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Author Topic: Decreasing Levels On Recordings  (Read 4795 times)

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Offline jamroom

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Decreasing Levels On Recordings
« on: May 20, 2019, 04:16:14 AM »
Found a weird issue with the levels on my last two recordings. I have been using the gear listed below for three shows now (new mics and babyNbox) and the last two had the following issue (I was going to post a screenshot, but by the time I realised I could not post an attachment and would need to upload to a hosting site, it was time to go to work!).

If I boosted the volume in Audition so that the beginning of the show was at 0db, the levels on both channels taper off so that for a 90 minute set, by the end, I would need to progressively boost the levels by up to at least +10db. I have done so with no sound issues (distortion, etc) and the resulting recording sounds good (recorded in 24bit).

The first of the two recordings affected was taped from the front at a very small club with mostly onstage amplification and last night was front of balcony with no obstructions and no change in house levels. The babyNbox battery was new three shows ago (should last for 100 hours, unless it is a duff new battery) and the M10 batteries were new three shows ago and still showing as fully charged (Duracell alkalines). The only anomaly I can see was that when I checked through the settings in the M10 was that battery type was still at NimH, rather than alkaline, but it must have been like that for months and didn't affect recordings with my previous mics. Plug-in power was off. No change in settings between these three gigs, other than M10 input volume setting.

Absolutely baffled. Any ideas? Need any further info? Thanks for any assistance.

Gear:

MBHO KA500 hypers -> BabyNbox and active cables-> Sony M10 in low pro mode (no issue with mic obstruction)

Offline jerryfreak

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Re: Decreasing Levels On Recordings
« Reply #1 on: May 20, 2019, 04:50:47 AM »
are you certain the show didnt actually get 10 dB quieter over the course of the performance? did you adjust levels at all during the performance

one way to correct this in soundforge, may work in audacity, is to paste your say 1 hour soundfile into a 10 hour blank file, then fade levels from zero to max (and since your file is at the end, it wont be fully faded, out, only about 10%, if that makes sense
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Offline jamroom

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Re: Decreasing Levels On Recordings
« Reply #2 on: May 20, 2019, 05:44:19 AM »
I never touched the levels at all for either show.  Though the mics and nbox are new, I have been using the M10 with other mics since early last year and this has never happened before.

I'm certain the house sounds levels were not reduced at either show.

I did manage to process the recording to recover the levels and it sounds fine, but thanks for the advice. 


Offline nulldogmas

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Re: Decreasing Levels On Recordings
« Reply #3 on: May 20, 2019, 07:37:37 AM »
I've had this happen on occasion with an M10 with dying batteries — sometimes one channel will even taper off first and then the other. As you experienced, when levels are re-normalized, everything sounds okay.

It's possible there's something else going on in addition that's causing this weird behavior, but given that changing batteries fixed the problem for me, I'd try changing those out first, and running some tests.

Offline jamroom

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Re: Decreasing Levels On Recordings
« Reply #4 on: May 20, 2019, 07:47:23 AM »
Sounds reasonable. I'm taping again tomorrow, so will put fresh batteries in the M10 anyway. I thought it was weird that the sound remained good, with no distortion or other artefacts, even though I can use it for far more than 3 shows with the church mics.

Thanks for the feedback.

Offline nulldogmas

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Re: Decreasing Levels On Recordings
« Reply #5 on: May 20, 2019, 11:48:30 AM »
Sounds reasonable. I'm taping again tomorrow, so will put fresh batteries in the M10 anyway. I thought it was weird that the sound remained good, with no distortion or other artefacts, even though I can use it for far more than 3 shows with the church mics.

Thanks for the feedback.

Yeah, I don't pretend to understand it, I just know I've experienced it as well.

Good luck tomorrow, and looking forward to hearing how it goes!

Offline jamroom

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Re: Decreasing Levels On Recordings
« Reply #6 on: May 22, 2019, 04:55:02 AM »
Sounds reasonable. I'm taping again tomorrow, so will put fresh batteries in the M10 anyway. I thought it was weird that the sound remained good, with no distortion or other artefacts, even though I can use it for far more than 3 shows with the church mics.

Thanks for the feedback.

Yeah, I don't pretend to understand it, I just know I've experienced it as well.

Good luck tomorrow, and looking forward to hearing how it goes!

You were spot on. Recording levels were as you would expect. Thanks again.

Offline nulldogmas

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Re: Decreasing Levels On Recordings
« Reply #7 on: May 22, 2019, 12:37:47 PM »
Sounds reasonable. I'm taping again tomorrow, so will put fresh batteries in the M10 anyway. I thought it was weird that the sound remained good, with no distortion or other artefacts, even though I can use it for far more than 3 shows with the church mics.

Thanks for the feedback.

Yeah, I don't pretend to understand it, I just know I've experienced it as well.

Good luck tomorrow, and looking forward to hearing how it goes!

You were spot on. Recording levels were as you would expect. Thanks again.

Great to hear! I wish I could explain why this happens, but finding a fix is 90% of the battle.

Offline DSatz

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Re: Decreasing Levels On Recordings
« Reply #8 on: May 23, 2019, 11:52:52 AM »
I sympathize with the original poster; I would never expect a Sony recorder to have such an elementary technical defect.

In all the thousands of messages that have been posted about this recorder (in which it is often made to seem nearly ideal), has this issue ever been raised?
music > microphones > a recorder of some sort

 

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