Does the HVX200 have an audio limiting function?

[Ron Fabienke]

The owner of a company that I do a lot of event shooting for with a DSR 300A, who is starting to sell HD weddings and has 3 in the can already shot with HVX200s and is pretty much set on that format with an outside chance of going with the JVC, told me today he was told by one of the owners of an HVX 200 that they didn't think it had that capability. Is that true? The Sonys do a wonderful job in that area and in event work it is of course very helpful to not have to ride the gains manually unless you choose to.

[Robert Lane]

Ron,

The HVX has ALC (auto limiter control) to prevent clipping during peaks, it does not have AGC (auto GAIN control).

Download the operations manual which discusses audio options in detail. See the sticky on this forum about the manual.

[Ron Fabienke]

Thanks Robert, was really looking for a quick friendly answer from someone with first hand info. and didn't recall seeing a topic on it before. The limiting I guess is what I'm most concerned with. We get around high sound pressure levels with bands and speakers. As far as no auto gain, I'm not sure if the Sony has that or just clipping. I think it might.

Would you be able to set the gain fairly well to pick up normal dialogue and then have the clip protection, or if when you're in clip mode you have no control, what does the HVX seem to do with the more quiet sounds?

[Sam Jankis]

I don't think any stock microphone would be ideal or very capable of capturing clean sound at a loud concert. Even if you get the audio levels adjusted down, the low end (bass and esp. kick drums) will distort. I've always had to go with a good stereo mic or, ideally, plug in wirelessly to the venue's mixer. Though I haven't used the HVX yet for a concert, I have used the stock mic in loud situations (mounted to the hood of a muscle car).

[Ron Fabienke]

The stock mic on the DSR 300A was fairly decent but I bought a killer high end Sennheiser last year. Tremendous bass and flat response. It's short too, super cardioid pattern. Forget the model now but if anyone interested will get. Wasn't cheap. $1200

[Robert Lane]

Originally Posted by Ron Fabienke

Would you be able to set the gain fairly well to pick up normal dialogue and then have the clip protection, or if when you're in clip mode you have no control, what does the HVX seem to do with the more quiet sounds?

Having recently dealt with HVX sound setups I can answer this from first-hand experience:

The HVX only has peak/clipping protection (ALC). You must first manually set the recording level - usually 3 to 4 bars down from "0" - to fit whatever you're recording.

If however, you've setup the levels for normal dialog regardless what mic you're using, be it a lav or boom, and then move to a drastically louder sound environment such as a live band at a wedding then you'll be overdriving the inputs and continuously peaking. The ALC will prevent clipping but it will also be creating a "pumping" effect while the ALC circuit is constantly trying to overcome the levels being overdriven.

I've helped a friend shoot a few weddings using the Z1 and FX1; the Sony's have both AGC and ALC controls which is best for that kind of continuously changing sound enviro.

If you don't have an external field mic/line mixer that you can wear on your belt such as the Sound Device 302 which has the AGC and ALC circuits built-in then the HVX may not be the best camera for your needs since you'll be needing to adjust the GAIN manually for the different SPL's you'll encounter at an event.

[Paul Whishaw]

I use a Peavy stage mic with an VX2000 and PD150 and get fairly remarkable results in very loud environments. I set the AGC and with my headphones on can hear the speaker very clearly while the inrterviewer can barely here anything. It's amazing.

The HVX kind of blows in that regard.

[Ron Fabienke]

Well actually when I said "conversation", I guess for the most part it's going to be well amplified as well during these events for speakers and toasts, etc. So I would think you could just manually set the gain at some optimum fairly high setting and let the clip protection take over. With what I'm reading about the uncompressed sound from this format, the ambient mic on the camera, if high enough quality, could bring back some amazing sound from live events. I wear high quality Sennheiser (again...yes I like the brand) phones when I edit and on lesser DVCam format the sound I hear now is already outstanding.

Partly because it's so good and partly because it's so short, 6 inches approx. which is great with these smaller cameras, if anyone is interested that Senn. model # is MKH 50-P48.

http://www.sennheiser.com/uk/icm.nsf/root/03109

With a high quality wireless handheld mike placed in front of a good mixed loudspeaker or a feed straight from the board, you've got tremendous walking around sound mix with all that base and the directionality of the camera mic and then CH2 the pure feed.

[Robert Aldrich]

I've had to shoot a few rock concerts with my HVX and a couple of them were terrible before I finally set the sound controls to the first bar on the back (physical) dials. That's all I could do. I don't know how they sounded because I didn't get to keep the footage but had no complaints back.

Before this, any bass-beats, even if they don't show up as a red line at the right on the readings, totally distort the sound.

An old sound guy at an electronics swap meet told me I could put a resistor pad on the XLR input, 10K in line on the hot between the mic and camera, and 1K to ground, from the same place (mic end of the 10K resistor). Or, buy a "pad" at a sound place to do the same thing. Haven't tried it.

I miss my PD150, on which you could simply set the switches to "attenuate" and get nearly perfect live performance sound if the AGC is turned on.

[Narayan Van Maele]

Hi, could anyone tell me what mic is good for recording sound for film? will be shooting short films and documentaries. Now, i've heard a lot about sennheiser mics and am pretty fond of them! But which model will suit me best?

thanks guys