What's the noise in this clip?

Jared Meyer

Jared Meyer

Veteran
http://www.dvxuser6.com/uploaded/9324/1187726869.mov

This clip is two sections of the vows recorded from a wedding ceremony I just shot - I included the points where the noise starts and stops. (The clapping marks the beginning of the second clip.)

I know zilch about audio and haven't had any problems getting clean audio from the lav in the past. What caused this and any ideas how I can lessen the effect in post or at least prevent it from happening again?

The mic is the Sennheiser G2.

Thanks,
Jared
 
i thought at first is might have ben clothing rub but I think its just bad reception or interference with another radio

if you were in good range of it then it could be a dodgey solder or dodgy connection somewhere
 
Sounds good to me, thanks for the consensus.

So what's the fix? I don't monitor my audio and am wondering if now I should. Is it easy enough to switch channels on the fly? Would that undoubtedly have cleared up the signal?
 
you really should monitor your audio.. why don't you already? there is usually a monitor selector on the side of cameras that the operator has good access to. If you don't have access to this switch then set the moitor feed beforehand to something useful.. you can chose between L,R which is ch1 left ear ch2 right ear, L+R which is a mix in both ears and monitoring L or R in both ears.

the thing that would undoubtedly clear up interference problems would be checking all the frequencies in use in the area, and ensuring the frequencies you yourself are using are nicely spaced.


nothing you could've done at the time bar stopping the wedding at changng the transmitter ferquency. well.. not true you could've moved much much closer to the transmitter thereby knocking out the interference. either way.. not much you can do now.

I was going to say that you've lost a client with this one, but I guess you never have the same client twice in the wedding video game huh?

unless you befriend a bigamist...
 
You definately need to monitor your audio but switching channels on the fly is not simple. Best bet to avoid this is always check for clearest signal at every location before you start shooting. Even then you can get interferrence from your own signal; one reason mission critical jobs use diversity antennas. And the biggest reason wireless are the last choice in audio acquisition.

If I had to guess I would say you either had interference from you own signal that jumped around as subject moved his body or perhaps you had the antenna touching a sweaty body and soaking up the RF, or your batteries might have been weak.

Whatever the cause, make sure you monitor next time and problem solve as you go.

Cheers
 
ScoobySounds said:
you really should monitor your audio.. why don't you already?
Click to expand...
I appreciate the tips, Scooby! Just so we're clear, when I say I don't monitor my sound that is to say I don't have headphones on during the whole ceremony to constantly monitor the audio. Obviously I check everything beforehand but while I'm shooting I go by the levels alone. I've never had any problems getting good sound before, and like you said, there wasn't much I could have done anyway. Is it standard practice to wear headphones and be monitoring the sound constantly at a live event?

ScoobySounds said:
I was going to say that you've lost a client with this one, but I guess you never have the same client twice in the wedding video game huh?

unless you befriend a bigamist...
Click to expand...

Ha ha! Well, I wouldn't be much of an editor if I couldn't pull a few tricks out of my bag to cut around the noisy bits :) It's more frustrating than anything else because I had no idea where it came from.

Thanks again for the replies!
 
wabbit said:
You definately need to monitor your audio but switching channels on the fly is not simple. Best bet to avoid this is always check for clearest signal at every location before you start shooting. Even then you can get interferrence from your own signal; one reason mission critical jobs use diversity antennas. And the biggest reason wireless are the last choice in audio acquisition.

If I had to guess I would say you either had interference from you own signal that jumped around as subject moved his body or perhaps you had the antenna touching a sweaty body and soaking up the RF, or your batteries might have been weak.

Whatever the cause, make sure you monitor next time and problem solve as you go.

Cheers
Click to expand...

Thank Wabbit for the list of possible causes...You've got me thinking now that the battery had probably weakened a bit by that point in what was a really long ceremony.
 
Well, there's another obvious point for the future - always start with fresh batteries. First thing I do every day on set is change every battery in every device that uses disposable batteries. Costs production a bit more in battery costs, but saves lots of time because then I can do another battery change at lunch and that is usually good for the day. (Of course, I always end up with tons of used/dead batteries, so I've now written into my deal memo that production is responsible for battery disposal.)

Phil
 
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