My sound is definitely clipping....but the levels all look good. Thoughts?

O

oxband

Well-known member
I'm using a Rode NTG-3 with a Canon XA-10. When I listen to the audio I record, it definitely sounds a bit muddy, as if it's clipping. But the levels when I import into FCP 7 aren't showing clipping. Moreover, the levels on the camera aren't showing clipping either when I'm recording. Thoughts on how I might solve this?
 
There is an attenuator pad switch (ATT) next to the Line/Mic/Mic+48v switch. Turn it on. The Rode puts out a pretty hot signal like many condenser mics and is probably clipping the analog preamp stage before it gets to ADC. Level adjustments are done after ADC on most low end cameras so have no effect on this. Also make sure Mic+48v is turned on.
 
Muddy would commonly be a term for lack of treble or higher freq's.
I'm not sure many would say clipping sounds "muddy".
More of a harsh click.
Any chance you can upload an example?
 
Rippie said:
Muddy would commonly be a term for lack of treble or higher freq's.
I'm not sure many would say clipping sounds "muddy".
More of a harsh click.
Any chance you can upload an example?
Click to expand...

Analog stage clipping produces high harmonic distortion, not the harsh click of digital clipping. Think of an electric guitar played clean vs over driving a tube preamp into distortion.
 
Razz16mm said:
Analog stage clipping produces high harmonic distortion, not the harsh click of digital clipping. Think of an electric guitar played clean vs over driving a tube preamp into distortion.
Click to expand...

I guess it would help to know what he was recording at the time to know if it was in the pre's or elsewhere.
 
Am I missing something? I try to upload a aif file but it tells me it is ineligible to be uploaded. I feel like I must be missing something obvious. I have tried to do it as a zip file with just the aif and just an aif file.
 
It might actually be easier to upload it to SoundCloud, Youtube, or Vimeo.

It probably is clipping. What you call muddy is more commonly called distorted or overmodulated. It probably happened in the preamps, as others have said. This happened to me. It was so weird because the levels looked fine at the time. It was when I patched a consumer device into a professional sound board.
 
oxband said:
Oops. Try now....
Click to expand...

OK, that sounds pretty bad. The muddiness comes from the mic being too far away from the speaker's mouth, and from using a shotgun mic in a confined space where it can pick up the early reflections off the walls, ceiling, floor, counters, etc. which can lead to variations on the theme of comb filtering. But the guy's voice down in that mud does seem distorted. Sounds similar to what I've heard from mics being power starved -- I'd check to make sure you've got good clean connections on the mic path, paying particular attention to the removable mic handle on the camera. IOW, make sure the mic is getting good solid phantom power. If cleaning all the connections doesn't fix the problem, try another XLR cable to the mic.

Also, check to make sure the camera settings are correct. That camera seems to have some audio filtering available, make sure you don't have "low and high range emphasis" turned on.
 
I downloaded it and looked at the audio in Adobe Audition. There isn't the classic fat top distortion that you get when you go over digital zero, so the roughness is just, I think, the highish output of the mic pushing the pre-amp in the camera - just so it sounds rough. in the quiet bits you can hear the background plainly and with no distortion, so I'd agree with the idea to insert the pad - some preamps when pushed just distort - you described it as muddy, whig isn;t the word for this - It's quite bright! It's slightly distorted on the peaks, but I'd just call it rough! The camera is dropping the level to a sensible setting, as seen on the meters, but the pre-amp distortion is happening before this stage - hence why it doesn't go over. Just drop the level into the mic socket, or engage the pad (I don't know the camera well enough to remember if it has a pad switch!
 
Warm and fuzzy. Great on some elec. guitars but not dialog. Certainly sounds like the preamp was over-driven. The waveform itself is not clipped.
 
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