A Guide to Setting Gain for Field Recording: Tips and Tricks
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- Опубліковано 3 лип 2024
- Setting the gain for field recording is an essential skill for any sound designer, musician, or filmmaker. Proper gain settings can help you capture clean, high-quality audio recordings without distortion or clipping. In this guide, we'll cover everything you need to know about how to set gain for field recording.
READ MORE ABOUT HOW TO SET GAIN FOR FIELD RECORDING ↓
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Thanks,
Libby and Marcel - Навчання та стиль
Visit our Instagram account for more information, Behind The Scenes, and quick tutorials about Field Recording that you can't find on UA-cam.
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i gotta admit, yall are the reason i'm starting to do field recording to make foleys for my uni project, thank you for all the knowledge ♥
Thats wonderful! :)
Such great information. Thank you!
Thank you for another great informational video!
Exactly what I was looking for, perfect - and thanks!
Ah you found it already! :)
Bomb! Would be cool a video where you share the mastering process for sound dx and long ambience recordings! Keep it up!
Hi Tommaso! I only do light editing for my field recordings and never maste the tracks. If I do so I would take away a lot of parts that some sound engineers or music producers would like to have.
Thank you sir! You’re the best
Thanks for watching!
Great video as always !!
Thank you!!
Great video tutorial! I literally learnt more about sound in 7 minutes than I have learnt reading numerous books and from other video tutorials
Really helpful, thank you!!!!
Glad it was helpful!
Thank you for this - exactly the video I have been looking for!
Thank you so much for watching!
Great advice on setting levels, appreciate your knowledge sharing.
Glad it could help!
Very helpful, thank you!!
Glad it was helpful! :)
Great video and explanation, thanks!
Thank you so much for watching!
Love your work, man.
Thank you Lynden!
Thanks
Really great advice.
Thank you!
*I love the educational piece on setting Gains. Knowledge is powerful. Giving a hungry man fish is not as helpful as teaching him out to fish. Well, you just taught us how to fish. Many channels out there will instruct you on what to do without deeply explaining why. This will help improve the nature video recordings for my relaxation channel*
Thank you so much and we greatly appreciate your comment and the quote as well.
Thanks! Very useful 👍
Glad it was helpful! :)
So useful!
Thank you for watching :)
Very helpful; thank you.
Thank you for watching!
Thank you so much for this gold!
Thank you for watching David!
@@FreeToUseSounds Anytime!
Thank you 🙏
You’re welcome 😊
Thanks a lot for this very helpfull video. I wanted to ask you this question so now i have my answers 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼 keep on with your great videos
Glad it was helpful Benjamin!
Yep, I was among the ones who asked you about setting the gain ;) Your tips are invaluable and improved my recordings a lot!
thanks for putting the time into this :)
Cheers
Tom
That is so great to hear. Thank you for your feedback.
Very unique channel not many are doing, so this is helpful!
Thank you and we're really glad you found this video helpful.
Instantly liked the vid!
Thank you :)
Today is my first day - field recording with H1n
How're you going with it?
Thanks Marcel
You're welcome Bob and thank you for watching!
Enjoying your older videos again. That was very helpful for me, as it's something I do still struggle with sometimes. I guess I just need a bit more experience. Thanks Marcel.
Heya! :) Yeah it's all about practice :) You got that.
Very helpful. This is a question I always have while recording birds with a parabola. Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge. Patrice
So glad I could help Patrice!
I started recording nature sounds after discovering the channel! Admire your work and that of your wife. Thank you for always bringing great content! You are amazing! I'm going to test these new ways to adjust the levels
Thank you!!
For me ambience recordings are always the most fun. Its like a surprise bag - you want to record a calm ambience in the forest and suddenly there's this old Lanz Bulldog tractor you would never find if you would search for it. And so you never know if you've set your levels right :)
So true and that actually happened to me in Croatia :)
Valuable advice Marcel! Right now I'm doing some tests with the Zoom H6 to determine if actually lowering the gain brings advantages or not: a video by Julian Kraus on the gain intrigued me. I always thought that using the gain at maximum or high values produced noise (the Zoom is not among the quietest from this point of view) but lowering the gain and then raising it in post I don't think it leads to obvious advantages. I try to pick up the sound source that interests me with the highest possible level leaving some headroom (as you have shown in the case of loud sound recordings). As always, you are a source of inspiration. Thank you
Hi Giancarlo. I have to watch this video and thank you for watching as always. :)
I think it would be worth a mention that recording in 32bit float has changed the dynamics of how we can record.
