run and gun audio levels advice

[Mike Harrington]

i have to shoot some doc work some of which will have to be onboard audio...

i have had problems in the past with setting proper levels in red and some of my audio had been overdriven while still not clipping(totally my fault....we had secondary audio for that one)

so while experimenting with some sennheiser g2 eng recievers I have them set to -24bis (that's there terminology not sure how that translates to db)
i'll copy paste from the sennheiser manual....it's there recommended settings
EM 100 G2 EK 100 G2
􀁹 Line level input: 0 bis +18 dB 0 bis +12 dB
􀁹 Microphone level input: –24 bis –6 dB –30 bis –6 dB

while on the red side I have the levels set to mic level and approx +48db input level.

i am in the field and we have no audio guy tommorow so i have no access to tone or anything....my thinking is set the red input levels so that i can have clipping....but just (at +40db on the levels i could not clip it if i screamed as loud as i could) I am thinking this should match the range of the mics and give us the most dynamic range

I am definately not an audio guy and am totally confused by the different terminology's (dbU, dbfs, bis ect ect) but i am wondering if my logic is right in this matter... i need to get decent sound as tommorow is the only day we have for this...and the sound man dosn't show up for a few days

 

[Neil Uchitel]

Hi Mike,

There are a few other posts in the last week about this. The RED audio line ins at 0 db input level run too hot. Experiment with your receivers to see how much you'll need to drop the signal, but I wouldn't get too close to the top on the RED audio meters. The A/D to converters really aren't that good and you want plenty of headroom.