Recently I picked up a Fostgate FR-2le recorder, I ran a Azden SGM-2x mic to it and did some test audio. The audio sounded good through the headphones however when you bring the audio into the computer i have to max out the volume as the sound levels from the card are low. Should I run a pre amp between the mic and recorder? If so which one?
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Sound Question
- Thread starter Cinemaair
- Start date
Does your recorder have level indicators and, if so, was your signal peaking between -12 and 0db when you recorded? Do the tracks sound good when played back straight from the recorder? If so, the problem is likely a setting in your editing software.
That makes no sense to me.
"Cardioid" refers to a microphone's pickup pattern (roughly heart-shaped, hence the origin of the term). I've never heard of a recorder that doesn't "support" a cardioid mic.
A "condenser" mic usually requires an internal battery or phantom power, which your recorder may or may not support.
A "dynamic" mic requires no additional power but is typically less sensitive.
You need somebody like Alcove to jump in here.
There are so many things wrong with that last post.. its kinda funny... dont be offended. .. but...
You need a recording 101 lesson.. so prepare to be schooled!
If the levels are good, you would not have asked the question.
The levels being "good" on the recording is not the same as the levels being good in the movie editing software which has nothing to do with how loud the sound is coming out of your speakers or headphones.
Cardioid is a pickup pattern, a plot on a graph and has NOTHING to do with the technology of the microphone. You can make ANY mic have a cardioid pattern by sticking it in a paper cup, how on EARTH is the recording device supposed to know its seeing a cardioid pick up pattern.. that was the funny bit..
Schoolin'
on my next post..
You need a recording 101 lesson.. so prepare to be schooled!
If the levels are good, you would not have asked the question.
The levels being "good" on the recording is not the same as the levels being good in the movie editing software which has nothing to do with how loud the sound is coming out of your speakers or headphones.
Cardioid is a pickup pattern, a plot on a graph and has NOTHING to do with the technology of the microphone. You can make ANY mic have a cardioid pattern by sticking it in a paper cup, how on EARTH is the recording device supposed to know its seeing a cardioid pick up pattern.. that was the funny bit..
Schoolin'
on my next post..
Part 1.
sound waves vibrate in the air and when they hit a microphone the MECHANICAL energy of the wave in the air is converted to ELECTRICAL energy. This is why "In Space, No One Can Hear You Scream" is true, no air no, sound waves.
Different microphone technologies like "Dynamic, Condenser, Ribbon, etc" covert that mechanical energy to electrical energy in different ways, but that all result in an "electrical signal" being generated. This is the FIRST level of interest.. are you getting GOOD levels from your microphone? Even BEFORE the pre amp we have to consider levels. Normally, we simply adjust the level of MECHANICAL energy entering the microphone by moving it CLOSER or FURTHER away from source of the sound waves.
(some microphones have switches that lower \ or raise the am mount of electrical energy being sent down the wire...)
Next in our "signal" chain is the microphone preamp (FYI, some mics have built in preamps... but for practical purposes we cant adjust those and should treat the signal coming out of the mic as our first stage) The preamp takes the VERY TINY electrical impulses from the microphone and well, amps them up a bit. In realality there is nothing "pre" about it, it is just an amp.. but it dosent amplify the signal very much. Its goal is to raise the signal voltage enought that it can redily be recorded, or sent down the wire for additional amplification..
The preamp is our first "gain" stage. Increasing gain in any signal increases noise! (noise is hissing etc), true for video as well as audio... we want to create sufficient "gain" without adding any "noise." Better preamps are more successful at keeping the noise down, some very expensive ones actually add noise, as noise is sometimes very musical, but lets not go there!
sound waves vibrate in the air and when they hit a microphone the MECHANICAL energy of the wave in the air is converted to ELECTRICAL energy. This is why "In Space, No One Can Hear You Scream" is true, no air no, sound waves.
