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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Distorted audio

Daniel Powell said:
i'd pull the mic and plug to channel 2 and it would work for about 3 seconds then fade out.

strange eh?
Click to expand...

that looks like an 48v phantom power problem ... what mic to u use ?
check an other cable.
 
Daniel Powell said:
camera ch 1 set to line, 0db. ch 2 set to mic, +48v.
mic to mixer, mixer plugged to channel 1 audio to camera no probs (except the mismatch levels of course).
Click to expand...

so ... with an lower audiosignal there is no clipping ... but its too low, isn't it ?

... but better thene clipping ... even not professional, though :violent:
 
seems like this build just needs some work. 48v problem, input or meter calibration problem.

using an oktava mk012. cable was fine. i alternated between stabbint into the mixer then to camera then mixer etc...worked in the mixer every time. worked for 3 seconds into camera about 2 of the 6 times that i tried it.

next shoots i'm just gonna drive my mixer even lower than i have and hope for the best. i really hope i don't ever need to plug direct to camera :)
 
Michael P. Schmidt said:
so ... with an lower audiosignal there is no clipping ... but its too low, isn't it ?

... but better thene clipping ... even not professional, though :violent:
Click to expand...

thing is, when you're on set you want to match your mixer meters to the camera's meters so you have a visual reference of the sound the cam is picking up. if you see it clip on your mixer than you damn sure want another take!
you can drive the output of your mixer way lower and get good sound to camera but if it's too low you get a bad s/n ratio...and that's almost as bad as clipping.

so yeah...professional would be the ability to match the meters. then you know for sure what you're sending to camera.
 
Daniel Powell said:
cable was fine. i alternated between stabbint into the mixer then to camera then mixer etc...worked in the mixer every time. worked for 3 seconds into camera about 2 of the 6 times that i tried it.
Click to expand...

I thought as much.

...

now i'm a little glad that we shoot with an Canon XH-A1 on friday ;)
 
Daniel Powell said:
so yeah...professional would be the ability to match the meters. then you know for sure what you're sending to camera.
Click to expand...

... so it's better to have an backup external audiorecorder on hand ;-)

we do mostly corporate video ... so we usual plug the mic direct at/on/in the cam ... until now not with the RED


anyway ... any word about that from the RED-Team?
 
Input sensitivity on the Mackie may be set a little too high. Do a PFL check on the mic channel and see if you are over driving the input. Some Mackies don't have much headroom on the mic pre's. Channel peak indicator light should never come on, if it has them. 0VU reference on the Mackie meters should correspond to -12dB FS on the RED for proper calibration. Some people set 0vu to -20dB FS reference for more headroom. The clipping sounds like analog soft clipping, not like digital clipping.
 
Daniel Powell said:
last time i did a shoot with this camera the meters looked fine but the record level was way too low due to having the setting at -10 on camera.
Click to expand...

I was wondering how did you get -10 on camera? The line level in build 17 has +10 or 0 for a choice, not a -10.

A 1k - 0 VU tone fed to a RED on build 18 should hit at -20dbFS in Final Cut - worth testing to see if your mixer output is hot. How do you send a reference tone on a Mackie 1202?

Also on smaller mixers if you pick Phantom on one channel you have it on all mic inputs. I love Mackies for my edit bay but never considered their meters sensitive enough for acquisition.
 
I have had many of the problems reported here too - using Build 17. I have checked, rechecked, had professional sound recordists check. It was actually unworkable to use line level from 2 different SQN mixers into the RED. The signal was too hot - or we had too little travel on the faders to function properly. In the end we resorted to using mic level out of the mixers and so had some control on the camera.
Going directly into the camera with the same mic - a sennheiser 416 was fine, we had level control in the camera. The recordings sounded fine played back in the camera but they were very low level in FCP - I personally think this is something in FCP though.
I'm glad someone else is highlighting this problem as the previous responses from Red were not particularly helpful (sorry guys) and I'm hopeful that someone will look into this and try to figure out if there really is a problem and if there is it gets solved. If there isn't I hope someone can explain what's happening.

There was another thread about the wiring of the mini xlr sockets being non-standard, would this cause any of these issues? I assume that the non-standard is for a reason, and that it doesn't actually affect anything - anyone know?
here's that thread: http://www.reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?t=30219
thanks for any help that may come

p
 
Brian and David,
Have you had on-set success using any mixer going into the RED matching meters? Any real world tips on attaining that perfect situation would be very beneficial to all who have any problems. Please!!! Share info!!!

I'm sure my mixer's output isn't any hotter than any other mixer. I tested a different mixer today and had the same results.

Input level is fine. I keep the trims low and I'm certain the mic pres aren't taking a hit.

The thing that I find most perplexing about all of this is that I can set up my system and plug into an SDX900, or F900 and have no problem getting my meters to match and have no analog or digital clipping whatsoever.
If I was to set a up RED next to one of those, yank the XLRs and stab them into the RED I'm pretty sure the RED's meters would be clipping like crazy.
Maybe I'll get the chance to test that...if the results are as I suspect, how can it be explained?
 
Audio issues too

Audio issues too

I have been having these issues too. My camera is in the 5000+ serial and had the new audio board already installed. I'm running out of the mixer line level into the RED. Meters look good on the RED... running into the orange (never hit totally right red/clip), but when I bring them back into FCP, on some "hotter" lines they sound distorted. The mixer is not doing this (sounds fine through there, and even through camera while recording) and we are not clipping in camera... why does it sound distorted?
 
kylebainter said:
I have been having these issues too. My camera is in the 5000+ serial and had the new audio board already installed. I'm running out of the mixer line level into the RED. Meters look good on the RED... running into the orange (never hit totally right red/clip), but when I bring them back into FCP, on some "hotter" lines they sound distorted. The mixer is not doing this (sounds fine through there, and even through camera while recording) and we are not clipping in camera... why does it sound distorted?
Click to expand...

Much has been written about this, although the situation has yet to be resolved.
http://205.234.135.241/forum/showthread.php?t=26140
 
RED Camera got updated today to v3.6.4 and many things changed.

A. There is only one hash mark on the meters now. Yesterday there were three. Is there supposed to be 20db of headroom above that mark? I don't think there is...more like 10db.

B. The 48v phantom power works no problem now.

C. The camera seems to handle the levels WAY better now. Yesterday the camera was peaking if my mixer VU got to about -10 or -7. Today I was pushing my meters to around +4 and the camera meters were barely getting orange.

D. It looks like there are some new level settings on the menus...but i didn't mess with them yet.
 
Daniel Powell said:
RED Camera got updated today to v3.6.4 and many things changed.

A. There is only one hash mark on the meters now. Yesterday there were three. Is there supposed to be 20db of headroom above that mark? I don't think there is...more like 10db.

B. The 48v phantom power works no problem now.

C. The camera seems to handle the levels WAY better now. Yesterday the camera was peaking if my mixer VU got to about -10 or -7. Today I was pushing my meters to around +4 and the camera meters were barely getting orange.

D. It looks like there are some new level settings on the menus...but i didn't mess with them yet.
Click to expand...

Excellent :sifone:
 
So, our first day on set with 3.6.4 and the camera was throwing record errors and the headphone out would stop working, until Daniel re-set some audio items in the menu. Shoot for 20-45 min with no issue, then problems repeat. The down time was killing us so we reverted back to the previous build - the one with distorted audio. And recorded with lower levels.
 
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