Hi folks just received 2 zoom h1 to go with my rode vid mic and my 2 voice recorders with m-15 lapel mics, just a question if anyone has these, i have tried low cut level 100, low cut level 90, low cut level 80, then tried no low off, with the same levels, i could not tell a difference, if anyone has experience on the best levels without distortion i would be grateful as i have a wedding next week and have no time to attend a loud clapping audience!!!! steve

Hello Steve,

Low-cut (aka. high-pass) only effect the bottom of the frequency spectrum. They are commonly used to reduce unwanted rumble from HVAC systems, wind, proximity effect, handling noise, and even subways trains below the venue. If you are just recording voice, you can often get away with a low-cut at 100Hz with effecting the voice. This can be good if you have the H1 on the groom or officiant. If you are using the H1 at your camera to the organ or piano, you may notice a negative difference.

A low-cut only helps you with levels only in so much as low end energy was causing your signal to clip even though the voices / music were at a good level. Clapping will not be affected by a low-cut.

Good luck!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:75_Hz_HPF_on_Smaart.jpg

Thanks Christian i will just leave the low cut to off then!!!! Any idea on the average sound levels for a church,, i have tried 100, 90, 80, levels and 100 seems the best but when the organ plays or loud clapping i hope 100 would be ok, maybe someone could chip in with what they have experienced. cheers

Why not auto levels?
It will be noisy at quiet environment?

The problem auto anything, either video or audio is that it often results in 'hunting'. This results in disturbing changes that are sometimes worse than what they are supposed to fix.

Why not auto levels?
It will be noisy at quiet environment?

The characteristics of the auto setting on the H1 are terrible. Specifically, it's very SLOW to adjust.

If you leave it in auto, get ready for some totally destroyed audio at key moments when things suddenly get loud.

Best strategy is to favor input low in manual and then raise volume in post where necessary.

ditto. auto level is lousy. I always stick with the lowest possible to avoid overexposed audio. You can always boost up a low volume audio, but you can't do nothing with overexposed audio.

But when the manual level is too low, the sound will be noisy.
And when you boost up in post, it will be even more noisy.

I just have my H1 for a few days, and also try to search the best method
at wedding reception.

Just to be clear, we are talking about TWO different things in this conversion:

1. The low-cut (aka high-pass) setting.

2. The recording levels.

#2 is the most important one, and getting it right is critical to the quality of your sound. Too low, and your audio will be very noisy, since raising the level in post is also raising the noise floor (hiss). Too high, and you will clip (aka overload) the input, causing bad distortion. Practice practice practice, and then err towards the lesser of two evils, hiss. It is OK to never hit "red". Bouncing around -20dbFS no peaks over -10dbFS on the meter is perfectly fine.

Christian on the zoom h1 there is a slider for low cut on or off!!! i have now set that to off!! then on the other side there is a slider for levels, i have tried number 60, 70, 80, 90, 100, that is my question simple who uses what, they all peak in the red when talking, soemone must have experience and choose one of the numbers above, if not i will just set it so that it just touches the 12db. cheers for your input

Manual level setting to 35-40 and adjust levels in post. This is a rather low level but the end resault is the same if you set the level high then the noise floor increses in the same way as if the level is set lower and amplify in post. It can even be better to record at 24 bits, it will problaby lower the noise floor, I need to check.