I have a question about my Terratec DMX-6fire soundcard.

The soundcard gives me 3 different ways to adjust the level of the signal. I've got a mechanical gain knob on the break-out box, a software gain control on the soundcard's software control panel (0 to 18db), and an attenuation control on the software control panel (0 to -45db).

I know about avoiding clipping/distortion, but can anyone give me any specific advice on the optimum way to set up these three "overlapping" controls for the best signal?

Particularly...

- what are the software gain and attenuation doing differently? When would I want to use attenuation?

- how do the 2 gain controls play off against each other? Should I set the mechanical gain to just before the warning light and then do a similar thing with the software gain?

thanks

First, gain is adding volume to the mic/soundcard's initial output.
Attenuation is just the opposite, reducing output.
Using gain and attenuation in the same path can be a bad thing if things are already balanced and you're adding/subtracting at various points in the audio chain.

Regarding your soundcard, I'd set it at 0db on input and leave it there.
Use Attenuation where necessary.

Hello everyone. Sorry if this is a reprint i did a search, so I am writing under the understanding that it isn't.

I am looking at wireless mic system for GL1, I have xlr adapter. I just don't know a lot about the wireless systems. On b&h they are listed as UHF and VHF, but i don't know the characteristics of either.... Thanks in advance for the help, (as always!)

I 'm happy with the Sennheiser g2 (with the addl. mic plug). works good and sounds fine.
Bruce Yarock

I'm planning on building/assembling a new computer in January for A/V production-- PT, Vegas, and Wavelab. Digidesing's compatability page says that they do not support RAID. I've done some crazy things with Pro Tools over the past decade that Digi hasn't "officially" supported. Has anyone had success running an LE system on a box that was reading/wriing to a RAID 0 setup? The mobo I'm considering uses the Promise SATA RAID chipset.

It won't be the end of the world if it can't be done... The main reason I want to move up to RAID is for video editing speed and girth-- lol. e.g. 2 X Maxtor 300GB w/16MB cache. Yes, it's true, I have "hard drive" envy...

My plans include:
AMD 64 3500
Gigabyte CPU cooler/heat sink
2GB DDR400 RAM
Seagate 120GB 8MB cache (boot drive)
Maxtor 300GB X 2 RAID 0
Video Card I danooo something w/256MB and dual DVI's...
DVD_R (haven't read up on what's new and cool yet...)

Nothing is firm yet. I'm planning on doing this next month.

Thanks for the input!

If you manually juggle files, large media files spread out over 2 drives (non-RAIDed) is actually faster than RAID.

Not that hard drive speed matters too much... I've tested things out and generally hard drive speed no difference on performance.
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?s=&threadid=18784

For audio, your hard drives will really only be a problem if you can't play back enough tracks at once, or if you are having problems capturing many tracks at once. Even if you do, spreading tracks out over two drives (if possible) would be faster/better than RAID.

2- This is kind of off topic, but if the primary use of your machine is video editing then you might want to consider getting a Pentium processor as they are generally faster. AMD64 processors are much faster at audio (like 50%?), but video will probably require more resources than audio does.

If you post or look through the video forums here you can get more info on building a new machine.

You can also check out silentpcreview.com for lots of information about building a quiet PC, if noise is important. A quiet configuration would run something like the following:
3700BQE (see the article discussion for it, goes over how to do hard drive decoupling)
quietest PSU (should be latest revision seasonic super tornado)
hard drives - Samsung, Seagate, Hitachi (see reviews / recommended hard drives list)
processor- AMD 64, Canterwood-core Pentium or Prescott-core Pentium (in that order, AMD64 being quietest)
heatsink - zalman 7000alcu or Thermalright XP-120.
passively cooled video card

3- The digidesign user's conference has lots of great information on building your own machine.

http://duc.digidesign.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=360675&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=7&fpart=1#360675
(The link will take you to the Allenstein thread... which covers building a PC for Pro Tools LE use.)

Hi:

Searching through the messages here I discovered a couple of references to the PeachTek Campressor, but I didn't see any links to reviews or any advice regarding one. Has anyone used one of these units and can offer their opinions on it?

Thanks and Happy Holidays!

Ben

are there any indicators (before it is too late) on when it is time to change the battery on this mic?

