wrote:

>If you make use of the cameras AGC, you are simply taking away the control
>that the recordist has over the final audio that is laid to tape.
>
>No AGC can actually pre-empt a level change. An astute Sound Recordist,
>however, with one eye on the meters and another on a subject that is about
>to scream at the top of their voice, can. Simple as that.

With analogue gear with lotsa headroom and relatively soft
clipping, maybe... But with Mini-DV/DVCam, as I pointed
out, there is not such a thing as "loud" - the peak levels
available with the medium are not very high, and audible
clipping happens VERY easily when attempting to manually
control audio levels in unpredictable situations... You
are right that AGC cannot "predict" peaks, but it can
compress them as they occur, which is quite good enough.
What separates the VX2000 AGC from the ordinary is the
gracefulness of its recovery - and its greater (than
normal for AGC) retention of peak-to-average relative
levels (and also its average-to-noise-floor relative
levels), giving a quite natural-sounding dynamic range,
without the usual AGC faults (though at the price of an
average audio level that is lower than normal, but this
is easily adjusted in post).

>You'll find that many low-budget documentaries, where the Director is also
>the Cameraman and Sound Recordist, will employ the use of the AGC - but
>never if there's someone there with an SQN.

Perhaps they are not familiar with the capabilities of
the new gear...? ;-)