Hello, I will be recording a wedding very soon and would like your suggestions. I will be placing a zoom h1 on the groom with a lav. I just wanted to know at what level should I set it at 60?. I will place it on manual and do a test with the groom but they always speak differently in the ceremony. This is why I need to know from those of you who have set a zoom h1 with good results. Low cut will be on as well. It seems to me that at 60 or so should do the trick. I may be wrong, that is why I am asking you guys. Thanks in advance.

Jeff I set my H1 to level 55 when on the groom & officiant, this is tried & tested. I'll usually run my audio through The Levelator from The Conversations Network (http://www.conversationsnetwork.org/levelator) afterwards to level out the audio.

It depends on what lav mic you use with it. I use the H1 with the audio technica ATR3350. I have to set the levels all the way to 100 to get good results.

I've been using 75 or 80 as a default but if the speaker has a loud voice - such as a priest who is used to projecting his voice - then around 60 can be more appropriate.

However I've noticed that a lot of folks are using auto-levels with the H1. I've tried it, so far so good. Counter-intuitive I know but there is always going to be quite a bit of room noise at weddings so noisy pre-amps or unpleasant noise where the H1 has pumped up the levels during quiet moments are not the issues you think they might be. On the other hand if you've set your H1 to 80 rather than to auto and the speakers volume turns out to be very high you then have irrecoverable clipping. No you audio pros, you cannot interrupt mid-ceremony to change the levels and there are good reasons why you might not use wireless.

As with so many aspects of weddings, the normal best practices applied for theatre, TV etc, need to be left at home to better cope with the specific challenges.

Pete

I set ours to auto and its been great so far as well. I haven't had any issues with them at all. We love it so much that we went all H1s from the last event we did versus wireless xtr/rcvr, and no problems.

@ Chris,
I am gonna mic just the groom and want to get the bride as well as the pastor. So auto works? I have always been leary of it becuase I love to set levels, however with groom most likely quiet, and the other 2 not too close I guess I will try auto. How is the noise level (unwanted noise) and does the audio ever get distorted by using it on auto? Thanks again for your reply.