Rode NTG3 gone bad

T

Toenis

Well-known member
Hello to all experts here

My NTG3 with sub 300 serial nr. just stopped properly working the other day the day when my documentary project started.

Can anyone say why would a mic suddenly have rf interference like noise and lower sensitivity? I mean with any cable and with any recording device more so with higher quality recorders. The signal bath inside the mic seems to be deteriorated somehow. It is almost never used mic in that case so no mechanical damages.

Here you can see the noise pattern difference at same source and same level Rode NTG 3 versus Oktava, NTG in the Right channel

RodeNTG_vs_Oktava_R_vs_L.jpg


And here you can hear the difference in a stereo comparison Right vs Left



Thanks,
T
 
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Steve House said:
The clip you posted sound the same in both channels, at least when I dl it and play it.
Click to expand...

Not so when I dl and play it, it has serious noise issues in the right channel, when you pan from left to right and back do you hear the same noise floor?

T
 
Toenis said:
Not so when I dl and play it, it has serious noise issues in the right channel, when you pan from left to right and back do you hear the same noise floor?

T
Click to expand...

Playing in both Windows Media Player and Adobe Audition with the same results. Playing in stereo and alternately soloing one channel while muting the other. I hear a lot of hiss on the right channel, much less so on the left. There is also a distinct hum on both channels. The voice is almost non-existent on either channel, sounding almost like faint conversation bleeding in from another room. Levels are running between about -32dBFS and -24dBFS throughout the clip, left channel consistently about 4 dB higher than the right.

There is more noise on the right channel, at least as far as the hiss at concerned, but it doesn't sound like either mic is working properly in terms of recording something. Remove the hiss and both channels sound the same, both of them sounding like something went terribly wrong. That makes me wonder if the fault is somewhere other than in the Rode mic itself.
 
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Steve House said:
There is more noise on the right channel, at least as far as the hiss at concerned, but it doesn't sound like either mic is working properly in terms of recording something. Remove the hiss and both channels sound the same, both of them sounding like something went terribly wrong. That makes me wonder if the fault is somewhere other than in the Rode mic itself.
Click to expand...

Hi there, it is the recording about the hiss the hum is from ventilation and there are some distant speakers in there. What I wanted to demonstrate here was the noise that's on the right channel when compared to a mic at same level on the left channel. The Rode NTG3 should not have this kind of noise when compared to much noisier mic like the Oktava 012 that seems much more quieter than the gone bad NTG3. The hiss wasn't there until yesterday when it suddenly appeared to the NTG. The hiss is what I'm concerned with and the recording basically is the room tone with the left channel being accurate representation and right channel being distorted one despite the same levels and source.

I hope that clarifies it a bit,
T
 
Toenis said:
Hi there, it is the recording about the hiss the hum is from ventilation and there are some distant speakers in there. What I wanted to demonstrate here was the noise that's on the right channel when compared to a mic at same level on the left channel. The Rode NTG3 should not have this kind of noise when compared to much noisier mic like the Oktava 012 that seems much more quieter than the gone bad NTG3. The hiss wasn't there until yesterday when it suddenly appeared to the NTG. The hiss is what I'm concerned with and the recording basically is the room tone with the left channel being accurate representation and right channel being distorted one despite the same levels and source.

I hope that clarifies it a bit,
T
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check your mail
 
G'day Toenis, can you tell me what the NTG-3 exact serial no. is thanks.

Try changing the G-3 mic cable and also try the mics by reversing the inputs. Also ask someone to speak in normal voice about 12-18" directly in front of the mics to get a basic reference level. Then listen for the hiss.

Are you close to a sound shop to try another NTG-3 and compare?

IMO for forum aural mono mic comparisons like that, the best examples are 5 secs each repeated, one immediately followed by the other, without changing any settings of course. This will get you more help quicker. Hope this helps.

Cheers.
 
Also, try putting it back into the tube with xlr out facing out of the tube... make sure it's snug, then remove the cap on the closed end before taking the mic out again.
 
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RH, that's a possibility. RODE went to some considerable effort to get that NTG-3 cylinder right, so it stays air/humidity tight without the mic rattling around inside. There were various test versions of the cylinder made first.

Even so, in a sound shop here, I've seen the G-3 yanked out with a loud POP! Bad scene bix, don't do it.

The other thing to watch is, some folk think that black cylinder is a protect all device and just throw it in the car trunk in the midday summer heat. There's a good chance that'll cook the mic.

I do the same, always open the same end of the cylinder and ease the G-3 in head first, so it comes out XLR first...... slowly.

Sorry Toenis we're away from your problem here, any of that applicable to you?

Cheers.
 
Raster said:
G'day Toenis, can you tell me what the NTG-3 exact serial no. is thanks.
Click to expand...
It's serial nr. is 000279

I recorded another postsynchronized sample (monaural composite in stereo, right channel is the bad one)
I hope you can hear the difference, specially with headphones, the hiss fault is quite bad on the NTG3 specially when you listen at the silence in the beginning.
I tried without cables too as NTG-3 can be plugged directly to the XLR of the recording device.

It sounded absolutely clean the other day and on one important morning when it came out of it's tube the hiss was there. And I'm never "poping" it out of it's tube after the first time when I didn't expect it to pop.

I tried 3 different cables from K-Tek coiled to cheap Thomann ones tried it on bare Canon XH A1 and on Edirol R44 tried on different inputs and always with 48V phantom, even switched it on and of and rebooted the recorder several times.