True.
Thank you for sharing your knowledge. Could you Please make film about zoom h2n ( best ambient settings and best usage )
Thank you in advance 🙏
Great video! I just bought my first sound recording setup and its so much fun learning from you!
A video about how to edit SFX with free to use software (or lower priced one) would be awesome :)
greetings from Austria!
Hi! You can start with Reaper or Audacity. These are great programs to use.
@@FreeToUseSounds I've heard about them through your videos. I have audacity for now. But what I mean is what you options are when editing SFX. things you can improve (if there are any) :)
Let me think about it :)
This is a extremely important video. You guys are creating video that will be relative even 5 years later.
Well done both of you.
Thanks for saying that. We really love what we’re doing and it makes us happy knowing that it videos can help others.
when you describe the process of listening for internal noise, how do you set the headphone output volume for an accurate representation of what is being recorded?
Wieder ein sehr informatives Video, danke Marcel! Ich liege in meinen Ambience-Aufnahmen etwa bei -40 dB durschnittlichem Pegel, das deckt sich in ruhigen Gegenden gut mit Deinen Best-Practice-Beispielen. Eine Frage: Auf was achtest Du beim Hochpegeln ganz genau, um Noise vom Ambience-Sound unterscheiden und dann vorsichtig zurückpegeln zu können? Danke, Gruß Dirk
Thanks this was one of my biggest questions is setting levels in field recordings and do I always adjust to -12db
Hi Robert. Thank you so much for watching and I hope it helps.
Would the H6 be good enough to record ambient sounds like restaurants and coffee shops and then like rain, river and ocean sounds?
The thing with turning down the gain until you no longer hear noise also depends on the volume of your monitoring. Preamps have their noise floor (choose a good one!) and so do microphones, so if you turn down the gain you're not just attenuating the noise, but also the signal (what you actually want in the recording). If you record too low and have to raise the volume later you'll end up with more noise in the end. You'll also get bad artifacts from the conversion. Of course if it's just a few dB you won't hear a difference but if you're raising 25dB in post this makes a difference.
Of course it doesn't mean you should record everything as close to 0dB as possible, this will lower your headroom, maybe add inner sample peaks and clicks and probably activate a limiter (if the recorder has this function active) which you don't want.
Hopefully this will be helpful to anyone.
That is true Mino and thank you for mentioned that. I normally have the volume of the headphone output at 100 and I never really raise the gain in post because of that what you have mentioned. With 32 bit its a little different now.
@@FreeToUseSounds oh yeah, 32 bits is amazing! :)
Using always the same output volume is a great idea. It's like we do in post, calibrating the system and using always the same volume so you get used to the proper levels without having to look at the meters.
Keep up the cool videos, you have great content.
@@Justmino Working on it :) Tomorrow we have a new video coming up.
Marcel, thank you for the tips. Do you use compression or limiting for field recording?
Hi Andrew, I don't because I want to keep the recordings as original as possible because I'm not the end user.
Thanks, what is the best setting for the sound of the sea?
Depends on the sea.
I'm curious to know how you would handle an auto level feature like that on the Zoom H1n, I defaulted when I got the device to using it because I liked the idea that it would adjust the gain for dynamic sounds on the fly, but I find it brings up a lot of the H1n's inherent noise floor into the recording, and based on how it adjusts the gain, I think it will constantly be listening for differences in perceived volume so I'm trying to think of a scenario where this feature might be more desirable.
About how long should the samples be? Obviously a bird chirp is going to be shorter than a rainstorm, but what is typical for environmental sound?
Im a new sound recordist and getting into the fiction films & documentary films. Using H8. Need help with best sync sound setting in the recorder and when tonuse the -20db pads
when you say you listen to a environment like the forest and it is presenting to the recorder at -50 to -30 and you dont force the sound into the recorder by raising the gain. What levels are you set at when you do the initial listening? Are you operating at Unity gain first then just taking what the environment gives you and pushing record? Thanks.
