Audio issue?

W

wbrock001

Well-known member
I posted this in the hmc section and it was suggested I post here too? I just shot a speaker at a business event yesterday. I used DPA 4060 lav into a Rode Filmmaker Wireless, into my Zaxcom Maxx, out to track 2 on the camera (line level), then track 1 on the camera was a sennheiser ME66 (just for clapping etc). So this happened on the recording, but I never heard it through the headphone jack on the camera which I was monitoring the entire time, but it recorded this as you can hear it was fine then all of a sudden... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loVX52P1q6s

The issue is on both camera tracks with totally separate inputs.

Fortunately, I was recording on my Maxx so I had a usable track...would have been hosed otherwise. Any ideas? I tried just the ME66 and recorded to see if the audio system was messed up on the camera, no problems, but next is to setup the same audio chain with maxx and see if it does it again...

Thank you!

Bill
 
Dead battery, on a ME66 or if it was the Radio mic channel it was RF break through.
And you didn't hear this on the monitoring of the camera as you would normally monitor as split tracks. (Ch1 to the Left & Ch2 to the Right)
 
So let me get this straight. The Zaxx recorder, which was in the middle of the chain got clean inputs, but camera, which was being fed one track from the Zaxx, and one from a ME66 has the issue present on both 1 & 2 camera tracks?
 
Look for anything that is common between tk 1 & 2..
What sort of camera? Some cameras have a separate XLR block on top of the camera.
 
Ryan-Guy said:
So let me get this straight. The Zaxx recorder, which was in the middle of the chain got clean inputs, but camera, which was being fed one track from the Zaxx, and one from a ME66 has the issue present on both 1 & 2 camera tracks?
Click to expand...

It looks like the ME66 just went right into the camera. The Rode wireless went into the Maxx...at least that's how I read it. I could be wrong.

If this is happening on both inputs...the mic directly and the audio from the Maxx, then there is something wrong happening on the camera side. If you didn't hear this when monitoring the camera then I'm not really sure what's up. I'd set this all up the exact same way and run it and see if you can get it to fail again like this. Could be a low battery in the ME66 (they can sound weird like that when the battery gets low).
 
Thank you for your replies, sorry been off for a bit, but I'm back... ME66 was running off of phantom power as always (never use a battery). Yes, I had the headphones plugged into the camera 1/8" jack, not the mixer/recorder and everything sounded normal. Yes switches set to Ch1 and ch2, with phantom off for the mixer channel and on for the ME66.
 
Yes, very strange, I did set it up exactly as it was, other than the location, and let it run for over an hour then listened, no issues with the audio. The rode was direct into the mixer/recorder, the ME66 was direct to the camera with phantom power. All of my camera batteries are about 6 years or more older, never had an issue except the older ones just don't last as long as they used to.
 
"Ganged limiters between track 1 & 2?"
- Could very well be. Turn the auto level off, the inputs AGC could be strapped together. AGC ain't much good for anything IMO, especially two independent (dual mono) inputs. And the mixer could be hitting the camera way to hard if feeding line to a mic input.
 
That's a good point, I'll turn it off and see if it ever happens again. I wasn't able to get it to do it again but then I didn't really push the levels on either channel in my attempt to get it to do it again, so maybe that's what has to be done to get it to fail... Thank you! I'll test it again and make some really loud noise and see if that causes it.
 
Well I just tried the same setup and really loud into both mics, the MAXX has never clip so it pretty much can't overload, but was getting solid red on the me66 directly into the camera. So watched and listened and the footage and audio was fine, other than being loud. In fact the camera did a pretty good job as the audio from the me66 didn't sound clipped. So anyway, I'm pretty much at a loss and think that maybe the stars and planets were aligned just right to make that distortion happen, all I know is that I have to use the maxx for all future gigs to make sure I have usable audio, that won't be possible though for all event video.
 
Rick R nailed it. "I do have the camera ALC on" translates to "This will sound really terrible." Not saying this was the cause of your issue you outlined but NEVER use ALC on any camera, unless you are just using the camera mic to record ambient b-roll sound where the sound quality is generally not important. ALC, AGC or auto level, however the manufacturer labels it, it's not a good thing, you should stop using it. Camera audio sections generally sound horrific and if you you break down the budget allocated to the mic inputs, mic preamps and audio circuitry in any modern video camera, you would laugh, it is such a tiny portion of the build budget. No cameras have more than barely adequate sound, a $99.00 Tascam DR-10L probably has better sound quality objectively than a $30k video camera. So using that poor quality audio circuitry for gain limiting and or compression is a bad move.

If you had a $1,000.00 outboard gain limiter/compressor, sure, but the ones built into your camera are laughably bad, functioning as if you had a drunken cab driver who you gave a 2 minutes lesson to in how to ride gain would sound. Just don't. Be a man and set your levels properly and ride gain if necessary. Or better yet, hire a pro sound mixer and avoid all of these issues. I'm not trying to sound preachy but your audio for most projects, is much more important than picture. The big secret of producing great media rests about 75% on audio. Audiences will forgive a lot of image defects if the sound is good, but all of your great camera work, shooting, lighting, actors, plot, whatever you are shooting is bascially ignored if the sound sucks. Don't let the sound suck.
 
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