low audio levels with ex1r?

[Robert Bobson]

anyone know of a problem with ex1Rs having low audio? I have all the setting set correctly - but both mics are barely making the meters move with the dial at 10!

[Garrett Low]

Might try adjusting the Trim. see page 123 of the manual.

-Garrett

[Eugene J. Kulak]

Good morning Robert. Another thing to check is if your mikes need phantom power, and if so set the switches for that. also if your mikes require internal power make sure the batteries are good. I am assuming you are using external mikes and not the internal ones.

[Robert Bobson]

yes, I'm using two external mics - one is phantom powered and the other isn't. both are set correctly.

and I adjusted the "trim" to the loudest setting to no avail. [but now I'm going to double check that I set the trim to the highest -DB level...I think that's right, eh??? trimming it - 40DB will be louder than trimming it
to -50DB??]

[Dave Sperling]

I always get messed up with 'trim' because it's kind of like a 'Double Negative'.
Put on your headphones and listen while you do it, but -50 should give you more volume from your mics than -40. I try not to go too far because if I do it seems to add a little low-level white noise/hiss.
Whenever possible I'll go in through a small mixer (I use the Sound Devices Mix Pre) at line level - it seems to be a bit cleaner, and the limiters in the Mix Pre have saved me on more than one occasion when an interview subject suddenly got VERY loud -- and it probably would have distorted had I been going straight into the camera.

[Zoran Vincic]

Originally Posted by Robert Bobson

yes, I'm using two external mics - one is phantom powered and the other isn't. both are set correctly.

and I adjusted the "trim" to the loudest setting to no avail. [but now I'm going to double check that I set the trim to the highest -DB level...I think that's right, eh??? trimming it - 40DB will be louder than trimming it
to -50DB??]

wrong, it will be quieter.

[Dave Morrison]

This always seemed counterintuitive to me on the EX1. Is this common on all video cameras audio controls? For example, on most mixers, a setting of 0dB is considered 100% modulation, correct? Therefor, as you pull the levels or sliders down the scale toward quieter settings, the "-" settings would be increasing, like -10, -20 or -50 as you get toward the bottom of the slider scale.

[Robert Bobson]

yeah - that makes sense. I haven't had a chance to try it yet - maybe tomorrow.
Also, do you guys use the limiter on the EX1R?

[Don Greening]

Don't use the limiter. Even with the limiter turned off there is still a certain amount of subtle limiting going on in the EX circuitry. Manual limiting is useless unless you have a constant sound source to avoid gain pumping, which means if you've got man. limiting active as soon as the audio goes quiet during the recording the limiter will pump up the volume to look for another sound source. And that sounds awful.

- Don

[Zoran Vincic]

you're not right Don, what you're describing is how compressor works, not limiter.

it won't pump unless the whole gain stage is set wrong (unusable with the limiter disengaged).

[Robert Bobson]

that sounds more like automatic gain (?)

[Geoff Addis]

The -ve dB number refers to the sensitivity of the input stage to achieve full level modulation. Thus as -50dBv (or -50dBm,whichever value is quoted by Sony) is a lower votage (or power) than -40dBv (dbm) then the input amplifer has more gain or is more sensitive at the -50dB seting than at the -40dB setting

Geoff.

[Keith Dobie]

Did you solve the problem Robert? Sure sounds like the inputs are set to Line rather than Mic level.

[Robert Bobson]

The problem was my thinking that the -40 db trim setting had more gain than the -50db. I reset the trim to -59 and that boosted the mics' input levels. so the levels are fine now.

[Keith Dobie]

Glad to hear you got it working. That's quite a bit of gain, but found with dynamic mics like my SM57 had to do the same thing. The condenser mics are definitely far more sensitive.