Lectrosonics levels

[Mark Phelan]

Question for those who are on the original sound board and Build 17. I'd appreciate any insight or tips you might offer for levels settings for dialogue using the Lectro UCR411a/SMa setup. I was playing with the settings last night and the sound is great, but the levels are not as strong as I'm thinking they should be. Is this something the new board addresses/fixes? Would love to hear some tips.

[Tom Visser]

The new board does have improved dynamic range, so would provide a potential improvement as it would accept a full scale input / source. The other "problem" that you have is that for best results, you really should use an external mixer with gains one can ride. Which also means that for best results, you should utilize a person acting as a location mixer. That is the only way you can be assured of getting both hot levels and not clip / overdrive the audio when things get more dynamic.

[Mark Phelan]

I have an external mixer, but it might be problematic to operate on a moving jib. I'd like to fly the receivers on the camera, so that's part of my query.

[Tom Visser]

I have an external mixer, but it might be problematic to operate on a moving jib. I'd like to fly the receivers on the camera, so that's part of my query.

should be totally workable like that, its just a balancing act of how hot you want to print and how much you want to risk an over. I usually put a wireless hop on the output of the mixer and then to a wireless receiver on the camera. that way you can still use an audio mixer and have the convenience of untethered operation. that way you can still have someone riding gains and get the benefit of the mixer's limiters for those oops moments. the downside of course is that it requires more hardware.

[Mark Phelan]

Hadn't thought of that, that's a nice idea. Thanks.