I recently recorded a two man music performance with my SR11. The cam was plugged directly into the onstage mics in order to get a clear recording of the music. However, when I played the recording back, there was a distinct hissing sound in the spots between the music phrases. I have been told that it was because I had not turned my "autogain" off. So I looked and could not find anything about any autogain controls with the cams sound.

Is there such a thing on the SR11? If not, is there a way to prevent the gain from turning up when there is complete silence between the music phrases?

Thanks.
Mike

Mike,
As you have discovered, the SR 111 has no manual control for audio level. The audio limiter prevents the audio signal from exceeding 0dB. Which helps when recording voices, not good for music.
Did you try setting the MICREF LEVEL to low instead of normal. The (zoom mic needs to be off for the Micref to be set to low.) That and the 5.1 ch settings are about all there is to work with in the camera.

Yeah, I was wondering about the "low" level setting. Too bad about the lack of settings on this cam. Guess I'll have to check out other cams from other companies this coming winter.

Mike

I purchased a Sony HDR-XR520V but ended up returning it because the lack of manual audio controls was a dealbreaker. If you are comfortable enough with setting your own audio levels, and you have the audio equipment that would make the added hassle worthwhile, then another camera would probably be a better choice.

if the sound is so important for you guys, why not considering to do as professional recording is set ? recording the sound separate on a dat or other support, then you sync it in post inside your edit soft.
If you use a clap or something else to help the sync, it should not be a problem at all and you would have better result.
So if you are happy with the video quality all you need is a dat recorder that can be plugg on the out of the table...

all perfect in one is just a dream for consumer products

cheers Olivier