OT-Audio into Betacam Deck

vidiot57 wrote on 9/13/2005, 3:08 PM
hello,

Been having to deal with a Betacam deck at work lately..Not sure about audio levels.. One example would be playing a tape out of our Z1 into the Betacam deck.., the audio is feed through a mackie.. I guess one question would be, if you have a 1K tone, is there a standard to set the level to on this tone??(I can see the vu meters on the front of the Betacam deck)

Is is safe to say you do not want the vu meters on the front to ever go into the red?? What is a good range for the audio on the meters to be at?? I

Thanks,
mike M.



Comments

winrockpost wrote on 9/13/2005, 3:13 PM
Spot has a great article on this subject, called something like the deadly analog to digital audio somethin or other,, look on his site (VASST) I'm sure you can find it.
farss wrote on 9/13/2005, 3:52 PM
Well on our SP decks going through a straight digital to analogue converter the -20dB alignment tones on DV tapes read 0dB on the SP decks meters. Program does goes slightly into the red on the SP decks meters, I believe this is OK, no tapes have ever been bounced.
Bob.
GlennChan wrote on 9/14/2005, 11:25 PM
From Jay Rose's books (and my own notes):

Tone should hit 0VU on the deck. Since you can fiddle with the knobs on the deck, it doesn't matter too much what level your digital tone is.

The needle thing on the deck should not go over 4VU. Nor sure what this correlates to in Vegas. You probably shouldn't peak 8dBFS greater than tone.

Clarification of the terminology I use:
dBFS refers to digital tone, or what levels are in Vegas.
VU is analog.
vidiot57 wrote on 9/15/2005, 6:30 AM
Hello,

OK, thanks for the replies.. Let me clarify.. When i have tone going into the Betacam deck,(its fed via a Mackie panel) i can adjust the Mackie so that the meter on the front of the Betacam deck reads 0 db..(during the 1k tone)
and then (provided my source is setup right), it should be at the right level..?
Mike M.

GlennChan wrote on 9/17/2005, 12:06 AM
Hmm I don't think I understood your problem right.

Are you recording raw camera originals or finished program material onto the Betacam deck?
farss wrote on 9/17/2005, 2:17 AM
Yes,
if the -20dBFS tone from Vegas reads 0VU on the deck you'll be fine, assuming of course all is well on the digital side.
Bob.