Audio "normal" vs. "voice"?

Brad Tyrrell · December 23rd, 2006, 08:47 AM

Ever since I got my XL-1 back in 1998, I've used an outboard preamp/phantom and an "over-easy" compressor/limiter fed into the camera on "manual". There's just no guessing what could happen shooting events and the ol' XL-1 had no protection. Possible disasterous sound. I always also recorded from the camera mic on attenuator just in case.

I was a little concerned about no chanels 3 & 4 for back up on the XH-A1, but I just shot an event with a single pzm 100' XLR direct into mic 1 on the A1 duplicated to mic 2, - auto-sound with -20 attenuator and +12 gain (strange but it works). The camera provided the phantom. The sound is actually fine. Wandering small voices could be heard and thunderous applause was dealt with. (I'll probably boost the voices a bit later).

Now I'm trying to figure out whether or not the old combination is enough better to bother with. The new method is certainly more convenient.

Greg Boston · December 23rd, 2006, 10:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bill Pryor

I've been shooting (mostly with Betacam and DVCAM 2/3" chip cameras) for longer than I care to remember and I don't think I've ever run across an audio limiter, except on a mixer. If you record in auto (which I've never done) the automatic function serves as a limiter, obviously. But I don't recall ever seeing an audio limiter switch, like mixers have, on any camera I've used.

Actually Bill, the F350 has one. Settings are OFF, -6, -9, -12, -15, & -17. Not sure if it's a hard limiter or not, but it definitely has one. The SD version of the camera can also place an 'essence mark' on the clip showing where audio limit peaks have occurred. This is a separate function in the menus from AGC which is also available. Perhaps this is going to become a trend in new camera designs, as the ability to cram more electronics into a given size allows for more on-board features to be implemented.

However, I think the thread has drifted off-topic a bit. Original poster asked what normal vs. voice mode was on the A1. Anyone with a definitive answer for that? I just took my best guess based on the name of the function.

-gb-

December 23rd, 2006, 08:47 AM	#16
Brad Tyrrell Major Player Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: Morristown, New Jersey Posts: 249	Ever since I got my XL-1 back in 1998, I've used an outboard preamp/phantom and an "over-easy" compressor/limiter fed into the camera on "manual". There's just no guessing what could happen shooting events and the ol' XL-1 had no protection. Possible disasterous sound. I always also recorded from the camera mic on attenuator just in case. I was a little concerned about no chanels 3 & 4 for back up on the XH-A1, but I just shot an event with a single pzm 100' XLR direct into mic 1 on the A1 duplicated to mic 2, - auto-sound with -20 attenuator and +12 gain (strange but it works). The camera provided the phantom. The sound is actually fine. Wandering small voices could be heard and thunderous applause was dealt with. (I'll probably boost the voices a bit later). Now I'm trying to figure out whether or not the old combination is enough better to bother with. The new method is certainly more convenient.