I'm having a problem with audio, and I have tinnitus, so it's hard for me to judge.  I have gotten feedback twice now from friends that audio has been distorted on two videos I made.  I always set my camera to  between -20 and -12 on the audio levels when shooting, and when I edit I go thru the whole track, making sure levels stay at the right place (using the audio tool), but whenever I export, I am surprised at how loud the video is.  I am wondering if there is something wrong with how I capture.  I seem to remember some setting somewhere that you can raise levels while capturing - maybe mine are too high, or I've got some other weird setting happening.  My sudio was never distorted when working on stuff at school.  Since I have tinnitus and hearing loss in one ear, I try to be so careful about setting audio input on the camera.  Maybe there is something I should do differently (I usually have use of a Sony PD150, a 170, or a Panasonic AG-DVX100).  I guess I could also rent a field mixer, but I don't know how to use one.

I'm totally bummed right now.

You're probably not going to like this but....

If you were color blind, would you attempt to colorgrade your media yourself?  I'd strongly recommend getting a sound recordist for your shoots and farming out your sound mix to someone without the hearing problems you have.

jwrl:

You're probably not going to like this but....

If you were color blind, would you attempt to colorgrade your media yourself?  I'd strongly recommend getting a sound recordist for your shoots and farming out your sound mix to someone without the hearing problems you have.

Well in the original poster's defence, I don't think he/she is talking about becoming an audio engineer here - they just want to find out (I imagine) whether it could be a peak levels issue affecting their imports/exports.

They already mention their workflow and approach didn't pose a problem at their school where people would likely be overseeing and checking their results (and be better positioned to give guidance on how to work effectively with a hearing impairment).

Dreamer, is there anything specific which you are dealing with on these projects that differs quite significantly from your school days? Camera equipment/microphone selection/editing software version and so on?

Might help narrow down any problems not related to your hearing impairment

jwrl:

You're probably not going to like this but....

If you were color blind, would you attempt to colorgrade your media yourself?  I'd strongly recommend getting a sound recordist for your shoots and farming out your sound mix to someone without the hearing problems you have.

When I'm ready to do this professionally and actually have a crew, of course I'd have the common sense to get a sound person.  In fact, that is the first person I would look for in building a team.  Til then, I'm a one-person crew, and a student, shooting and editing and learning along the way  -- and even if I won't be doing sound, I should know enough about it to avoid terrible mistakes when shooting so that even if someone else does the sound for me, they have decent audio to work with, don't ya think?

Anyway, I spoke to my professor about it tonight and he said that there could have been distortion in the signal coming into the camera.  BUT we're hoping that's NOT the case, 'cause then I can't fix it.  I was hooked into the sound board for one channel, and used mic for the other.  I didn't want any room noise in the audio track so just used the track that came from the line for these sequences.  I showed him on the camera how I had the audio levels set and he said I did it right.  He suggests I recapture and look to see if there are any settings I could adjust. 

So, I'm gonna go first on the hypothesis that the recording is fine but the capturing is where the problem is.  So I'm going to recapture the footage. 

I was looking at the Input Gain slider in "Audio Project" setting and I'm wondering if that affects the audio input during capture and if so, where should the slider be (my slider has no numbers, though).  Mine is set about halfway.

I was also wondering if it matters that my cheapo camera which I use as a deck could have affected the capture.  Would the adapter that it's plugged into make a hum or add crap to audio?  I found my adapter full of water one day and someone told me it would be fine if I just let it dry out, but maybe I need a new one.

Thanks everyone for help on this.  I am so upset it was hard not to cry while telling my professor about it.  He was very nice and said that everyone has things go wrong and to give myself a break because I'm still learning, but... I hope I can fix it.

Dreamer

You mentioned PD150/170 cameras. When you've been connecting mic/sound mixer equipment to the camera have you been ensuring that the switches have been appropriately set for MIC/LINE as required along with any necessary 48V phantom power?

I've used PD170 cameras during my studies and found these settings often tripped folk up (including myself in the early days).

I too have spotted the input gain slider before, but have never adjusted or gone anywhere near it though it does appear to depend on the input choice: be it Windows Mixer or Host-1394. Mine is sitting about a quarter of the way up.

To reset it to the Avid default (which mine certainly always is), ALT-LEFT-CLICK on it and it'll pop right to where it defaults to.

Might also be worth checking that your Output gain in the same Audio Project setting is set to the default too. Just do the same thing: ALT-LEFT-CLICK and it'll pop back.

Diane:

In the future, when you're taking a feed off a sound console, during the set-up ask the board operator to send you test tone. Set the tone level at -20db on your camera's meter. Then, as long as the mix doesn't have overly large transient spikes and the mix ratios are good, you should be good to go as well.

Yeah, that line/mic thing is confusing, but I always double-check the manual before shooting.  I have only done the "line into the board" thing once before using the Sony and it was great.  Now I recall that the camera I used for these particular shoots was the Panasonic I mentioned, and the first time I used it, so I was unfamiliar, but I was getting one channel from the mic, and the other from the board so I think I did it correctly.  

I will set that Gain slider to the default (although if I recall correctly, mine doesn't give me a choice other than 1394).  I wish I really knew what it did, the Help files don't say much about it.

Thanks.

Larry Rubin:

Diane:

In the future, when you're taking a feed off a sound console, during the set-up ask the board operator to send you test tone. Set the tone level at -20db on your camera's meter. Then, as long as the mix doesn't have overly large transient spikes and the mix ratios are good, you should be good to go as well.

If you're capturing over FireWire you won't be able to adjust the audio levels during capture at all.  Whatever is on the tape is what you got.

malefunktion:

Dreamer, is there anything specific which you are dealing with on these projects that differs quite significantly from your school days? Camera equipment/microphone selection/editing software version and so on?

Kenton.VanNatten:

If you're capturing over FireWire you won't be able to adjust the audio levels during capture at all.  Whatever is on the tape is what you got.

When I read the help file for the "Input Gain" it mentioned setting the levels globally. Why does that particular setting have a drop-down option for Host-1394 input?

I read that as meaning the Input Gain can/will affect the levels of 1394 material.

hmmm, I've never messed with that, but I don't think it has any bearing on the level of the audio from a FW source.  The audio and video info over FW is just a transfer of 1's and 0's, it's the same reason why  you can't tweak the color levels while capturing FW sources. 

As far as I know, the Input Gain slider is for calibrating your VU meters to the Adrenaline or Mojo.