Can someone explain the 4 different audio level adjustments when just using the OP without the phone and MIMO? Which is best to use in a loud concert environment? The low, medium or high? I have already tried auto but I am getting distortion.

If you have a very loud source does the low setting mean the gain is set low to compensate for a high source or does it mean your source is quiet and therefore the gain is set high?

Thanks.

Think of low medium and high as volume adjustments for recording. Auto should stop clipping but it is quite abrupt to cut in and slow to release. A lot will also depend on the sensitivity of the microphone in use and its overall ability to cope with the dynamic range of the audio present when recording. Microphones are more than capable of overloading due to loud sounds even before they reach the amplifier gain so it's good to know and understand the microphone specifications.  I've used the DJI inboard mics at concerts with little sign of audio distortion and using the audio adaptor would seem to have approximately the same dynamic range with the only difference being the quality of the microphone capsules in use. The audio adaptor does not seem to feed any additional noise into the audio gain stage of the Osmo Pocket that I can detect.  There does seem to be a difference between using one microphone capsule and two with the adaptor with two wired as stereo giving cleaner results over a single capsule feeding both channels.
I would love to give you a more definitive answer but there is so much variation of quality of output dependant on the microphone in use and there is no way I can say I've tried a lot of microphones.
I would say in my use so far I have found that powered microphones seem to produce more background hiss at low volumes than those getting their power from the Osmo Pocket but that should not be of concern in a high noise environment.
That a mono microphone correctly wired to a TRS 3.5mm jack plug does not sound as good to my ears as a stereo mic even though the output is not a dedicated two-channel output when the recording is played.
I'm still in the process of trying to find my ideal microphone for the Osmo Pocket but that is down to size vs audio quality vs reducing wind and handling noise effectively.

Ok. So in this instance I cannot get an external mic and the adapter into the venue and have to rely on the built in mic. So it sounds like in an extremely loud environment, the low setting is the play it safe mode. Because last night I set it to auto and definitely got distortion. I am going to the same concert again tonight so I have a second shot at it.

I have the adapter and a few stereo mics but I can't get those in and they lack stereo interms of what makes it onto the Osmo. I also bought the Zoom H1N to get around that but I definitely can't get that in either.

Thanks for the detailed response.

steven_sf Posted at 6-30 09:24
Ok. So in this instance I cannot get an external mic and the adapter into the venue and have to rely on the built in mic. So it sounds like in an extremely loud environment, the low setting is the play it safe mode. Because last night I set it to auto and definitely got distortion. I am going to the same concert again tonight so I have a second shot at it.

I have the adapter and a few stereo mics but I can't get those in and they lack stereo interms of what makes it onto the Osmo. I also bought the Zoom H1N to get around that but I definitely can't get that in either.

If the concert is so loud that you have difficulty hearing a clean sound at the performance then it's also possible the distortion is at the sound system end. I am also not sure if the audio limiter in the Osmo Pocket still works when the volume is set to low or how much attenuation is in place. It is this lack of such detail in the manuals of products from certain countries that let them down. if a printed manual puts production costs up too much to justify including then surely a pdf manual could include such information which could give us a clue as to the expected behaviour of our purchases.