Bmpcc 6k flat audio waveforms

Hi,

Shooting in a public location without control of ambient sound (shooting in NYC) using a Sennheiser shotgun with phantom power from the mini xlr the meters looked okay and it sounded decent in my headphones. But when I saw it in post the waveform was nearly flat. I'd kept the gain at 50. In post I raised the dialogue to acceptable levels and the noise floor came up with it and was very loud.

So I did a test using a Canon C100 vs my bmpcc 6k with gain bumped to 100 and the waveform out of the Canon was still much more pronounced.

What I'm wondering is if there is a way to get usable, or even good, in camera bmpcc audio with the xlr in a noisy, uncontrolled environment when using a shotgun mic?

The Canon C100 is a dinosaur so I'd be surprised if audio in the bmpcc 6k isn't better, but I haven't yet found out how. Any help will be appreciated.

If the answer is a field recorder I'd appreciate your suggestions.

Thank you!

The pre amps in the pocket cameras are very weak and either need a loud signal source, a 'hot' mic or an external pre amp to boost the gain.

Thanks, John.

Following up on my own request for field recorder suggestions...

After a lot of research I decided on the MixPre 6 II and LOVE it! I've recorded both 32 bit float (which wasn't necessary, but I was curious) and 24 bit using the factory default settings and the results have been great. Mic placement is key, of course, but what I wasn't expecting was how effective the analogue limiters would be at preventing clipping. The limiters default to factor settings in "easy" setup mode so as you're learning the mixer you can still default to the 24 bit easy setup and capture great sound. One of my favorite purchases of 2022.

Aside from dual system recording, if you're recording directly into the bmpcc get the mic as close as possible and crank the gain (test to see where is best) and you can get usable audio in camera.

Congratulations on the Sound Devices MixPre-6 II. If you’re doing your post in DaVinci Resolve / Fairlight, you can record either 24bit linear or 32bit floating point. I use 32bit float just to be safe and audio clipping isn’t a concern. I also used the Advanced settings so take a look at that option in the manual to see if you feel there’s value in that.

Thank you, Rick. I'll will check out the advanced audio settings in Fairlight and appreciate the tip.

I would highly recommend the Noise and Mix assist plugins for the MixPre-II, especially in run and gun doco work. The NA is highly effective at filtering out traffic and background noise in PTCs. No need for 32bit if levels are set with headroom and limiters set right. I also have an old, yet still stellar, 302 mixer, which offers even more inputs for the 6.

Hey Steve, thanks for the suggestion. I just started watching Curtis Judd's review/demo and it sounds really impressive!

I would highly recommend the Noise and Mix assist plugins for the MixPre-II, especially in run and gun doco work. The NA is highly effective at filtering out traffic and background noise in PTCs...

Thanks for the tip, Steve; I haven’t used plug-ins on the MixPre-6 II but sounds worth investigating.