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Setting Levels with Lavs>Mixer>Recorder?


Judge Crater

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Hi,

 

I'm a student filmmaker who's going to be doing sound for a friend's grad school film after his sound person dropped out. Since this is a sound board, I'll preface this by saying I realize this is less than ideal! I've done some sound recording before, but with a pretty simple setup, and this is a bit more complicated, with a mixer and wireless lavs -- hence my post here. In getting myself familiar with the equipment (DR 680 MK II Tascam recorder, Azden FMX 42-u mixer, MKH-416 shotgun, ew-100 g3 lav's) a question's come up that I'm having a hard time answering, and I was wondering if anyone here could enlighten me.  

 

When running from lavs>mixer>recorder, I'll obviously be ultimately adjusting the trim on the mixer, but what do people recommend for the sensitivity settings on the lavs (-12db?), and the levels on the recorder (set at -20db off 1 khz tone?)? If lavs are coming in quiet, should I adjust at the lav sensitivity level, the mixer levels, or in the recorder?

 

I hope that makes sense. Many thanks in advance for any thoughts. I've learned a lot from the boards, and appreciate the information and community here.

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The transmitter sensitivity depends on the source audio's SPL, There is  no 'one-size-fits-all' The G3 SK100 transmitters have meters on them, so anyone with grade school edu should be able to set the Tx input level. I recomend using the mixer for the boom mic and feed that to the recorder via line level.  The radios (ISOs) can be plugged directly into the recorder.. line level as well, just set the G3 receivers' AF output to maximum. (+12 as I recall).. assuming you will have the EK100 series portable Rx.

If the mixer has a return, that may be better for HP monitoring, the 680 has an anemic 50mW HP amp as I recall. The 680 also has an internal mixer for a stereo or mono mix track

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Judge,

There is a lot of information on this site with regards to your question. Use Google like this>

 

gain staging jwsound

 

or g3 set-up jwsound 

 

The key is to not use the internal search tool from this site. Once you know the secret there is years of good reading and knowledge here.

Good Luck

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I have been using a very similar setup for a number of years except the recorder (I use a Roland R26 and Sony lav's). Generally I set the sensitivity on the Lavs to the best level that does not distort. This is something that you have to test with mic positioning (plus mic type) and listening through the Azden. Once you have the lav on the talent then adjust the level on the Azden to one that has plenty of gain by listening and looking at the UV meters. It is also important to ensure that your gain has enough room in it if there is a sudden increase. Once this is set, then on your recorder you will need to set the sensitivity and then the gain depending on the volume. Whilst recording monitor your levels and adjust as need be.

All of this takes practice and learning from mistakes...

 

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