Different microphone technologies like "Dynamic, Condenser, Ribbon, etc" covert that mechanical energy to electrical energy in different ways, but that all result in an "electrical signal" being generated. This is the FIRST level of interest.. are you getting GOOD levels from your microphone? Even BEFORE the pre amp we have to consider levels. Normally, we simply adjust the level of MECHANICAL energy entering the microphone by moving it CLOSER or FURTHER away from source of the sound waves.
(some microphones have switches that lower \ or raise the am mount of electrical energy being sent down the wire...)
Next in our "signal" chain is the microphone preamp (FYI, some mics have built in preamps... but for practical purposes we cant adjust those and should treat the signal coming out of the mic as our first stage) The preamp takes the VERY TINY electrical impulses from the microphone and well, amps them up a bit. In realality there is nothing "pre" about it, it is just an amp.. but it dosent amplify the signal very much. Its goal is to raise the signal voltage enought that it can redily be recorded, or sent down the wire for additional amplification..
The preamp is our first "gain" stage. Increasing gain in any signal increases noise! (noise is hissing etc), true for video as well as audio... we want to create sufficient "gain" without adding any "noise." Better preamps are more successful at keeping the noise down, some very expensive ones actually add noise, as noise is sometimes very musical, but lets not go there!
All of this makes no sense to me either, I have loaded the sound files on the Computer directly from the card and have to raise the computers volume to max to make out the sound. So the problem is not with the NLE. I tried several different mics and got the same results so I will have to keep poking around for a solution
Ah, much better detail.. And we are ALL STILL trying to make sense of MANY things.. so don't feel bad..
Can you play the sound file in WinAmp or some other audio player? Does it seem loud enough. Play a music file through that same app and compare it..
Just because its LOWER in volume doesn't mean that its not loud enough. It just means it not as loud as you expect. Music, movies, computer games, etc are normally all mixed to the LOUDEST possible volume which is great for final mix, but not good for tracking or recording. Think of it like this.. If two guitars are recorded at "11" and your speakers only go to '15" what happens when you play back both guitars at the same time.. DISTORTION, because your speakers only go to 15. not 22! (11 + 11)
In other words, you might not have a problem at all! Your NLE should have some sort of sound mixing function where you can TURN up the level on the TRACK.. Figuring out HOW loud is LOUD ENOUGH is not easy and takes practice.. generally, just watch your audio level meters..
Ah, much better detail.. And we are ALL STILL trying to make sense of MANY things.. so don't feel bad..
Can you play the sound file in WinAmp or some other audio player? Does it seem loud enough. Play a music file through that same app and compare it..
Just because its LOWER in volume doesn't mean that its not loud enough. It just means it not as loud as you expect. Music, movies, computer games, etc are normally all mixed to the LOUDEST possible volume which is great for final mix, but not good for tracking or recording. Think of it like this.. If two guitars are recorded at "11" and your speakers only go to '15" what happens when you play back both guitars at the same time.. DISTORTION, because your speakers only go to 15. not 22! (11 + 11)
In other words, you might not have a problem at all! Your NLE should have some sort of sound mixing function where you can TURN up the level on the TRACK.. Figuring out HOW loud is LOUD ENOUGH is not easy and takes practice.. generally, just watch your audio level meters..
Just to add (and hopefully not further confuse), but audio on a computer is digital (obviously). The loudest anything can be is 0 dBFS and everything below that is -1 down to -oo. Music albums are mixed and compressed so that drums, vocals, guitars, ect... are all bumped up to hover between -4 and -0.1 dBFS.
For weak computer speakers this is great, as not much is required of them because the audio file is so loud.
For recording dialog, this isn't usually good as normal dialog levels go between -6 to -36. Obviously you need MUCH more powerful speakers to hear audio that's softer.
Although honestly, the easiest way to track down the source of the problem is if you can host a small example online.
Because the problem is most likely that your speakers aren't powerful enough, or the recorder's gain was set too low. (The FE-2LE has a builtin preamp like most recorders, and all recorders that have XLR connections built-in)