I had some popping on a wedding with this mic and didn't think until afterwards that the cause could be the battery.

Thanks, Jay

There is an LED indicator, but how to read them seems to be different on every piece of gear. Can't help you beyond that.

Hey There. I was wondering about those 3-channel XLR Adapters. Almost all of them are 2-input adapters, and Im wondering if I get a 3-Input adapter for my GL2 \ VX2100, would there be some audio compromise \ drawbacks? I know that with the Panasonic ENG Cams that we use at the station, they only allow for 2-inputs becuase of stereo \ mono issues. Thanks for your help!

PS>

Is this a good idea for making 2 ports into 3:

http://www.audiolines.com/cgi-bin/dj.cgi?detail=yes&template=&exact_match=yes&product=yxlrm-2xlrf

Scenario:

Mic 1 & 2: On The Y-Ends of the XLR Splitter. 2 Commentators both with Shure VP64A's.

Mic 3: The Second Unused port on my adapter. With some sort of Omni mic (Either the ATM10a or ATM31a)

Before I go out and buy all of this stuff I just wanna make sure the results will be up to par. Thanks so much!

Anyone here made the jump to HDV? Just curious how you're finding the MPEG audio. I've done my own tests with both the Z1 and the FX1, I'd like to hear feedback from others.

Jumped in big (well, big cost for me) and ordered a K2 based on reviews and max spl. I'll be using it to record voice overs mostly in documentary type stuff.

Notice most discussions on it also included that a mic Preamp was used. I'm hoping the output from it's power supply will be all that's needed to feed into my DSR 500. I do have a Beheringer Shark that includes a pre and a Shure 267 but suspect they are both way under kill for that mic.

Anyone have any experience with this mic in a similar situation?

If I do need the pre, I'm looking at building the Seventh Circle Audio J99. Any recommedations pro/con on it?

Thanks!

<<<-- Originally posted by Rob Wilson : Jumped in big (well, big cost for me) and ordered a K2 based on reviews and max spl. I'll be using it to record voice overs mostly in documentary type stuff.

Notice most discussions on it also included that a mic Preamp was used. I'm hoping the output from it's power supply will be all that's needed to feed into my DSR 500. I do have a Beheringer Shark that includes a pre and a Shure 267 but suspect they are both way under kill for that mic.

Anyone have any experience with this mic in a similar situation?

If I do need the pre, I'm looking at building the Seventh Circle Audio J99. Any recommedations pro/con on it?

Thanks! -->>>

You are good to go. Your camera already has a mic preamp. Now, add a nice limiter to catch the inevitable peaks, and you have a nice rig. The one in the SOUND DEVICES MIXPre. It's a very nice sounding 2 channel mixer with very nice sounding limiter. With it, you're really ready and every mic you plug into it will sound better than if plugged into your camera.

The Shark..not so much..yawn.

Find out WHY a good mixer is your friend. It's in my Audio Bootcamp Field Guide.


Regards,

Ty Ford

I’m looking for a wireless Lav mic to be used almost exclusively outdoors, mainly in wilderness situations, and am looking for advice on which one to choose. After reading through numerous posts I’ve been looking at the Sennheiser g2 wireless at B + H. They list 20 different models/combos at varying prices. I'm learning as I go and don't have an audio background. Any help would be appreciated. Also, is it OK to use these in wet and snowy weather? I’m using a gl2 w/a beachtek xlr adapter.

Hi Spot

Got my FX1E a week ago. I honestly can't tell the difference between MPEG2 audio and DV PCM audio. I'm completely happy with the quality!

Cheers
Tim

Probably somone else already asked about this, but I couldn't find nothing with "Search".

Here it is:
I'm looking for a microphone that (like the canon DM50) can be selected from wide (stereo) to narow (mono). I had that on my old VHS Panasonic and I miss it (for event video).
I have a Canon XM2 (GL2) and I'm thinking to buy the DM50 for this particular feature.
Is there something better then the DM50 with the 3 positions switch?

Thanks!

I have no experience with the DM50. I also don't have any experience with the Sony ECM-MS957 - Stereo Condenser Microphone, but I know it can be switched from wide stereo to narrow stereo (which is still very wide compared to a better mono directional mic like an Audio-Technica AT897).

