PD170 audio question... at DVinfo.net

Dan Shallenberger · January 16th, 2006, 04:24 PM

I recorded a wedding last weekend with my PD170, and I have an audio question. I have very little knowledge of how to record good audio, and working the audio controls on my camera, so please bear with my ignorance.

I was in the balcony with the sound guy. He asked if I wanted a direct audio feed from the house system, and of course, I agreed. So, I had my on-camera mic on channel 1, and plugged the line from the house audio board into channel 2. Well, I wasn't sure how to set the audio controls on my camera. I set channel 2 to line, and I got no signal at all. When I set it to mic, I got a signal, but it was extremely hot. I set it to mic attn and it seemed to manage the signal for the most part, but louder sounds still seemed like they were clipping. I tried line again, and nothing. I left 48v off, thinking I wouldn't need that for an audio feed from a board. The sound guy left the balcony, so I couldn't ask him.

How should I have set that up? It seems it should have been on line rather than mic because it was coming from the board. But, I got nothing on line. Plus, I set channel 2 to AGC and mic attn and it still clipped. I'm not even sure what attn is... I think it's like auto gain control, but not sure.

I did a search and came up with when to use line vs mic, and the differences, but I still don't understand why my setup was different than it seems it should have been.

Can someone help?

Thanks,
Dan

Jonathan Nicholas · January 18th, 2006, 05:38 PM

All I can say is you should know what kind of feed you're getting from the sound man - it can be mic or line level (though I think mic is better for long distances and this is the prefered way) He may have been sending you a sub mix with low sound.

The other thing is that if this is a feed from a mixer that's primarily feeding the pa - then the master faders on his mixer and therefore possibly the feed you were getting was at a low level. This is because IME you have the amps turned up high and and control the volume from the mixer desk... and he may not have to push the faders far to get the right volume out of the house system.

You're right the 48v does not need to be on as this is for powering microphones.

Jon

Pat Sherman · January 20th, 2006, 11:05 PM

Line was probably giving something, but the sound guy was an idiot. Typically when that happens the sound guy has the powered speakers turned all the way up and the master fader all the way up and then the channels are like barely at -30 in this case and had no headroom. So the channels coming in at -30 and fed out the lineout was -30 so lineout seemed like it had no signal..

He probably doesn't understand gain structure and well it was probably a mess..

But yeah, don't go plugging into feeds until you can verify what the feed is and with 150/170's switching between mic and line while powered on can cause a terrible audio distortion hum while this is occasionally, you need to do a reset on the camera to---well like reboot the camera. As per Sony..

January 16th, 2006, 04:24 PM	#1
Dan Shallenberger Major Player Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Cincinnati, OH Posts: 253	PD170 audio question... I recorded a wedding last weekend with my PD170, and I have an audio question. I have very little knowledge of how to record good audio, and working the audio controls on my camera, so please bear with my ignorance. I was in the balcony with the sound guy. He asked if I wanted a direct audio feed from the house system, and of course, I agreed. So, I had my on-camera mic on channel 1, and plugged the line from the house audio board into channel 2. Well, I wasn't sure how to set the audio controls on my camera. I set channel 2 to line, and I got no signal at all. When I set it to mic, I got a signal, but it was extremely hot. I set it to mic attn and it seemed to manage the signal for the most part, but louder sounds still seemed like they were clipping. I tried line again, and nothing. I left 48v off, thinking I wouldn't need that for an audio feed from a board. The sound guy left the balcony, so I couldn't ask him. How should I have set that up? It seems it should have been on line rather than mic because it was coming from the board. But, I got nothing on line. Plus, I set channel 2 to AGC and mic attn and it still clipped. I'm not even sure what attn is... I think it's like auto gain control, but not sure. I did a search and came up with when to use line vs mic, and the differences, but I still don't understand why my setup was different than it seems it should have been. Can someone help? Thanks, Dan

January 18th, 2006, 05:38 PM	#2
Jonathan Nicholas Regular Crew Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Birmingham, UK Posts: 90	All I can say is you should know what kind of feed you're getting from the sound man - it can be mic or line level (though I think mic is better for long distances and this is the prefered way) He may have been sending you a sub mix with low sound. The other thing is that if this is a feed from a mixer that's primarily feeding the pa - then the master faders on his mixer and therefore possibly the feed you were getting was at a low level. This is because IME you have the amps turned up high and and control the volume from the mixer desk... and he may not have to push the faders far to get the right volume out of the house system. You're right the 48v does not need to be on as this is for powering microphones. Jon

January 20th, 2006, 11:05 PM	#3
Pat Sherman Major Player Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: DuPont, Wa Posts: 325	Line was probably giving something, but the sound guy was an idiot. Typically when that happens the sound guy has the powered speakers turned all the way up and the master fader all the way up and then the channels are like barely at -30 in this case and had no headroom. So the channels coming in at -30 and fed out the lineout was -30 so lineout seemed like it had no signal.. He probably doesn't understand gain structure and well it was probably a mess.. But yeah, don't go plugging into feeds until you can verify what the feed is and with 150/170's switching between mic and line while powered on can cause a terrible audio distortion hum while this is occasionally, you need to do a reset on the camera to---well like reboot the camera. As per Sony..