Audio Issue. Need Help.

S

sillygoboom

Active member
Hi everyone,
So I am currently working on my YouTube channel with my friend and I keep running into an audio issue that I can't seem to solve. There is some weird feedback noise but I don't know where it's coming from. You can hear the noise here:


It sounds like my lens is focusing but it's not lol. It's actually set to manual and my Canon R5 is like 6 feet away from the mic. We also put our phones and laptop on airplane mode before filming so I'm not sure it's that either. The only other electrical anything around are the led lights. Lastly, the sound doesn't happen often, just once every five minutes or so. I currently use the Deity V-Mic D3 Pro Camera-Mount Shotgun Microphone connected to a Zoom H1 Ultra-Portable Digital Audio Recorder. I tried to connect the mic straight into the camera before but I kept getting a ton of feedback from the usb c cable connected right next to it, so that we can see ourselves on the laptop, so I gave up on that. It worked fine for a video or two and then it started making noise.

If you have any questions let me know. I would love to get this issue resolved. Thanks.
 
That's RF interference from your surroundings. I saw a few people write about this when checking this mic out (some mics block it better than others).

I think there are a few RF blockers that exist, but IDK anything about them.

(Maybe try another cable in the meantime.)
 
From reviews on Adorama "Both my original D3 Pro and the warranty replacement unit have terrible noise interference from nearby phones. Audio is unusable unless I remember to place all phones in the room on airplane mode."

If you are in an apartment, then maybe your neighbors phones are causing the issue. But then, it could be sourced from anything. Someone here may recognize the interference in that sample.

Note that many microphones are not RF immune. Microphones such as Sennheiser models are designed specifically to prevent/reduce RF interference.
 
Paul F said:
If you are in an apartment, then maybe your neighbors phones are causing the issue. But then, it could be sourced from anything. Someone here may recognize the interference in that sample.
Click to expand...

Yep. That sounds suspiciously like mobile phones pinging their nearby towers. These little camera-top mics use unbalanced wiring with very poor shielding. And often the internal design isn’t exactly impervious to whatever’s floating through the air. In other words, they aren’t very well protected from the RF environment.

I’d also add that camera-top mics like this are not the right choice for what you’re doing. The on-camera placement is too far away for quality dialog recording, and extending it to place it overhead (where it should be) just means running a longer unbalanced cable run and increasing risk of RF interference. As the Zoom H1 only has the 3.5mm input, it’s also not a recorder suited for use with the higher-end, balanced, RF shielded mics. So, choices are a little more limited.

YouTube videos like this are exactly what RØDE are marketing their Wireless GO systems for. That can be an economical way to up your sound recording for tutorial videos. As wireless mics go, they don’t have near the effective range as UHF wireless (or even some better 2.4GHz systems), but sitting that close to the camera and keeping the transmitter in the front pocket should give reliable performance. If you get one of these systems, get one with a lav because, honestly, clipping the transmitter to the front of a shirt/sweater/jacket looks pretty ridiculous.
 
Thanks everyone! Before we started setting our phones to airplane mode, everything was fine for like a month or two. Then out of nowhere, and with no changes made, the issue started to happen. Now that we do set to airplane mode, like I stated, it's once every five minutes or so. I do have a movo wireless set that I am going to try to see if that works any better.

It's such a pain in the you know what because I first bought a Rode shotgun mic and ran into a ton of issues with it immediately. I then sold it and got this one because it was supposed to be "better". Is there a way for me to use this mic and lessen the RF? Like something I can buy?

Also, for the wireless kit, what are your opinions on seeing lavalier mics clipped to shirts in YouTube videos? Does it bother you visually or not?
 
Think back to the "out of nowhere" moment. Did you buy and/or install any kind of new device, separate from your audio equipment? LED lights, portable Hard Drives, etc. Lots of devices "phoning home" these days, and they don't have to be anywhere in the A/V chain.

I'd be suspicious of the LED lights, especially if they're on some kind of wireless controller.

A quick way to check for this in your place is by killing all the power to your unit at the breaker and then recording. Do you still hear the noise? If yes, it's either something that's on battery power, or coming from a neighbor.

