sound questions for the HD100 "im new "

[Mekhael Trepanier]

thanks to all who helped with my new questions in other threads
ive gotten to learning to understand the audio in this camera. and in all honesty the functions are not making tonnes of sense.

i just bought an external shotgun mic "rode ntg-2" and im trying to understnad how to make it sound the best.

when i plug in the mic and adjust the wheel "under settings wheel" which goes from 0-10. its either loud and fuzzy or at 0 you hear nothing. i went through the user guide to try and understand the settings within the camera to try and acheive the best possible sound.

on the audio screen what exactly do theese settings represent.
simple question what does DB mean ?
why choose 50 over 60 and so on ?

im at square one on this so any help would be aprechaited.

and to sound like a total beginner please keep the explanations in "english" the scientific terminology of cameras to me is like a foeriegn language at this point.

thank you for any help

if my post makes no sense, please let me know so i can better explain myself

MEKHAEL

[Tim Dashwood]

Originally Posted by Mekhael Trepanier

when i plug in the mic and adjust the wheel "under settings wheel" which goes from 0-10. its either loud and fuzzy or at 0 you hear nothing. i went through the user guide to try and understand the settings within the camera to try and acheive the best possible sound.

The NTG-2 is a condenser mic that can either use a AA battery, or the +48V phantom power of the camera. Do not use both.

So, if you inserted the AA battery in your microphone, then you must set the input switch on the camera to MIC for that channel.
If you are not going to use the battery in the mic, then you can use the MIC +48V setting on the camera. Do not use "LINE" level with a mic.

If you are getting over-modulation then you likely have used the battery and the +48V. Turn one of them off.

I'll try to explain dB in layman's terms, but it may be difficult.

dB stands for "decibel," and is a log measurement of the audio signal compared to a reference standard. 0dB typically refers to a level of sound that would be considered the ideal recording level.

In analog recording we would use 0dB as a reference and our signal would typically fall anywhere between -∞dB (silence) to +3dB (max peak signal before distortion.) Keep in mind that there usually is no pure silence in analog recording because of the noise floor, and signals that exceed +3dB will be distorted.

In digital recording there are no positive dB values allowed. Any overmodulation will simply be 'clipped' at the 0dB level when digitized. Obviously this means that 0dB must become the max peak level, and we therefore must arbitrarily decide what reference level to use to give us enough headroom, or a "safe zone." There are two industry standards for this: -12dB and -20dB, and it is really a matter of preference. Setting one or the other will place a dot on the audio level meters in the correct spot for the reference. The tone generator will also create tone at either -12dB or -20dB.

The safest audio recordist will prefer to use -20dB so that there is more headroom if something unexpectedly loud happens. The only issue is that quiet dialog or whispers might be lost in the noise floor. Using -12dB as a reference will give you less headroom for clipping safety, but your recordings will typically be safely above the noise floor because of a greater signal to noise ratio.

The -50dB and -60dB MIC levels can be used to adjust the attentuation of the microphone. If you are using -50dB and your mic still seems too hot (you are typically setting the manual input controls to 1 or 2,) then try turning the mic down to -60dB to allow more fine control in the manual audio input dial.

IF you don't seem to be getting loud enough signals from your mic on -60dB, then set it to -50dB.

[Greg Corke]

nice one Tim, thorough as ever.

G

[Brian Luce]

Can you damage the camera if you use mic 48v with a battery in the mic?

[Mekhael Trepanier]

thanks tim for the in depth response.
ive been testing in my living room with a set of headphones on and im not sure its the best testing method. i need to get myself out into the field and actually play with all the settings.
thanks again for the explanations it really did help.
MEKHAEL

[George David]

Other than bad sound, you won't damage the camera or the mic.