Audio Set Up Help!
 

Hello All,
I am a wedding videographer and i've invested in a new Sennheiser G2 wireless lavalier mic system. I also bought the MA300 to mount onto my Canon GL2. I have a second camera(Sony VX2100) with a shotgun mic attached. My question involved the G2 wireless system.
I've set up my GL2 with the MA300 attached, then connected my Sennheiser reciever pack to it via XLR. I then turned everything on, camera, both body packs (reciever and transmitter) and took it for a test run. I got clear audio on myself but still heard background noises. I loaded the footage onto my computer and the sound seemed to have a "hiss" or "hum" to it. Is this normal?
I want to get the best audio i can in a wedding situation (vows especially) I plan on having the groom wear the mic and capture other sounds with the shotgun on my other camera. My questions is, has anyone set up a Sennheiser wireless system to optimize audio in a similar situation (weddings)??? I think i set the transmitter and reciever to -20dbs and manually turned down volumn on the GL2 to about 60% on the test run, plus i turned on the "Mic ATT" setting...Sorry if my not clear enough. Thanks in advance.

Cruz

Having levels too low on the transmitter or the receiver increases noise. -20 on the transmitter is a bit low, and -20 on the receiver is a bit low for a GL2 if MIC ATT is ON. MIC ATT causes a -20 dB cut.

The recommended level for the transmitter is -10 dB for a conversational level speaking voice. You can confirm this for yourself by holding the mic at your own chest level, speaking, and watching the transmitter's level indicator.

Next, set the GL2 level knobs at 50% with MIC ATT OFF and the receiver connected and turned on. When speaking as above into the properly set transmitter, find the receiver output level that gives you peaks of about -12 dB (the large dot) on the GL2's indicators. It will probably be about a -30 dB setting on the receiver.

I think you'll find that this works better. But if you still have too much noise, you can turn the GL2's level controls down to about 20% before setting the receiver's output for -12 dB peaks on the GL2's meters. If you were recording in an environment that had occasional loud voices near the mic, the loud voices might be distorted with this setting, but that won't happen for wedding vows.