And as I'm located in Estonia and our nearest not responding Rode service is in Finland I guess I'm out of luck, and if that wasn't enough I brought the mic from the UK.

Oh well, I hope I get some feedback from Rode support.


T
 
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Toenis said:
Hi there, it is the recording about the hiss the hum is from ventilation and there are some distant speakers in there. What I wanted to demonstrate here was the noise that's on the right channel when compared to a mic at same level on the left channel. The Rode NTG3 should not have this kind of noise when compared to much noisier mic like the Oktava 012 that seems much more quieter than the gone bad NTG3. The hiss wasn't there until yesterday when it suddenly appeared to the NTG. The hiss is what I'm concerned with and the recording basically is the room tone with the left channel being accurate representation and right channel being distorted one despite the same levels and source.

I hope that clarifies it a bit,
T
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Well first the Oktava is not a noisy mic, it's actually very quiet. Second your comparing a shotgun and a hyper. What was your gain structure? if the gains were set the same all along then MAYBE you have an issue. If you tried to get "equal level" then your problem is your preamps, or more specifically you are hearing the preamp his because it's turned up too high. The Oktava is a pretty hot out put mic, shotguns are selective and inherently throw away sound to be so. And you can't do a test like this with out either either being in a isolation booth or with some normal content. Out in the open there is no way to separate what is being "picked up" from what is being "generated".

How high were you cranking them?
 
Well, it's definitely electrical and it sounds like amplifier noise. If I had to guess I would say that the gain was cranked on the shotgun and it's preamp noise. If that is not the case then there might be a problem with the mic itself. You said that it "suddenly" stopped working at the start of your doc. Is that actually what happened? It was working fine and then you heard the noise come up? Or did you just notice it when you started you doc and don't know when the "change" happened. This is important because I would put my money on something other than the mic. I have never heard a mic "suddenly" get noisy in this way. Not that it has never or could never happen but in 30+ years I have never seen it happen, so it would be very low on my list.

So make sure the gain structure is exactly the same on both mics. If it still sounds off swap mic inputs (keeping the same cables). If the same side is noisy it's not the mic, if the same mic is noisy swap the mics at the mic end. If the same mic is noisy try it with another preamp, if the opposite mic just got noisy you have a bad cable.

Also make sure the phantom power is set to 48 for both mics.
 
Raster said:
I do the same, always open the same end of the cylinder and ease the G-3 in head first, so it comes out XLR first...... slowly.
Click to expand...

What I mean is that doing so that way, and leaving the other end of the tube sealed can still result in the diaphragm being popped by the vacuum created. If you put it back in with the head first, then open the other end as well (so both ends are open) and slide it out, there's a good chance this will fix the issue.
 
Preamp gain was exactly the same, I positioned the mics so to get almost the same level and almost the same image. I did just so on the training days we had at the same environment and the NTG performed at least as good as the Oktava indoors, large graphics/photo studio, but sure it was more forgiving to novice operator. (RH) And sure I've done all the tricks to get the problem sorted out. The problem is that why the hiss appeared and why I hear some oldschool sci-fi RF tuning sounds when I plug the NTG in and why it stabilises to that hiss and not to the room tone any more - given the same preamp gain. NTG-3 was the quietest mic in our arsenal in that same environment before.

Now the NTG3 can be used for screaming so you won't notice the hiss but before it could be used for closeup whispers too.

Does this "before" sample say anything in comparison, at the same preamp gain, in the same room actually?

T
 
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RandomHero said:
What I mean is that doing so that way, and leaving the other end of the tube sealed can still result in the diaphragm being popped by the vacuum created. If you put it back in with the head first, then open the other end as well (so both ends are open) and slide it out, there's a good chance this will fix the issue.
Click to expand...

Yep I understand. I never have the time to open both ends of the tube, I just remove the G-3 VERY slowly so the air pressure has time to equalise. The other way to do it is ease the G-3 in, XLR end first. Then the head remains out of the tube by 2".

That way you keep one end of the tube sealed and there's no possible damage by *popping* the G-3 out.

Hi Toenis, thanks for the serial number. Your example in post 11 is hard to sort out, yes I can hear the right channel noise at the beginning, hard to tell it's not an acoustic sound.

I'm sure you understand no one in this thread is saying you're wrong. Because it's not a 'no signal at all' problem there's other things to establish.

Can you PM me the dealer in the UK where you bought your NTG-3, when? and the dated receipt number thanks. It's Sunday PM here, time is needed.

Tartu Estonia eh? Looks a very nice place on Google Maps.

Cheers.
 
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Funny thing happened today... I got a notification from UPS that Guy intercepted my delivery of this mic... they were going to let me check one out and they told UPS not to deliver it. Odd. I wonder what's up with that? No email, no nothing... they just told UPS to return the mic and not deliver it.

An explanation would have been great.

I'm hoping it's not because they sent me an NT6... which turned out to be a very lack-luster mic... and me being honest about it...?
 
Rode official support has been wonderful and the problem has been almost solved, I've got some waiting to do. The official support solution came kind of through this same forum here ;)... Thumbs up.

If it all works out as it seems it will be the best warranty and support service I've ever encountered from any manufacturer, specially in time critical situations around the world - priceless.

Oh, and did I say that the NTG3 is the best handling (and forgiving) shotgun mic you could possibly wish for?

I'm kind of blinded for now,
T
 
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