Can 702T record 2 tracks with different gain levels like tascam DR40?

[Lee M]

I have the sound devices 702t and was curious if it can record 2 tracks from the same mic simultaneously with different gain levels. I have the tascam DR-40 as well and it seems to be a feature on this device which is 10% of the price.

Also I may as well ask here, what is a good default setting/rule of thumb for audio gain levels? Right now I am just doing trial and error by listening through the head phones and playing back a test recording on my computer speakers to determine the level with the least background noise as possible yet still capturing intense audio. I left my fan running on the red since its quieter than the wireless transmitter I have that doesn't have an option to turn off. Is this the right way of going about this?

 

[Marc Wielage]

Depends on the Mic. There is no standard level beyond looking at the meters, listening, and making a judgement call.

You could always feed the mix to two tracks, then record the second track -10dB down from the first. Bear in mind that if the mic distorts at the source (or in the preamp), you're screwed. Gain Staging is an important concept for both audio and video processing: you have to keep the levels optimized at every processing stage in the signal chain.

I would say in general, for a dailies mix, I aim to peak the signal at about -10dBfs, but if it's an industrial/web project that's going to get very little mixing, I might go 5dB-6dB higher and use a limiter.

 

[Lee M]

I have both the Sennheiser MKH-50 and MKH-416. I was going to rig one of them up directly to the Red but could always put my cheap autotechnica on there and use both these mics at different levels on the boom. It's an indoor scene. Should I leave any preamp settings off on the mic's itself and just do it all through the 702T? Also by feed the mix into the two tracks do you mean splitting one mic into two inputs? I am guess if I did this I would have to only have the power for the mic coming out of one input right?

 

[Lee M]

So I ended up shooting the other day and had the MKH50 set at 40db and MKH416 set at 45db. I also had an audiotechnica shotgun mic attached to the RED, forgot what setting, may have been 45DB. The shoot ended up going really well but while reviewing the audio now, I am noticing it is not as loud as I would have expected when my speakers volume is all the way up. I put in a movie file and noticed the audio floating at -12 to -6db and too loud to play at max volume, the audio file from my shoot is floating around -50 to -20db. Can this audio be saved or would I need to re-record it? I am ready to shoot scene 2 and was going to leave the mic settings as is to keep the audio consistent but am now thinking of increasing the gain. On the SD 702T should I be averaging in the yellow for the level meter and avoiding the RED? The audio from the MKH50 was super low compared to the MKH416.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[Christopher Mills]

I think you need at least another human being working with your audio on this... even with only two tracks, you would get much better results from a sound mixer paying attention to levels as you shoot.
It's not just the db numbers you see as you gain stage. It's also about the monitoring, both with ears, and eyes on the meters.
I think that you have good mics and a good recorder in your set up, though.

 

[Marc Wielage]

So I ended up shooting the other day and had the MKH50 set at 40db and MKH416 set at 45db. I also had an audiotechnica shotgun mic attached to the RED, forgot what setting, may have been 45DB. The shoot ended up going really well but while reviewing the audio now, I am noticing it is not as loud as I would have expected when my speakers volume is all the way up. I put in a movie file and noticed the audio floating at -12 to -6db and too loud to play at max volume, the audio file from my shoot is floating around -50 to -20db. Can this audio be saved or would I need to re-record it?

Sound generally needs to be mixed and finished in a project -- you don't just throw a track onto an image file and call it done. Often, we compress or ride levels on every single word said in dialogue, so there is no "set and forget" magic level. It helps to have hardware faders to do this, along with really good monitors.

I think you need at least another human being working with your audio on this... even with only two tracks, you would get much better results from a sound mixer paying attention to levels as you shoot.

That is also very true.

 

[Christian Moriarty]

on the 702T - go into the menu and turn on the limiters
afa peak - allow the input to just tickle the 1st red dot on the meters

 

[Lee M]

Thanks for the tips, I will give these a try.