Not sure if someone already asked it, but it seems to be implied you don't like using a limiter because it sounds more natural? But instead set the levels so that unexpected peaks will not clip the audio - so in louder environments you might shoot for a lower peak of the audio around -12-16db so if an ambulance or motorbike go by there will be enough headroom without clipping? Do you ever use a limiter in super dynamic/unexpected situations so that it compresses these peaks rather than clipping?
Hi Erick. That is correct when I use a 24 bit recorder but I have the F6, SD MixPre 6ii and the Tascam X8 which are all 32 bit. I don't have to worry about clipping.
How to keep from peaking when recording thunder?
32 bit recorder or using a limiter.
best levels for interviews on h6
Depends on too many things to just giving a blank answer. Do your research.
Hey Marcel.
I have a strange problem with my microphones. My Audio Technica 4022 cracks when recording outside. As soon as I'm at home, the microphones work completely without errors. Could it be that the microphones somehow contract when it's cold (-3 degrees Celsius) and that creates a crack. Have you already had a similar experience? i can not explain why the microphones do not crack with the same setup at home. ???? Need help :)
Hi! I haven't experienced this issue myself but I heard about popping or muffling sounds when it either is too cold or to humid. Do you see anything weird in the spectrogram? Not sure if you're part of the field recording group on Facebook but I would join this group and ask if other field recordist's have the same issue.
I find that I had to tweak the level on my XY capsule to almost 10 to get gain level at -12; the resulting audio files I get from setting it between 6 to 8 are all too low when I import into Vegas Pro 17. What am I missing?
Hi! What is your sound source?
I just bought a Zoom H5. I used it a lot during my studies for audio recording. I always had the problem of choosing how much gain to use for recording and how loud the headphones will be since you have to listen first a bit before start recording. Should I listen to 100% or less? What are you guys doing mostly?
Oh yes I always have my headphones at 100%. Thank you for mention that and that's something I should have talked about in the video.
Thats a great question!
Hi. I find your videos very informative and I would like to know why I have to crank up the volume knob on my ZOOM H8 up to 9 just to see the level meter reach -12. It doesn't seem normal because my other recorders by Tascam, the H1, and Sony M10, are all very sensitive that 5 on the volume or gain dial, it's able to reach -12 or -6. Also I couldn't get any signal from my DEITY shotgun when I plug it into the capsule's external mic input. Your advice will be most appreciated.
Hi C Jay. Yes I noticed that too that the H8 isn't as sensitive as other hand held recorders. It's better for recording loud sounds. Did you turn on phantom power on the H8 in order to get the signal?
@@FreeToUseSounds , no because the DEITY has inbuilt rechargeable battery. I might need ta verify with the DEITY guys about this interface issue with H8 signal impedance
@@cjsamtab7 Is it the Video Mic Pro? Are you trying to use it with the adapter or mini Jack?
@@FreeToUseSounds yea diety videoing pro 3 i think. TRS from the Rode Mic works on my DSLR but doesn't work on H8. I'm a nervous with impedance conflicts. Might fry one or both things.
@@cjsamtab7 Yeah just write Deity and they can check what's going on. I think it could be an H8 problem but you should be able to get a signal if you plug in the mini jack to the XY capsule?
Do you think the Zoom h4n pro with its internal xy mics is a well suited beginner's setup? I read that it has the same preamps as the h5 and h6.
Hi Marcus. Oh yes the H4n is a good beginner recorder.
@@FreeToUseSounds thanks mate :)
@@Marcus_R You're welcome :)
@@FreeToUseSounds one last question: do you think the h2n gets the job done as good? Or does the h4n pro have major advantages in terms of internal mics and pres?
@@Marcus_R Well the H2n doesn't have XLR inputs so keep this in mind. Also it all depends what you would like to record.
Just purchased "All in one bundle", but confused about the net disk...that I could only download one piece at a time while there's an unpredictable waiting for the "calculating size"...OMG...
Hi! That’s because of the download browser restriction of 20 GB.It’s from a technical POV not possible to zip a large amount of files. If you have a problem with that you can send me an email and I refund you right away.
@@FreeToUseSounds Never mind yo. I've checked again. It's ok if I choose single file to download once at a time. Though it'll take more time. But I really appreciate your work out there. Thanks again for your kindness.
I will create a new folder structure in the upcoming days. For example, check the Hong Kong category or Malta. That’s what I do for all countries.
Having noise on your ears by itself is a downer 😢