On Sun, 22 Dec 2002 00:28:45 +0100, Medazzaland wrote:

> I just noticed on my Sony PC9E that even when an external mic is connected
>the camera internally compresses the sound signal (some sort of Auto-Gain
>feature) which is pretty annoying to me because it does more damage to the
>sound than anything else in certain situations. Especially the white noise
>is becoming very present as the compression pulls it up when there is
>silence. Doesn anybody know if there is a way to switch this off ? I can´t
>find anything in the menu of the camera to do it.

The PC9 AGC cannot be turned off - but it can be "fooled"
by using a higher-output mic with the camera (but not
one that is so high that louder sounds are obviously
mashed) - this can keep the background noise at bay
by recording at a higher level the ambient noise...
(Alternatively [mostly joshing here...;-], intentionally
add a constant noise from a source near the mics that can
later be removed using a noise-reduction module, like the
one in Cool Edit...) Also, it is likely the effects of the
AGC are more audible at the headphone out than at the
line out, using a good standard playback system...