Setting Gain Levels for Zoom Field Recording Devices: Tips and Tricks

Setting the gain for field recording is an essential skill for any sound designer, musician, or filmmaker. Proper gain settings can help you capture clean, high-quality audio recordings without distortion or clipping. In this guide, we'll cover everything you need to know about how to set gain for field recording.

READ MORE ABOUT HOW TO SET GAIN FOR FIELD RECORDING ↓

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[clipsonthespectrum]

i gotta admit, yall are the reason i'm starting to do field recording to make foleys for my uni project, thank you for all the knowledge ♥

[samiraguachalla]

Today is my first day - field recording with H1n <3 thanks for inspiration - Greatings from Brazil!

[RelaxIdentity]

*I love the educational piece on setting Gains. Knowledge is powerful. Giving a hungry man fish is not as helpful as teaching him out to fish. Well, you just taught us how to fish. Many channels out there will instruct you on what to do without deeply explaining why. This will help improve the nature video recordings for my relaxation channel*

[tunjiakinsehinwa]

Great video tutorial! I literally learnt more about sound in 7 minutes than I have learnt reading numerous books and from other video tutorials

[TommasoGobbo]

Bomb! Would be cool a video where you share the mastering process for sound dx and long ambience recordings! Keep it up!

[mintpillow]

Exactly what I was looking for, perfect - and thanks!

[jaguarvssnake]

Thank you for this - exactly the video I have been looking for!

[cryptotrader]

Enjoying your older videos again. That was very helpful for me, as it's something I do still struggle with sometimes. I guess I just need a bit more experience. Thanks Marcel.

[anulaluna]

Thank you for another great informational video!

[soundsoftheearth]

Thank you for sharing your knowledge. Could you Please make film about zoom h2n ( best ambient settings and best usage )
Thank you in advance 🙏

[tennklo]

when you describe the process of listening for internal noise, how do you set the headphone output volume for an accurate representation of what is being recorded?

[sumitino]

when you say you listen to a environment like the forest and it is presenting to the recorder at -50 to -30 and you dont force the sound into the recorder by raising the gain. What levels are you set at when you do the initial listening? Are you operating at Unity gain first then just taking what the environment gives you and pushing record? Thanks.

[GiancarloBiondi]

Valuable advice Marcel! Right now I'm doing some tests with the Zoom H6 to determine if actually lowering the gain brings advantages or not: a video by Julian Kraus on the gain intrigued me. I always thought that using the gain at maximum or high values produced noise (the Zoom is not among the quietest from this point of view) but lowering the gain and then raising it in post I don't think it leads to obvious advantages. I try to pick up the sound source that interests me with the highest possible level leaving some headroom (as you have shown in the case of loud sound recordings). As always, you are a source of inspiration. Thank you

[keinpodcast]

For me ambience recordings are always the most fun. Its like a surprise bag - you want to record a calm ambience in the forest and suddenly there's this old Lanz Bulldog tractor you would never find if you would search for it. And so you never know if you've set your levels right :)

[IamCurrentlyAscending]

About how long should the samples be? Obviously a bird chirp is going to be shorter than a rainstorm, but what is typical for environmental sound?

[andrewj]

Great advice on setting levels, appreciate your knowledge sharing.

[xcryosonx]

I'm curious to know how you would handle an auto level feature like that on the Zoom H1n, I defaulted when I got the device to using it because I liked the idea that it would adjust the gain for dynamic sounds on the fly, but I find it brings up a lot of the H1n's inherent noise floor into the recording, and based on how it adjusts the gain, I think it will constantly be listening for differences in perceived volume so I'm trying to think of a scenario where this feature might be more desirable.

[bicycle]

Thanks, what is the best setting for the sound of the sea?

[erickwalterbutler]

Not sure if someone already asked it, but it seems to be implied you don't like using a limiter because it sounds more natural? But instead set the levels so that unexpected peaks will not clip the audio - so in louder environments you might shoot for a lower peak of the audio around -12-16db so if an ambulance or motorbike go by there will be enough headroom without clipping? Do you ever use a limiter in super dynamic/unexpected situations so that it compresses these peaks rather than clipping?