Sound too damned quiet
 

Hi all. I'm posting in the XM2 forum as I have one and not sure if it's a problem related to this cam or a general issue.

I've been advised by the DV sound guru Jay Rose that when recording I should set my audio on the cam to about 40-50%, and then control the xlr adapter to get the right levels peaking at about -12db (I'm using an ME66). Both times I've done this the audio that's come out has been stupidly quiet. I tried last night at a speech and I can't use the audio at all. Monitoring through the headphones all sounded really good, but when I went and captured it, it was almost inaudible. I would have thought that monitoring through the headphones would give you a reasonable indication of the audio level.

Needless to say adding gain made it just awful.

What the hell is going wrong? Is there some part of the process I'm unaware of or something? Should I not peak at -12 but have it at -12 average? I was quite a way away from him but again I would have thought the headphones would have told me if it was too quiet.

I will continue to test the bugger but any help is greatly appreciated. Bummer too cause heaps of people wanted to see the footage...Not a good look ;)


Cheers
Aaron

perhaps you turned the volume of the headphones higher than the audio really was (you know, with the select-wheel)

With most consumer/prosumer camcorders -12 dB relative to digital max, is a resonable "average" recording level with peaks approaching and occasionally hitting 0 dB. With profesisonal gear -16 to -18 dB maybe a better "average" figure (more headroom), with peaks approaching 0 dB. Peaking at -12 dB sounds a bit too low for XL#/GL2 recording. You may be able to recover by adding 6 to 10 dB audio gain in post, although that will bring the nosie floor up also.

The phones were at neutral but I understand that will affect things and I'll make sure that's something on my checklist next time ;)

Don, Yeah I just think I was recording way too low. I'll try and do some more tests of my own here and see what I get. '

Thanks all