Problem with radio mic, can anybody help?

A

Andrea189

Well-known member
I have very little experience of working with radio mics and I just got a lavalier capsule sanken cos 11D which I use with a Sennheiser G2 radio set. I placed the mic under the shirt of the person using rycote stickies and the receiver was plugged in a PIX 220, that works fine with my Rode NTG3.

This is the result I got, which is pretty bad.

https://vimeo.com/78164967

What do you think I am doing wrong?

Thank you for your help!

Andreas
[h=1][/h]
 
1. Do you have new, FRESH! batteries in the transmitter and receiver?
2. Do you have the microphone sensitivity level set properly on the transmitter?

It sounds to me like either you are using batteries that are going flat, and/or the transmitter sensitivity is set too high.
Another possibility is that the microphone itself is damaged.
 
Richard,

The battery were absolutely fresh and I think it is probably the second issue that you have listed. I will check the sensitivity on the transmitter.

Many thanks for your help

Andreas
 
GaryNattrass said:
If it helps as a guide I set my G2 transmitter at -20 and my receiver at -12.
Click to expand...
About the same here. The EK100 portable receiver AF adj. at -12 or -18dB feeding an XLR mic level input.. for line level +12dB (max). The transmitter's sensitivity setting of coarse depends on the source SPL, but the -20 setting should work for average level dialog. The G3 (SK100) transmitter however has sensitivity adjustments in 3dB increments opposed to 10dB steps on the G2.
 
I checked transmitter and receiver and found out that the receiver was set at +12 dB, that must be the cause of the problem. Thank you for your help and advice, this is what makes this forum great.
 
That'll do it. I find that there is no "standard" setting for transmitter sensitivity. It really depends on the mic being used, the placement, and the content. My general practice is to place the mic, have tha talent speak their lines (and I usually ask them "what's the loudest you think you'll get), and then set sensitivity to about 1/3 meter deflection. Typically I find during a take the talent will either get much louder, or quiet down. Some actors really whisper when delivering their lines so I may ask for a moment to turn up a bit. The reciever output I set to 0, and adject trim on my Alphamix for about -8 or so (the Alphamix give me channel input metering via a 3 led ladder for each channel. I iso those out to a DR680 and set channel gains to meter around -20 with -12 peaks on the DR680, I keep the limiters turned on on the Alphamix for camera sends, and use the limiters on the 680, which I very ever rarely hit.
All of this is to say that proper gain staging provides the highest signal to noise ratio and is important at every stage of signal routing. As you've discovered, if it wrong at or near the source, it could be impossible to fix further down the line.
 
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