Short of building a mini faraday cage, I don't think you'll be able to find a better solution to your issue than unplugging or removing whatever it is.

Seeing clipped lav mic's doesn't bother me.
 
Which RØDE shotgun did you start with, just out of curiosity?

I think the larger issue here is that you’re working with very bare-bones sound gear that isn’t really robust. Yes, it can be used. No, it’s not the best stuff to start with. Honestly, the best thing to use is a balanced audio connection. That requires both a microphone and a sound recorder that offer XLR connections, but then price goes up. The weakest part of your signal chain right now, though, is that Diety mic that has plenty of documented user issues with RF interference. That’s from inside the mic... circuitry that is not at all protected from the environment outside the mic itself.

Unbalanced cable runs generally aren’t a problem when they’re kept short. They’re much more vulnerable to interference the longer they get. These little wireless systems can use a short jumper to the recorder and probably won’t have interference. Your mileage may vary, but that’s the path I’d take.

sillygoboom said:
Also, for the wireless kit, what are your opinions on seeing lavalier mics clipped to shirts in YouTube videos? Does it bother you visually or not?
Click to expand...

Doesn’t bother me at all. You aren’t shooting a movie; you’re shooting a YouTube video. Talking head stuff like that, including network news, still uses visible lavs.

And for what you’re doing, I’d strongly advise against burying lavs anyway. Since you’re the one setting up the gear and recording and editing the content, and at the same time appearing on camera, you’re too distracted wearing that many hats at once. Burying lavs is a skill that takes development, and it opens up a whole new level of potential issues. If you’re on-camera, you aren’t listening to the sound as it’s being recorded so there’s no way to know when there’s a problem. You’ll only figure that out in post, when it’s really too late to do anything about it.
 
These rf type of audio issues are becoming more prevalent.
-rf interference is a know issue with the Deity V-Mic D3.
-locating the mic off camera would give better sound quality but not necessarily fix the rf issue
-Wireless lav system especially the Go Pro II with 2 transmitters would be ideal solution if you have the money
-The only inexpensive solution I could think of is buy RF blocking material to wrap around the mic. I have no idea if this would be feasible.
-use a more tradition condenser xlr mic into a MixPre or xlr recorder like zoom H5.
 
dcoughla,
It all started to happen when I invited 2 extra people to shoot a video with my friend and I (so four people in total). After I shot with them, I went through the footage and noticed a bunch of sound issues which had never happened. I didn't move anything at all so I assumed it was because of all the cellphones in the room. After that, when just my friend and I shoot videos, we set our phones to airplane mode out of caution. Since then, yeah the audio has gone back to normal, for the most part, but now I keep getting the sound from the sample above once in awhile.

I am now going to look up what a mini faraday cage is lol. I really want to fix this. Thanks!
 
Hi all,
To give more info. So this is the setup basically....

https://www.instagram.com/p/CLubUiOrxXV/

In this picture, the mic is right in front of the main table, between the two tables. That's how the setup was when the issues started. I recently moved the mic in front of the soft boxes, mounted up on the ceiling, pointing at a slight angle towards us. Now everything is better minus the noise here and there that I described.

As you can see, there isn't really much room. I forgot to mention that when I recently moved the mic to the ceiling, before doing so, I did connect the mic to the H1 and walked around the room trying to see where all the feedback was coming from. I even turned off a bunch of things to see if I could figure it out but I couldn't.

However, I DID pick up that once in a blue feedback but realized that no matter where I went, it happened after a few minutes. I still don't understand how I went from having no issues to this. Something did change but it wasn't me.

Peter C.
I will look into rf blocking material. Thanks!
 
The thing about noises like this is they can come from absolutely anywhere (even something like a phone charger that plugs into the wall), so if you really want to fix the problem, you have to be methodical about it and get rid of absolutely every power/potential interference source you can and work backwards. Looking at that picture I see a bunch of things that could be causing this.

I would unplug everything and kill the power so you're sitting in darkness and record with just the mic and the H1 and check for noise. If that gets rid of the noise, turn the power on and check for noise (wiring can sometimes function as an antenna and this noise could just be shooting through your unit). Then slowly plug things back in, one by one, starting with the camera (could even be this).

