Nikon DSLR Audio Help

[Koshua]

Every time I shoot video with audio (Nikon D7200), I set audio levels manually until the sound of the scene peaks out at around -12db. When I open up the file in Premiere, it sounds too quiet! Do I raise the levels and have it peak at higher than -12db? On the current mic, you can also hear a constant hiss.

I'm currently recording audio with the Rode Videomic GO, but I'm upgrading to the Rode Videomic Pro (to use the +20db setting to reduce gain).

Extra credit for some good tutorial links to show how to clean up and edit audio (I have the entire Adobe Creative Suite).

 

[Dave Colangelo]

The constant hiss is from a combination of the mic and the amplifier in the camera if you can identify the frequency it is occurring at (hard application of a band pass filter will shed some light on this) you can better correct for it. You may want to peek out around -4db, remember decibels are logarithmic so -12db is exponentially more quiet than -4 db. Editing audio is similar to say photoshop on the surface but completely different in its worn right. In another life I did mainly audio work and my one serious piece of advice, before you go nuts on gear get a good set of monitor speakers (KRK Rockets or M-Audio BX series can be had for a pretty fair price). With out a decent set of speakers to play back through you will never get good audio results.

You may also be able to get rid of some hiss by using an external microphone pre amp. The onboard pre-amp is only so good. Ill refrain form suggestions as I dont know that much about the small portable ones shy of the fact they exist (I know more about the large studio ones). The preamp will give you a much cleaner drive circuit.

Regards
Dave