mellzers Posted January 30, 2007 Report Share Posted January 30, 2007 Okay...so I bought a battery module with bass roll off and was all set to get some beautiful recordings. I hit five shows - the first and second I plugged the battery module into the mic input and no matter what I did with the sound levels it came out very overloaded and distorted. Third and fourth shows, I put the mic and battery module into the line-in with manual recording levels and the sound was so soft that I could barely hear anything even when I had the volume level all the way up (am going to be able to salvage them with some heavy editing, I think). The fifth I said heck with it and put the battery module and mic into the line in and used AGC - that produced the best recording of the bunch, but now that I am transferring it to my computer there is an underlying hiss (only audible when you turn the volume up a great deal, but still it's there). I record things that are both very loud and very soft within the same show - anyone have an idea what to do to get a good solid sound without the hiss for the softer parts or the distortion on the louder? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A440 Posted January 30, 2007 Report Share Posted January 30, 2007 (edited) First, the mic jack usually can't handle amplified music, even softer amplified music. You always want to go into the Line-in, using the battery module both to boost the signal a little and improve the response of the mic. My guess is that you need a different mic, because it sounds like the one you are using now is very low sensitivity. Line-in needs a strong signal, and it's not getting it. The hiss with AGC would probably be from the unit boosting both the signal from the mic and the mic's self-noise. Every mic has noise, but when it's not getting a strong enough signal you'll hear the noise more clearly. What mic are you using? Some Sony mics are very low sensitivity, in an attempt to prevent them distorting when just plugged directly into the mic jack (and, incidentally, did you try that?). Get Greenmachine's mics (in Europe) or Sound Professionals BMC-2 (in the U.S.) and you should easily make excellent recordings with the battery module to Line-in. http://www.geocities.com/greenmachine_audio/http://www.soundprofessionals.com/cgi-bin/gold/item/SP-BMC-2Meanwhile, to improve what you've got, you could filter out the hiss with Audacity, using Noise Reduction (if you have a sample of the hiss alone) or a Low Pass filter. Edited January 30, 2007 by A440 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mellzers Posted January 30, 2007 Author Report Share Posted January 30, 2007 Thank you for your quick reply. What mic are you using? Some Sony mics are very low sensitivity, in an attempt to prevent them distorting when just plugged directly into the mic jack (and, incidentally, did you try that?).I use Sound Professionals BMC-3, so that is why I'm confused...I've always heard that these are good microphones, but honestly I'm not all that impressed. I got them less than a year ago but they're rather crappy - no matter what I do the sound is always heavily skewed to the left (I have to boost the right side 4 - 5 dB to get it to really sound stereo). I have tried just plugging it into the microphone jack without the battery module, but then the bass really kills the recording.Fortunately the hiss is only audible during the very quiet parts, so I'm going to fiddle around in Cool Edit Pro and see what I can remove. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A440 Posted January 30, 2007 Report Share Posted January 30, 2007 Those should be good mics--maybe you got a lemon. The two sides should definitely not be mismatched, especially if they arrived that way. Those mics should also be sensitive enough. I almost always use BMC-2, which have the same specs for sensitivity (and I think everything else) and work great with a battery module. Soundpros has a two-year warranty, so I suggest calling or emailing them about a warranty repair, which would probably just be a replacement anyway. They've been pretty fast about that sort of thing with me. When I wore out some BMC-2's near the end of the two years, and lost a channel, they replaced them with no problem. Also, an obvious question but....is the battery in the battery module fresh? When the battery starts to go, it doesn't just go dead; there's a stretch when it puts through very weak, staticky sound. Cool Edit probably has some serious hiss filters to play with, so I hope that works for you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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