No headphone limiters on SD MixPre-II when recording 32-bit float?

[Sebi]

Hi everyone,

 

a few weeks ago I had a job for a small mockumentary as a "one-person-soundteam" (I know...) and realized the hard way that the SD MixPre's don't seem to have any headphone limiters built-in.

There was going to be a one-shot of a scene on a theater-stage with lots of movement, screaming and also silent moments behind the stage and the camera follows. I had all the talents lav-miked and boomed it myself so I decided to try and use the MixPre-6 II in 32 bit mode since I couldn't adjust the gain during the take. So I was quite excited to have a practical use for a 32 bit recorder. Input limiters are disabled of course and I set a normal to low gain setting on all the channels. I even turned down the headphone volume (using MDR 7506) a fair ammount because I knew about the screaming. The mix I monitored was mostly boom with a little bit of lav-mics. I also used MixAssist on the radios.

Then, during the first take when they started to scream on the top of their lungs it was just extremely loud on my headphones, so loud I had to push away the headphones with my shoulders while booming. I just couldn't stand it. I know these headphones have quite some output and the headphone amp obviously as well (volume was maybe 50 of 100!) but I never had anything that loud coming out of them.

The following takes I chose a "safety" headphone volume that made me miss a lot of lines because they were too quiet.

 

Now, I know this is not a professional workflow and a lot of circumstances could have been better. But I was kind of confused by the fact that obviously nobody thought about limiting the headphone output when input limiters are disabled.

Or did I miss something here?

Apart from the monitoring I was quite happy with the tracks when I checked in a DAW. No clipping and no noise when pushing the silent parts (kind of what should be expected but it was my first recording in 32, so I had to see myself). So considering the result it was totally worth it and I didn't damage my ears luckily.

 

Anyway, I kind of wanted to share this experience and maybe someone benefits. Don't wanna know what happens when you record some light rain ambience in 32-bit (because you also want to catch the thunder without the limiter) and then the sudden thunder actually comes and hits your ears on a high headphone level. Since these are the situations that come to my mind when thinking about recording in 32-bit...

 

 

Best wishes and protect your ears

Sebi

[Izen Ears]

Can’t help you, but this crap just kills me.  I will walk right through the set, right up to the actors, interrupt any discussion and tell them that they need to tell someone (who will tell me) when they decide to yell.  Then I say how I need my ears, and that I will go home if they do it again.  It has always worked, and I do this no matter how famous they are. 
 

Your hearing is way more important than some show!

 

Headphone limiting sounds good tho! I wish the Devas I use had it.

 

Dan Izen

[resonate]

I monitor my output busses with the Nomad. They have output compressors engaged all the time. Sometimes somebody wants to make a 'joke' and scream into my boom. I tell them they have no chance

[Michiel]

That is interesting, thanks for sharing. It doesn't seem the LR mix has any limiter options or at least I can't find it on my Mixpre-3 II. Otherwise it could be an option to monitor the LR mix.

[Sebi]

On 9/21/2021 at 9:21 PM, Michiel said:

That is interesting, thanks for sharing. It doesn't seem the LR mix has any limiter options or at least I can't find it on my Mixpre-3 II. Otherwise it could be an option to monitor the LR mix.

No, it doesn't. I did monitor the mix but all limiters are disabled once you switch to 32-bit mode.