Canon 650d preamp?

[Gershy13]

Hey guys, so i need some advice.

 

My current audio recording setup is:

Behringer C1 - XLR - Edirol FA-101 (as preamp +48v) - 2x 6.35mm jack - stereo 3.5mm jack - canon 650d.

So i use the behringer c1 as my mic, which gets phantom power from the edirol (and also acts as a preamp) and then goes to the camera.

 

On the 650d, i use manual audio levels. Now, my question is, should i use the attenuator on the 650d? which then means i have to increase the levels somewhere. And also, should i increase the levels on the camera, or on the preamp's mic gain? The C1 is just out of frame at the bottom. I want to know which volume i should increase first? canon (and if attenuator on or off), or preamp. I want to achieve the lowest amount of noise.

The preamp has a headphone jack, but it isnt much use, as its always really quiet.

 

Thanks

Gershy13

[AkiraDaarkst]

2 hours ago, Gershy13 said:

Hey guys, so i need some advice.

 

My current audio recording setup is:

Behringer C1 - XLR - Edirol FA-101 (as preamp +48v) - 2x 6.35mm jack - stereo 3.5mm jack - canon 650d.

So i use the behringer c1 as my mic, which gets phantom power from the edirol (and also acts as a preamp) and then goes to the camera.

 

On the 650d, i use manual audio levels. Now, my question is, should i use the attenuator on the 650d? which then means i have to increase the levels somewhere. And also, should i increase the levels on the camera, or on the preamp's mic gain? The C1 is just out of frame at the bottom. I want to know which volume i should increase first? canon (and if attenuator on or off), or preamp. I want to achieve the lowest amount of noise.

The preamp has a headphone jack, but it isnt much use, as its always really quiet.

 

Thanks

Gershy13

What settings or buttons have you enabled on the Edirol?  I have no idea how the Edirol is, never owned one, never used one before.  But I assume that it should let you choose between Line Level and Mic Level inputs, let you set the input level of the mics, the audio level of the headphone (I'm surprised you say the headphone volume is always quiet).

[Gershy13]

7 minutes ago, AkiraDaarkst said:

What settings or buttons have you enabled on the Edirol?  I have no idea how the Edirol is, never owned one, never used one before.  But I assume that it should let you choose between Line Level and Mic Level inputs, let you set the input level of the mics, the audio level of the headphone (I'm surprised you say the headphone volume is always quiet).

yes, i turned the headphone up all the way.but still its quiet. Im using input 1, so hi-z, lo-z shouldnt affect? and on the camera what should i adjust?

 

What should i do on it? 

[AkiraDaarkst]

3 minutes ago, Gershy13 said:

yes, i turned the headphone up all the way.but still its quiet. Im using input 1, so hi-z, lo-z shouldnt affect? and on the camera what should i adjust?

 

What should i do on it? 

I assume that if you plug the mic into Input 1, the Sens 1 dial next to it controls the input level for the mic?

[Gershy13]

3 minutes ago, AkiraDaarkst said:

I assume that if you plug the mic into Input 1, the Sens 1 dial next to it controls the input level for the mic?

yup, thats correct. 

[AkiraDaarkst]

6 minutes ago, Gershy13 said:

yup, thats correct. 

So even with that turned, for example, all the way up to max and the headphone volume knob turned to max the audio from the headphones are still quiet?

 

OK now your situation reminded me of something that occurred to me a while back when using an external audio mixer/pre-amp/interface to connect multiple mics and then feed the audio to camera.  Which is similar to what you are doing.  Independent of the Audio Input Levels knob that I adjusted on the external interface, the Audio Levels also had to be adjusted on camera.  My interface has an LCD display on it that shows me the audio input levels, so while I set it so that the audio peaks at around -10db or so (which we consider enough for capturing dialog) if the audio input levels on the camera was set too low, the camera would record very low audio.  So we had to play with both audio input levels (interface and camera).

[Gershy13]

2 minutes ago, AkiraDaarkst said:

So even with that turned, for example, all the way up to max and the headphone volume knob turned to max the audio from the headphones are still quiet?

 

OK now your situation reminded me of something that occurred to me a while back when using an external audio mixer/pre-amp/interface to connect multiple mics and then feed the audio to camera.  Which is similar to what you are doing.  Independent of the Audio Input Levels knob that I adjusted on the external interface, the Audio Levels also had to be adjusted on camera.  My interface has an LCD display on it that shows me the audio input levels, so while I set it so that the audio peaks at around -10db or so (which we consider enough for capturing dialog) if the audio input levels on the camera was set too low, the camera would record very low audio.  So we had to play with both audio input levels (interface and camera).

ok, so should i turn the sens 1 all the way up till i get good audio on the 4 leds on the unit? and also till i get good volumes on the headphones? Currently what im doing, is setting the camera to the lowest audio setting (attenuator off) and then adjusting the sens 1 till i get good levels. Should i favor the camera's preamps, or the edirol?

[AkiraDaarkst]

Just now, Gershy13 said:

ok, so should i turn the sens 1 all the way up till i get good audio on the 4 leds on the unit? and also till i get good volumes on the headphones? Currently what im doing, is setting the camera to the lowest audio setting (attenuator off) and then adjusting the sens 1 till i get good levels. Should i favor the camera's preamps, or the edirol?

Before you connect the interface to the camera, connect it to your computer (I assume you have a software like Adobe Audition) and dial the Sens 1 dial up and down until the audio levels in the software are showing the audio levels peaking around -10db.  Talk into the mic in the normal voice/loudness you would use when actually filming.

 

After the Sens 1 dial has been turned to the desired position, connect the interface to the camera, start talking into the mic, and adjust the audio level in the camera until it peaks around -10db also or set it as high as you can without the level ever peaking to the red.

 

I personally don't like using audio interfaces that do not have any kind of audio level indicator.

[Gershy13]

2 minutes ago, AkiraDaarkst said:

Before you connect the interface to the camera, connect it to your computer (I assume you have a software like Adobe Audition) and dial the Sens 1 dial up and down until the audio levels in the software are showing the audio levels peaking around -10db.  Talk into the mic in the normal voice/loudness you would use when actually filming.

 

After the Sens 1 dial has been turned to the desired position, connect the interface to the camera, start talking into the mic, and adjust the audio level in the camera until it peaks around -10db also or set it as high as you can without the level ever peaking to the red.

 

I personally don't like using audio interfaces that do not have any kind of audio level indicator.

it has an indicator in 4 leds. (3 green, 1 red). Do i connect to the line in jack of my macbook? or should i use firewire? I have audition, logic pro, garageband.

[AkiraDaarkst]

3 minutes ago, Gershy13 said:

it has an indicator in 4 leds. (3 green, 1 red). Do i connect to the line in jack of my macbook? or should i use firewire? I have audition, logic pro, garageband.

Connect it via Firewire, I want the software like Audition to recognize the Edirol as an audio interface and not as Line/Mic Input.  If you connect to the Line-in jack, it will be as if you connect the headphone out of the interface to the mic port of a computer.

[Gershy13]

5 minutes ago, AkiraDaarkst said:

Connect it via Firewire, I want the software like Audition to recognize the Edirol as an audio interface and not as Line/Mic Input.  If you connect to the Line-in jack, it will be as if you connect the headphone out of the interface to the mic port of a computer.

thanks, ill give it a shot.