Need audio advice.

[adam brennan]

I am a little new to Red but I am coming from a DSLR background. I have Sennheiser wireless Lav Ew100 system and when I plug in the receiver to the Red Epic w microphone jack input, I don't seem to get great sound out of it.

What are your recommendations on what I should do if I want to use the wireless Lavs? Any thoughts or direction much appreciated for this newbie.

 

[Marc Wielage]

Most likely, the line-level output of the Sennheiser is overloading the mike preamp. Either get a physical -30dB pad to knock it down (like the pads made by Shure), or find a way to turn the receiver output way, way down.

I routinely fed a Lectro SRb into Red cameras when I was doing sound, and this receiver would allow dropping the line output down to essentially mic level. Sounded absolutely fine, but I did have to turn it almost completely down.

 

[adam brennan]

Most likely, the line-level output of the Sennheiser is overloading the mike preamp. Either get a physical -30dB pad to knock it down (like the pads made by Shure), or find a way to turn the receiver output way, way down.

I routinely fed a Lectro SRb into Red cameras when I was doing sound, and this receiver would allow dropping the line output down to essentially mic level. Sounded absolutely fine, but I did have to turn it almost completely down.

I think my transmitter is at -30dB and my receiver is at -18dB. My problem is the sound is low on the video recording. I have the mic level on the Red almost all the way up. So what you are saying is lowering the output on the receiver going into the red? Mine is a DSMC2 which I hear have this issue?

 

[Elsie N]

I would love to be able to tell you that though different, my problem was the same. That is, using on board mics in either the RAVEN or WEAPON CF, I found the sound level was low when opened in post even though I jacked up the levels in-camera.

But then when I boosted the levels in post, the sound came across as clean and sufficiently loud.

Hope this would have helped. '-)

 

[David Peterson]

Do it dual system with TC

 

[Jan Balster]

Change the "sensitivity" to something closer to -20dB or -10dB and then bring down the preamp on the RED.

Your setup is not really suitable for high end audio but it'll do in a pinch or as a scratch track. I frequently use the Ew100 system as a wireless hop from my mixer to the camera to have a scratch track for the editor to sync to.

Good luck!

- Jan

 

[Joshua VP]

I have the same mic setup and I've never been able to get this guy to sound very good directly jammed into the RED. I've always, had the pre amps the lowest they could go, and it still seems to distort and be way to powerful. With that being said, I don't jam audio directly into my RED all that much via A Box unless it's a shot gun mic. If I'm trying to get decent audio, I try to mount a Tascam DR - 40 to my swiss plate/shoulder mount and go into those channels. I also, would love to figure out a way to jam timecode with both of these devices, as I've been doing front/back claps and recording in camera audio as well - If your shooting pro res, you can use something like Pluraleyes to sync the two, but shooting interviews via R3D - I believe Pluraleyes doesn't have the ability to sync. Lately, we've been hiring audio guys to jam our cameras/audio via timecode and let them monitor it.. We all start to get to that point, were it get's a little to tough to do everything..

 

[adam brennan]

This is why think Red is a bit crazy. I own two Canon C200s and don't have to worry about these issues. With Red, I have to jerry rig stuff to make it work if I can figure out that piece or pay silly gobs of money. Just nonsense.

 

[Christian Celada]

Do it dual system with TC

best way to go, dont struggle with anything else!

 

[Blair Thornton]

I don't know why no one else hasn't mentioned this yet, but pre-conditioning audio before feeding it into the Red works well.

I use a Sound Devices Mix-Pre-D as it has high quality pre-amps and analog limiter. ENG100 and/or shotgun to Mix-PreD to RED.

Another option I'm seriously looking at is the OMOD XLR2 https://offhollywoodny.com/products/omod-xlr?mc_cid=7af77aaea8&mc_eid=fd8ea3d2b9

 

[Rakesh Malik]

I'm eyeing an Omod XLR2 also, and in the interest of keeping my kit simple, I'm leaning toward that rather than one of the new MixPre-D's, even though I love Sound Devices recorders for their ergonomics and sound quality.

I'm surprised that there aren't any reviews of the Omod XLR modules that I can find. And they seem to be the only solid means for providing on-camera audio for a Red that isn't a bit kludgy.

 

[Phil Holland]

I'm eyeing an Omod XLR2 also, and in the interest of keeping my kit simple, I'm leaning toward that rather than one of the new MixPre-D's, even though I love Sound Devices recorders for their ergonomics and sound quality.

I'm surprised that there aren't any reviews of the Omod XLR modules that I can find. And they seem to be the only solid means for providing on-camera audio for a Red that isn't a bit kludgy.

I just purchased one very recently to outfit my second camera with XLR phantom. Early thoughts are good, it's a bit shorter than the REDVOLT Expander and of course you have more physical control over the signal. Having it on the body is extremely convenient when feeding it mic or recorder signals.

 

[Rakesh Malik]

I just purchased one very recently to outfit my second camera with XLR phantom. Early thoughts are good, it's a bit shorter than the REDVOLT Expander and of course you have more physical control over the signal. Having it on the body is extremely convenient when feeding it mic or recorder signals.

Thanks for that.

How's the sound quality?

This is probably the route that I'm going to take for audio in the future.

 

[adam brennan]

Just as a follow up, I decided to go the route of the DSMC2 Red Volt Expander and hope that will help simplify and solve my problem.

 

[Michael Hastings]

Do it dual system with TC

best way to go, dont struggle with anything else!

This is why think Red is a bit crazy. I own two Canon C200s and don't have to worry about these issues. With Red, I have to jerry rig stuff to make it work if I can figure out that piece or pay silly gobs of money. Just nonsense.

I'm a Red fan since my SN206 Redone, DSMC1, Dragon Upgrade, Now Epic-W with V-Lock I/o expander and while I hate to criticize Red, I have to agree with Adam It is ridiculous to be dealing with worse than cheap DSLR audio on a $30K camera and a $1900 module. Its's ridiculous to have to bolt on a clunky preamp to get decent sound on board. And we shouldn't have to run Dual System - I have good $2K 8 channel portable mixer but don't want to be tethered all the time, and on top of that extremely disappointed with the 1/8" mic input even if I do dual system. Even if they couldn't figure out how to use a Hirose or Lemo - they could have at least used one of the 1/8" stereo jacks that has the threading to lock the connector. I have one of those cheap EW100 style Sennheiser transmitters for my guitar (which can take a XLR adapter as well) and it has the threaded 1/8" jack to lock it securely in.

Is there anyone that can install one of those threaded adapters into the V-Lock I/O? (My big fat, machine shop mangled fingers aren't that great for soldering in small spaces.)