Handi-cam audio in...

[Dick Rees]

Friends...

I am dealing with feeding audio into one of these:

Canon Vixia HFM50

Input is (of course) a 1/8" stereo jack, mic level only After trying a couple of things and finally finding the "manual" setting, I noticed that even though the 'Automatic" (ALS) has been disengaged, there is still something in the "Manual" mode where the camera seems to be "looking for a signal".

With proper input level from the board and corresponding proper manual camera level set (verified with both pink noise and music program), if I pull the mains fader down to the bottom, the camera audio gradually starts buzzing, reaching maximum buzz in 3-5 seconds. I can deal with this OK now that I'm aware of it, but am curious as to what's going on with the camera audio circuitry.

It's dead quiet when the fader hits bottom, then....bzz...ZZZ...

Buehler? Anybody?

 

[Antoon van den Oetelaar]

Re: Handi-cam audio in...

Sounds really like a auto gain / compressor.
I think you could try it with a gated signal, record input signal also to a multitrack en compare output of the camera with it in some nice editor.

 

[Dick Rees]

Re: Handi-cam audio in...

Auto-gain should be disabled when switched to manual input level or so it would seem. I did not see any evidence of gain reduction on the meters. Everything was set up to corresond 1:1 between the Qu desk and the camera. Pink noise registering output of 0 on the Qu mains meters (dBvu) registers a steady -12dBfs on the camera meter. If the board output is increased by 10dB, the camera meter shows a tad below 0dBfs. No gain reduction is evident.

Maybe some kind of leveler?