If you still hear noise, go somewhere far away (outside your shooting space) and try it again. If that gets rid of the noise, it's something in your environment and you'll probably have to pursue shielding. If it doesn't, it may be the H1 itself.

Before trying a faraday cage, you could try shielding with copper tape (it's used for shielding guitar cavities) but I'm not sure if it'll work.
 
sillygoboom said:
What mic and recorder would you recommend that I can hang from the ceiling like a bat lol?
Click to expand...

I’ll point to my old adage: “Good audio isn’t cheap, and cheap audio will cost you more.” While the line of cost vs. functionality has shifted a little over the last few years, it still holds true. Spending $4K on a camera body and only $200 on sound... that’s definitely worth examining. For reference, professional sets may be shooting on a camera body that costs $5K-10K, but the sound kit will be worth $40K-50K. Or, for the big-budget stuff, a $50K camera and $100K sound dept. setup.

Hanging the mic overhead may seem tempting and it certainly does move the mic closer, but again it has the shortfall that more than one person on camera results in differing distances to the mic. I watched through a couple more of the videos on your channel and there are times where one of you sounds right on-axis with the mic while the other sounds a slight bit distant.

While the Zoom H1 is not the recorder I’d start with, you already have it and it may be possible to make it work. Again, the Wireless GO 2 system is something to consider. It provides two transmitters along with a single receiver with two RX channels built-in. The receiver has 3.5mm out and that will connect easily to your H1. You can also set the receiver to output a mono mix of both transmitters’ audio (no mixing in post, so you’re stuck with what you get) or split-channel audio so that you have full control over individual mics in post.

You mentioned that you have a MOVO wireless system that you haven’t Yet used? Honestly, those cheap off-brand wireless systems are often riddled with quality control issues. It’s always worth a try because it’s something you already have on hand. If it doesn’t suit your needs or you find it to deliver sub-par sound quality, look for something else.

If I were in your shoes and starting from scratch, I might look at the Tascam DR-60DmkII recorder and the RØDE Wireless GO 2. If you use the 3.5mm input 3/4, you get two-channel recording from the wireless receiver and you also have the two XLR inputs 1 and 2 for future compatibility, easily adding two more wireless channels if you need them. That’s an absolute bare bones, cost-cutting option that will at least get you in the right neighborhood.

A Tascam DR-70D would allow you a little more expansion down the road, since it has 4 XLR inputs.
 
Posting this here also because of the audio change. Please let me know if this sounds better. Ignore the fact that I am shinny and the lavalier isn't clipped on properly.

 
It sounds like a lav.

Placement is key when you’re using a lavaliere mic. The closer you get to the little pit at the base of your neck, the more muddled things can sound. That effect is worse on some people than others, so trust your ears. On you, the mic could possible benefit from being an inch or two lower.

A good place to start with lav placement is to locate the spot just above your xiphoid process, where the bottom ribs meet the sternum, and place the lav about an inch above that.

But that aside, you’re on the right track. Does your wireless kit accommodate two people (two lavs and transmitters)?
 
Thanks Peter C. and Alex H.!

So sadly, the lavalier route is not going to work. I talked to my friend that I shoot with and we both realized it's too much for me to manage. That and the two transmitters I have don't allow me to manage the volume on each one, which I hate a ton, and if we ever have a third person then I would have to buy an extra one or just buy a new set that does what I want it to do and I'm not ready to do that yet.

So then I went back to the garage and sat there for like 3 hours in the dark listening and going insane and I finally found the issue, it was the garage door opener! Once I went to unplug it, it made the sound in the original post as it was dying. Then I plugged it back in and the sound started up again. I shot another sample below of everything. I made this one for my friends to see so please don't be offended since I'm not calling any of you pigs lol. I also included a picture of the set after I moved everything around yesterday. As you can see, the garage door opener was right next to the mic yet I didn't think of unplugging it because I didn't think I could connect and disconnect it without messing up the settings but I can. That's what I will have to do I guess to make the Deity mic work for now.


Picture: https://www.instagram.com/p/CMPvptFr3PK/ (the garage door opener is that thing in front of the mic that looks like a huge bulb)

Also, again, thanks to everyone for the help. It put me on the right track for sure.
 
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