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Gear / Technical Help => Ask The Tapers => Topic started by: hijoq on February 02, 2026, 07:02:40 AM
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Hello everyone, next week I will tape a show with a new setup, Sound Professionals CMC-8 (with battery box) and a Zoom H1N.
Since it won't be easy to check the levels during the show, does anyone here use the same setup and tell me where to set the recording level? Is 5 safe enough?
Any feedback is appreciated, thanks!
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Do this test at home: clap your hands very close to the mic capsules and watch the meters. If it clips, lower the gain until the peaks hit around −18 to −20 dB — then you’re ready to go.
If the sound is very loud (for example, a rock concert right in front of the PA), use line-in. Use mic-in for quiet, acoustic stuff.
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Which version of the SP-CMC-8? There are several and they have pretty different sensitivities. For the mini-jack versions, the high- versus low-sensitivity differ by 7 dB. That's more than double (or half, depending on which way you do the comparison). That is to say that for a given dBSPL, you would have to amplify the low-sensitivity version by 7 dB to match the level of the high-sensitivity model. Also, how will you be powering them? Although SP specs the mics to operate from 2 - 12 V, the recorder's pretty meager 2.5 V plug-in power is probably sufficient for quiet sources but, personally, I think I would want a battery box for anything loud. Max SPL, for example, generally decreases as supply decreases (although the SP-CMC-8 might actually perform to spec from 2 - 12 V).
What sort of music is it? The loudness of the music has a large impact on all of the rest. For loud music, you really need the low-sensitivity (or XLR) version of the mics and probably a battery box as well.
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Do this test at home: clap your hands very close to the mic capsules and watch the meters. If it clips, lower the gain until the peaks hit around −18 to −20 dB — then you’re ready to go.
If the sound is very loud (for example, a rock concert right in front of the PA), use line-in. Use mic-in for quiet, acoustic stuff.
The recorder has only a line input, I put it at volume 3 when taping from an external source (tv, mobile phone with music on). I'm just wondering how it handles external mics on a rock show (loud but not metal).
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The recorder has only a line input, I put it at volume 3 when taping from an external source (tv, mobile phone with music on). I'm just wondering how it handles external mics on a rock show (loud but not metal).
I don't know about the suitability of CMC8 and its various sensitivity options to specific SPL levels. But as aaronji mentions, that's going to depend on which sensitivity option you have for those particular microphones. Lower sensitivity accommodates higher SPLs, where as higher sensitivity is better suited for quieter material. Either way, set input gain so as to avoid overload on peaks, but not overly low else the quiet parts drop into the noise-floor., which applies generally to any microphones you might use.
Do this test at home: clap your hands very close to the mic capsules and watch the meters. If it clips, lower the gain until the peaks hit around −18 to −20 dB — then you’re ready to go.
That's a good test and is likely to be an appropriate setting for louder material. For quieter performances you can set the gain higher since the highest peaks will then occur during applause from nearby audience members. To optimize input gain in that case, raise levels until your own close/loud clapping at home beforehand just barely clips. During the concert no one is going to be clapping quite that close to the mics.. especially yourself since you've no doubt perfected the stealth clap which exudes visual enthusiasm while remaining audibly silent. ; )
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Problem solved, rec level set to 5 and everything went smooth!
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Nice one making the H1N work for you - that dial (and lack of a battery box) used to mess me up. Does the lock feature keep the gain at the same level, even if the dial spins?