Has anyone compared the Gen 2 Sennheiser wireless to the Gen 1? Many of the folk I know had a strong preference for Audio Technica in the $500 to $600 price range but that was comparing it to the generation 1 wireless. I like my current Sennheiser stuff and prefer to stick to a brand I know if their newer gen 2 performs better than gen 1.

Greg

Hey everyone...
I've had mixed audio results when shooting live music. I generally use an XL-1 with an AT-835b - monitor the sound through headphones/using the limited EQ on the back of the XL-1. I've gotten some decent live sound and some real crappy stuff.
For those of you out there that do a lot of concerts, what do you do? Do you come off the sound board into a separate recorder and just use camera sound to get ambient crowd noise, etc? Is using a shotgun style mic too narrow of a pickup pattern? Would something like an SM-58 be better for getting overall sound?
Is it better to have a field mixer? I tried using a Tascam 4 track as a mixer once... (wanted to use its EQ)- yeah, that didn't work too well... lots of buzzing...
Anyways, I'm kind of a sound newbie (just picked up a copy of "Audio for film and video production" - but thought I'd ask the collective experience here... Thanks
CMV

apologize if I'm repeating a thread.... had scanned a few on these pages to see if my "issue" was already discussed....
didn't notice the one a few rungs below......

CMV

Hey gang... since our group is ever growing... and the now infamous Charles Papert actually has experience on this show I'm hoping somebody may have a handle on how they do the audio for it?

I remember a couple threads about this show last year and I just never watched it. I wanted to (just because of CP) but it just seemed like I always missed it. Well I've been watching it this season and in every show there's a couple of laugh-out-loud moments guaranteed. I'm smiling through the whole show at the very least.

Well tonight as I watched it I couldn't shake the feeling that they were doing it all location sound. Could the boom op be getting that much isolation? Is it lavs? Or is the loose, handheld style just making me THINK it's location sound and it's really a lot of ADR?

Hi-

I'll be editing a project on Premiere Pro on a windows based computer - and want to end up with 5.1 audio.

Will I need an additional audio mixing program to do this? Is there one that works well with Premiere?

And how are the channels handled when the finished project is output'd to tape ?

Does the mixing program combine the 5.1 tracks and a mixed down stereo pair for broadcast? And will I have control over the stereo mixdown???

Thanks for your help!

(great website!)

For audio mixing in the Adobe world, you'll want Adobe Audition.
Formerly Cool Edit Pro, this is a pretty good audio tool to mix with, and manages 5.1 just fine. You'll be able to output all sorts of mixes from this application.
You can mix surround directly in Premiere, too, although I'm not a fan of how it all works. Unfortunately, Adobe just hasn't got the elegant surround mixing tools that Vegas, Nuendo, and ProTools have offered. Not yet, anyway.

Can DAT recorders be plugged into a computer so I can transfer my audio into an NLE (to synch with my FILM, transferred to VIDEO)?

Thank you in advance!
Shane

The short answer is yes, the long answer is probably not in the way you're thinking.
DAT audio is recorded and played back in real time. The material doesn't exist as "files" that can be quickly transfered.
The tape must be played into the computer using either an analog or a digital audio path. How to do this depends on your DAT deck and the audio hardware and software your computer has.

I bought an XLR to mini adapter for my AT897........what will the DXA2 give that the adpt won't??


Also, what are the practical differences in the Beachtek DXA2 and DXA2S??

Thanks.

The BeachTek DXA-2 will give you a physical connection to the camera, a single XLR input, an Aux input, rotary attenuation controls if your mic or Aux has a hot output, Mono/Stereo switch, and a two-position grounding switch to help eliminate hum.
The "S" model give you all that and a second XLR input. The S is just like the other normal models, only in a smaller package.

Matt:

My one day on the show was sort of a fluke, but one never knows, I might show up there again. Probably not since the DP's have changed since first season.

I don't remember for sure, but I think the show was traditional miked with boompoles and the odd wireless.

Haven't tried this, but saw it and thought some people might be interested in it. You can change the audio quality of iPod recording from 8 kHz to as high as 96 kHz.

http://ipod.hackaday.com/entry/1234000147025394/

Hey Chris, thanks for the tip!