@phil_er_up - It bugs me too that the line out settings are locked but is it really necessary to adjust them after you start recording? Assuming you have meters on your camera, you should be able to match it's levels with the 70D by using the slate tone function. That way all the gain adjustment would happen on the front of 70D, which is the way it's supposed to be... I think.
I did this running a backup recorder the other night and it worked great, the only disadvantage is that the camera/line out mixes channels 1/2 and 3/4 to stereo so your levels have to be set just right for the stereo mix to sound good.
Here's how I use slate to match levels.
- Go to Monitor settings - Set Monitor Sel. to MIX, Output Level to 0dB and Output Gain to LINE (or CAM in your case)
- Go to Slate - Set Tone Volume to -18dB (or which ever you prefer)
- Start recording on 70D and hold down the SLATE button
- Now raise the gain on the camera until the levels reach -18dB
Now that the camera levels are synced with the 70D all level adjustments can be made with the gain pots. If you want the camera to record a couple dB above or below the 70D adjust the Output Level in Monitor settings menu before you start recording.
Hope I'm not stating the obvious here.
Thanks again Rally_AK. Also, thanks for the answers about adding this feature to the DR70 in a FAQ. It is appreciated.
I did "use slate to match levels". Do have meters on my camera and it matched exactly with the the level the SLATE was putting out say -12 or -18 DB.
I set it at -18, -12 and 0 DB and then turned down the DR70 camera output from -40 DB to -54 DB and other setting too. The camera audio is very sensitive and can overload very easy.
Agree with Rally_Ak that sometimes you can set the level correctly. Though if there are multiple bands or venue increases DB at the show or I almost always play with my pre-amp and recorder levels for first 5 minutes of shows to try and get them "exactly right" and can not do the same for the camera once I hit the record button.
Well the way I look at this would any of us buy a recorder/preamp that did not have accessible gain controls while its recording. You need to have the ability to change the recorder and camera in tandem for this to be effective.
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Don't get me wrong I still like this recorder. It is very small has 4 channels, updated pre's and other nice features...