3 Brand new G2... BAD SOUND!

Lloyds

Lloyds

Active member
I just got three brand new G2 lav mics (freqs. A, B, and C) and I'm having problems setting them up I guess. Each one of them has bad sound, so that makes me assume that it's me--not them that are bad since it would be hard for all three to be bad at the same time.

It's hard to describe the sound, so maybe I'll have to post a sample later, but I wanted to see if there is something obvious that I'm overlooking.

The sound is sort of muted, hallow sounding. Sort of like a bad bluetooth connection on a cel phone... kind'a the cell phone in a bathroom on bluetooth sound. (What, you've never done that before?) It lacks full spectrum to me.

Am I overlooking something stupid? If it's not something obvious, I will post a clip of a recording.
 
Oh, and I should mention that I have ensured I'm on a clean channel. I have messed with the gain, etc.
 
yeah post a clip - are you using the stock mic? They arent exactly the best sounding but do sound better than my cell phone. I guess...
 
Sorry, I should have mentioned that. They are the standard lavs. I have the ENG version. ENG EW100 (or something like that).

I'll get a clip up shortly.
 
Could be the mic, could be placement, could be the gain settings on the Tx and Rx. Please post a sample and then we can help better.

Phil
 
I have the same mic. They should sound awesome. Well, not awesome, but pretty good.

Is the frequency off?
 
Check your levels for clipping at every part of the transmitter-receiver-camera chain. If one thing is clipping, you'll get bad sound but the camera's levels will look OK.

So... check the transmitter's levels to ensure you are not clipping.
Check the receiver's AF OUT level, and the camera's preamp setting (mic or line) to ensure you are not clipping.

With a lav, my transmitters are usually set to -30 dB (in SENSIT) or -20 if somewhere quiet and the talent is speaking softly.
The receivers are set to LEV -18 (in AF OUT)
The camera is set to MIC level (the switches on the front)

This setup uses the camera's preamps. If you set the camera to LINE level and the receivers AF OUT higher, you are using the preamps on the receiver.

Both can work, but I prefer the camera's preamps, and if I switch to a mic in place of the receivers during a shoot I don't have to worry about forgetting to switch from LINE to MIC.

Hope that helps!
 
Okay, re-reading your post - one other thing to check. Are you switched correctly to use the xlr inputs on your camera, not the internal mic? It almost sounds (with out listening to a clip) as if you're getting the internal mic's audio.

What camera are you connecting to?

Phil
 
Great tutorial. I will play around with it tonight based on the wonderful info in the tutorial and hopefully post a clip/vid tonight.
 
Thanks everyone for your help! PROBLEM SOLVED! The video totally helped!

If anyone's interested, the problem was on the camera side. I had the G2s set right and not clipping out, but when they got to the camera it had an extra -12 dB gain on which would make things clip. It didn't look like it was clipping on the G2, but on the camera end it was. So I adjusted the levels on the camera and now everything is working great!

You guys are great! Thanks for your help!
 
Sweet glad its working. It can be tough getting the level set at each stage the first time. I was lucky to have watched that video before I laid hands on my first set of wirelesses.
 
You're so right! You have three or four settings that need to be right otherwise it's not going to work. The sound I was hearing was simply the audio clipping out, thus sounding hallow and only getting a muffled sound.

Again, thank you!
 
slight clarification

slight clarification

strangways said:
Check your levels for clipping at every part of the transmitter-receiver-camera chain. If one thing is clipping, you'll get bad sound but the camera's levels will look OK.

So... check the transmitter's levels to ensure you are not clipping.
Check the receiver's AF OUT level, and the camera's preamp setting (mic or line) to ensure you are not clipping.

With a lav, my transmitters are usually set to -30 dB (in SENSIT) or -20 if somewhere quiet and the talent is speaking softly.
The receivers are set to LEV -18 (in AF OUT)
The camera is set to MIC level (the switches on the front)

This setup uses the camera's preamps. If you set the camera to LINE level and the receivers AF OUT higher, you are using the preamps on the receiver.
Click to expand...


On many smaller cameras, all of the audio goes through the mic preamps. The line level setting just pads down the input to the preamp so the camera can accept the hotter line level. This isn't always the case but happens to be true for many cameras.
Also wireless receivers don't have a preamp and increasing the level from it to line doesn't change anything but the level going into the camera.


[/QUOTE]Both can work, but I prefer the camera's preamps, and if I switch to a mic in place of the receivers during a shoot I don't have to worry about forgetting to switch from LINE to MIC.[/QUOTE]


You're still using the camera's preamp if the line in is a padding of the mic input. On the cameras that actually do have a mic or true line in circuit many sound people who use a mixer to feed the camera prefer the line in approach. The reasoning is that the mic preamps on the mixer are better than the ones on the camera so line in will bypass the camera preamps. Of course whatever works the best for you is the way to go. Just wanted to clarify some nomenclature.
Bernie

[/QUOTE]Hope that helps![/QUOTE]
 
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