but you get used to it and it will improve your sound quality tremendously.

Tremendously? You're just doing what the auto does, but manually. What's the big difference? The background noise doesn't come out? If it does, just turn it down in post.

I'm certainly not doing what the auto function does, I''m not leveling to get the silence properly on tape for example, or try to limit if it comes in to hard. Of course I can see all the benefits of auto audio, but IMHO ajusting manually gives you much better result. It's not hard to do anyways.

The Senn G2 wireless sounds much better if you set the Z1 input to line instead of mic for the receiver -- and of course no phantom on the wireless. You'll have to adjust the af level on the receiver and the sensitivity setting on the transmitter to get the audio in the correct range.



chuck

The problem with this approach is that after a long period of quietness, the noise creeps up, then the first few sylables of the next phrase get splashed large over the audio in a way that no end of audio post can fix.

I prefer doing manual levels but relying on the wonderful Sony limiters to waft their magic over the audio. It's not the best, but at least it saves a take.

IMHO, it's the limiters that save your donkey, not the auto levels.

FYI, you generally want to record at a constant level as hot as you can without clipping. One good approach is to set levels so average levels are around -12 dBFS on the camera meters and turn on the limiters. If the source levels are fairly constant without a lot strong peaks, you might even shave the headroom a bit more and set average levels up a few db higher at -8dBFS. The higher you can safely set your recording levels without clipping the better the signal to noise ratio you'll get. Use all of them 16 bits you have in your pocket <g>! But as Matt points out, using the automatic level controls will lead to "pumping" where the noise level creeps up during silences as it raises the gain to look for sound that isn't there, then when the sound starts uo again the gain is too hot and it takes a bit of time for it to get cut back again.